Panasonic DMP-BDT230 IP not working

I have a BDT230 and have not been successful in getting it to communicate with Roomie using either wifi or ethernet connections to the BDT230 using port 80 (haven't tried any others). It was not autodiscovered so I set it up with a manual IP.

I have FIOS router in bridge mode connected to an Apple Airport Extreme. I have been able to ping the BDT230 from my iPhone so I know the network connection is working and the iPhone MAC address shows up on the enabled devices list. But when I go to add the 230 as a device, the Test Remote fails.

Another strange thing (nothing to do with Roomie) is that the BDT230 did not "see" two of my 4 iDevices until I pinged it using an iPhone ping utility (the one just named "Ping"). After I pinged it with each device, they showed up on the MAC address list.

Is it possible that this has something to do with the fact that Panasonic dropped support for iPhone control for both the BDT230 and 330?

Any help will be much appreciated as one of the main reasons I selected the 230 was that Panasonic appeared to have the most complete IP support.

The 230 is still listed as Unconfirmed. We have 1 other report that there is some issue with that model. These are not widely available yet so we don't have a test unit but we expect to have it in the next couple of days. When we do, we'll figure out what's going on there.

Do you have a reference for Panasonic dropping their app? We assume they just have been slow to update it.

Thank you.

Wow, that was a quick response! Good to hear you will be working on it soon.

As far as them dropping the app that's not the case for the 2011 and 2012 versions, it's that the 230 and 330 may not support the function.

In the comparison table on the Amazon page:

amazon.com/Panasonic-DMP-BDT ... B00AYB3OMG

it shows that "Smartphone Remote Control Capability" is not supported by the 330 or the 230. This is where I saw it first.

However, searching just now, in the spec table here it shows it is:

shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/DMP-BDT230?t=specs

So, I guess we'll just have to wait and see if they come out with a 2013 version of the app as the 2012 one doesn't work (it can't find the 230).

We've now tested a BDT-230 and indeed it definitely does not use the same control method as prior years. We assume that will also apply to the 330 and have moved these models to "TBD" from "Unconfirmed".

At this point Panasonic will need to update their app for us to make sure we are handling it correctly. Their app is part of the marketing materials for the device so it seems safe to say that will not only exist but is now overdue. Contacting Panasonic support to ask why their advertised feature doesn't exist wouldn't hurt.

Thank you.

So I contacted Panasonic support. Here's their reply:

"Here's the reply I got back from Panasonic about smartphone support:

"We regret to inform you that the 2012 Remote app will not work our 2013 models. There is currently no expected release of a 2013 app. -AM"

Here's a link to their QA page

tinyurl.com/coyzsbh

You have to go to page 2 to find "iPhone App doesn't work" "

Given that they advertise smartphone support, this is BS!!!

FWIW Our take on that is that "currently no expected release" is a bad Japanese translation of what should have said "we don't know the release date at present" that came out sounding a lot worse than it should have. Of course, we could be just overly optimistic because we generally really like Panasonic players.

However, we would note that in our research so far, it's quite obvious this player can be controlled, it's just that the method is 100% different from what they did before. The players don't even identify themselves as Panasonic anymore. So what happened here is our guess is that Panasonic licensed a library from some company called Access Co, Ltd. It now runs so much of the player that the whole thing even says Access Co is the manufacturer. Meanwhile, whatever Panasonic had in there before got removed. But it was replaced with a system that frankly looks almost identical to Sonos (and quite possibly has even better feedback potential than Panasonic previously provided).

Given a port (probably 2870) and a URL, the rest of the control system can probably be derived. It's much easier if they just release their app. But it's possible it could be figured out with a lot of free time if they never do that which seems almost inconceivable given that they were demo'ing the app at CES.

What wouldn't be a surprise is if they did something like only release an Android or iOS app and not the other. They were demo'ing with Android at CES. Doesn't matter to us, it would only take minutes with any app to complete the picture of what we need. Let's give them a couple weeks to figure out which way is up and/or keep badgering them about their app on any platform.

Thank you.

Is there anything on the horizon for the Panasonic BDT230 or 330 and IP control? Thanks

For the moment, we're assuming Panasonic's 2013 BD players are a lost cause. They're not even interested enough in them to make an app and they openly state they're not controllable, so trying to forge our own path here is probably not a good idea. We'd recommend the Panasonic 220 model, or from 2013 the best IP control model is the Sony 5100.

Thank you.