Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[chip75]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

Again, I have one single audio/video HDMI cable that goes from my player to the TV with my current Samsung 8500 4k player. The soundbar is connected directly to the TV. So, I have no "second" HDMI output (which I'm assuming you mean to a receiver). Am I missing something?

Yes, the second HDMI output goes to the receiver (or whatever). If you're just using the one output then you've got nothing to worry about. You should be fine after going through the set-up guide.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

I know I'm stretching the 4:3 DVDs doing this -- but I prefer them this way.

But is there an option for enabling 4:3 material to fill the screen AUTOMATICALLY, like there was with the BDP-83?

If you're just stretching then you can just select 16:9 with your Samsung, it will stretch all 4:3 material.

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

In the BDP-83, there was a screen ratio setting that allowed me to select "16:9 WIDE," and this ensured widescreen material stayed in its correct form while full screen material was stretched automatically...

What do you do with letterbox movies that aren't anamorphic?

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by chip75

If you're just stretching then you can just select 16:9 with your Samsung, it will stretch all 4:3 material.

It doesn't. I tried it last night with full screen DVDs.

What do you do with letterbox movies that aren't anamorphic?

I used the BDP-83's ZOOM function on the remote control, and brought these films up to "FULL" mode, which enabled them to play back in their correct ratio.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

The Cambridge's menu system is identical to the OPPO's -- watch at 2:07 where there's an image of the setup menu, and where it says "TV ASPECT RATIO"...THAT'S the setting I am talking about that would be helpful for DVD playback for me...

Would this adjustment be like the one I'm referring to on the BDP-83?

The Cambridge has the 16:9 Wide option which stretches 4:3 content and the 16:9 Wide / Auto setting which presents it with black borders on the side. The latter is the default setting.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

It doesn't. I tried it last night with full screen DVDs.

It should do, you might have to go to Picture Size Settings and change 16:9 Standard.

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by chip75

The Cambridge has the 16:9 Wide option which stretches 4:3 content and the 16:9 Wide / Auto setting which presents it with black borders on the side. The latter is the default setting.

THAT'S what I wanted to know. Thanks for confirming.

I HAVE to find a way to purchase this player, even though it's grossly out of our budget; these are the kinds of controls I want, and the 820 just didn't impress me in the least.

At this point, I am thinking of having my BDP-83 repaired via OPPO until I can figure out our next move UHD player-wise; I don't like the current crop of "affordable" players and would rather just keep watching Blu-ray on my BDP-83 if I cannot afford a more premium UHD deck, honestly...of course, the Samsung would upconvert the 1080p Blu-rays to 2160, which would be an okay stop gap for now, I suppose...

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by chip75

It should do, you might have to go to Picture Size Settings and change 16:9 Standard.

It doesn't matter; I'd rather have this function inside the player. I don't want to have to fool with TV screen settings every time I watch something of a 4:3 aspect variety.

Besides, the 820 was doing some real funky stuff to the DVDs' promo commercials in the beginning of some of them; I tried out The Fast and the Furious on the Panasonic, and the opening Universal trailers and promo clips CONSTANTLY switched aspect ratios instead of staying in one screen-filling ratio, as they are when I play these discs on the OPPO. I can't explain what was going on, but it was VERY annoying -- the clips for Universal films on DVD would radically and aggressively switch to aspect ratios that made the screen look weird, and if there's no way to adjust this on the Panasonic, it's not really the player for me.

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

@ IntelliVolume, sorry to hear you are not happy with your new Panasonic UB820.

I understand your opinion on weight and size of the unit and the remote control. However, I don't want you to think the engineering design and build quality are sub-par as this is a well designed and engineered BD player. With this said I am also a fan of heavy weighted a/v devices that add to the solid feel.

Most importantly, I suggest you try an a/b comparison with any other BD player to see and understand the exclusive advantages you have with Panasonic's new HDR Optimizer circuit and the excellent Chroma processing that delivers a sharper image. I have done this in our showroom with every premium 2018 TV and several projectors and the image quality differences are very easy to see and enjoy. This is also verified by all professional reviews and those who own this player.

