Panasonic DP-UB420/UB150 - need advice

[mar3o]

I need some advice. I've just about had enough of my Sony X700. It freezes or stutters on just about every UHD I throw at it, and the ones that don't freeze fall out of sync and I have to pause and then unpause for the film to go back into sync. I don't have any of these issues with my Panasonic blu-ray players.

So I'm looking at a Panasonic player but I have a limited budget. I see the Panasonic DP-UB420 for around $200 currently, which is about the max I can spend. I don't need Dolby Vision because my 2016 LG TV handles Dolby Vision horribly so I never use it anyways. I also see Best Buy lists the DP-UB150 on sale for half price. But, I came across this review and now I'm wondering if I can trust either of these Panasonic models:

https://www.trustedreviews.com/revie...sonic-dp-ub150

Use the sliders to see the comparison screenshots between the DP-UB150 and the Sony x700. In all cases the X700 looks far superior, to the point I think the DP-UB150 screenshots look awful. Are those really representative of what the DP-UB150 offers? What about the DP-UB420? I'd imagine they offer similar image quality, no? I don't want to go with Panasonic if the image quality would look this poor compared to the X700.

Not sure what to do. I don't want LG sets or other brands because as I said my TV handles Dolby Vision horribly, and with many players they force Dolby Vision if the disc has it and you can't disable it, so that's a no-go for me. I can turn it off with my X700. I'd love my X700 if it wasn't for all the stuttering/freezing/sync issues, but I can't take it anymore.

[dcforsyth]

Have you tried a lens cleaning disc on your x700? I had similar issues with the x800m2 that was fairly new and after using the cleaning disc the player has worked flawlessness since and that was a few months ago. Not saying it will work for you but it might be worth a shot before buying a new player.

Also, if you decide to try a lens cleaning disc, make sure you get one specifically for blu-ray players. Apparently there's a difference between DVD and bd cleaning discs.

[Coryp81]

The x700 is a peice of junk. It would freeze up on me all the time. I replaced it with the UB420. I feel like my tv does Dolby Vision worse than standard HDR so that not being a feature in the 420 doesn't bother me. So far, so good with the new player.

[rubystone356]

I just got the panasonic 150. I must say that I am very impressed with it.
there are setting to make blu ray and uhd titles look better then ever.
highly recommend it. I am using a projector. non 4k set.

Jacob

[NDcowboy]

I like the UN420, I own two of them. I can play region B discs with the top menu trick. No it doesn’t have Dolby Vision, but that has its pros and cons. The biggest 2 things I don’t like about it is I feel like the hdmi “audio only” jack sometimes has lip sync issues..no problems for me using the main hdmi out for A&V. And I hate the placement of the Netflix button. Other than those couple things I like it a lot, enough to own 2. You may see them on sale at BB for $150 occasionally. And it has the CXU processor and a legit sized remote unlike the UB150. But I’ve never tried the ub150 so at $100 it may be a bargain also.

[mar3o]

I'm worried about those sliding comparison screenshots in the link I posted. Those Panasonic screenshots really don't look good at all, but I don't know if they did something wrong capturing the screenshots. But then why would it only affect the Panasonic screenshots? I'm assuming they captured them using the same methods for both. The Panasonic looks oversaturated and has severely crushed blacks from those screenshots. But I can't believe that's the image quality you would get form a Panasonic. Maybe the UB420 offers better image quality than the cheaper unit? But it shouldn't be that drastic a difference.

I hadn't thought of trying my blu-ray disc cleaner. I can give it a try, but that likely wouldn't affect the sync issues I'm having with the x700. It's fine for an hour and then suddenly it's out of sync, and pausing and unpausing it corrects it instantly.

I just think the x700 is junk. At least some of them are. Lack of QC and all. I've had to unplug my x700 several times because it froze and became completely unresponsive.

[rubystone356]

Originally Posted by mar3o

I'm worried about those sliding comparison screenshots in the link I posted. Those Panasonic screenshots really don't look good at all, but I don't know if they did something wrong capturing the screenshots. But then why would it only affect the Panasonic screenshots? I'm assuming they captured them using the same methods for both. The Panasonic looks oversaturated and has severely crushed blacks from those screenshots. But I can't believe that's the image quality you would get form a Panasonic. Maybe the UB420 offers better image quality than the cheaper unit? But it shouldn't be that drastic a difference.

