Problem with Panasonic players not handling PiP correctly

[Bruce Morrison]

I have two Panasonic Blu-ray players - the BD35 (UK model) and the BD50 (US model). As well as films, I also buy opera recordings on Blu-ray and I've had an interesting experience with the Opus Arte BD set of Wagner's 'Tristan und Isolde'.

At the end of each of the three acts, while the singers were taking their curtain calls, playback froze briefly and then continued normally. I raised this with Opus Arte, and they have told me that this is due to the fact that this set has a PiP option whereby a picture of the conductor can be displayed in a corner of the screen while watching the stage action.

At the end of each act, this PiP is discontinued because the conductor leaves his position in the orchestra pit at that point. The "switching off" of the PiP causes Panasonic players to momentarily freeze the playback because they don't react correctly to it. This happens irrespective of whether the PiP was actually being displayed at the time. All other players on which Opus Arte have tested their discs handle this correctly.

It's surprising that Panasonic have fallen foul of this, as I usually associate them with high technical quality. Anyway, I've suggested to Opus Arte that they should talk to Panasonic about the feasibility of releasing firmware updates for their players to deal with this issue. They have been prompt and helpful in dealing with my initial query about the problem, but I don't know whether they will be able and willing to liaise with Panasonic as they haven't responded to the suggestion as yet.

As I would also like to raise this with Panasonic myself, can anyone give me a good contact name and email address so that I can bring it to the attention of someone who'll understand what this is about? I don't want to use the usual "help line" or "customer services" email address as I won't get a reply for weeks on end and, even if I eventually do, it will probably be meaningless.