Once you are watching a BD or streaming you will not be thinking about the weight of the UB820 or anything else other than the exceptional picture and audio performance that this player delivers to your very deserving NU8000 TV. Panasonic UB820 is a quality BD player and will continually deliver the best performance for many years to come.

Panasonic's HDR Optimizer sets the peak luminance to the ability of your TV or projector so you see all of the color volume and the full dynamic tonal range of HDR content.

If you want to enjoy the HDR Optimizer features and Panasonic Chroma processing with a heaver build and upscale back-lit remote consider Panasonic's UB9000.

Robert,

Do you carry the Cambridge player?

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by danny24

Yes, Cambridge actually has restocked but it's $799 now.
https://www.cambridgeaudio.com/usa/en/products/cx/cxuhd

It doesn't sound like this Panasonic model is for you. I always thought based what I read the right player for you was the Oppo 203. I think the Cambridge unit though should work for you perfectly if you can find a way to get it.

Danny,

I cannot find this player outside of Cambridge's site itself -- Crutchfield isn't carrying it anymore, and Amazon retailers want RIDICULOUS prices for it. Is there ANYONE who carries the Cambridge player outside of Cambridge?

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by chip75

I'd stick to standard for regular Blu-ray playback.

That's what I thought; I always left my Panasonic DMP-BD10A on "Normal" picture mode, which is the equivalent to "Standard" on these new Panasonics, I suppose...

What about those Noise Reduction sliders...should I drop those to "0"?

It doesn't sound good.

Oh that's just GREAT...on top of all these other player issues, I still have a problem with my DISPLAY.

What is causing this "micro-stutter"? If you Google this, it seems to be a problem across all Samsung lines, and it's something they never fixed, even in the QLED lineup (if I'm reading the information right). Do you think this is something being caused by the Auto Motion Plus settings? I'm still running these in CUSTOM mode, with Blur Reduction at 10...

Picture customization. If you want specific settings then you can got to Set 1 or Set 2. They're handy for tweaking.

I don't understand WHAT FOR though; why would you need different customizations...do you mean they're available for DVD, Blu-ray and 4K?

No, you can get 4K. Just select Automatic for Home>Setup>Player Settings>Video Format>Automatic and Automatic for HDMI (VIDEO) Output Mode and Audio Only for HDMI (AUDIO) Output Mode.

I'll look into this...

You'll have to experiment with how you think the Zoom function works with your display and if you think there's a drop in quality.

See my post.

I don't want to use the zoom functions in the display, if I can help it.

I have a different player.

A different PANASONIC? You just seem to know a lot about the 820...

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by chip75

When a disc is playing press OPTION, you'll be be presented Picture and Sound options the picture options are:

*Display
*Optimum HDR Adjustment
*Luminance Adjustment
*Colour Adjustment
*Sharpness Adjustment
*Noise Reduction
*Bandwidth Limitation
*Progressive
*Reset to Default Picture Settings

These options are accessible when you move from the STANDARD picture mode to Set 1 or Set 2. You push < or > on the remote to access the different modes (standard will grey out all the options).



c.

Chip, one last question. I know I can adjust settings onscreen while a disc is playing. Can I also switch from "standard" to "settings 1" and "settings 2" while a disc is playing?

I was thinking it would be nice to perhaps have a setting 1 for 4k discs and a setting 2 for blu ray that I tweak to my liking, and it would be nice to simply hit a button to do so....



thanks!!! based on all these posts, I'm feeling more confident in setting up this player when I get it.

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

Chip, one last question. I know I can adjust settings onscreen while a disc is playing. Can I also switch from "standard" to "settings 1" and "settings 2" while a disc is playing?



thanks!!! based on all these posts, I'm feeling more confident in setting up this player when I get it.

I hope you are more satisfied with the 820 than I am; from the moment I saw the size of the packaging box for this thing, I laughed out loud -- the unit is a compact hunk of plastic, and I can't believe it retails for around what the OPPO 203 retailed for.

