PANASONIC BD35 SOUND SETTINGS/PROBLEMS

[admin_exported]

I have the Panasonic BD35 blu ray.

I set out to compare the upscaling quality with my old Panasonic DVD Recorder (DMR-E55) with some duplicate DVD's I borrowed from a friend.

Disappointingly, I found the DVD upscaling not so top-rated or different from the many films played through the Recorder (especially given the highly reviews - WhatHifi included), aside from displaying a very small amount of increase in the detail of the picture. However, more importantly I discovered the sound is significantly lower in volume and less cinematic on the bluray when compared to the Recorder.

The blu ray is connected direct to the TV (Pana PX80) with a HDMI cable, so I am not using an AV Amp or Home Cinema set-up. Which settings should I choose - PCM or Bitstream, and/or should BD-Video Secondary Audio be on etc etc?? Even after switching between the aforementioned changes my BD35 sound is not even close to the sound of the DVD player.

Am I doing something wrong or is this the norm as I have played around with the settings numerous times and my partner is now getting frustrated!

Your advice is most welcome??

Thanks

 

[Tom Moreno]

Hi Walt,

Settings-wise... If you are connecting direct to your telly and not using any AV reciever you should set the BD deck to PCM and I think there is a downmix option as well that you can set to 2 channel as your tv doesn't have 6 speakers. Secondary audio is up to you, but as you can't utilise bitstreaming anyways you might as well turn it on.

With regards to the volume... This is quite normal. BDs are significantly lower in average volume than DVDs are in order to take full advantage of the extended dynamic range. Soft parts are softer and loud parts are louder. Of course when listening to the 2 channel downmix via your TV speakers this won't all come through to you as it will played through a surround sound setup. Some TV's have on option in the setup menus to adjust the volume of individual inputs as different devices often have different reference volumes. Try using this if you have it to even things out. Other than that there's not much you can do.

 

[Anonymous]

Many thanks.

I guess you mean PCM is seleceted as "on".

Also, does it make any difference with the settings if I connect to my hifi-amp so have stereo but not 5.1/7.1 of course?

Ta

 

[Tom Moreno]

I'm pretty certain the BD35 only has a stereo analogue output so it should automatically downmix to this if you use this connection. The only worry would be the audio/video sync. Most plasma and LCD tvs have extensive picture processing that cause a delay from when the video signal is input an when it shows up on screen. As such they internally delay the audio stream to match up to the video and AV receivers have a delay function to compensate for this as well. If you plug the stereo outs straight into your hifi amp you'll probably find the lips won't sync and the audio will be a fraction of a second ahead of the video. (and this can really drive you mad!) One solution that I did for a short while before I switched up from my hifi to my surround system was to plug the audio out from the TV into the hifi. This isn't really the audiophile way to do things, but if you don't have a delay compensator then this way you take advantage of the one in the telly.