# Panny BD65



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

The first BD player I ever bought was a Panny. Terrible choice. Manual incomprehensible, Panny support worthless--they couldn't understand the manual either. Gave up on Panny BD players. 

So, the other day I'm in a 6th Avenue store and I was looking for another Sony BD player. They were sold out of the Sonys and I looked at a BD65 Panny. Took a shot at it and it works really well. The manual was readable and the setup was quite simple. Does a few things that my Sony doesn't and it streams Net content quite nicely.

Since I've been disparaging the Panny BD players, I thought I'd post about this one.

Rich


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## Cholly (Mar 22, 2004)

I have two of the previous model BD60's (actually, BD605's, which are BD60's with an included HDMI cable. I've been quite happy with them.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Cholly said:


> I have two of the previous model BD60's (actually, BD605's, which are BD60's with an included HDMI cable. I've been quite happy with them.


The first one I tried several months ago was a BD45. Couldn't get the sound right. Panny support was no help at all. The BD65 was hooked up the same way and it works really well. I gather you bought the BD605s at Costco?

Rich


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## bungi43 (Jan 17, 2011)

I picked up a BD65 marked down at HH Gregg and it has been just fine. Sometimes it's really slow to load, but it's not intollerable.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

bungi43 said:


> I picked up a BD65 marked down at HH Gregg and it has been just fine. Sometimes it's really slow to load, but it's not intollerable.


When I bought my first BD65, I thought it was great, but I bought a Sammy HT-C5500, which is a home theater setup with a BD player integrated into it and it simply blows the BD65 away. And I'm not a big Sammy fan.

Rich


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Glad to hear you're happy. Personally I've got an OPPO and a Sony. Neither is perfect. The OPPO looks great but doesn't play everything. The Sony seems to play everything but it's dog slow. I'm not sure I'll ever need a third player but I would have no problems buying a Panasonic.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Stuart Sweet said:


> Glad to hear you're happy. Personally I've got an OPPO and a Sony. Neither is perfect. The OPPO looks great but doesn't play everything. The Sony seems to play everything but it's dog slow. I'm not sure I'll ever need a third player but I would have no problems buying a Panasonic.


I've had OPPOs and was always disappointed. I've had several Sony BD players, still have one and they seem reliable. The best BD player I've ever had is my Sammy. Never thought I'd say something like that about a Sammy anything.

Sure wish I'd known about the Sammy 5500 before I bought three BD65s. Rather expensive way to learn a lesson. 

Rich


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## bobukcat (Dec 20, 2005)

Stuart Sweet said:


> Glad to hear you're happy. Personally I've got an OPPO and a Sony. Neither is perfect. The OPPO looks great but doesn't play everything. The Sony seems to play everything but it's dog slow. I'm not sure I'll ever need a third player but I would have no problems buying a Panasonic.


Wow, you've found BDs that your Oppo wouldn't play?? I've had mine for about a year (I think) and still love it! It loads faster than any others I've had (PS3, Samsung and Panny BD-65), responds faster than the others and has never failed to play anything I've thrown at it and I watch a LOT of BDs via Netflix. I've even taken Netfllix rented BDs that were too scratched for the BD-65 to play and it never even skips. I like my BD-65, am not crazy about the Sammy (to be fair it's the oldest of the others save the PS3), the PS3 is still solid as a BD player, but would not hesitate to buy another Oppo - even though you can probably get similar performance (not including SACD support, etc.) for less now.


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## matt (Jan 12, 2010)

I'm ok with my BD65


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

matt1124 said:


> I'm ok with my BD65


Just dawned on me that I started this thread. Ordered another Sammy 5500 BD player yesterday. My God! The BD players are starting to reproduce just as my HRs have! I think I need help.....:nono2:

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

rich584 said:


> Just dawned on me that I started this thread. Ordered another Sammy 5500 BD player yesterday. My God! The BD players are starting to reproduce just as my HRs have! I think I need help.....:nono2:
> 
> Rich


I got the Sammy 5500 yesterday and hooked it up right away. And right away, I found a couple things that I don't like. I can't program it to work with my Panny plasma and the LEDs on the front are very bright and distracting. These can't be covered up with tape because they are also the buttons that control Power, Eject, etc. Really good PQ, tho. Seems to be better than the BD65 so far. Still gotta try the Net content. The audio also seems to be better than the BD65 and I played the same DVD on both.

