panasonic dmp bp35k blue ray player

[hammer]

I am considering upgrading my blue ray player, but would like to know if I would really see a difference in the picture quality and performance of my existing blue ray player. I have the sony bdp300 blue ray player about 1 year old. I have it hooked up to the panasonic th46pz800u plasma tv and the marantz 8200 receiver with hdmi 1.3 cable. I have 5 speakers for surround sound. the sony is a bit slow when it comes to loading up discs, even with the latest firmware update on it. the blue ray player i am thinking about is the panasonic dmp bp35k, which has gotten lots of good reviews. I don't care to use the interactive features on the player, i just want the best picture and sound i can get at a good price. Will I see that much of a difference if i decide to purchase the panasonic, or will i be better off saving my money ?

[MrBoylan]

I am considering upgrading my blue ray player, but would like to know if I would really see a difference in the picture quality and performance of my existing blue ray player. I have the sony bdp300 blue ray player about 1 year old. I have it hooked up to the panasonic th46pz800u plasma tv and the marantz 8200 receiver with hdmi 1.3 cable. I have 5 speakers for surround sound. the sony is a bit slow when it comes to loading up discs, even with the latest firmware update on it. the blue ray player i am thinking about is the panasonic dmp bp35k, which has gotten lots of good reviews. I don't care to use the interactive features on the player, i just want the best picture and sound i can get at a good price. Will I see that much of a difference if i decide to purchase the panasonic, or will i be better off saving my money ?

Well we have not specifically tested/measured the BDP-S300, so I can't give you a direct head-to-head measurement on video quality and performance, but I know CNET reviewed the S300 and found it very slow to load, particularly on BD-Java discs. We published the start-up times of the BD55 in our BD55 review. The BD55 uses the same transport and video section as the BD35 so the start-up times should be comparable.

Measuring from already powered up, putting a disc in the tray and pressing PLAY to the time the first trailer or menu screen came up, we measured 20 seconds for a non-BD Java disc ("Hitch") and about 45 seconds for a BD-Java disc ("Pirates of the Carribean: Curse of the Black Pearl"). These are respectable start times and should be significantly better than your S300.

As for video performance, I don't think you'll see a huge difference between the players on Blu-ray performance, though your PZ800 HDTV is one of the few that supports the BD35's (and BD55's) 4:4:4 color output properly - this will give you better edge detail around colored edges as it restores missing color details that are lost during the Blu-ray mastering process. You may notice an improvement on upconversion of standard DVDs as the BD35 and BD55 are a bit better than even the current Sony (BDP-S350) in this regard.

But I'm curious about your receiver. You say it's hooked up via HDMI but from what I've read, the SR8200 receiver doesn't have HDMI audio support or even HDMI jacks. If you do have the SR8200, you might consider the BD55 instead so you can use its 5.1-channel or 7.1-channel analog outputs to take full advantage of the lossless audio formats (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD Master audio and multi-channel PCM), which you can't do over standard coax or fiberoptic digital connections.

In any case, you should buy from a place that has a good return policy in case you decide you don't like it or it doesn't offer a big improvement over your current player.

BTW, the BD35 and BD55 are still included in the Amazon "Save $100" sale, even though Amazon deleted that sale page earlier this week. Amazon raised the price of the BD35 from about $230 to $279 today, but after the addition of 4 Warner discs plus the $100 off, you get the BD35 player and 4 discs (plus two more discs by mail) for about $249. Or you can get the BD55 plus 4 Blu-ray movies for around $330. Amazon may expire this promo code at any time but I just tested it and it's still active. You can read more about it here:

• Buy a BD Player and 4 Movies, Save $100

But I think if you buy the player at Amazon and want to return it, you will need to pay the shipping charges. So you might consider buying it locally instead if you're unsure about keeping it.

Hope that helps.

-Chris

[hammer]

thanks for the info, the receiver was a marantz sr8002 not a 8200. it just came out this year top of the line model.

[MrBoylan]

thanks for the info, the receiver was a marantz sr8002 not a 8200. it just came out this year top of the line model.

I thought you *might* have meant that one. That one is perfectly capable of decoding the new formats.

