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

[Jim Tudor]

Just got the BD35, and I've got questions. My setup is circa 2001, so HDMI connection is out of the question. I have a 46" Panasonic rear projection HD TV, and have used the component connection.

My big question is, with the BD35 set to 16:9, and the screen saver set to Off, the 4:3 SD DVD I sampled was stretched to fill the 16:9 screen. My old JVC DVD player scaled 4:3 material automatically with black bars, and I have a lot of SD classic films, so this distortion is unacceptable. I've played with the settings for a while, but can't figure it out. Has anyone else encountered this? Thanks...

 

[Paul.S]

Jim:

Just want to confirm: the player is set to "16:9" not "16:9 Full," yes? (Per manual page 32, the 16:9 setting stretches 4:3 content to 16:9.)

And does your Panasonic RPTV permit aspect ratio control for content at higher than 480p resolution? If not (and the BD35 is set to 16:9) your RPTV may be the culprit, not unlike my older Tosh widescreen set, which locks into "Full" mode whenever fed anything above 480p.

 

[Jim Tudor]

Paul, I've just discovered last week that my RPTV does indeed seem to lock into full mode. I found this when I hooked a converter box to it. (Since I don't regularly use the set to watch TV shows, I've never bothered with cable of satellite TV or any of that.)

Looking at page 32 of the manual, I see that it says that setting the TV Aspect to 16:9 displays 4:3 at the 4:3 ratio in the center of the screen, it's 16:9 Full that stretches it. I read that early on, and have avoided the 16:9 Full setting from the outset. I've also tried all the suggestions in the Troubleshooting section pertaining to this, but still I'm stuck with a stretched image. Very frustrating!

Honestly, this process has been surprisingly overwhelming for me today. I'm finding that my Panny RPTV apparently does not get along with my new Panny BD35 in terms of aspect ratio. Not only that, but this is the first time I've ever attempted to look at any HD material using my RPTV, and when I switched the player output into 1080i mode (via component), the colors on the whole top third of the screen were revealed to be shockingly out of whack. Quite headache inducing. I think I may need to get into the service man menu to try to correct that.

In the meantime, the supposed 1080i mode looks considerably less vivid and kind of murky compared to when I put the player into 480p mode. What's up with that, I wonder?

Maybe I was naive, but I bought this TV in 2001 thinking that I'd be "future proof" for a good long while. Longer than seven years, anyway. Methinks the lack of HDMI alone is kicking my butt here.

 

[Dave H]

The PS3 does not bitstream advanced audio (TrueHD, DTS-MA, etc.).

 

[Dave H]

I'm just bitstreaming via HDMI (1.3) to a 5.1 set-up.

 

[Darren Gross]

Has anyone tried using the subtitle button on a universal remote or a Panasonic remote from another player to see if that will turn the subtitles on quicker?

 

[David Norman]

I did try the subtitle button from a Pan. 29 without success with a BD35. I was actually a bit surprised it didn't though it's possible a remote from a different model may work. Most of the other buttons did seem to work properly.

 

[JediFonger]

just wanted to let u folks know that the component output of BD35 is very high frequency if there's intense scenes.

i found out the hard way, my polaroid very old 17" LCD is component in only. it is very limited bandwidth. so when i used 720p or 1080i from BD35 to the display, it would black out during very intense scenes only.

but my westy37's components were fine from the same player because it's a 1080p display and accepts that over component if player could output it.

just FYI for those that want to couple this player with older HDTV's.

 

[Paul Hillenbrand]

Thanks for the heads-up. I was always wondering why my Sony KW-34HD1 (first generation HDTV & 480i-480P-1080i component only) will always momentarily "black out" (both the sound and video):frowning: on many different action scenes on both DVD and Blu-Ray. Especially when using the Samsung BD-P1000 (first generation) Blu-ray player.

It's interesting to find that now while using the Panasonic DMP-BD55, black-outs have been much less. In fact there has only been one scene that has caused a black-out that I have noticed so far with the BD-55 and that was during an explosion scene in the beginning of the movie "Kung-Fu Panda" and only that one scene. That must mean the electronics handling the component bandwidth must be improving, at least on the player's end.

Paul

 

[JediFonger]

hi paul,

try this experiment. set the player to output 480p. try to play the same BD scene w/KFP and see if it blacks out again. if it doesn't, then it's easy: it's ur HDTV