Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features (1 Viewer)

[Grant H]

Forgot to mention in my mini-review that upscaling on the 55 looks darned good to me. Though even a good DVD sure wouldn't fool me into thinking it's HD. Looks great from where I sit, but if I walk up a little closer to the screen I can definitely see the video noise on Episode III.

That's on a 32" screen, so I don't know how people live with it on monster sets or projectors. You definitely need to go HD when you reach a certain size.

 

[RobertR]

I'm watching the BD55 on a 123" screen, and good DVDs are quite watchable on it. It's no substitute for HD, and any ringing and artifacting on the disc is quite noticeable, but I'm pleased with the upscaling.

 

[MrBoylan]

Pardon me but what's so ridiculous about this? And tell me which Blu-ray Disc player on the market can incorporate secondary audio tracks into a DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD bitstream and then output that bitstream for decoding on an AVR or pre/pro? The answer is none. Because no players have a DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD *encoder* to mix the commentary track back into the raw bitstream (some have decoders but none have encoders).

If you want to take advantage of higher bit rate audio formats (DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD) with a commentary track active then you need only set the BD55's digital audio outputs to PCM or use the 7.1-channel or 5.1-channel analog audio ouputs. The player will then extract the full quality PCM track embedded within the Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD wrapper and will mix in the secondary audio track where available.

Of course, the real question is why does it matter that you have HBR audio when listening to a secondary audio track commentary, since these usually mute the main soundtrack significantly so you can hear the commentary? But at least the BD55 allows you to select PCM output over HDMI (or 7.1 channel analog output), get all your HBR soundtracks in full quality and get the secondary audio (when it's there) without having to change anything in the set-up menus.

Am I misunderstanding your comment?

Thanks,

-Chris

 

[Grant H]

^^ This is probably why Sony clamored long ago you'd be best off to have decoding in the player. Just keeps things simpler.

I can understand that some might want to decode lossless codecs outside the player (those who fear the jitter), but, yeah, it does get a little ridiculous to want to have the lossless track mixed with a commentary track too, though that is achievable with in-player decoding and PCM output.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I just noticed the Sony BDP-S550 is going for $330 at Amazon, while the DMP-BD55 is $400 at Amazon. What exactly makes the Panny worth $70 more? The Sony is also in stock at the moment.

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

The point is that you should not have to be reconfiguring the player just to access the features on a disc - it has nothing to do with wanting to mix hi res audio with commentary tracks. How many "normal" users will not be able to figure out how to access either the hi res audio or commentary features? No DVD player excludes audio choices for features on a disc and requires you to reconfigure the machine. This is just poor engineering, and another example of this format not being ready for prime time.

 

[Brent T]

Ok a few questions...

So is this the BD Player to get or is it still the PS3?

Is there another BD due out this Christmas that I should wait for?

 

[Johnny Angell]

The way I understand standard DVD commentaries to work is that the commentary is a separate audio track and I have never seen it to be a DTS or 5.1 track. The audio of the actual movie is down in volume while the commentator is speaking. Even if I have earlier selected 5.1 or DTS, selecting the commentary changes that. The only changes the user makes is to select a commentary track, there is no reconfiguration of the player. Is this different for Blu?

 

[Sergio]

Brent T,

I have the 60GB PS3 and now the DMP-BD35. It is only $299.00 at Amazon and I think that for the price, the Panasonic is the best Blu-ray player in the market right now. PQ is equal or maybe a hair better than the PS3 and finally my Pioneer Elite VSX-92TXH can decode DTS HD Master audio & Dolby TrueHD in full glory. One word in reference to the audio. Amazing!!!!

Wait until "Black Friday" because is possible that you get a better deal. You will not be disappointed.

Regards,

 

[Len Berkoski]

Hi,

I have an Onkyo TX-DS898 receiver, and don't plan on upgrading to an HDMI compatible receiver any time soon. By that reasoning, I should probably plan on the DMP-BD55 for the 7.1 analog, correct?

Len

 

[Jonathan Kaye]

Correct, assuming getting the 7.1 channel sound from the lossless soundtracks is important to you. That's what I'm planning anyway, as far as my non-HDMI Denon AVC A1-SR receiver is concerned.

 

[Yumbo]

Should I buy this or the Sony 550?

 

[Geo Gabor]

I just bought the BD35. I need to return it for other reasons, but I had a question about the loudness of the player. When I first put a disc in, you hear the whirring sounds of the disc spinning. This continues while you're in the main menu. When you play the movie, the whirring sound stops. Is this typical of all Blu-Ray players? My DVD player would have a very brief whirring sound when I first loaded a disc, but then it would be quiet.

