NEW Panasonic blu-ray BD60 & BD80 for pre-order at Crutchfield - Page 2

Re: NEW Panasonic blu-ray BD60 & BD80 for pre-order at Crutchfield

I ordered my BD-80 from Amazon -- $339.99

Re: NEW Panasonic blu-ray BD60 & BD80 for pre-order at Crutchfield

Order the BD-60 for the bedroom. Onecall - $270, free fedex shipping, no tax.

Re: NEW Panasonic blu-ray BD60 & BD80 for pre-order at Crutchfield

The best place to find out this kind of information (in my opinion) is AVS Forum. They have owner's threads for both sets of models and they really delve into this kind of information.

Oh, and Amazon has the BD60 for $255.

Does anyone use the BD80 with HDMI to TV and 5.1 analog audio to receiver? A NewEgg review notes this doesn't work; and it's exactly what I would buy it for. I find it hard to believe this would not be "allowed", but I've learned anything's possible in this new HDMI world.

My new BD-60's takes lots of time to get to the disc's Menu , is this behavior normal for this player?

I just had a few freeze ups playing 'Inglorious bastards' right at the beginning (during the Ratings screen), it took a couple of  stop-->-play , even power down ---->-play to finally get the disc to play , but this player takes a long time to cycle back to the Menu, , first I get a "Loading"  window right on the center of screen, then the Universal Logo/intro, then another 'loading', then it pauses (goes to black) then another 'loading now' at the botton right  of the screen, and finally the Menu..

The same thing happens with Public Enemies", no freeze ups but very slow to get to the menu..

I suspected the "live" feature, so I disconnected my wired Network and I still get the 'loading' window ....

Any settings I'm missing to speed-up this process?

I noticed Universal is loading and displaying promotions right on the disc's menu, I'm using a standard 4gb SDHC card..

Should I be using a High Speed SDHC card instead?

While the Panasonic Blu-ray players are no speed demons (I have a BD-80), the long loading times for these new films are pretty typical of BD-Java-based content Blu-ray discs. I don't think any additional cards will bring the disc menus up any quicker than they're doing now. Be sure you have installed the latest firmware upgrade (2.2). That's about all that you can do to insure the loading times are as fast as the player is capable of based on the material it's having to load from the individual discs in order to play them.

I own the panasonic 80 player. there was an update of 2.1 that did fix the slow speed of loading up. its a bit faster now. 2.2 fixed the freeze problem.

Jacob

Thanks Matt and Jacob,  I won't bother exchanging the SDHC card then... I just re-tested my "Inglorious Basterds" disc, and there is something wrong with it, it keeps freezing up around the 'FBI warning' or 'Opinions expressed..’ screens,  only after re-starting from Stop to Play three times do I get the movie to play.... I'll be exchanging the disc asap.

The BD60 is updated to the latest version, although I can't find in the menu where to check for the current version # ..

I just timed how long it takes from Play to Menu, it is close to a 5 minute wait, I suspect all the 'loading ' activity prior to the Universal Logo is related to the Net/BD- Live feature (although disconnecting the net cable didn’t do much),  the black screen right after the Universal-logo along takes like 2 minutes to load before displaying the menu...my HD-DVDs don’t take any where near this long to load, so this is why I find this extended wait kind of annoying...

 

I was checking the BD60 ethernet speed connections, and only 10baseT seems to work, I’m wired for at least 100baseT (100mbps)but I have no idea why the panny fails to connect at this speed when both my Home PCs are connected at 100mbps. I need to look into this, but not sure if the loading time will be affected if I’m able to fix this issue.

Hmmm...  Are other people having trouble w/ IB on their Panny BD60s too? 

I was just considering picking one up to try out from Costco since my PS3 is effectively out of commission right now.  And this potential issue w/ IB (and maybe some others) along w/ the still very slow load times makes me think maybe I should not bother.

There's also the Sony alternative from Costco (their version of the S360), but a quick google doesn't sound that promising for it either in terms of load times.

