Panasonic DMP-BD80 Blu-ray Disc Player

[MrBoylan]

I just hooked up my BD80 to my Vizio LCD HDTV which is 120hz. During setup, I am unable to select the 24p output and turn it on in the HDMI connection submenu. ANy idea what I may be doing worng?

Thanks

What model VIZIO Are you using and have you verified that it supports a 1080p/24 input? Also, are you going through any switches or receivers or are you connecting directly from player to TV? If not direct, try direct and see if it changes.

-CB

[BADuHamel]

Hey folks, Panasonic just made firmware 1.9 available for the BD80 available. You should be able to download it directly if you have your player connected to the Internet, otherwise it's available here: DMP-BD80 Firmware Download | Blu-ray Disc Player | Digital AV | Consumer Products | Support | Panasonic Global

Panasonic says this firmware is for the following:

1. Upgrade of VIERA CAST
2. BD-V Playability

Let's hope this fixes some of the issues with playback freezing.

[MrBoylan]

Hey folks, Panasonic just made firmware 1.9 available for the BD80 available. You should be able to download it directly if you have your player connected to the Internet, otherwise it's available here: DMP-BD80 Firmware Download | Blu-ray Disc Player | Digital AV | Consumer Products | Support | Panasonic Global

Panasonic says this firmware is for the following:

1. Upgrade of VIERA CAST
2. BD-V Playability

Let's hope this fixes some of the issues with playback freezing.

Actually it's been out for over a week and it does not fix the sporadic freeze issue. From my conversations with Panasonic, they are aware of the issue but do not have a solution as it's impossible to consistently reproduce. Also, in my own experience, it doesn't appear to affect all players (never happened on my BD80 in the 3 months I had it in for review/evaluation), but it happened twice on a handful of Blu-ray Discs during my evaluation of the BD70V.

There are some folks on the owner's forum on avs who say they've still never seen it happen, months into ownership, and others who get it more frequently. The mystery continues...

-CB

[BADuHamel]

Actually it's been out for over a week and it does not fix the sporadic freeze issue. From my conversations with Panasonic, they are aware of the issue but do not have a solution as it's impossible to consistently reproduce. Also, in my own experience, it doesn't appear to affect all players (never happened on my BD80 in the 3 months I had it in for review/evaluation), but it happened twice on a handful of Blu-ray Discs during my evaluation of the BD70V.

There are some folks on the owner's forum on avs who say they've still never seen it happen, months into ownership, and others who get it more frequently. The mystery continues...

-CB

Ah, I see. Well it just popped up on my player for download this morning. I guess it went up on their servers sooner.

As for the freezing issue, if it is not happening on all players, then it must be a defect in manufacturing that should be addressed by a product exchange, IMO.

For me, I don't consider it sporadic, because although it does not happen all of the time, it will always happen on the same titles. The entire LOST Seasons 1 & 2 set, for instance, caused a freeze on each disc. The same thing occurs with Dexter Season 2 and a few other discs. From what I can make out, it only happens on BD50 discs. I've never had it happen on a BD25. But, it doesn't happen with all BD50s either.

[MrBoylan]

Ah, I see. Well it just popped up on my player for download this morning. I guess it went up on their servers sooner.

As for the freezing issue, if it is not happening on all players, then it must be a defect in manufacturing that should be addressed by a product exchange, IMO.

For me, I don't consider it sporadic, because although it does not happen all of the time, it will always happen on the same titles. The entire LOST Seasons 1 & 2 set, for instance, caused a freeze on each disc. The same thing occurs with Dexter Season 2 and a few other discs. From what I can make out, it only happens on BD50 discs. I've never had it happen on a BD25. But, it doesn't happen with all BD50s either.

The problem, as reported by most of the people on avs, is random. In my case, on the BD70V, Watchmen and Step Brothers had the freeze, but other people can and have played these back with no problems. And when I backed up and played the scene over again, no problems. If you can consistently reproduce it with specific titles in specific places, then you definitely need to report this to Panasonic as that is more likely a title incompatibility that can be reproduced and fixed.