 

[Sanjay Gupta]

I got the Panasonic DMP-BD55 three days ago and I have had the opportunity to watch five movies on it so far, three BDs and 2 DVDs. I also have a 80GB PS3 which is what I have been using as my BD player so far. My opinion in short, the PS3 is still, by far, the champ of BD players.

On the picture quality front, I found both the PS3 and the BD55 to be about the same. Ofcourse, the lossless audio via the analog out on the BD55 is outstanding, but since my receiver does not have HDMI, I cannot compare it with the PS3 audio. Where the PS3 simply blows away the BD55, is the overall response performance of the two. The Panasonic is painfully slow compared to the PS3. While the PS3 responds instantaneously to the touch of any button, the Panasonic literally thinks about it before it carries out the command. An even more irritating thing about the BD55, is that it does not even have a dedicated Subtitles button on the remote and one has to jump thru hoops to simply turn on/off the subtitles. On many a occassion due to accents or other reasons one is not able to comprehend what is said, so I will quickly turn on the subtitles, rewind the scene and watch it again and then quickly turn off the subtitles. With the BD55 this simple task has becone a huge effort and makes it an annoying distraction from the movie viewing experience. The dedicated sub-title button has been a standard feature on remote controls of all DVD players from the very begining. For Panasonic to relegate that function to several levels of menus is absolutely ridiculous and a deal killer for me. I have been more than happy with my PS3 and the only reason I bought the BD55 was for the 7.1 analog outputs. But as great as lossless sound might be I find myself wondering if it is worth watching movies on the BD55 compared to the PS3. After a first hand experience with the BD55, it's poor GUI, poorly laid out remote and the very sluggish overall performance of the player itself, I can't help but wonder, if this is the best amongst the standalone BD players, why would anyone ever consider buying anything but the PS3. The PS3 does everything the BD55 does and it generally does it much better. Then in additon to this, it does a whole lot of other stuff for free, ie. HD Gaming, Media Server, Internet browsing etc. etc.

My advice to one and all, unless you absolutely must have 'analog audio out', the PS3 is still by far the best option for a BD player. Personally I regret having bought the BD55 and am left wondering if the Sony S550 would have been a better option. Or better yet I should have simply gone in for the Onkyo Pre/Pro and used my Denon AVR5800 as a power amp to get lossless sound.

PS: Another thing to dislike the BD55 for. I watched another film on DVD last night and the previews on it were presented in 4x3 letterbox and to my horror I found out that the BD55, while playing 4x3 encoded material, adds 'white' bands on the sides of the picture instead of the usual black bands. Why in the world would I or anyone else want white bands? The 'white' color is not only very distracting but it also now, when I Zoom the picture on my projector to fill the screen, leaves a lot of extra light around the screen.

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Regards,

Paul

 

[Mark Zimmer]

If I'm understanding the situation correctly, if you have the player set to play hi res, you can't hear the commentary track AT ALL unless you reconfigure the machine. That's absurdly poor design, if it's true. Is it?

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

It's true for certain configurations. It depends on what hi res mechanism you choose and the mechanics of the Blu-ray specifications.

Basically:

The way I understand it is if you choose "Bitsream" to send the hi res audio to your processor to be decoded, it can't send secondary audio along with it because it would have to "ENCODE" the secondary-audio/commentary, combine it into the bitstream and then send the "bitstream" to the processor to be decoded.
No player to my knowledge has a dual DTS-HD MA/D-TruHD "encoder" built in the unit to date.

If you choose PCM that the player can decode DTS-HD MA/D TruHD into, or use the PCM track straight from the BD disc, the player can combine the secondary PCM audio with it and then send it along with the main hi rez PCM audio sound track to your receiver/processor.

Paul

 

[Mark Zimmer]

Paul,

No offense, but I have no idea what you just said. Let me tell you my situation, and you tell me what I can do with this player.

My receiver has coax, optical and analog inputs. My understanding is I can't use coax or optical to get HD audio, only the analog. So if I set it up to use the analog connections for HD audio, can I or can I not get any sound from a PIP commentary track without venturing into setup and changing the configuration of the player?

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Theoretically yes. Your choice in the players setup menue would be PCM, because you want the player to decode the hi Rez audio (in-the-player) and send it as hi-rez anolog to your receiver. When it reaches your receiver it is already decoded and can have "secondary audio"/Commentary added to it already from the player. You would be good to go.

What happens for people who want the untouched bitsream sent to their receiver for decoding is that the secondary audio can't be included without a built-in encoder and there is no encoder in the player.

Paul

 

[Hal Masonberg]

Quick question: Do I use simple RCA audio cables to connect the 7.1 analog outs to my receiver? Don't have HDMI receiver yet, but do have a 7.1. Or do I use coax?