[Laser Boy]

I have just purchased a new Panasonic S97 to replace my Toshiba SD-350-e and following all the threads posted here looked to upgrade the firmware on the S97. However the current firmware on my S97 is version 0000001. Does anyone know if the latest S97's have a different firmware to the older ones? Mine was manufactured August 2005.

Should i just leave well alone. I don't have any picture problems. Was it just the early S97's that suffered in this way?

[mjcairney]

If you don't have any problems, I would be tempted to leave well alone.

As a matter of interest, where did you manage to purchase it from?

Cheers,

Martin.

[Laser Boy]

I bought it from here : http://www.technikdirekt.de cost me 347 euros including postage and arrived two days after i ordered it. After a brief liaison with a Pioneer 575 and a disappointing time with the Toshiba i thought i would give Panasonic a try. So far i am very pleased. Why Panasonic don't still sell the S97 here is a mystery.

[mjcairney]

Originally Posted by Laser Boy

Why Panasonic don't still sell the S97 here is a mystery.

Someone on these forums, when I asked the same question, reckoned it was because the price had dropped so much in the UK that Panasonic were losing money on each sale and therefore decided to pull it off the market.

Whether or not that is right, I know not.

Cheers,

Martin.

Hi MJCairney...
Just a quick question - and please forgive my ignorance - but because you seem to be experienced in the ins-and-outs of the S97 ...
if one gets hold of an older S97 - and i read from other threads that upgrading the firmware can help with PQ, bugs etc esp on this unit, then:

1. can u remind us HOW you upgrade the firmware on this Panny...and what version it should end up being (at least in the UK)?
2. confirm if upgrading the firmware might inadvertantly (or even deliberately) destroy the Multi-Region capability of the S97 (if it previously was working)...?
oh and soz to be a pain but does the S97 deal with JPEGs/Photo CDs?

also quick question on your GX3 - does it have a DV/Firewire/IEEE SB1934 Input for camcorders??

Finally - for everybody's info..... i tested a Sony NS92 very BRIEFLY on Saturday via HDMI onto a 40inch LCD at local Sony CEntre - NOT impressed!!! Picture was quite digitised - with quite a few blatantly visible jaggies...and the detail didn't even seem as good as my Panasonic DVD-S75 via RGB Scart to my Samsung 46inch DLP!!! Damn!!!

So i'm kinda praying that the S97 will be a better beast than the Sony NS92...(haven't seen one in action)

Cheers!

[Loada]

You should do a search, I'm sure these topics have been covered for the S97. Anyway, to summarise:

1. You upgrade the firmware by downloading the firmware (zip) from a "suitable place" (search this forum for links/info) and burning the iso image to a CD. The player will recognise the disc and ask you if you want to update the firmware - once started, the process is automated, takes a few minutes. There's some discussion around the net about which firmware is best - again a search should yield some more info that you can use to make your decision, it depends on whether you have a projector or not etc etc.

2. The firmware upgrade will NOT change the multi-region status of the player.

Hope that helps.

[mjcairney]

Originally Posted by Krishna

Hi MJCairney...
Just a quick question - and please forgive my ignorance - but because you seem to be experienced in the ins-and-outs of the S97 ...
if one gets hold of an older S97 - and i read from other threads that upgrading the firmware can help with PQ, bugs etc esp on this unit, then:

1. can u remind us HOW you upgrade the firmware on this Panny...and what version it should end up being (at least in the UK)?
2. confirm if upgrading the firmware might inadvertantly (or even deliberately) destroy the Multi-Region capability of the S97 (if it previously was working)...?
oh and soz to be a pain but does the S97 deal with JPEGs/Photo CDs?

also quick question on your GX3 - does it have a DV/Firewire/IEEE SB1934 Input for camcorders??

Finally - for everybody's info..... i tested a Sony NS92 very BRIEFLY on Saturday via HDMI onto a 40inch LCD at local Sony CEntre - NOT impressed!!! Picture was quite digitised - with quite a few blatantly visible jaggies...and the detail didn't even seem as good as my Panasonic DVD-S75 via RGB Scart to my Samsung 46inch DLP!!! Damn!!!

So i'm kinda praying that the S97 will be a better beast than the Sony NS92...(haven't seen one in action)

Cheers!

Hi Krishna,

A few questions there, but I shall do my best to answer them all, even although some answers have already been given by Loada.

