Issues with new Panasonic DMP-BD30 (1 Viewer)

[Charles_Y]

I'm off on another subject for a moment here. Just purchased this model a week ago from Best Buy. I updated to the newest firmware first thing after Quick Setup. Man! that was fast, just over 5 minutes!

Power up is half the time (20 sec.) as my HD DVD player (Tosh A35). I picked out 5 free titles at BB. One of them, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer uses a Pop-up Menu. So, I guess I will have to be aware of different menu types with BD discs as I go along.

Spin up on the other titles (Goodfellas, Bram Stoker's Dracula and American Psycho) was quite fast (15 - 20 sec.) though the FF took just over a minute which was rather irritating.

Sound was great but I have a REAL issue with the picture. I was VERY let down with the image on all of the titles but the FF:SS and even there I had issues. They were smooth and solid but looked like standard Def or a little better. The FF:SS was only fitfully HD in a few scenes. This is a major disappointment for me.

My Toshiba HD DVD is extremely sharp and even with older catalog titles have quite impressive HD performance - lots of detail and higher resolution. Not sure what's up. I double checked my settings and the TV's display says it's getting a 720P image (I have the Sony KDL-32XBR4 / 1366 X 768).

Any idea what the issue, if any, is here?

Could any one you at least give me some top notch examples/titles of BluRay performance so I could see what this unit is capable of? I feel very let down here. I was all gung ho on this unit and I'm not sure what to think now. Maybe, it's the discs themselves?

Incidentally, I found the upscaler for my std. DVDs not all the bad (average or above average). My Tosh beats the Panny here also unfortunately (very good to excellent).

With that format maybe going the way of the dinosaurs in the future, I wanted to be prepared and be format neutral for now.

Your suggestions/comments are appreciated.

 

[Pete T C]

Silver Surfer takes so long to load largely due to the overbearing BD+ copy protection.

As for picture quality, that really depends on the master of the film you are watching. The Panasonic is capable of high quality output like your Toshiba.

Get Rataouille or The Rock if you want good examples of Blu-ray image quality.

 

[Charles_Y]

Thanks for the suggestions! Sorry to hear that DRM (?) is rearing his ugly head again to the detriment of functionality except as I noted this didn't apply to the other titles. Wouldn't such copy protection be used there too? I've heard of "Java enabled" discs" maybe this is one of those.

I'm planning to see Rataouille but an animated feature can be deceiving. Many animated std. DVDs look excellent nowadays. I think superior live action features where you can see great detail in faces and the environment is what's called for.

A super example on cable (I have Verizon FIOS) is Torchwood. That must be shot with HD cameras as its image is one of the best I've seen.

 

[Todd H]

I believe that television can take a 1080P signal even though it's a 768 set. Set the BD30 to 1080P and let you television scale the image down instead of letting it scale from 720P to 768.

 

[Pete T C]

No, only Fox's recent releases use BD+. Other titles only use AACS.

 

[Charles_Y]

Glad to hear it is only Fox at present. I hope the numerous complaints and problems associated with "BD+" prompt a retreat from its usage but I guess that is too much to ask for.

 

[Mark Silver]

Charles,

Make sure that the player is actually set to output in 1080 i (or P when applicable). I just bought the player this week. I popped in a Blu-Ray and was disappointed with the picture. Then I stopped the disc and went into the setup menu, for some reason the output was set for 480i. I changed it and the picture quality improved tremendously.

 

[Charles_Y]

I have since done a more thorough check out on this machine. I rented BD copies of 2001: A Space Odyssey and the HDScape sampler (HD video) as I own their HD DVD counter parts. I was able to toggle back and forth on select scenes, essentially comparing "apples to apples."

As the TV is the same and the discs virtually so, that left the players. I saw very little if any difference. I think my concern now must stem from what I see as lackluster BluRay transfers. I will stand by that contention for now and rest easy that the player is ok.

Sorry, I over reacted I guess.

 

[Felix Martinez]

Same thing here. Also, secondary audio's default is ON, which downconverts DTS to PCM even though it's set for bitstream. I just turned secondary audio to OFF until I need to use it.