Regards,

-Chris

[hammer]

Hi Chris, I took your advice and bought the panasonic dmp-bd35 blue ray player. I do like it very much, I notice the colors to be more vibrant even in my tvs thx mode, compared to the sony blue ray player I had. my issue I am having is with the audio once in a while, not every time. When I start a blue ray movie and it does not seem to matter which one sometimes the movie starts without sound, and again it does not happen all the time. If I turn off the blue ray player only and restart the movie again , then the sound comes on. I never have a problem with the picture just the sound. I have set the player to bitstream to true dolby hd and have turned off secondary audio. The player is connected to my receiver using hdmi 1.3 cable just like my old sony player was. Also if the movie starts off ok with sound, then a couple of times in the movie I lose sound for 5 to 10 seconds then comes back on, without even effecting the picture. I never had this problem with my sony blue ray player before, so I know it is not the receiver. do you have any suggestions as to what is causing this ? I thought about just taking it back to where I bought it and getting another one, but they are all gone. Now that panasonic announced new blue ray players again, I don't know if they are still making this model anymore and if I will be able to get another one. any thoughts you have on this is greatly appreciated, Thanks, Fred

[MrBoylan]

Hi Chris, I took your advice and bought the panasonic dmp-bd35 blue ray player. I do like it very much, I notice the colors to be more vibrant even in my tvs thx mode, compared to the sony blue ray player I had. my issue I am having is with the audio once in a while, not every time. When I start a blue ray movie and it does not seem to matter which one sometimes the movie starts without sound, and again it does not happen all the time. If I turn off the blue ray player only and restart the movie again , then the sound comes on. I never have a problem with the picture just the sound. I have set the player to bitstream to true dolby hd and have turned off secondary audio. The player is connected to my receiver using hdmi 1.3 cable just like my old sony player was. Also if the movie starts off ok with sound, then a couple of times in the movie I lose sound for 5 to 10 seconds then comes back on, without even effecting the picture. I never had this problem with my sony blue ray player before, so I know it is not the receiver. do you have any suggestions as to what is causing this ? I thought about just taking it back to where I bought it and getting another one, but they are all gone. Now that panasonic announced new blue ray players again, I don't know if they are still making this model anymore and if I will be able to get another one. any thoughts you have on this is greatly appreciated, Thanks, Fred

I never noticed that with the BD55 and my writer who just published his review of the BD35 never mentioned it either so I suspect it is either a defective cable or a defective player.

I assume you have upgraded to the latest firmware release and the problem persists, yes? Connect to the internet from the player to see if there is a new firmware release available or download it from the Panasonic web site and burn a CD to do the upgrade.

And have you tried swapping the HDMI cable just as a test?

And does the problem also occur when you set the player's digital output to PCM mode (letting the player decode Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD to multi-channel PCM)?? There is no loss in quality in doing this, but then your receiver's Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD indicators will not light up as you're shifting the decoding to PCM from the receiver to the player.

If you have upgraded to the latest firmware, tested a new cable and tested the player in PCM mode, and you still get drop-outs on multiple discs, then you need to return the player and get your money back. then you can either try to find it at another store, wait for the new models to be available in the Spring or try a different model like the Sony BDP-S550 or Samsung BD-P2500 which are both a little more widely available. The BD-P2500 is a bit slower to boot and load discs than the BD35/BD55 though so if loading speed is of utmost importance then it may not be the best choice.

Good luck and let me know the answers to the above questions and results of your testing.

Regards,

-Chris

[hammer]

Thanks chris for the info, I have been out of town the last week and so I will experiment with the player over the next few days and see what happens. As far as firmware goes i have the lastest firmware installed on the player the 1.6 version. Also I highly doubt it is the hdmi cable since it is the same one I used on the sony blue ray and never had a problem with it, but i will try a different one. I called panasonic and they said to try a hard rebot or reset of the player. By holding down the power, play and pause buttons on the unit for about 3 seconds and then reset the settings to my liking and see if that helps it. They did say they have stopped making those units, so once they are gone they are gone till the new models come out. Which i find hard to believe since the units came out in september. If that does not help my player then I have some kind of defect in the player itself, so i will let you know....thanks for all your advice, fred

[rgh43]

Using Optical audio cable since my Yanaha doesn't have HDMI what should I set the BD35 audio to output for the best sound.

[MrBoylan]

Using Optical audio cable since my Yanaha doesn't have HDMI what should I set the BD35 audio to output for the best sound.

Definitely set it to bitstream, If you set it to PCM, then everything will be converted to 2-channel PCM. Optical and coax S/PDIF cables do not support multi-channel PCM.

What this means to you is that if you are watching a Blu-ray Disc with "uncompressed multi-channel sound" (which is normally how they describe multi-channel PCM soundtracks), you are going to get 2-channel sound instead of multi-channel surround sound. Many of these titles do include a DTS or Dolby Digital 5.1 channel track as well though, so be sure to select this track when watching any Blu-rays which feature uncompressed multi-channel PCM tracks.

If your Yamaha receiver has a multi-channel analog input, then you could upgrade to the BD80 or another player with multi-channel analog output and on-board decoding and take full advantage of Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD and multi-channel PCM soundtracks.

-CB