1. You will get all the information you need from here and, if you don't, PM me and I'll send you the firmware which I already have on a CD. It is very easy to implement by the way - just load the CD into the S97 and follow the very simple instructions, having made sure your TV is set to whichever AV input is required for your player. The latest version is 541.

2. It does not destroy the multiregion capability. I believe the S97 can handle JPEG's but I have never tried it myself.

3. The GX3 does not have a digital input for camcorders.

4. Sorry, I cannot give you any comparison between the Sony NS92 and the S97 as I do not know the former, but can tell you that I am very happy with the Panasonic feeding my Pioneer Plasma via HDMI.

Hope this helps - anything else, please let me know.

Cheers,

Martin.

Big THANK YOU to MJCairney and Loada for taking the time to answer my questions - even though I subsequently found out a few answers from other threads/ (so forgive me for taking any undue time of yours)

Gonna step into town and double-check/retest the NS92....

Yea, updating the firmware on the S97 DOES NOT remove multi-region, I have updated my S97 twice and it still has multi-region enabled.

You just burn the .zip file onto a blank CD like you would any other file.

Wack it into the S97 and it should bring up a message saying "this player needs this update, continue with update yes / no?" etc.
While its updating the screen will appear very odd with all ugly patterns, and at one point might look like its stalled, give it about 5 - 7 minutes and it should reset itself and say something like "update good".

I have 541 installed, and its great, a lot better than 536, a lot less digital noise, and I never get any Macro Blocking so its all fine and dandy!

[mjcairney]

Originally Posted by Krishna

Big THANK YOU to MJCairney and Loada for taking the time to answer my questions - even though I subsequently found out a few answers from other threads/ (so forgive me for taking any undue time of yours)

Gonna step into town and double-check/retest the NS92....

No problem, and best of luck.

Cheers,

Martin.

[mjcairney]

Originally Posted by Fluffy-Bunny

I have 541 installed, and its great, a lot better than 536, a lot less digital noise, and I never get any Macro Blocking so its all fine and dandy!

Likewise, and agree wholeheartedly.

Cheers,

Martin.

All you guys are the best!
Thanks for being there for dumb-asses like myself!

[mjcairney]

Originally Posted by Krishna

All you guys are the best!
Thanks for being there for dumb-asses like myself!

Thanks for the compliments.

Cheers,

Martin.

[stanleyntl]

Originally Posted by Laser Boy

I bought it from here : http://www.technikdirekt.de cost me 347 euros including postage and arrived two days after i ordered it.

Any additional VAT or import duty to pay? What was the total cost in sterling roughly?
Most importantly, was the machine anglicised for UK use - i.e. remote/player legends, user manual in english? and PAL output?

[Laser Boy]

The player is an EU German model rated at 230v. Menus can be set to be in English. The text printed on the remote and player are in English. The manual is an EU multilingual version without an English section but i downloaded the UK version from Panasonic's UK website. The site i bought it from allows purchases in GBP and i paid about £237. No import duty as it is from within the EU and the VAT was the German rate (17% i think). It's also covered by Panasonic's pan european warranty so if it breaks Panasonic UK should fix it.

The on-screen menus seem to have extra options not indicated in the manual to control picture quality, from what i can see these options aren't mentioned in the German version of the manual either, as i don't have access to an earlier version of the player i can only assume they are part of some recent firmware update. Mine claims to have firmware version 0000001. Some audio / visual settings can be changed on the fly while watching a DVD.

The player exhibits none of the problems ( macroblocking ) you can read about on this forum associated with the early UK version of this player.

All in i am very pleased, stunning picture at both 720p and 1080i over HDMI into my Philips 37" 9830. Also works well over component but the output is not scaled up by the player using this connection. Output can be either PAL or NTSC depending on the disk and the equipment you have. Much better than the Toshiba SD350e I had before.

[stanleyntl]

Cheers Laserboy, would be interesting to compare UK & German models.

[Laser Boy]

I doubt there is much to compare, I suspect they will be identical except perhaps for later version of the firmware.

[David Mackenzie]

Yeah, they'll be indentical except for the power cord in the box I'd assume. They don't make UK models - they make European ones.

In fact, there's not even much difference between the Euro model and the American one! The EU model still refers to US terminology such as "Direct View CRT". The only real difference is the spelling of "Colour" (although it's still "Color" on the remote) and the bolted-on SCART output board.

[Fotis_Greece]

Just a silly question. I hope there is no problem with the scart RGB output using the "american" firmware update?