BD-Live Problems with Panasonic BMP-BD35

[zreyes86]

I got the Panasonic DMP-BD35 for Christmas from my wife (she bought it from Amazon for $249) and I love it. But, I have one small issue. I am trying to use the BD-Live features of The Dark Knight to view other users' uploaded commentary but I'm not having any luck. My firmware is updated and I'm using an 8GB Class 4 SDHC card. I login to WB BD-Live and the video from the disc begins to play but there is no commentary to accompany it. Any suggestions? Sorry if this has already been answered. Thanks in advance.

[Paul.R.S]

Many others are having these kinds of Panasonic/TDK/BD-L interoperability issues (including myself; BD55 owner here). If you still care, let me know if you haven't found other threads besides this one here at Blu-ray.com and I can link you to the one at HDD. Basically, we're waiting on a firmware upgrade to address this and other issues with Panasonic players and BD-L on this title.

Edit: I see now that you've already posted in the thread I link to.

[BluRayBan]

Originally Posted by Paul.R.S

Many others are having these kinds of Panasonic/TDK/BD-L interoperability issues (including myself; BD55 owner here). If you still care, let me know if you haven't found other threads besides this one here at Blu-ray.com and I can link you to the one at HDD. Basically, we're waiting on a firmware upgrade to address this and other issues with Panasonic players and BD-L on this title.

Edit: I see now that you've already posted in the thread I link to.

I'm assuming you have both loaded firmware version 1.6 from the Panasonic site? I am about to update to this FW update from 1.4. Any reason not to update to 1.6 that anyone out there knows about? Thanks!

[Paul.R.S]

Yes, I'm at 1.6 (via direct Ethernet connection, not burning a disc via the Panasonic site).

I have not read of anyone being at 1.4, having all TDK BD-L content operate properly, then upgrading to 1.6 and finding that they have the problems others are experiencing that they did not have before. My knowledge/reading is hardly comprehensive, but I've been checking here, HTF, AVS and HDD re these issues and have not seen such an anecdote.

You're in a position to see if this is an issue though. Why don't you check out my description of the issues here, see if you have them as well before upgrading to 1.6/while you're at 1.4 and let us know the results?

[BluRayBan]

Originally Posted by Paul.R.S

You're in a position to see if this is an issue though. Why don't you check out my description of the issues here, see if you have them as well before upgrading to 1.6/while you're at 1.4 and let us know the results?

I downloaded 1.6 from panasonic site and burned to a cdr but waiting to find out if I need to upgrade to it from 1.4. I looked at your issues but I don't seem to have any issues right now with regards to discs or freezing so far. I'm just wondering if I need to get to the latest 1.6 in order to prevent future issues from happening? Is this what most would suggest to do at this point? Since I haven't loaded the new fw version yet, and folks here have issues with 1.6, then I may hold off and wait until I do encounter an issue. Thoughts anyone? Thanks.

[Paul.R.S]

I looked at your issues but I don't seem to have any issues right now with regards to discs or freezing so far.

First of all, are you saying that you are not having ANY issues accessing and properly playing back ALL The Dark Knight BD-Live content? The Patrick Leahy, Paul Levitz and user commentaries play for you? The "Sounds Of the Bat-Pod" featurette, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard premiere overture performance video and other Media Center content is properly composed: with a vid box center screen and identifying text across the top and playback control buttons visible at the bottom of your screen? Please be sure because, if so, that would be a significant development.

I'm just wondering if I need to get to the latest 1.6 in order to prevent future issues from happening? Is this what most would suggest to do at this point? Since I haven't loaded the new fw version yet, and folks here have issues with 1.6, then I may hold off and wait until I do encounter an issue.

You're assuming that the issues folks are having are 1.6-specific. At this point, we don't know that for sure--thus, the importance of your test case. Please very thoroughly check and document what BD-L content is and is not playing properly for you BEFORE you upgrade. Only then can we perhaps look at 1.6 as being a possible culprit. According to Panasonic, 1.6 was supposed to FIX certain TDK BD-L issues. As of now, I'm of the opinion that this is a Warner server or content/Panasonic hardware interoperability issue that is not necessarily firmware specific. In other words, I don't think that everyone who has had these problems is on 1.6.

