1069/Panasonic BD35 7.1 problems

[aricoboyo]

Hey guys, just recently switched over to a standalone BD player from a PS3. Picked up the Panasonic DMP-BD35. I'm having problems getting 7.1 on titles I was having no problems with on the PS3. Titles like The Orphanage, 3:10 to Yuma, and Dark City...all showing up 5.1. I've checked and rechecked all the Panasonic's settings, posted and verified this over at the AVS forums also. Any ideas? The firmware on my 1069 I believe is up to date 1.1.3 and video 1.4. I can't figure it out...

[kiwi2000]

How are you connected via 1069 and 35 model to your display? I could not get the 35 to show a picture other than red and green color via HDMI, ditto for the 55 Panasonic model.

can you answer another question for me?
If you are listening to a CD connected via HDMI to the 1069 and then turn on your display device routed through the 1069 and connected via HDMI, does the CD still continue to play and do you still hear it?

I understand version v1.1.8 is available,it's dated 2008.01.28 (the date stamp is on the hex code file) mine is v1.1.6.

[piperpilot]

Hi Guys...

aricoboyo,
not exactly sure about your problem (I only have a 5.1 setup), but I can tell you there is definitely newer firmware than what you have. Not sure of the latest, but I have Video Version 1.4.7 and Main 1.1.8 on my RSP-1069.

kiwi2000,
I have the Panasonic DMP-BD50 (just a little older than the BD55) and had the same problem you had where I was getting weird colors when the player was outputting 1080 24p. I called Rotel and they said I was on an older firmware version (older than what I stated above). They seemed to be aware of this problem and sent me the new firmware for the RSP-1069 which I updated with the cable that was included with my RSP-1069. Low and behold, it fixed the color issue... works great with the Panny Blu-Ray player now! I don't have the firmware files any longer (computer crash 8O ), but you should be able to contact Rotel support and get the firmware files from them.... They seemed to be aware of the color issue with the Panasonic Bluray players when I talked to them. It is interesting that I also have a PS3 and it never had the color issue when playing blu-ray discs on 24p through the RSP-1069 even when it was on the older firmware.

Cheers,
John

[aricoboyo]

Appreciate the response guys. kiwi, I am using HDMI through to my projector. Picture quality from the 35 is great. The machine is outputting the correct audio (DTS MA HD and TrueHD), I'm just not getting the two back center channels (when applicable). I don't usually fire up my projector during music/cd use, but I'll try it and see if I can trigger the same response. I contacted my Rotel dealer to see about updating the firmware. I did find out that older Onkyo units have trouble with the 7.1 also. Kinda frustrating...finally thought I found the right standalone, and looks like it's gonna turn out to be incompatible.

Another thing kiwi, my 1069 does NOT have the scaler bypass installed. Are you still having problems getting any signal through to your projector?

[piperpilot]

In followup to my earlier post, I DO have the HDMI Bypass (scaler) installed and set to "Yes"... but I was having the color issue as kiwi described even with the bypass on when I was running older firmware....

Cheers!

[hifiguymi]

Appreciate the response guys. kiwi, I am using HDMI through to my projector. Picture quality from the 35 is great. The machine is outputting the correct audio (DTS MA HD and TrueHD), I'm just not getting the two back center channels (when applicable). I don't usually fire up my projector during music/cd use, but I'll try it and see if I can trigger the same response. I contacted my Rotel dealer to see about updating the firmware. I did find out that older Onkyo units have trouble with the 7.1 also. Kinda frustrating...finally thought I found the right standalone, and looks like it's gonna turn out to be incompatible.

Another thing kiwi, my 1069 does NOT have the scaler bypass installed. Are you still having problems getting any signal through to your projector?

First off, get the bypass. I know it means your system will be down but it's worth it and Rotel puts units that come in for it at the front of the line. It really doesn't take that long and it's free.

If you are not getting the surround back channels with a 7.1 movie using the decoder in the player that probably is not the RSP-1069. As long as you have the RSP-1069 set up for two center back speakers it will play them if the proper signal is coming in. The preamp will go into the multi channel input mode (as I'm sure you've seen) and it just does speaker distance, crossover, and digital to analog decoding for each channel that is coming in. It also doesn't add any DSP to that signal. I don't have any experience with that BD player so I would just advise you to make sure it is set up for a 7.1 speaker system (assuming it has such a set up option). Unfortunately I can't find the user manual on line for it (Panasonic doesn't have it on their site) so I can't look that up.