_Man_

_Man_, can you point me to other discussions about the BD60 and problems with "Inglorious basterds" ?
I'm trying to decide whether to go back to Costco to exchange this player, but not if it's just a software glitch with this title that will be addressed later by Panny with an upgrade.. I can play the title fine from the begining as long as go to the 'chapters" menu...

I have the same problem (and the same way to get around it) with a Samsung player. By no means am I an expert but it seems to me that it's a firmware issue rather than a disc or player issue.

According to some recent chatter in the AVS forum thread dedicated to the BD60/80 ( www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php ) (combined w/ Travis' own experience w/ his Samsung above), this may actually be a problem w/ overloaded BD-Live traffic for a hot, new release title like IB, instead of something specific to the BD60, if you already have the latest firmware (v2.2) installed.  Someone over there brought up a similar problem (for the PS3 and whatever limited number of BD-Live enabled standalones) that happened last year (during release week) when Iron Man came out.

Sounds like a plausible explanation.  If the problem more or less disappears in a week or two w/out needing any other firmware updates, etc., then that probably explains it.

In the meantime, you might try one suggestion offered over there:  turn off BD-Live *AND* physically disconnect your network connection.  This should prevent the player from getting "stuck" trying to download tons of stuff from a possibly overloaded BD-Live server (farm?).  You may however get some sort of warning that the player cannot access the BD-Live server or some other sort of network warning message, but according to the poster, you should probably only get 1 such warning (each time you load the disc) if you do *both* steps in disabling the feature for the BD60.

Hope that helps (and do let us know if that works for you)...

_Man_
Edited by ManW_TheUncool - 12/18/09 at 1:12am

Ok, I found the problem, I least in my player..

I first disconnected the Net connection and 'Locked' the internet in the menu under "Network"  (I found later this 'lock' only affects the internet connection to YouTube etc, and/or VieraCast, not the Blu-Live feature) and then inserted the IB disc, I still get the slow response and the movie again froze up right after the FBI warning during the 'Expressed opinions message', (the disc always plays both the FBI warning and 'opinions' message  twice before freezing up), when the Net cable is disconnected you also will get a message in the Disc's menu via the "Ticker" reminding you to re-connect to the net.. ...

Since this solution didn't work, I decided to try removing the SDHC card with the NET cable still disconnected, this time the disc loaded up from Play to menu in less than 70 seconds, and after hitting the menu's play, the movie plays just fine without freezing up.

The "ticker" still warns about the disconnected NET cable, and of course promotions are not displayed at all..

 

For a second test I re-connected the Net cable again but still leaving the SDHC card out, again the movie loaded in 70 seconds (it was around 5 minutes for me before) and again played thru without any issues, now the Menu 'ticker'  displays upcoming events like it did before....

So apparently something loading (or loaded?) to the SDHC card is causing the problem, in any case, the Blu-Live features’ offerings are not that important to me to justified the long wait to load up a disc, so I'm pulling the plug on the SDHC card permanently, and if the 'Ticker" for whatever reason doesn't work later either, I can do without that too.

In my view this BluLive feature is not ready for prime time yet, especially if it’s going to make me wait almost 5 minutes to load up a disc....

 

Maybe a High speed SDHC card would work better and faster?

 

Maybe if I could get this unit to connect to my 100baseT hub at full speed load performance would improve?

 

I don’t know, I tried troubleshooting the 100baset issue but the Panny refuses to connect any faster than 10baseT, even though other PCs in my house are connecting at 100baset to the same hub.

 

I hope this solution helps others…

OK, Got to go, I need to go watch the movie again...

Good to hear you solved the problem (to a satisfactory level), Alonso.  And it does indeed sound like BD-Live is the issue.

I doubt going to 100BaseT vs 10BaseT would make any diff -- 10BaseT should be fast enough.  I also doubt it's your SDHC card not being fast enough -- if something's wrong w/ the card, it's probably not speed.