I hadn't thought of trying my blu-ray disc cleaner. I can give it a try, but that likely wouldn't affect the sync issues I'm having with the x700. It's fine for an hour and then suddenly it's out of sync, and pausing and unpausing it corrects it instantly.

I just think the x700 is junk. At least some of them are. Lack of QC and all. I've had to unplug my x700 several times because it froze and became completely unresponsive.

I get the other direction of not being oversaturated on my player. I was very surprise by that. it looks great and see more detail.. specially with blacks.
there are certain settings to get there that I found on the player.
its like watching old movies like they were brand new and original intent from the filmmakers. I get that from my player.

Jacob

[rickardl]

Originally Posted by mar3o

In all cases the X700 looks far superior, to the point I think the DP-UB150 screenshots look awful.

Really?
If you think the first pic looks worse than the second, I don't know what to say.

[Agent Kay]

The 450 is faultless

[Zoland2020]

The UB420 is the best of the two players, go for that one.

[MisterXDTV]

UB420 ha the same HCX processor as the 820 (minus Dolby Vision support) and analog audio output...

It's the best player on the market you can buy for the money unless you care a lot about Dolby Vision (I don't as most of my discs don't even have it)

UB150 and UB450 are worse for HDR10 playback

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by rickardl

Really?
If you think the first pic looks worse than the second, I don't know what to say.

[Show spoiler]

Yes, really. The first pic is nuking the blacks/gamma, oversaturating the colour and blowing out the highlights, as it is in all those 'comparisons'. All standard tricks to make things 'pop' more, me I think they look fookin horrid.

I tell you what though guys, that "review" makes my head hurt and it's why I take the piss out of "trusted sources" as much as I do, no player on the planet should be presenting those sorts of differences unless it's been set to some sort of vivid mode and the other one hasn't, or indeed the people doing the comparisons have the two TV inputs set to completely different settings.

It's just completely disingenuous and has no real world bearing on the performance of these players. Then I look at who wrote it and I see the zinger: "Kob began his career at What HiFi"

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

UB420 ha the same HCX processor as the 820 (minus Dolby Vision support) and analog audio output...

It's the best player on the market you can buy for the money unless you care a lot about Dolby Vision (I don't as most of my discs don't even have it)

UB150 and UB450 are worse for HDR10 playback

The 450 is worse... Lol no

[rickardl]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The first pic is nuking the blacks/gamma, oversaturating the colour and blowing out the highlights, as it is in all those 'comparisons'.

The nuked blacks are sureley because it is a screen shot with a camera.
The blown out highlights on both too. The colours in that frame pop a bit more on the photo than what I see on my 2K blu-ray on a calibrated set
and I would expect it would/should pop more in 4K but the sony photo looks like an anemic zombie in comparison.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by rickardl

The nuked blacks are sureley because it is a screen shot with a camera.
The blown out highlights on both too. The colours in that frame pop a bit more on the photo than what I see on my 2K blu-ray on a calibrated set
and I would expect it would/should pop more in 4K but the sony photo looks like an anemic zombie in comparison.

So why don't the other photos wreck the blacks then? I'm guessing you haven't actually seen Alita in 4K HDR to make this judgement, because Alita is closer to SDR in an HDR container than balls-out ultra-contrasty HDR. The 'Sony' is actually far more representative of what it looks like than that badly overcooked 'Panasonic', but I'm putting both of those in ironic quotation marks because no Panasonic player will skew an image like that unless someone is messing with the settings or has no goddamn idea of how to set things up. Again: What HiFi

[MisterXDTV]

Originally Posted by Agent Kay

The 450 is worse... Lol no

It's worse because the chipset of the 150/450 sucks compared to the HCX.

But keep dreaming. If you think the 450 is better than the 420, you also think it's better than the 820, right??? LOL

The UB450 is just an UB150 with Dolby Vision enabled: even the instruction manual is the same!

https://tda.panasonic-europe-service...7/TQBS0337.pdf

[rickardl]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I'm guessing you haven't actually seen Alita in 4K HDR to make this judgement, because Alita is closer to SDR in an HDR container than balls-out ultra-contrasty HDR.

