Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features - Page 2

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

Sound & Vision Review of the Panasonic DMP-BD55 Blu-ray Disc Player.

Paul

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

The reviewer recommended the Panny, but if I read the review correctly:
1) When connecting video via component, resolution tops out at 1080i. Is this typical?

2) He found the bass weak when connecting via component. My receiver doesn't have HDMI, so the worries me a little.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

I think it is typical for component connections to be limited to 1080i. It's also a known fact that the LFE via analog is 10 dB low on these players. You'll see other threads on the subject if you look for them.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

"These players" meaning this particular model or BD players in general?

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

FYI:

Information from other sites:

Both the DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 have started shipping from Circuit City on Monday 10/14/08. One person picked up the BD55 from Frys in San Diego. Amazon still has their 10/29/08 release date posted.

Paul

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

In general. You have to boost the LFE 10 dB from an analog output. Do a search for threads on the subject.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

My 55 should be waiting for me when I get home!

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

Well...?

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

Was up really late that night hooking things up and testing things out.

Very nice player, aside from some slightly clunky setup menus, like the speaker setup, which has been mentioned.

No LFE issues for me, though. My receiver must properly apply the boost when connected via the 7.1 inputs. I had no trouble hearing the LFE test tone so I knew things would be OK.

A little odd is that you can only adjust db in one direction. I ended up painting myself in a corner and had to readjust all the other speakers again, but I had no trouble level matching them otherwise.

I did some comparisons with regular DD material and found my receiver's decoding was more bass heavy at first, but it turned out the digital calibrations, done with the receiver's test tones, were way off. When I calibrated with AVIA as I had done for the player's 5.1 inputs (the player's tones were useless as they go by too fast), the bass seemed identical from either decoder. No wonder bass always seemed a bit boomy on that thing. That receiver's become the bedroom unit, and my living room has the elite with full acoustical EQ.

I'm only running this unit with a 720p Panasonic LCD, but PQ looks incredible. Also worth noting: basic video levels were seemingly identical to my PS3 I had briefly hooked up to it. I didn't make any changes to what I'd already set. Hard to say for sure, but I thought the color from the Panasonic in difficult scenes might have been a hair better. I had noted some oddities in natural sunlight off peoples faces in Starship Troopers, which I chalked up to the limitations of the TV, not being able to accurately produce every necessary grade of color to look natural. Running the same scene on the Panny looked maybe a touch better. Perhaps there's some processing to optimize it for their own displays. Don't know.

Sound seems great, though again I'm running my 2nd-tier stuff in this room. And even my primary room isn't exactly reference quality, but better than your average joe's. No problem decoding the lossless codecs. Tried both TrueHD and DTS-HD MA material. The on-screen display verified those tracks were selected.

Can't confirm 7.1 for anybody because I don't have the 7.1 setup going in there, though the receiver is capable.

The player seems to output optical, HDMI, and analog audio simultaneously. Easy for switching modes if you want your receiver to decode regular DD/DTS material, but watch your receiver settings.

When I first popped in a disc, having not setup my optical input modes, the player was on DVD input, but not set on analog 7.1 mode or "digital." I guess it was playing the 2.0 downmix, but it didn't sound like a downix of 5.1 material. Seemed like just the left and right channels to me, as I couldn't hear any dialogue. Fortunately I realized I had to change settings before reaching a full panic.

Load time is OK (just talking discs, not initial boot). Not PS3 fast, but not bad. Chews through the java script in a reasonable amount of time, though Indy loaded a lot faster than Starship Troopers, possibly because it was loading some BD-LIVE info. Scene skip is responsive. Remote seems kind of primitive, but I'll probably end up programming a universal of some kind anyway.

Had no luck using my laptop as a wireless bridge for Internet connectivity. Had successfully set it up to work as a bridge, and it worked when connected to the PS3 as an ethernet connection but then the PS3 lets you pick security settings, so maybe that's why I could get that to work with it.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

Im looking to go purple this fall, and I think Im sold on the DMP-BD35, I have a 5.1 set-up at home and this seems to fit the bill for me. I was wondering though since this is brand new, you wouldnt think this would be on sale on Black Friday for cheaper?

I mean 50 bucks or less(even in these tough times) wouldnt get me out of bed that early in the morning to stand in line.

Any thoughts would be great....thanks

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

^^ 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.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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?

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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?

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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,

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

Should I buy this or the Sony 550?

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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.

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

Hi Sanjay,

Thanks for your analysis of the BD55. I had no idea there was a subtitle button on most players, probably because I don't use subtitles that often, but I can understand the frustration that you have experienced.

Like you, I have both the PS3 and the BD55. I agree that the PS3 is faster, but I have to say that the BD55 is much faster than my old Samsung BD-P1000, so I think of it as fast. Looking for subtitles often would probably make me think it was a lot slower too.

As far as the HD sound - DTS-HD MA, Dolby TrueHD & LPCM, via HDMI out of the PS3 and the analog-out of the BD-55, I have to say that they have been equally great in the sound quality department in the systems I have them in. I do not use the analog Bass Management of the BD55 so I can't speak to that aspect of the player.

The Panasonic BD55 was purchased for an Older Lexicon MC12 I have in the family room where I can digitise the analog signal giving me access to the available High Definition sound on Blu-ray disc. The PS3 is in my theater room where I have the later model Lexicon MC12 HD which connects via HDMI with the PS3. Both systems sound superb and I 'm very happy that my needs have been met with both Blu-ray players.

The following excerpt is what I reported to the SMR Forum- Lexicon thread:

Regards,

Paul

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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?

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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?

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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

Re: Panasonic DMP-BD35 & DMP-BD55 Features

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?