Gotta call Sammy today and see if they can come up with a code that will allow me to control the TV in the same way my HT-C5500 home theater/BD player does. Almost the same remote as the HR-C5500 without the audio features. Didn't like the BD65 remote and don't like either of the 5500's remotes, so that's a wash.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

rich584 said:


> I got the Sammy 5500 yesterday and hooked it up right away. And right away, I found a couple things that I don't like. I can't program it to work with my Panny plasma and the LEDs on the front are very bright and distracting. These can't be covered up with tape because they are also the buttons that control Power, Eject, etc. Really good PQ, tho. Seems to be better than the BD65 so far. Still gotta try the Net content. The audio also seems to be better than the BD65 and I played the same DVD on both.
> 
> Gotta call Sammy today and see if they can come up with a code that will allow me to control the TV in the same way my HT-C5500 home theater/BD player does. Almost the same remote as the HR-C5500 without the audio features. Didn't like the BD65 remote and don't like either of the 5500's remotes, so that's a wash.
> 
> Rich


So, after a day or two, the bright LEDs stopped bothering me. One problem gone. I called Sammy support about the remote not working with my Panny plasma and got a CSR who knew very little and suggested I call Panasonic up and ask them for help with codes for the remote. Knew it would be an exercise in futility, but I called and they couldn't help me, so I called Sammy support back and got a guy who knew what he was talking about. Nothing can be done. OK, I can accept that. But then I noticed that the Sammy was taking over the Panny plasma and switching inputs on the Panny whenever I turned them both on so that the Panny and the Sammy were on the same input. Then, I found out that shutting off the Panny would shut off the Sammy when they were linked. So everything worked out.

Rich


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## 1953 (Feb 7, 2006)

Have been using a Toshiba HD-DVD A20 for years as it is a great standard DVD upscaled. Now that I have this Pan BD655 and no more open HDMI slots I'm trying to decide if I should retire the A20. Really don't want to buy a HDMI switch.

Tell me what you think about the BD655 upscaling ability on standard DVD's. Other comments also welcomed.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

1953 said:


> Have been using a Toshiba HD-DVD A20 for years as it is a great standard DVD upscaled. Now that I have this Pan BD655 and no more open HDMI slots I'm trying to decide if I should retire the A20. Really don't want to buy a HDMI switch.
> 
> *Tell me what you think about the BD655 upscaling ability on standard DVD's. * Other comments also welcomed.


Not nearly as good as the Sammys. But you'd have to compare them to see the difference for yourself. There's a lot I don't like about my three Sammy 5500s, the remote really sucks for instance, but you just can't find a BD player in that price range that upscales as well.

I think that BD655 is a specially made model just for Costco. I don't really trust anything made just for Costco. Had too many problems with them.

Rich


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## 1953 (Feb 7, 2006)

rich584 said:


> Not nearly as good as the Sammys. But you'd have to compare them to see the difference for yourself. There's a lot I don't like about my three Sammy 5500s, the remote really sucks for instance, but you just can't find a BD player in that price range that upscales as well.
> 
> I think that BD655 is a specially made model just for Costco. I don't really trust anything made just for Costco. Had too many problems with them.
> 
> Rich


Had I not won the BD655 I would have never purchased this unit. Nor would I buy any other piece of electronics from Costco or like stores.

From what I've read the 655 is identical to the 65.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

1953 said:


> Had I not won the BD655 I would have never purchased this unit. Nor would I buy any other piece of electronics from Costco or like stores.


Yeah, I've learned that lesson the hard way.



> From what I've read the 655 is identical to the 65.