Yep, I still view HDR downconverted to SDR. But like I said, the real 2K SDR blu-ray looks more like the panasonic photos if any but, yes, the photos overall look like crap and should not be trusted as proof of anything. Except maybe the "competence" of the people doing the review...

[Agent Kay]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

It's worse because the chipset of the 150/450 sucks compared to the HCX.

But keep dreaming. If you think the 450 is better than the 420, you also think it's better than the 820, right??? LOL

The UB450 is just an UB150 with Dolby Vision enabled: even the instruction manual is the same!

https://tda.panasonic-europe-service...7/TQBS0337.pdf

Does that edit tell me something I didn't know? How long have you owned yours? What did you compare it directly to?

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by mar3o

I need some advice. I've just about had enough of my Sony X700. It freezes or stutters on just about every UHD I throw at it, and the ones that don't freeze fall out of sync and I have to pause and then unpause for the film to go back into sync. I don't have any of these issues with my Panasonic blu-ray players.

So I'm looking at a Panasonic player but I have a limited budget. I see the Panasonic DP-UB420 for around $200 currently, which is about the max I can spend. I don't need Dolby Vision because my 2016 LG TV handles Dolby Vision horribly so I never use it anyways. I also see Best Buy lists the DP-UB150 on sale for half price. But, I came across this review and now I'm wondering if I can trust either of these Panasonic models:

https://www.trustedreviews.com/revie...sonic-dp-ub150

Use the sliders to see the comparison screenshots between the DP-UB150 and the Sony x700. In all cases the X700 looks far superior, to the point I think the DP-UB150 screenshots look awful. Are those really representative of what the DP-UB150 offers? What about the DP-UB420? I'd imagine they offer similar image quality, no? I don't want to go with Panasonic if the image quality would look this poor compared to the X700.

Not sure what to do. I don't want LG sets or other brands because as I said my TV handles Dolby Vision horribly, and with many players they force Dolby Vision if the disc has it and you can't disable it, so that's a no-go for me. I can turn it off with my X700. I'd love my X700 if it wasn't for all the stuttering/freezing/sync issues, but I can't take it anymore.

I had the same Sony model and the same issues with the player. I also thought color looked washed out compared to the Samsung K8500. Now you will see comments saying oh I have that player and never had an issue. This was a real issue with this model. There was one update that didn't address the issue. I got rid of it and got the Panny UB-420 then upgraded to the 820. The 420 is a solid player and the processing is way beeter then any Sony player color great and played every 4K and Blu-ray disc at it as well as DVD.

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by mar3o

I need some advice. I've just about had enough of my Sony X700. It freezes or stutters on just about every UHD I throw at it, and the ones that don't freeze fall out of sync and I have to pause and then unpause for the film to go back into sync. I don't have any of these issues with my Panasonic blu-ray players.

So I'm looking at a Panasonic player but I have a limited budget. I see the Panasonic DP-UB420 for around $200 currently, which is about the max I can spend. I don't need Dolby Vision because my 2016 LG TV handles Dolby Vision horribly so I never use it anyways. I also see Best Buy lists the DP-UB150 on sale for half price. But, I came across this review and now I'm wondering if I can trust either of these Panasonic models:

https://www.trustedreviews.com/revie...sonic-dp-ub150

Use the sliders to see the comparison screenshots between the DP-UB150 and the Sony x700. In all cases the X700 looks far superior, to the point I think the DP-UB150 screenshots look awful. Are those really representative of what the DP-UB150 offers? What about the DP-UB420? I'd imagine they offer similar image quality, no? I don't want to go with Panasonic if the image quality would look this poor compared to the X700.

Not sure what to do. I don't want LG sets or other brands because as I said my TV handles Dolby Vision horribly, and with many players they force Dolby Vision if the disc has it and you can't disable it, so that's a no-go for me. I can turn it off with my X700. I'd love my X700 if it wasn't for all the stuttering/freezing/sync issues, but I can't take it anymore.

I had the same Sony model and the same issues with the player. I also thought color looked washed out compared to the Samsung K8500. Now you will see comments saying oh I have that player and never had an issue. This was a real issue with this model. There was one update that didn't address the issue. I got rid of it and got the Panny UB-420 then upgraded to the 820. The 420 is a solid player and the processing is way better then any Sony player color great and played every 4K and Blu-ray disc as well as DVD.