If you have time codes on particular discs that fail consistently, then let me know and I will get that message through to the engineers.

-CB

[BADuHamel]

The problem, as reported by most of the people on avs, is random. In my case, on the BD70V, Watchmen and Step Brothers had the freeze, but other people can and have played these back with no problems. And when I backed up and played the scene over again, no problems. If you can consistently reproduce it with specific titles in specific places, then you definitely need to report this to Panasonic as that is more likely a title incompatibility that can be reproduced and fixed.

If you have time codes on particular discs that fail consistently, then let me know and I will get that message through to the engineers.

-CB

Well, now I have to find the time to go through all of those discs again, wait for them to freeze, note the time codes, reload them, and see if they freeze at the same spots again. The problem with the freezing issue is, once the disc freezes, if you skip back to the same spot, it doesn't freeze again.

[MrP22]

I just bought a DMP-BR80 specifically for the 5.1- analogue output (as I can't afford to get a digital reciever), yet there are slight lip-sync problems. The sound from the TV and the speakers are not the same. Does anyone know how to correct this?

[MrBoylan]

I just bought a DMP-BR80 specifically for the 5.1- analogue output (as I can't afford to get a digital reciever), yet there are slight lip-sync problems. The sound from the TV and the speakers are not the same. Does anyone know how to correct this?

This is pretty common and doesn't happen with just Blu-ray players. It happens with cable boxes too, but it's most likely your TV that is the culprit. Basically your TV may be just a hair slower or a hair faster to process the audio/video signal than the player or receiver is which means the TV speakers will be slightly behind or ahead of the sound from the main speakers which will cause a reverb or echo effect. The most common solution is to use one or the other (TV speakers *OR* home theater speakers) but not both at the same time.

Some TVs and some receivers have a "lip sync adjust" but this is pretty rare. You could check your manuals for your receiver and TV to see if they have something like this, but it's not that common a feature.

Good luck,

-Chris

[ray]

mine is the same, tv seems to be a hair behind the receiver, creating echo effect, like chris said, i just turn the tv volume down.

[ray]

hi chris,

although i am a newbie here, i have been watching this space for a while as it has lots and lots of excellent information here, i read your excellent review on bd80 and very much influenced by it, in fact to the extend that i bought it based on your review and a few other owner feedbacks etc. thanks for the great website!

i am loving my first bd player bd80, especially the analogue audio out as i don't want to give up my old non-hdmi 5.1 receiver yet and i can now enjoy the crispier lossless sound compared to the dolby digital or dts which i thought could not get any better! however, i do have a question or two regarding analogue audio out, chris, can you help me? thanks very much in advance for your time!

apologies if similar questions have been asked before.

i notice that when i switch from analogue out to digital out on the bd80 (by simply pressing a button on my old yahama 5.1 receiver, which has analogue inputs), with everything else being the same, i always have to lower the volume on the receiver as digital seems to give much higher output, this is true whether it's dolby truehd or dts hd ma. in other words, lossless sound, although clearer and better, is weaker (if you like) than lossy digital sound (via optical), is this normal?? i have checked all the settings i can, in fact, i have also read peter o'connell's "How To Set up a Blu-ray Player Using Multi-Channel Analog Outputs... And Why" and have done what i think is relevant to my situation, which isn't much different to peter's article anyway, so, is there anything i am missing or doing wrong? also, analogue doesn't seem to produce enough bass, i have already followed peter's suggestion to max the LFE on the receiver, and in fact have also left LFE unchanged in the bd80 which is max 0db.

fyi, there is nothing much to tweak in my yamaha receiver when it is selected with "external decoder", only center, rear speaker levels and LFE output can be adjusted, which are left unchanged anyway between analogue and digital.

any advice chris? thanks very much in advance again!

best regards
ray