New home theater. All Panasonic. Issues ensue.

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Jonski

265 posts

Ultimate Geek

#91283 10-Oct-2011 16:54

Wondering if anyone has a similar problem as me.

I have a Panasonic TH-42PZ850AZ TV. Up until now, I also just had a HDD recorder, a Panasonic DMR-EH58. These worked happily together and kind of still do... but now I added a Panasonic SA-BT775 Bluray home theatre to the package.

The home theater is connected on HDMI1, the HDD recorder on HDMI2. Vieracast now goes to the home theater but it was on the HDD recorder.

I have several issues. Firstly, and the main one, is that the HDD recorder and the BD player seem to have many of the same IR codes on the remote in common. For example, pressing Play on either remote causes both devices to turn on and start playing! Is there any way to stop this?!?

Secondly, I don't seem to be able to get the TV sound output to go back through the home theater. I expected it would. Can these TVs do this on an HDMI cable, or do I need to add another audio path back to the home theatre?

Thirdly, I was disappointed to discover that I can't have Vieralink running to both of them, but c'est la vie... unless someone knows the secret...?

I tried daisychaining the HDD recorder to the home theater but it didn't seem that good. Should I go back to doing this?

Is there anything else I'm overlooking, or is there anything else I can add to the description?

Thanks in advance!

I reject your reality and substitute my own!
- Adam Savage, Mythbuster

Dunnersfella

4063 posts

Uber Geek

#531592 10-Oct-2011 17:07

Drawing on my memory here... I believe your Panasonic devices will have at least 3 options for remote control channels. Have a look through the respective manuals and you 'should' find how to separate them.
Your TV isn't ARC compatible (sound traveling from the TV to the receiver via HDMI), so you'll need to buy an optical (toslink) cable and connect that to your Panasonic receiver.

That's me tapped out... anyone else?

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B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#531625 10-Oct-2011 18:55

Dunnersfella: Drawing on my memory here... I believe your Panasonic devices will have at least 3 options for remote control channels. Have a look through the respective manuals and you 'should' find how to separate them.

Doesn't always work as expected though.
I had two Panasonic recorders (EH58 and BW880) and the same problem. I set the remotes and sets to different codes (1 and 2) but when I programmed the Logitech remote (also 1 and 2) I found the power on/off commands activated both sets at the same time. Likewise the Panasonic remotes did the same with different codes. I suspect some of the buttons may be common to both codes as well but didn't experiment. Solved the problem by getting rid of the EH58.

Dunnersfella

4063 posts

Uber Geek

#531646 10-Oct-2011 20:13

I guess they've assumed that most people only require one DVD / BluRay recorder in their cabinet at a time. While that view is not one hundred percent for everyone, I guess it's a 'fair' assumption for Panasonic to make?

Jonski

265 posts

Ultimate Geek

#531700 10-Oct-2011 22:03

Dunnersfella: Drawing on my memory here... I believe your Panasonic devices will have at least 3 options for remote control channels. Have a look through the respective manuals and you 'should' find how to separate them.
Your TV isn't ARC compatible (sound traveling from the TV to the receiver via HDMI), so you'll need to buy an optical (toslink) cable and connect that to your Panasonic receiver.

That's me tapped out... anyone else?

Thanks for the speedy response Dunnersfella.

I managed to reprogramme the remotes and it seems to be working well. I'm a server engineer and am used to reading technical instructions, but these manuals are plain obtuse. In catering for everyone they help noone. A second pair of eyes or someone who's been there before is highly valuable!

I popped into DSE on the way home and bought a Toslink cable for the return audio. Um, colour me stupid, I'm a server engineer not an audio engineer, my degree in electronics is a little dated, whatever. I try to plug the cable into the socket, making sure it is correctly rotated to fit the keying etc, but it doesn't want to lock in. The tiniest tug would cause it to fall out. Again, what am I doing wrong?!? Gah!!

OK. I took another look at the Toslink. It was wearing a condom and trying to fornicate with me. I removed the caps and it plugs in now. NOWHERE on the packet does it say to remove the cover first! And yes, I'd laugh at someone who doesn't remove the cover from a VGA cable, but that's different as it's so OBVIOUS. Grrr.

Again, thanks for your help!

Cheers

I reject your reality and substitute my own!
- Adam Savage, Mythbuster

Jaxson

7680 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#531706 10-Oct-2011 22:17

Sure that's not control codes across the hdmi?