Best of luck and let us know what you find out.

Eric

[aricoboyo]

Yeah, everything was fine when I was running the PS3. I was getting 7.1 no problem. I'll update my firmware, and get the bypass installed and see what happens.

[hifiguymi]

I wonder if the color video issues are with the current firmware in combo with the Panasonic player. If so, I'm now thinking twice about updating my firmware. Everything is running smoothly, cept for my current audio problem. Unfortunately, I guess it's pick your poison for me right now. I might just stay at my current firmware, and live with the lack of 7.1 (only a few titles anyway). With my luck, I'll update my firmware, still have my current problem, and add the video one as well.

If you get the HDMI bypass, you will get the latest firmware. There have been issues with a few combos of products. Most of them Rotel has been aware of and the latest firmware has corrected most of them. They still pop up now and again and any time we find a problem like that, we send it to them and they work to correct it.

Eric

[hifiguymi]

Yeah, everything was fine when I was running the PS3. I was getting 7.1 no problem. I'll update my firmware, and get the bypass installed and see what happens.

If it was working with your PS3 it has to be the Panasonic player. I bet there is something in the set up of your player that isn't being done for a 7.1 system. That isn't something that would stop working from one player to another.

Eric

[Kevin D]

I agree, Panasonic doesn't have their manuals online so I can't look in depth. Since the rear channels do not contain center rear information when decoded that way, the Panasonic will have to be told you use center rears. I would imagine the settings used for the 7.1 analog output also determine what gets sent out PCM from HDMI.

In the Panasonic set to output 7.1 from it's analog outputs?

Kevin D.

[hifiguymi]

The DMP-BD35K doesn't have 7.1 analog outputs, just the DMP-BD55K does. They both have built in decoders for the HDMI output though so there would have to be some set up for how many speakers you have.

Eric

[aricoboyo]

I know this isn't a forum for Panasonic support, so I won't burden you guys anymore with it But I'm certain I have the Panasonic set up right. It's very simple, maybe too simple, as I find myself wanting more options. I've combed through a 114 page thread specific to the player over at AVS. In fact, on 5.1 DTS MA tracks, the player actually matrixes the surround back channels for 7.1, which I was stoked about, since the 1069 doesn't post-process PCM.

[hery19]

BD-50 Settings

Hi Guys...

aricoboyo,
not exactly sure about your problem (I only have a 5.1 setup), but I can tell you there is definitely newer firmware than what you have. Not sure of the latest, but I have Video Version 1.4.7 and Main 1.1.8 on my RSP-1069.

kiwi2000,
I have the Panasonic DMP-BD50 (just a little older than the BD55) and had the same problem you had where I was getting weird colors when the player was outputting 1080 24p. I called Rotel and they said I was on an older firmware version (older than what I stated above). They seemed to be aware of this problem and sent me the new firmware for the RSP-1069 which I updated with the cable that was included with my RSP-1069. Low and behold, it fixed the color issue... works great with the Panny Blu-Ray player now! I don't have the firmware files any longer (computer crash 8O ), but you should be able to contact Rotel support and get the firmware files from them.... They seemed to be aware of the color issue with the Panasonic Bluray players when I talked to them. It is interesting that I also have a PS3 and it never had the color issue when playing blu-ray discs on 24p through the RSP-1069 even when it was on the older firmware.

Cheers,
John

John, I have the same player you do hooked up to the 1069, do you mind sharing your settings on the BD-50, I have a feeling I'm missing something cause its not sounding good.

Thanks

Eddie

[piperpilot]

John, I have the same player you do hooked up to the 1069, do you mind sharing your settings on the BD-50, I have a feeling I'm missing something cause its not sounding good.

