The Panasonic DMP-BD30 review thread - Firmware 2.7 available

[airkitty]

sounds like it is time for an oppo
the bd30 is not known for long life

[krisjan]

Originally Posted by cnowels

I still have a large number of DVDs, but my BD30 is starting to not play them anymore. I get "Disc Unrecognized" or just "Stop". The DVD's play fine elsewhere. I just updated the firmware to 2.9 in case that might play a part. No luck. This is extremely frustrating when my kids want to watch a DVD. Any ideas?

Are you actually having trouble playing DVD's or is it Blu-rays? The early production BD-30's had an issue with premature blu laser transport failure although DVD's would continue to play fine (they use different laser assemblies). Many BD-30 owners were able to get their BD transports replaced under warranty back in the first year of production (from Nov 2007). I haven't heard much in the way of BD failures after the first 6 months or so of production so it seems that Panasonic was able to produce a more robust BD transport. This is the first I've heard of the BD-30 having problems playing DVD's.

[krisjan]

Originally Posted by airkitty

the bd30 is not known for long life

Other than the intial reports of premature BD transport failures of the BD30 for some users (which were promptly serviced by Panasonic under warranty) I am not aware of a life issue with the BD30. I bought mine when it was released in Nov 2007 and it continues to do main duty in my home theater with zero problems.

[cnowels]

Yeah, it's just DVDs. I've had 0 problems with my BD's.

I might just have to bite the bullet and get a new BD player. At least it'll be a good excuse for getting a 2.0 player.

[tron3]

Originally Posted by cnowels

I still have a large number of DVDs, but my BD30 is starting to not play them anymore. I get "Disc Unrecognized" or just "Stop". The DVD's play fine elsewhere. I just updated the firmware to 2.9 in case that might play a part. No luck. This is extremely frustrating when my kids want to watch a DVD. Any ideas?

Sometimes just unplugging the unit and pressing the power button to drain the residual electricy works. It could also be some odd setting your have conflicting with the ability of the DVD to play. Try changing back to factory default and see what happens.

I know it seems strange that seemingly unreleated things are at fault, but that is the nature of firmware and programming. Other than that, you might have bum unit and need to contact Panasonic.

[TeresofBlood]

I'm probably one of three people still using this player. I have firmware 2.5 and I'm trying to upgrade to 2.9. I burnt the disc on a windows 7 machine, first using IMGburn, then I tried simply send to -> DVDRW drive. In both instances, I insert the disc, the player reads for a moment, powers off and ejects the disc. I have Windows XP on my computer at work, so I can try burning yet another disc today, but my question is can I not go from 2.5 to 2.9? Do I have to go gradually? ex. 2.5 -> 2.7 -> 2.9

There's one giant monkey wrench in this whole situation. My digital display on the face of the blu-ray player is dead. So I can't see the timecode of the disc or any status messages when I insert a firmware disc. It's a total guessing game.

The answer is probably to buy a new player, but there are too many choices now and money is seriously tight. I've always had good luck with panasonic products except for this blu-ray player haha!

[Scorxpion]

Originally Posted by TeresofBlood

I'm probably one of three people still using this player. I have firmware 2.5 and I'm trying to upgrade to 2.9. I burnt the disc on a windows 7 machine, first using IMGburn, then I tried simply send to -> DVDRW drive. In both instances, I insert the disc, the player reads for a moment, powers off and ejects the disc. I have Windows XP on my computer at work, so I can try burning yet another disc today, but my question is can I not go from 2.5 to 2.9? Do I have to go gradually? ex. 2.5 -> 2.7 -> 2.9

There's one giant monkey wrench in this whole situation. My digital display on the face of the blu-ray player is dead. So I can't see the timecode of the disc or any status messages when I insert a firmware disc. It's a total guessing game.

The answer is probably to buy a new player, but there are too many choices now and money is seriously tight. I've always had good luck with panasonic products except for this blu-ray player haha!

NO gradually necessary to go from 2.7 to 2.9,if your display is broken and you are sure about downloading the firmware and recorded successfully on CD-R as directed during the process.In your case put it in the tray close it and wait till the disc tray open,in this case Your firmware is installed correctly just check it in setup menu.note once the disc tray open press the power switch on the player ,the disc tray closed..Just read the instructions carefully on the Panasonic site for firmware upgrade process before proceeding

Good Luck

[TeresofBlood]

Thanks for the response. I should have mentioned... after it spits out the disc, I booted up the player and it still said 2.5.