The settings are overtly overwhelming, and I don't like what it does with DVD playback (there are apparently no zooming features to adjust)….I only share this with you because you wanted some feedback as I lived with the unit.

I am seriously considering getting my OPPO BDP-83 fixed (if they still offer it) and just sticking with regular Blu-rays for entertainment, as this whole 4K thing I think is a little above my comprehension and patience level. As it stands, they still sell Blu-rays AND DVDs (I still rent a ton of DVDs from Redbox), and my UHD display can upscale the 1080p image from the BD player...I can even try messing with the "HDR+" mode of my Samsung, which is supposed to create "faux HDR" from SDR sources...

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

I hope you are more satisfied with the 820 than I am; from the moment I saw the size of the packaging box for this thing, I laughed out loud -- the unit is a compact hunk of plastic, and I can't believe it retails for around what the OPPO 203 retailed for.

The settings are overtly overwhelming, and I don't like what it does with DVD playback (there are apparently no zooming features to adjust)….I only share this with you because you wanted some feedback as I lived with the unit.

I am seriously considering getting my OPPO BDP-83 fixed (if they still offer it) and just sticking with regular Blu-rays for entertainment, as this whole 4K thing I think is a little above my comprehension and patience level. As it stands, they still sell Blu-rays AND DVDs (I still rent a ton of DVDs from Redbox), and my UHD display can upscale the 1080p image from the BD player...I can even try messing with the "HDR+" mode of my Samsung, which is supposed to create "faux HDR" from SDR sources...

I must confess that after reading your comments I was toying with the idea of cancelling my order! I couldn't though either way because it's in shipping status now so I'm gonna give it a go and see how it works.

I also like a bigger, stronger unit in appearance but I'm noticing that the majority of players "look cheap" these days so I can get past that if I'm happy with the picture quality.

I don't play many dvd's these days so that won't be an issue with me at least on this player (I always will have 2 separate players hooked up to my main TV)

Have you played anything in 4k or blu ray that you've been impressed with yet?

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

I must confess that after reading your comments I was toying with the idea of cancelling my order! I couldn't though either way because it's in shipping status now so I'm gonna give it a go and see how it works.

I also like a bigger, stronger unit in appearance but I'm noticing that the majority of players "look cheap" these days so I can get past that if I'm happy with the picture quality.

I don't play many dvd's these days so that won't be an issue with me at least on this player (I always will have 2 separate players hooked up to my main TV)

Have you played anything in 4k or blu ray that you've been impressed with yet?

I don't have any 4K discs as of yet and I don't stream, so I can't comment about 4K performance. I watched one Blu-ray last night, which was The Haunted Mansion, and it did look deep, rich and clean -- even my wife said the film looked "warmer" and "lusher" with regard to the colors. Now, I have to assume that's the Panasonic's processor doing that during the upconversion process from 1080p to 2160p compared to my Samsung display's internal scaling engine, but I STILL cannot get past this thing's cheap, flimsy feel...for $500, this should be WAY better built IMO.

DVDs ARE very important to me, as we own a massive library of 'em and still rent a ton, so I need a player that addresses certain playback parameters with regard to these discs -- I could always, of course, add my old OPPO BDP-83 back into the system (if I can get it repaired at this point) for just DVD playback, but I'd rather have an all-in-one solution if I can help it.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

I don't have any 4K discs as of yet and I don't stream, so I can't comment about 4K performance. I watched one Blu-ray last night, which was The Haunted Mansion, and it did look deep, rich and clean -- even my wife said the film looked "warmer" and "lusher" with regard to the colors. Now, I have to assume that's the Panasonic's processor doing that during the upconversion process from 1080p to 2160p compared to my Samsung display's internal scaling engine, but I STILL cannot get past this thing's cheap, flimsy feel...for $500, this should be WAY better built IMO.

and that title is a very early blu ray release so that's promising to hear. I assume you had everything set to "standard" based on your previous posts, have you played with the non-standard settings where you can monkey around with settings and compare?

