Do newer Blue-ray players have problems with older DVDs?

crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
I recently replaced my standard Blue ray player with a 4K blue ray player and the newer machine always briefly glitches out on DVDs. At some point on every DVD I play the screen goes blank and the audio cuts out for a second before coming back.

Are people having this issue or do I need to think about a different player?

It's a Panasonic DP-UB150
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Blu-ray players should normally play DVDs and CDs. But a DVD with scratches or one that is dirty may not play in a blu-ray player. Also, some players won't read home made DVD copies.
If your Panasonic is under warranty, maybe you should try to contact the manufacturer about your problem.
 
crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
Blu-ray players should normally play DVDs and CDs. But a DVD with scratches or one that is dirty may not play in a blu-ray player. Also, some players won't read home made DVD copies.
If your Panasonic is under warranty, maybe you should try to contact the manufacturer about your problem.
I should probably look into the warranted but I think I got it about a year ago.

I had just finished watching all the Star Trek TNG on older store bought DVDs and on every single episode I got a 2 second blank screen and no audio within 5 seconds into the play of the episode. 100% of the time.

It happens with all DVDs but not always first off.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
Weird. I have a couple BD players in my house. Never had any problems like this. I would definitely see if you can get it warrantied. Just for funsies it might be worth trying a different cable. Not likely to fix anything but it won’t hurt either.
 
isolar8001

isolar8001

Audioholic General
I should probably look into the warranted but I think I got it about a year ago.

I had just finished watching all the Star Trek TNG on older store bought DVDs and on every single episode I got a 2 second blank screen and no audio within 5 seconds into the play of the episode. 100% of the time.

It happens with all DVDs but not always first off.
That sounds like frame rate/ resolution matching.
If you have the player set to upscale and match frame rate of 24p, that's normal.
 
crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
It just occurred to me that I could try a firmware update. There was a new update available. I don't know why I didn't get a wifi unit that just does it but I got the update on the stick and it updated.

On a sample of one, the player didn't go blank in the first minute of a TNG episode.

Time will tell I guess.
 
crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
Well, the firmware update didn't fix it. Last two episodes of TNG did the blank out as usual.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Perhaps the dvd laser has come out of alignment/ideal adjustment? Did you check isolar's guess about upscaling/24p?
 
crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
Perhaps the dvd laser has come out of alignment/ideal adjustment? Did you check isolar's guess about upscaling/24p?
I'll have to figure out how to actually check and frankly what it means.

It does it at the start of each episode, 4 episodes per disc within the first few seconds of each episode and not again in that episode. Is that the kind of behavior that would indicate a scaling issue?
 
isolar8001

isolar8001

Audioholic General
S
I'll have to figure out how to actually check and frankly what it means.

It does it at the start of each episode, 4 episodes per disc within the first few seconds of each episode and not again in that episode. Is that the kind of behavior that would indicate a scaling issue?
This is normal when a player is matching frame rate....every file I play on my Dune blanks out at the beginning when frame rate is matched for optimal playback....this is normal for media players. I don't know what the exact framerate of your dvd's are....more than likely its 23.976.

From your manual.
The TV screen turns black.
 In the following cases, HDMI authentication takes place and a black screen is displayed: – When “24p Output” is set to “Automatic”.
 
crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
Thanks for seeing that in the manual.

Seems that it's a flaw that they at least put into the manual. It shouldn't handle it that way I'd think. My older Blue ray player that is not 4K never did that. That's especially so since before and after the blank have no audio or video differences that I can see. My TV as a 65" LG C2 OLED.

I wonder how other players handle this.
 
isolar8001

isolar8001

Audioholic General
Thanks for seeing that in the manual.

Seems that it's a flaw that they at least put into the manual. It shouldn't handle it that way I'd think. My older Blue ray player that is not 4K never did that. That's especially so since before and after the blank have no audio or video differences that I can see. My TV as a 65" LG C2 OLED.

