I played a BR disc for the first time and was unable to get digital sound through either optical or coaxial. I tried all combinations of PCM / bitstream with no joy. My amp does not cater for HDMI so am I stuck?

I note from earlier posts that it doesn't work with Freeview HD because of special encoding. Surely this does not apply to BR and DVD discs as well?

Another thing, I tried loading my HD video recorded on SD card and the box did not even recognise it.

What with the incredibly slow remote response time and the lack of "eject" button I thought Panasonic could have done better.

I only paid £350 for it but even so, feel that it is overpriced. So far it has achieved nothing that my Foxsat and a separate BR player could have achieved.

At this rate I will not be needing the BR recorder for anything!!!

To say I am disappointed is an understatement.

Prospective purchasers take note.

Do you mean that you don't get ANY sound?


or is it just in stereo?


Mine is connected via co-ax to my (elderly) Sony 5.1 amp and it works fine with DVD's and Blu-ray's to provide 5.1 sound.

As you indicated "live" broadcasts are AAC encoded and the Panasonic (currently) doesn't decode this to 5.1, it merely plays in stereo.

Provided your connections are OK then the only other thing to check is digital output in the settings? if correct then it sounds like a faulty unit.

My remote responds as it should, are the batteries low?

Do you have someone else in the room to take the disc out of the player when you press the (non-existent) eject button??

Yes, of course I am getting sound, but NOT in 5.1, only Pro-Logic, which as you know, is not the same.

I want to hear the rear channels as they are supposed to be heard, individual and not the same (mono). Are you saying you are getting true 5.1 with blue light and all that? If so, what are the magic settings?

When you say your remote responds as it should, does that mean you are not getting long delays between some selections?

The quickest response is using the CH +/- button at just under 3 secs. The longest is Function to Network at 21 secs and then back to Function at 15 secs. TV to Direct Nav takes 11 secs.

Are you saying my unit is unusual, or if yours is similar, do you think these are acceptable? Incidentally the batteries and unit are 1 week old.

This is the only CD / DVD player I have owned that doesn't have an eject button on the remote for convenience. The button on the unit is not that easy to locate. Even £20 players provide one. For a Panasonic shop price of £599 I think that's the least they could do.

Unless you can guide me into getting true 5.1 (not Pro-logic) through my coax or digital outputs, then I stand by original assertion that the unit is a huge disappointment.

I look forward to reversing my decision.

As you are probably aware "digital sound" can be mono, stereo, 5.1, 6.1, 7.1 or whatever, I was only trying to see if you were getting any sound.

Which "blue light" is this? on your amplifier or on the 780? My Sony amp has a blue light that comes on when a DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 input is received.

CH +/- buttons are about 2 seconds, direct input of the channel number is 3 seconds, function to network is 9 seconds with back to function also 9 seconds, TV to Direct Navigator is 5 seconds. I don't use the Network feature so that delay is of no significance to me, the other timings are perfectly acceptable to me.

It may be the only unit that you have had without an eject button, but, come on, unless someone else is changing the disc for you how useful/necessary is it really?

My settings for the audio are

Function, Others, Setup, Sound, Digital Audio Output

PCM Downconversion On
Dolby etc Bitstream
DTS Bitstream
MPEG Bitstream
BD-Video Secondary Audio On


You state in your original post that you have a Foxsat, is this connected to your amp via optical and do you get a 5.1 feed from this? If you do then plug that cable into the 780, you thus have a known working cable connection to test it.

If you still don't get any 5.1 sound from DVD/Blu-ray after making the above audio changes (which you may already have done) then in my opinion your unit is faulty and should go back to your suppliers or you can email Panasonic Tech Support for advice.

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_G...l#anker_220263


any other help you need just ask.

BTW I wish I'd only paid £350 for mine!!

RTD Thanks for your help.

I changed to your sound settings and got the "blue light" on my Sony 940 amp through the coax cable when playing DVDs. Brilliant!!