I'm not getting a disc read error, which I normally would. I put in the disc, the screen goes black, as if it's going to update the firmware. After a minute or less, the tray ejects and the player shuts off.

It's very odd. I've updated the firmware before with no issue. This time around, it's not working. If it doesn't work tonight with a disc burned from XP, I'll just smash it with a sledgehammer.

[oaguirre]

Hello friends!

I´ve a problem with my BD-30 model. I downloaded the last firmware (3.1) because I had some issues with the Star Wars blu-ray disc set. Some of them were fixed (Attack of the Clones) but the others are still there. I still see vertical lines in some sequences of the films Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi.

I would like to know if any of you have these particular issues after the update of the firmware and if there´s a chance to write to Panasonic directly.

Thank you.

[Nielsb90]

I recently bought this because it is region free. I have never owned a player before, besides the PS3. I do have a problem with the player though. When I watch BD's it seems as if the colors are more "pale". Colors are not as vibrant as on the PS3 and blacks are not as deep. I have tried a little around with the settings on the player - do any of you know the "correct" settings? I never thought you could actually change the picture on the player lol. Can anyone help me get the best out of my player? Thanks

[Nisei]

I'll take a look at my settings and let you know tonight Nielsb90.
Are there many people still using this player? Mine still works great (I've installed a region free kit) but the lack of speed really annoys me. How do modern players compare to this?

[Nisei]

During playback, press the Display button and in the menu that appears you go to Picture and then choose a mode. This can be set to Normal, Soft, Fine, Cinema and User. Choose the last one and you get an extra Picture Adjustment button. Click this and set everyhing to your liking. I have set everything to 0 because I don't want my player to interfere with picture quality. Perhaps the Normal mode is the same but now I'm sure there's no noise reduction, sharpening or anything else activated.
You can only access this menu during playback which makes sense because otherwise you wouldn't be able to notice any changes you're making.

[AlaskaDon]

I haven't posted here in a good while, but Wow! I can't believe this thread is still going. The BD-30 was my first dedicated player. I had a PS3 since launch. What a work horse that player was. I finally gave mine away when I got a free 3D player when I bought a new TV. As far as I know my friend is still using it. Glad to see you guys are still getting some use out of yours

[Nisei]

Well, I would've liked a new one for some time now but since it was quite expensive when I bought it and it's still working great as it did on day one, I find it difficult to just give away or sell it for a few tenners. I wish it would finally break down so I had an excuse to buy a new one

[Nielsb90]

Originally Posted by Nisei

During playback, press the Display button and in the menu that appears you go to Picture and then choose a mode. This can be set to Normal, Soft, Fine, Cinema and User. Choose the last one and you get an extra Picture Adjustment button. Click this and set everyhing to your liking. I have set everything to 0 because I don't want my player to interfere with picture quality. Perhaps the Normal mode is the same but now I'm sure there's no noise reduction, sharpening or anything else activated.
You can only access this menu during playback which makes sense because otherwise you wouldn't be able to notice any changes you're making.

Thanks for the tip. I have tried around but the picture quality on my player is terrible.. Everything has a milky-white layer which makes the picture dull.. Every once in a while it will look good but it is rare - the black levels are baaaad.

[Altaira]

Originally Posted by AlaskaDon

I haven't posted here in a good while, but Wow! I can't believe this thread is still going. The BD-30 was my first dedicated player. I had a PS3 since launch. What a work horse that player was. I finally gave mine away when I got a free 3D player when I bought a new TV. As far as I know my friend is still using it. Glad to see you guys are still getting some use out of yours

We got our DMP-BD30 really cheap as an incentive when we bought a HD TV all those years ago. Plus, they threw in 5 free Blu-ray movies.

This is our only Blu-ray player and it still works great!

[carom]

Over the last year or so, I have not updated my BD 30, and I have never had a problem with operations or playing a movie. Judging by these latest posts,
I think I will maintain my record of not updating it.

[OGauge4Me]

My BD-30 has finally crapped out. It has started to pixel all Blu ray discs at some point in the playback. I tried a cleaning disc and replacing the HDMI cable with no change in performance. When I swapped out the BD-30 with our Sony player there are no problems so I guess it is the end of the road for the player.

I had installed the latest firmware about a year ago to solve other issues and there was no problem with the update to the firmware.

It is off to the forums to see what is the player with the best reviews in the $250 range or see if I can spring for an extra $250 to give me a $500 budget. The CFO has approved $250.