I wonder how other players handle this.
It's actually a good thing...matching frame rate ensures that you don't get any stutter while watching the video, or skipped/dropped frames.
Some people are very attuned/sensitive to this issue while others would never notice it.
Star Trek DS9 especially was famous for having framerate/audio sync issues, so if all is well...your player is doing its job.
 
crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
Interesting. I'll see what DS9 does. It happens on every DVD (Not blue rays) I watch but more randomly within the episodes. Sometimes as much as 30 minutes into a 60 minute show. Unlike the TNGs I'm watching that do it in the first few seconds of the start of the episode.
 
isolar8001

isolar8001

Audioholic General
This is an old issue with the DVD's of these shows.....the Blurays of TNG, Enterprise and the original series don't suffer from this.
If you set your Automatic 24p output to "off", the dropouts should stop.



"Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager weren't recorded in anything as sensible as a steady 23.976fps. When these shows aired in the 1980s and 1990s, they were constructed from at least two different types of content: 23.976fps progressive content and 29.97fps interlaced content. Episodes of these shows do not run at one frame rate; they run at different frame rates depending on what's happening on-screen. A show that runs at one frame rate, start to finish, uses Constant Frame Rate encoding (CFR). Deep Space Nine, TNG, and VOY all use VFR. Stargate SG-1 and Babylon 5 do the same thing. Most of the best nerd content of the late 1990s and early 2000s is locked behind media that go for this kind of manipulation."
 
ben_

ben_

Junior Audioholic
Could this be an issue switching layers on a dual-layer DVD? I remember very old DVD players would sometimes stutter because of that.
 
crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
No idea. I don't know much of anything about how DVD and Bluerays are made. What I do know is that it does it on every DVD I've played on this new player. Many of my DVDs are old though. But I have purchased some new DVDs because when I am away from home and watch on my computer, my computer's graphics card can't handle Bluerays.

I need a new computer within a year. Besides the graphics card issue, the SSD is starting to fill up. I could get one now if I wanted but I don't have the stomach for setting everything up just yet.
 
Last edited:
crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
Commemorating the anniversary of D-Day, a old DVD of the "The Longest Day" hasn't done the blank out. It's doing this instead and no setting on the player or the TV is fixing it. My first copy of the 2000 movie "Titanic" also did this.

20230606_165227.jpg
 
crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
Now this 4K Blu-ray player won't do anything except to sit on the opening title page. Earlier today I turned off closed captioning because a new DVD I got was displaying Korean closed captions. Now, several hours later I went to watch some TNG and for every single thing I press on the remote I get "This operation is not available". I looked in the manual for the factory reset instructions which is to press the "Eject" and "0" at the same time and nothing happens. I tried multiple different discs and the same thing. It loads the opening episodes menu and then I can't press the button to play. I can't get it to do anything. The remote is working because otherwise I wouldn't get the you are not allowed to do that message. It's still the Panasonic DP-UB150

I've reconnected my really old standard (not 4K) blu-ray player but I can see immediately that the picture quality is not as good as the unit that's now not working.

I'll be googling for an answer but any ideas?

I have unplugged it and plugged it in again after a minute. I can't even access the settings. I just get the not allowed message.
 
isolar8001

isolar8001

Audioholic General
Now this 4K Blu-ray player won't do anything except to sit on the opening title page. Earlier today I turned off closed captioning because a new DVD I got was displaying Korean closed captions. Now, several hours later I went to watch some TNG and for every single thing I press on the remote I get "This operation is not available". I looked in the manual for the factory reset instructions which is to press the "Eject" and "0" at the same time and nothing happens. I tried multiple different discs and the same thing. It loads the opening episodes menu and then I can't press the button to play. I can't get it to do anything. The remote is working because otherwise I wouldn't get the you are not allowed to do that message. It's still the Panasonic DP-UB150

I've reconnected my really old standard (not 4K) blu-ray player but I can see immediately that the picture quality is not as good as the unit that's now not working.

I'll be googling for an answer but any ideas?

I have unplugged it and plugged it in again after a minute. I can't even access the settings. I just get the not allowed message.
I saw some suggestions that you need to connect it to another TV.....it sounds like a resolution issue. If you get it going, set the resolution to "Auto" if you have it set to "4K" Let your set do the upscaling.

 
crazyfingers

crazyfingers

Full Audioholic
I saw some suggestions that you need to connect it to another TV.....it sounds like a resolution issue. If you get it going, set the resolution to "Auto" if you have it set to "4K" Let your set do the upscaling.
Really? A resolution issue? I was watching a standard DVD, not a blue-ray and then wanted to watch another DVD. But I guess it can't hurt to plug it into the TV upstairs and see what happens. Thanks!
 
newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top