I suspect it's likely just the BD-Live servers getting overloaded w/ traffic for these hot new releases (as hypothesized by one AVS poster) *plus* maybe the BD-J code on the disc just isn't very smart/efficient at managing the downloads, keeping the more essential stuff on disc (instead of needing download), or just isn't very robust in general, etc.

Basically, the most trouble-free playback solution is to set up your player to not allow downloads to happen -- and to do it in such a way that any attempted downloads can be preempted quickly and as automatically as possible.

I normally have my PS3 set up to allow downloads too.  But I will probably just set up the new BD60 (that my wife just picked up) w/ BD-Live disabled also -- and also won't bother getting a SDHC card for it nor rigging a network connection for it (as I mainly only use WiFi for the home network).  I basically advised the same thing for a friend who also plans to pick up the Costco version of the player (w/ some Costco GCs he got for Christmas) -- he isn't big on extras and doesn't really want it connected to the net anyway.

Now, if I can only score me a copy of IB to go w/ the new player (not that I don't already have a sizeable backlog of BDs to watch during my year-end "vacation" at home of course)...

_Man_
Edited by ManW_TheUncool - 12/18/09 at 4:37pm

there is a problem with IB. panasonic is aware of the problem. they are looking into it.
I dont think exchanging the disc for a differnt copy will make a difference.

Jacob

FWIW, I had zero problem w/ IB on my new BD60, but I also kept BD-Live disabled (and player unconnected to the net and w/out SD card).  Loaded up in a reasonable enough time.  I didn't try every single non-BD-Live feature yet though -- I'll probably also try the iPhone/iPod Touch feature at some point.  Also played Public Enemies (another recent Universal title) w/out any problems.
 

Don't know how to check firmware version offhand, so no idea what version's on my player though it most likely does not have the latest.

EDIT:  Now that I think of it, my BD60 might've had a 1-to-2-sec pause during the movie -- possibly during the bar scene where Jim K also had a problem w/ his PS3 (over in the IB review thread) -- that seemed kinda like a long layer change or something.  I had totally forgotten about that -- we did also have to manually pause it a few times because of some late night complaints from our youngest one.  Will need to check that scene again to be sure.

_Man_
 

Edited by ManW_TheUncool - 12/22/09 at 6:52am

I'm also faced same problem when i was trying watching I.G ..more is my Panasonic  Bd-8  not accepting the firmware updating although it downloaded the latest firmware v.2.2 through the Internet connection and after rebooting it showing me that the machine has firmware V1.1
I think that modded chip blocked and firmware updating because i have Multi Region Free Version from USA.
also samsung bd-1400 ( after latest firmware updating ) fails playback I.G blu ray only PS3 played it so fine .. after contacting the merchant he assured that modded chip has no relation with firmware Updating and asked me to create a cd- R for updating ..every time The machine showing a message that disk i created with latest firmware is not compatible.
really i don't know what to say.. i wish if someone can help

Well, when I retried the bar scene in IG on my BD60 on another day, it didn't have the 1-to-2-sec pause, so seems I might've remembered wrong (quite probably due to all the manual pauses we had that first night).

However, now, it seems to me that the BD60 maybe just isn't a very good performer wrt layer changes.  I see the 1-to-2-sec pause now on quite a few BDs (but not all of them) and even on a couple DVDs IIRC -- and always only once for each disc.  So I'm guessing it's a slow layer change or something along those lines.  Haven't experienced that kind of slow layer change in ages since the earlier days of DVD.

I tried a quick google and did find some similar complaints about a potential slow layer change issue w/ these Panny players though I'm still not too sure.

_Man_

Well, I am back.  In the last couple of days I have used Viera Cast and the USB port for storage on my BD60.  I am mostly very pleased.

Viera Cast.  My only experience with this is through Amazon video on-demand.  To make a long story short, my DVR died so I needed to get three episodes of a TV series via Viera Cast.  My only complaint was that during the first 5 to 10 minutes of each episode I got the very annoying loading video popup 3 to 5 times.  But after that it was fine.  I streamed HD.  All in all I am very pleased.