I then realised how why I had missed this combination because SD TV sound was not being passed through, although HD was. This applied to recordings as well, except SD recordings were outputted via coax when the PLAY 1.3 was pressed. How bizarre? This was remedied by changing MPEG to PCM. Now I have the sound set up as I would like, apart from the HD TV sound format. My Foxsat will be used for this.

I can't get my Panny to respond as fast as yours and I will be contacting technical to find out why my AVCHD 264 material is not being recognised.

I have upgraded my assessment to disappointing.

Glad to hear that you have sorted DVD sound out.

Can I suggest that (like me) you complain to Panasonic about the unit not re-coding AAC sound to 5.1? I believe other manufacturers (Humax) do convert the over-air AAC surround sound and output it as DD 5.1. Hopefully it is something Panasonic will resolve if enough people complain.

Regards

Ronnie

I suspect my query is a bit low tech for the experts here but I wonder if you could help me with a query on my DMR-BW780. My problem is how to record onto a DVD (+R) from the hard disc without it taking an age. I want to play it on another DVD player but am not too concerned about quality in terms of sound or vision. Do I have to change the format on the HDD before starting? I can't find a definition of XP, SP etc.....and the manual is no help. Can someone give me an explanation of how I can speed up the recording process?

What you need to do is to perform a DR conversion. in direct navigator, select the programme, press the option button, select edit and at the bottom of the menu is DR file conversion. If you convert to XP you will get about 1 hour on a DVD, SP gives you 2 hours, which will be approx DVD quality.

You will get a choice of keeping or deleting the original file.

Unfortunately you will still need to wait for the 780 to convert the file, it does this in real time. Once converted DVD writing can be done at high-speed and will take 5-10 minutes including finalising, depending upon which speed discs you have.

I perform the conversions either overnight or in the morning. It's just something you have to accept with this unit.

RTD
Thanks for your reply. I have tried converting files to SP as you suggest and have two queries:
1. How can I tell whether a file has been converted when I look at items on the hard disc?
2. Am I right in thinking the unit is in stand-by when I switch it off using the red button on the remote? Or is this another setting?
Having followed your advice I then tried to record converted files to a DVD, copying in SP mode - still no joy with high speed copying! Is it me? I am sure the answer is YES but would appreciate more advice.

HI Clowes, to check if a program has been converted, go to the library and hover over the listing, this will tell you in the description if its dr,sp or whatever. It does take a long time to convert and as suggested it's best done over night.
Switching the unit off using the handset does put it into standby.
I think copying can be very suspect, I tried copying to bluray the other day and it wouldn't do it, then I was on the phone to the Panasonic shop and while talking I clicked on a program and it accepted it for highspeed transfer. Made me feel a bit of a fool
Dave

as dmp says by selecting a file you can see the status, this link shows a programme that has been converted to SP mode

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...og/pana003.jpg

this link shows a programme that is waiting to be converted from DR to HG mode

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...og/pana004.jpg

when you copy a file there are 2 ways to do it if you select a file in direct navigation

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...og/pana005.jpg


and then press the blue button, you get this screen

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...og/pana006.jpg

what the machine will do is copy in FR mode, this effectively fills the DVD with the programme, but again only copies in real time, not high speed even if you have converted the programme from DR to SP (as shown in the link pana004 above)

What you need to do is go into copy mode and select original image quality (it should not be greyed out) as is shown

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...og/pana007.jpg


http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...og/pana008.jpg


If that is all you want on the DVD then you may want to include finalising in the routine

http://i1004.photobucket.com/albums/...og/pana009.jpg

this is not clearly identified in the manual

The other way to copy is from the function button, select copy, select the first programme and then ensure you select high speed mode and follow the remaining parts of the above procedure.

Thanks DMR and RTD I will have another go and let you know the outcome.

Note that it is generally better to avoid the use of '+' type discs in Japanese origin machines as material is always restricted to 4:3 aspect.