[Robert Zohn]

No rudeness intended whatsoever, but I strongly recommend reading the very brief and concise instruction booklet that comes with the UB820. It answers most of your questions accurately.

I'm true to the original creation of all content so I can't contribute in any helpful way to zooming, or changing the format/aspect ratio.

Sorry to say, but I'd suggest this kind of discussion should be deleted or moved to another thread so those interested in Panasonic's new BD players are not discouraged by the endless posts on what the vast majority of visitors and members would not be interested in reading through.

Please forgive my out of character comments, my only intent is to keep this thread active with valuable information and discussion.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

No rudeness intended whatsoever, but I strongly recommend reading the very brief and concise instruction booklet that comes with the UB820. It answers most of your questions accurately.

I'm true to the original creation of all content so I can't contribute in any helpful way to zooming, or changing the format/aspect ratio.

Sorry to say, but I'd suggest this kind of discussion should be deleted or moved to another thread so those interested in Panasonic's new BD players are not discouraged by the endless posts on what the vast majority of visitors and members would not be interested in reading through.

Please forgive my out of character comments, [B]my only intent is to keep this [/B]thread active with valuable information and discussion.

I don't know Robert, I have a couple comments regarding your post.

1] it was because of this thread that I bought the 820

2] by having suggestions and info on how to operate a fairy elaborate menu system on this player--- it keeps the thread active.

3] there has only been one unhappy customer so far on this player-- it gets universal glowing reviews so I don't think this is hurting interest in the player-- every item everywhere is going to have negative feedback

[chip75]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

Chip, one last question. I know I can adjust settings onscreen while a disc is playing. Can I also switch from "standard" to "settings 1" and "settings 2" while a disc is playing?

I was thinking it would be nice to perhaps have a setting 1 for 4k discs and a setting 2 for blu ray that I tweak to my liking, and it would be nice to simply hit a button to do so....



thanks!!! based on all these posts, I'm feeling more confident in setting up this player when I get it.

Yes, you can switch from Standard, Set 1 and Set 2 during playback. I'm not 100% but they're independent to the source, so separate for Blu-ray and UHD playback, so you can different settings for different media (you can anyway as you've got Set 1 and Set 2).

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

No rudeness intended whatsoever, but I strongly recommend reading the very brief and concise instruction booklet that comes with the UB820. It answers most of your questions accurately.

I'm true to the original creation of all content so I can't contribute in any helpful way to zooming, or changing the format/aspect ratio.

Sorry to say, but I'd suggest this kind of discussion should be deleted or moved to another thread so those interested in Panasonic's new BD players are not discouraged by the endless posts on what the vast majority of visitors and members would not be interested in reading through.

Please forgive my out of character comments, my only intent is to keep this thread active with valuable information and discussion.

Oh, you just reminded me...the booklet...

A complete and utter waste of time, as well; provided nothing, like my Samsung display's manual.

As for the discussion in this thread, discussions aren't supposed to be ONLY about positive experiences and transactions...I wanted to express my feelings about this player -- cosmetically, ergonomically and, yes, its performance with regard to LEGACY video discs and media, because it IS important to many people still -- just to provide some personal feedback from a certain enthusiast's perspective. I don't see anything wrong with that.

And just because you don't engage in altering an image via a zoom function -- which I respect -- doesn't mean that you can't give some input (being that you sell these) with regard to if the player CAN do it. I understand everyone is up in arms about me "still wanting to hold on to DVD," but it's important to ME, and what I was seeing with the 820 was NOT promising to that end -- before DVDs even played, the "promo intros" on these discs showed wildly varying aspect ratios that went back and forth (pillarboxing, letterboxing, windowboxing), and this was TERRIBLY, terribly annoying.

Sorry these questions I had for you rubbed you the wrong way, but I wanted to express what I had experienced with the player being that at least one member in here asked me to provide feedback.

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

and that title is a very early blu ray release so that's promising to hear. I assume you had everything set to "standard" based on your previous posts, have you played with the non-standard settings where you can monkey around with settings and compare?

I didn't play with any settings, AKORIS.