I think the only difference is that the 655 comes with an HDMI cable and the 65 doesn't. At least that's the only difference you see when you open the box. I was interested in a Sony TV that only Costco had and I called up Sony because I couldn't find the TV on their website. After several calls that ended quickly with the Sony CSRs telling me that they couldn't talk about that model because it was made specifically for Costco, I finally got a CSR to talk to me about it. The call was brief and all I got was his suggestion: Don't buy it. I took his advice and have told this little story many times on the forum. I don't trust their electronics at all.

But the BD65s I had did work well and you might as well use the thing. I sold two on eBay and gave the third one away after I tried the Samsung 5500. But, free is free and if it works as well as my BD65s did, you'll probably get a decent picture on it as long as all you're upscaling is wide-screen DVDs. I don't think you'll be thrilled with the way it upscales 4:3 DVDs. I used my BD65s for upscaling NetFlix content and it did a good job on wide-screen content but was pretty bad on old 4:3 content such as L&O:SVU. I was shocked when I tried my Sammys on the same SVU 4:3 content, it was so good...well, there aren't words to describe it, you have to see the difference to believe it.

Rich


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

I'm really surprised you find the upconversion of the Samsung better than the Panny's.

The Panny 65 was a great player, and almost universally praised.

HERE'S just one example from a guy that does blu ray comparisons for AVS.

You'll see that he gave the Samsung 5500 a score of 6.5 in DVD upconversion, where the Panny 65 received a score of 8 (for reference the Oppo 83 is a 10).

That seems pretty consistent with all the other reviews that I've read, and consistent with my experience. My 65 did a very good job with upconversio, and my current Panny 110 does a great job.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

spartanstew said:


> I'm really surprised you find the upconversion of the Samsung better than the Panny's.
> 
> The Panny 65 was a great player, and almost universally praised.
> 
> ...


I thought the 65 was the best BD player I'd ever tried. I can't argue with that, but I practically gave them away after seeing the difference in upscaling NF content. I don't like giving away stuff, but I didn't know what else to do with them. I read a lot of those reviews too and I gotta disagree. If you lived next door to me, I could show you the difference in upscaling quality. It's very obvious.

I'm not a big Sammy fan. There are a lot of things I don't like about the 5500s, but upscaling isn't one of them and I watch a lot of old shows that I wouldn't watch with the 65 or a Roku or an Apple TV. I don't like the Sammy's remotes. They are poorly planned out and very difficult to use in a dark room. If the Sammy has a disc in it, it's a real PITA to get it to do NetFlix. Keeps trying to play the disc. Lots of complaints, but the PQ is so good, I can live with the other problems. And, after all, isn't that the most important thing?

Rich


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## 1953 (Feb 7, 2006)

Rich,
All of your remote issues can be resolved by getting a Harmony One remote. I use this great remote to seamlessly integrate my Sony HDTV, Denon AVR, Denon SACD, Toshiba HD-DVD, Panasonic Blu-Ray and infinity Alpha speakers.

Plus the Harmony One looks really cool.


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## 1953 (Feb 7, 2006)

Watching 'The Green Hornet' on my BD655 right now. Looks and sounds very good but no better than movies were in HD-DVD. Sorry I know that's a dead topic. :eek2

Next I'll compare the upscaling of the standard DVD version of 'Day After Tomorrow'.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

1953 said:


> Rich,
> All of your remote issues can be resolved by getting a Harmony One remote. I use this great remote to seamlessly integrate my Sony HDTV, Denon AVR, Denon SACD, Toshiba HD-DVD, Panasonic Blu-Ray and infinity Alpha speakers.
> 
> Plus the Harmony One looks really cool.


For some reason, I've avoided the universal remotes. But the Sammy and Panny remotes are configured so badly that I've been considering getting one for awhile.

Rich


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## 1953 (Feb 7, 2006)

You won't regret getting one.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

1953 said:


> You won't regret getting one.


Anything would be better than the tortuous Sammy remotes.

Rich


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