USB.  I was very annoyed that the format support offered via the USB port was only FAT not NTFS.  And I saw one post that even with FAT32 the limit was 128GB.  While I am still testing, I was able to use the freeware tool "EASEUS Partition Master" to create a 300GB volume that appears to be usable by the BD60. (External IOMEGA 300GB drive).  I need to actually fill it up a bit and see how it works.  But after an afternoon of frustrating issues with formatting, I am very hopeful.

Almost a year after I bought the BD60 I am extreemly satisfied.
...gene

A few months and a few movies later, the BD60 is just fine. But whereas my basic DVD player lasted me 10 years, I see buying a new Blu Ray player sooner simply to get a faster-loading device.

That's good to hear Dave, my BD-60 should be here today.
 
I've had a BD-35 since Dec. '08 and haven't had any problems playing a disc... until now. I bought Starship Troopers on Blu at Wal-Mart for $10 the other day but my BD-35 will not load it. Not menus, not anything. I have not updated the firmware at all since buying it and should but I haven't had any problems until now, even with new releases. My wife is watching New Moon on the 35 as I write this and it came out today!

Plus Starship Troopers is not a new release, it came out in '08. Maybe I have a bad disc. I am hoping the BD-60 will play it without trouble. If it does then it's time to update the 35's firmware. I've been very pleased with the BD-35 and expect the same for the BD-60.

By no means am I an expert but that sounds exactly like a firmware problem to me. Or at least, it mirrors the rare problems that I've had with discs that were all corrected by firmware updates.

I dunno Travis, ST won't play on the new BD-60 either. Must be a bad disc.

I read that starship troopers needs a SD card to play it.

Jacob

I would highly recomend taking a good look at  the OPPO BDP-83. For just a little more you can get a fantastic combo player that has really excellent up conversion for all those older DVD's. Read the reviews, every body that used it rates it as a best buy.

Quote: (emphasis added)

The Oppo is $500.
The Panasonic BD60 is $130.
My sense of "a little more" is not "for quadruple the price" or "almost $400 more"

I've been very happy with the BD-60 since I bought it a few weeks back at Sears for the $130 Dave just quoted.

I'm Talking the BD-80 $399 (Retail) player not the lesser expensive BD-60 player although for what it is it's a very good  player, really depends on what you want out of it. If your JUST watching movies it's good for that but if you want to use it to play the old CD's or DVDs its only adequate, yes it will play them. I'm just making a suggestion, read the reviews, every one has a different budget to work with too. You can find all of these players used for around $40-$80 too, but you wont find a used OPPO anywhere. Plus the market is flooded with inexpensive BD players with all the price wars etc. I agree with every one that the Panasonic is probably the best inexpensive player out there. Take this analogy: If you could buy a brand new Mercedes for the price of a  brand new Toyota would you do it, knowing that the Toyota is still a little above your budget. It's such a good bargain that it MIGHT be a better deal depending on it's usage. I don't make a lot of money and when I spend it I want to get the BEST for my money that I can and through my years I've found that some times spending more I actually save more. I'm not Knocking the Panasonic or any other budget player but after reading the reviews and for my usage it was a better deal to spend the extra and get the OPPO. The bargin is not in what you get, but what you get out of it. I just wanted to let people know there is an option and to read the OPPO BDP-83 review and decide if for them self's.

Current System:
Onkyo TX-SR906: runs low frequencies.
Outlaw Audio: 750: High frequencies.
OPPO BDP-83: Blu-ray combo player.
Denon DVD-2930ci: DVD combo player.
B&W Speakers: N-803 Main, HTM1 Center, SCM1 Surround.
2- Velodine SPL12 Sub's
Panasonic TP-C58S1 Plasma 58" 1080p HDTV.
Run through a Panamax 5400 power line conditioner.
Edited by huber13 - 4/1/10 at 8:06am

Neither the BD60 nor BD80 cost anywhere near $399.

I second the vote for the oppo.

Jacob