Panasonic DMP-BD60, DMP-BD70V, DMP-BD80 Blu-ray Players

[dufferdan]

Just bought a BD60 for my cabin TV, along with the Panny 42" plasma, so they should save on remote requirements.

[DigitalCanadian]

As of Dec 13th, BD60 is widely available in US for $119 such as on Amazon.com and many of the online stores.

But the cheapest price in Canada is still $229 at Visions and Future Shop. When are we going to get a break, does anyone know?

[Nodnerb]

You know what's funny about their pricing? I went to buy the bd60 at FS on sale for $60 off, for $239.00 late on the last day of the sale. They had the regular price posted ready for the next day. Guess what it was........$219.99. That's what they sold it to me for. The store employee played dumb as to the pricing.

Not surprising. Pretty much all retail stores do this. Inflate the price dramatically for the sale making you think you are getting a great deal, when in reality, the regular price is cheaper. As soon as a person(me included) hears the words "on sale" we rush to the chance to purchase. But from now on, I'm sure going to pay a LOT more attention to pricing if the regular price is the actual sale.

[DigitalCanadian]

I just went to FS, the BD60 is still listed as $239. I guess they haven't updated the price yet.

[boseman]

Is the sound output from a BD-80 that much better than a BD-60 to warrant the extra cash? I'll be pumping it through a Harman Kardon AVR-147 into a Bose 5.1 speaker system.

I can hook up the Analogue outputs to the HK AVR or should I just go optical?

[boseman]

Yeah I know the output is 7.1 and my speaker system is 5.1 but I thought the sound quality would be better with the analogue outputs, what other bottleneck are you referring too?

[David Susilo]

The bottle neck is the lack of sound quality of your Bose. Unless you change your speaker system, don't bother spending more on the audio side of your system.

[Amer786]

I just bought the BD80 from 2001 Audio Video - it looks great. Now the hard part begins. I need to set this up player to give me the best possible result.

Receiver:
Yamaha HTR 6130

Speakers:
1 Each front and right
1 Centre Channel
1 Each front and right surround
1 subwoofer

Can you please tell me what the settings need to be in the player for the following two situations:

1. Using optical out to AVR

2. Using analog outputs. My receiver is 5.1


Current settings:

Audio
PCM Down Conversion = On
Downmix = Surround encoded
High Clarity Sound = On

Digital Audio Output
DD/DD+/D TrueHD = PCM
DTS/DTS-HD= PCM

BD-Video Secondary Audio = On


I do not beleive my set-up is correct. My receiver shows PCM on the display with icons for the L and R speakers only showing. The end result I would like is for the movie to sound exactly as it would when I use optical watching standard DVD in a standard player (ie surround speakers function when called upon and dialogue from centre channel). When I run the speaker test in the BD80, I do not hear tones for the surrounds or centre, only for the L & R fronts.

I would appreciate if someone could provide the settings I need to use in both cases: Optical or analog.

Thanks in advance

[David Susilo]

make sure set digital audio out to optical instead of HDMI and set the DTS/DD etc to bitstream. You won't get TrueHD/DTS-MA but at least you'll get regular DD and DTS.

Optical can only pass through 2-ch PCM or regular DTS/DD.

I assume the Yamaha doesn't have HDMI?

[scrooloose]

Since you have the BD80, I would connect the Analog outs on it to your Yamaha receiver and let the BR player decode the Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD. That's the best audio you'll get with that model Yamaha receiver.

-Mike

[Amer786]

But based on the settings I ae provided, can you tell me what exactly each setting should be? For both the analog option and digital option.

[scrooloose]

I don't think it matters what you set the digital outs to (PCM or Bitstream) since these only affect the digital audio outputs. Best to turn the BD-Secondary Audio to off though, as it might cause the player to revert to one of the lossy tracks.

I think there should be a menu option to configure the Analog outs, something like 2+5.1channel or 7.1 channel. I think you want the first one. I believe you can also set the levels on each of the speakers as well. I don't believe your Yamaha receiver will do any sort of auto-calibration in this mode, so you'll have to experiment a bit.

Sorry to be so vague, but I don't have this model.

-Mike

[David Susilo]

The Yamaha converts the analog signal back to digital then process it back to analog and the ADC on the Yamaha (and also the DAC) are not the best. (actually, I used to work for them... I know they don't use the best bang-for-the-buck DAC let alone ADC)

Try it anyway, but I doubt you'll hear the difference between using the analog ins vs regular DD/DTS via optical input. (unless you choose Pure Direct mode, which kills all DSP, YPAO and other speaker management parameters -- which is pointless because you still need to have levels and delay parameters added in order to listen to the soundtrack properly)

[Amer786]

Got it. I confirmed that both methods worked as they should.

For digital connection:

Digital Output
DD/DD+/DTrueHD = Bitstream
DTS/DTS-HD= Bitstream
BD Video Secondary Audio = Off

This allows the player to send the audio to the receiver and lets the receiver do the processing. When watching Monsters Inc standard DVD it shows the DD on the receiver display and the 5.1 speakers being used.

For analog:
I set it to 2ch (downmix) + 5.1 ch
I set my receiver to Input: Multi CH

Everything is working fine

[Amer786]

I run the connection test in the IP address/DNS settings and is passes just fine. I press the "return" button on the remote. When I go back into the IP Address/DNS settings, the connection test filed is blank. Even if I try and go to Viera cast the message comes back "Cannot connect. Please confirm Network connections and settings."

What am I doing wrong here ?