Panasonic SC-BT230 5.1 Surround Sound System

[BrieDanielle]

/sigh

Miss me Chris?

I had such high hopes for not having any more problems once I returned the faulty used one and bought one new, but here we are.

The main problem is when I am streaming Netflix (which is 50% of the reason I bought the unit), it sometimes for no reason at all will just jump over to DVD and then freeze. Sometimes it will do this several times within an episode. Since it is frozen, I can't turn it off, so every time, I have to power cycle it and start over. It is positively maddening.

It seems to be happening with increasing frequency.

In fact, it seems like all the problems I can think of that I have with it are when streaming Netflix, but the others I either chalked up to my internet connection, or aren't as big of a problem as the one I've just listed. The others include:

1) CONSTANTLY pausing and reloading the show/movie while I am watching it. Like I said, I assumed this was my internet connection, though my internet connection is fine. I am just beginning to wonder if it is not, in fact, my connection, since so many other things go wrong with streaming.
2) Yesterday, it froze while loading a movie. I had to power cycle.
3) Oftentimes it will tell me whatever title I want to watch is unavailable. And when I choose another title, it says the same thing. And I have to exit out of Viera Cast and back in to correct it. Sometimes this corrects it, and sometimes it does not. Sometimes I have to turn it off, and sometimes I have to full on power cycle it.
4) Occasionally when I click on Viera Cast, it says it is not available. This has only happened a few times.

The only other problem that I can think of at the moment, and it actually is not streaming related, happened after I watched a DVD yesterday. I finished the DVD, but left it in the player because I thought I might watch it again before returning it today. I switched over to TV, and the volume was SUPER low. I turned it up and the volume didn't change. I think it had reverted to the TV volume, which I keep very low, since I only use the Home Theater speakers (the other 50% of the reason I bought the unit). It wouldn't let me turn it up, since I have the remote volume set to Home Theater. I just wonder if this is normal. Just because I have a disc in the player, the volume will only work for the DVD? That doesn't make any sense.

I am so disappointed. If the damn thing would work right, I really like this unit. Do you have any info on any of the problems I have mentioned?

I called useless Panasonic, and the guy who I spoke with said there is nothing they can do to help me, and I have to send it to an exchange center in Texas. I spoke with the exchange center today, and (in addition to the fact that they will only exchange it for a refurbished model) they said I had to pay for shipping, which I know to be nearly $50 from the time I had to send the faulty original unit back to that eBay seller. That seems an awfully high price to pay for something that is brand new, still under warranty, and not my fault. Any suggestions?

I appreciate your insight... and sorry to bother you again. :-/

[MrBoylan]

Hi, Again, Brie,

These are not issues I've seen before on the Panasonic HTiBs. Some definitely could be related to a slow or unreliable internet connection, but not all. I would call Panasonic again and ask to speak to a supervisor or see if there is any way to escalate this. Be nice but be firm. If it is still under warranty, then they should offer some way for you to get it replaced without excessive shipping expense. Maybe you could ask if you could just send back the main control unit and keep the speakers? This would be a lot less expensive to ship both for you and for Panasonic since the subwoofer and speakers make up at least half of the overall weight and there is no way that these are contributing to the problem.

Anyway, sorry for your continued troubles. I know it doesn't help you, but the Panasonic HTiBs that we have tested have been a lot less glitchy than yours.

Regards,

-Chris

[BrieDanielle]

Thanks, Chris! Sending only the main unit was actually exactly what I was thinking to do! I wasn't sure what they would think about that, but it seemed unnecessary and excessively expensive to ship back and forth the whole thing, so I thought I would try it. I'll let you know what happens.

[BrieDanielle]

I have a TV series that I successfully played on my old DVD player, but can't get any of my current DVD players to play. I know it was an overseas release, and I've heard of "unlocking" your DVD player to be able to read other region DVDs. Do you know how to do so on this unit? I've never done any such thing before, but I really want to watch my show! Any help would, as always, be much appreciated.

Thanks!

~Brie

[MrBoylan]

I have a TV series that I successfully played on my old DVD player, but can't get any of my current DVD players to play. I know it was an overseas release, and I've heard of "unlocking" your DVD player to be able to read other region DVDs. Do you know how to do so on this unit? I've never done any such thing before, but I really want to watch my show! Any help would, as always, be much appreciated.

Thanks!

~Brie

Hi, Brie,

Unfortunately Blu-ray players are much less region-agnostic than DVD players, even for regular DVD playback. This is not exclusive to Panasonic. I don't know of a single major brand of Blu-ray player that can be easily hacked to support playback of DVDs or Blu-rays from different regions whereas there were many DVD players that could be modified via a simple remote code to play DVDs from other regions.

Do you still have that old DVD player? If so, I would recommend holding onto it and just using it for non-US DVDs.

-CB