Thanks

Eddie

Hi Eddie,
I have my BD-50 pretty much at the defaults it comes with. On the Audio Tab, I did set Dynamic Range Compression to "Off". I can't remember if it defaults to On or not, but it sounds better with it Off and does seem to give more dynamics on the Audio. On the Digital Audio Output tab, I have Audio Priority Preset set to "Secondary". It needs to be set to this in order for the BD-50 to do the decoding of the Lossless codecs in the player. If you set it to "Quality" the BD-50 will bitstream the audio over the HDMI cable and expect your preamp/processor to decode the lossless codecs on a blu-ray disc, which the RSP-1069 can't do - in this mode, you probably will just get Dolby Digital and DTS core and not the lossless codecs even if you choose them on the blu-ray disc. By setting it to "Secondary", the BD-50 decodes the codecs and sends the high-bitrate lossless audio via Linear PCM to the 1069, which is perfectly fine and sounds terrific on my system. I think you can set the Audio Priority Preset to "Custom", but in order for the BD-50 to decode internally, you'd have to set "Dolby D/ Dolby D+/ Dolby TrueHD" and "DTS / DTS-HD" to "PCM".... I haven't tried this and really don't see why, since "Secondary" seems to do everything I want including play the secondary audio tracks on disks that have them.

There have been a few firmware updates for the BD-50, and I'm running the latest version, which I think is 1.5.

What type of amp/speakers/sub are you running? Have you calibrated your speaker levels and distances as well as setup your crossovers on the 1069? My system sounds great with the BD-50 and blu-ray lossless audio is a definite improvement over dolby digital or DTS, although they still sound good through the 1069 as well.

Let me know if I be of further help

Cheers!

[hery19]

I'm running B&W's discontinued CM4 mains, CMC, CM2 for rears with a RMB-1075 amp and a SVS PB1-ISD sub, the reason I ask is because last night I played a SD DVD and selected bitstram to allow the 1069 to do the decoding and it sounded very good. But when I play BR's yes it does sound good but there seems to be some bass missing for some reason. All speakers are set to small with a 80hz crossover calibrated with a SPL meter. I was wondering if you should do the same with the BD-50's test tone also?

Thanks

[piperpilot]

I'm running B&W's discontinued CM4 mains, CMC, CM2 for rears with a RMB-1075 amp and a SVS PB1-ISD sub, the reason I ask is because last night I played a SD DVD and selected bitstram to allow the 1069 to do the decoding and it sounded very good. But when I play BR's yes it does sound good but there seems to be some bass missing for some reason. All speakers are set to small with a 80hz crossover calibrated with a SPL meter. I was wondering if you should do the same with the BD-50's test tone also?

Thanks

I'm also running B&Ws and a Rotel amp, so similiar setups. I'm running B&W 804S L&R, HTM3S center, dipole surrounds and a Velodyne DD-18 sub powered by a Rotel RMB-1095.

I haven't experienced what you have regarding a lack of bass when the player does decoding... I've played Transformers Blu-Ray and DVD and they both sound great with the BD-50 doing the decoding with strong / full bass. I also (for movies) have my speakers set to Small in the 1069, and xover at 80 hz....

There was a bug in the BD-35 (not sure about the BD-50) in early firmwares where the LFE track was about 3-5 dB to low over the HDMI when the player was doing the decoding, but that has been fixed in later firmwares and I'm not sure if it was even an issue on the BD-50. do you have the latest firmware? You can check by going into "setup", "display" then hitting the status button on the remote.... It will show your firmware version in the lower right of the window on the screen.

I only think you have to use the BD-50 test tones when you are connecting the BD-50 via analog outputs to your preamp... I dont think this matters with the HDMI connection, but could be worth a try. I checked my speaker settings on the BD-50 (under TV/Device, speaker, multi-channel), and I have all speakers here set to Large -- I set them this way so that if it does play a fact over HDMI, I want a full range signal to go to all speakers and have the 1069 do the bass management.... Again, I dont think it matters when using HDMI, but could be something to check... All my levels on the BD-50 are set to their default values

[hery19]

Nice setup John!! I think I'll change my speakers settings to all Large and see if that improves the sound. I have the player connected to the net so it should have the lasted firmware. Thanks alot for all your help!

[piperpilot]

I have the player connected to the net so it should have the lasted firmware. Thanks alot for all your help!

Thanks - you have a nice system as well!
When I first got my BD-50 I thought the same thing that it should have the newest firmware, but the internet firmware update wasn't working. I had to download the firmware from Panasonic's website, burn it to CD-Rom, and update it that way. After that, the internet firmware update seems to work ok....

[hery19]

I'ved have no problems at all with the internet connection, I simply connected the cable and that was all there was to it. Do you change your settings to watch a standard DVD or leave them as they are?

[piperpilot]

I just leave them as is...

[hery19]

Again, thanks for all your assistance and enjoy the upcoming Holidays!!