Please do a thorough read of that High Def Digest thread to understand the nature of the problems, test various BD-L goodies on your player and report back.

[Paul.R.S]

BluRayBan:

Have you taken the opportunity to see what TDK BD-L content you can and can't access/play properly while still on firmware 1.4?

[BluRayBan]

Paul:

I don't use the BD-L feature on my BD55 or even set up for it right now. I have no ethernet connection in the living room (will need a wireless bridge set up eventually) and don't have a TV set up where my router is located at. I was just wondering whether or not I should update the firmware in general since I was always told to load the latest when one comes out. When and if I do eventually have it set up to access the internet from my living room, I will update you. Sorry about not being able to test it out for you. Possibly someone else on this forum has their BD55 set up to use BD-L and has firmware 1.4?

[jstute55]

I am not currently hooked to the internet with my BD-35 so do i even need firmware 1.6? All movies have played great so i don't want to ruin what i have!!

[Paul.R.S]

Originally Posted by BluRayBan

Paul:

I don't use the BD-L feature on my BD55 or even set up for it right now. I have no ethernet connection in the living room (will need a wireless bridge set up eventually) and don't have a TV set up where my router is located at. I was just wondering whether or not I should update the firmware in general since I was always told to load the latest when one comes out. When and if I do eventually have it set up to access the internet from my living room, I will update you. Sorry about not being able to test it out for you. Possibly someone else on this forum has their BD55 set up to use BD-L and has firmware 1.4?

Thank you for returning to the thread, BRB.

Not to put too fine/sharp a point on it, but this is a BD35/BD-Live glitch thread. When you said you "don't seem to have any issues right now with regards to discs or freezing so far," you're apparently confusing basic movie playback with BD-Live access and playability since by your own statements you don't even have your player connected to the Internet.

[BluRayBan]

Originally Posted by Paul.R.S

Thank you for returning to the thread, BRB.

Not to put too fine/sharp a point on it, but this is a BD35/BD-Live glitch thread. When you said you "don't seem to have any issues right now with regards to discs or freezing so far," you're apparently confusing basic movie playback with BD-Live access and playability since by your own statements you don't even have your player connected to the Internet.

Paul:

Sorry for the confusion. I should have mentioned if I was having issues with BD-L in the first place. My bad....hope you find your answer from someone else on this forum. Good Luck!

[stefam]

AH HA! Fixed it! I now can get BD-Live!!

I had this problem since Christmas! Its the interaction with my router. I have a D-Link, but it looks like other routers have a similar issue. The Player does not get the DHCP DNS settings correctly.

BD-Live now works and my disks load much faster (Iron Man is 45 seconds faster!)

You Must Manually set the IP address AND the DNS seetings. DO NOT inherit settings from your router.

Here is what you need to do:

Set your router to give your Player a static IP and write it down.
1. Identify an available IP on the lan side of the router
2. Identify the IP address of the router itself.
3. Identify the DNS server (primary and secondary) of your internet provider (what your router uses)

Configure the Player setup
4. set IP Mode to use static ip
5. set the IP settings as follows
IP address to the IP address you set in step 1
subnet mask to 255.255.255.0
gateway is the IP address you identified in step 2
dns server is the IP address you identified in step 3

Thanks to rklunder on the AVSForums for the idea!
Good Luck!
-Mike

[Paul.R.S]

Mike, you're going to need to be far more specific about the issues you were experiencing, and with which discs, for your post to be truly helpful.

I take it that at some point in the past you were not able to access BD-L content at all on any discs? And that you're now accessing it on some (unnamed) titles? Once your excitement passes, please try actually drilling down into BD-L content on a variety of studios' discs and see what if any issues you encounter. Happy that you got your issues resolved, but it sounds like those you were having were router/DNS/DHCP Internet access issues, not title-specific BD-L playback ones.

Only now can you begin the completely different task of ascertaining what specific discs you are having BD-L accessibility and playability issues with.

Can you access BD-L on Forgetting Sarah Marshall?

Are you having problems with certain Media Center and commentary BD-L content on The Dark Knight (which, per the original post, is what this thread is about)?

Please advise.

The title-specific problems are complicated enough without posting about fundamental Internet access issues in a thread that is about a certain deck that already has 'net access then NOT playing certain BD-L content correctly, or at all.