Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[James_Younger_Gang]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

I have actually not used the setting. But what I gather is that when the feature is turned On, the TV will pick the best resolution the content should be shown at. It basically forces the content to whatever resolution it thinks is appropriate. Personally, I would rather have the source resolution shown. Think about it, if the TV show you are watching is in 480i and the TV thinks it should be upcoverted to 4K, it probably will look like garbage. That said, I think that feature should be turned off.

Thank you for your informative and respectful replies and advice.

[trekky76]

Originally Posted by PissedOffPeoN

Has anyone figured out a way to get rid of Dolby vision being on all the time on Netflix on this player? It forces it on everything, even menu and even if it isn't in vision it makes it that without turning it off in the player menu settings.

There is a setting for it. Should be under HDMI settings->Advanced. I believe it's ON by default.

[PissedOffPeoN]

The SDR to HDR advanced setting network setting? I have it off already and no change.

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by James_Younger_Gang

Thank you for your informative and respectful replies and advice.

No problem! That's what this site is for!

[sigma1914]

Any idea why HDR isn't turning on when I play HDR content from Amazon?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by sigma1914

Any idea why HDR isn't turning on when I play HDR content from Amazon?

You need to make sure that the 4K60 option is set to 4:4:4.

[sigma1914]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

You need to make sure that the 4K60 option is set to 4:4:4.

That setting was correct - turned out my AVR was set wrong. I had to adjust the Denon HDMI setting to Enhanced rather than Standard. It's weird because discs played HDR just fine.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by sigma1914

That setting was correct - turned out my AVR was set wrong. I had to adjust the Denon HDMI setting to Enhanced rather than Standard. It's weird because discs played HDR just fine.

Everyone always says "but X played fine" because 99.9% of discs are being output in 4K24 which will actually pass through the bandwidth on 'Standard' HDMIs just fine, but if you'd played Gemini Man or Billy Lynn's on UHD disc then they wouldn't have worked in 4K60 4:4:4 using that same signal path. The reason why I keep mentioning 4K60 is because the built-in apps on Panasonic players do not output 4K at 4K24, it's always 4K60, which is where you need the bandwidth of the 'Enhanced' HDMI signal path to get anything more than 4K60 8-bit 4:2:0 and stop the player from busting it down to SDR.

[sigma1914]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Everyone always says "but X played fine" because 99.9% of discs are being output in 4K24 which will actually pass through the bandwidth on 'Standard' HDMIs just fine, but if you'd played Gemini Man or Billy Lynn's on UHD disc then they wouldn't have worked in 4K60 4:4:4 using that same signal path. The reason why I keep mentioning 4K60 is because the built-in apps on Panasonic players do not output 4K at 4K24, it's always 4K60, which is where you need the bandwidth of the 'Enhanced' HDMI signal path to get anything more than 4K60 8-bit 4:2:0 and stop the player from busting it down to SDR.

I really appreciate your information. It's interesting you mentioned those 2 films..... I remember switching to Enhanced for both when Gemini Man came out (I watched both back to back). Sometime later I was fiddling with settings and switched it.

Thanks again!

[RageGamer]

Well, I've decided I don't like my Sony x800 anymore, as it's choked on 2 UHDs now for no apparent reason after playing 100s of regular BDs fine the past ~2 years. What's the difference between the UB820 and the 420? ...and why the hell doesn't Amazon sell Panasonic players?

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by RageGamer

Well, I've decided I don't like my Sony x800 anymore, as it's choked on 2 UHDs now for no apparent reason after playing 100s of regular BDs fine the past ~2 years. What's the difference between the UB820 and the 420? ...and why the hell doesn't Amazon sell Panasonic players?

I bought my 420 on Amazon for $150. I thought why not have a backup to my Oppo and my 4k projector doesn't have Dolby Vision anyway. I don't know why you can't find them now.

Value Electronics out of New York state sells the 820 and 9000. They are a solid and reputable retail business.

You need the 820 or 9000 if you have a Dolby Vision display. The 420 is also a tinker toy in comparison to the top two models.

[RageGamer]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

I bought my 420 on Amazon for $150. I thought why not have a backup to my Oppo and my 4k projector doesn't have Dolby Vision anyway. I don't know why you can't find them now.

Value Electronics out of New York state sells the 820 and 9000. They are a solid and reputable retail business.

You need the 820 or 9000 if you have a Dolby Vision display. The 420 is also a tinker toy in comparison to the top two models.

No way I'd spend for the 9000 just to watch discs. I burned out the laser on an Oppo 103 just beyond warranty and it's still sitting here. I currently run an X950G display, so it sounds like I should go for the 820, but it still seems ridiculous. All I do is watch discs. It's also backordered on at least 2 of the sites I've checked. I looked at these 2 years ago and had the same problem. Ridiculous nobody keeps them in stock. I'm also wondering if BB's 4 year warranty would cover a burned out laser.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by RageGamer

No way I'd spend for the 9000 just to watch discs. I burned out the laser on an Oppo 103 just beyond warranty and it's still sitting here. I currently run an X950G display, so it sounds like I should go for the 820, but it still seems ridiculous. All I do is watch discs. It's also backordered on at least 2 of the sites I've checked. I looked at these 2 years ago and had the same problem. Ridiculous nobody keeps them in stock.

https://www.valueelectronics.com/sit...UB820.php#2744


You're welcome.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by RageGamer

No way I'd spend for the 9000 just to watch discs. I burned out the laser on an Oppo 103 just beyond warranty and it's still sitting here. I currently run an X950G display, so it sounds like I should go for the 820, but it still seems ridiculous. All I do is watch discs. It's also backordered on at least 2 of the sites I've checked. I looked at these 2 years ago and had the same problem. Ridiculous nobody keeps them in stock. I'm also wondering if BB's 4 year warranty would cover a burned out laser.

I went for the 9000 and only watch discs. The build quality is such a step up, it was worth it for me. My player is front and center in my cabinet so I preferred the more premium finish.

[Jabbatheblack]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

This is from my experience with my LG C9, which is almost like the CX. I would turn off the AI Picture Pro, turn on the Dynamic Tone Mapping and Turn on the Optimizer. I have been experimenting a lot and going back on forth between turning the Optimizer On or Off, Turning the Dynamic Tone Mapping of the TV On or off, or just leaving both On or both Off. My conclusions have been that leaving both of them On produces the best picture.

As of right now, the LG's Tone Mapping is not perfect but the Optimizer can take over and tone map the things that the LG CX cannot do. Now that doesn't mean the Optimizer won't make mistakes tone mapping as Geoff and I have discovered when looking at a scene from the 4K version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but that's due to HDR pass and how "fake" / crappy job that was done to it. But that combination with a movie with a good HDR Pass will give you the best picture.

In reality though, there really isn't any right or wrong way to view these movies right now. Different TVs interpret HDR static metadata differently, thus coming up with different results. But these are my findings and my experience finding the best picture.

Thank you, this is very informative. I also have a C9 and have been thinking about replacing my Sony X700 with a UB820. Would you say the high price is worth it to upgrade?

[Trogdor2010]

I've purchased the ub 820 yesterday and whatever I've tried to play any UHD bluray with it it forces 1080p at bt.2020 color and no HDR. None of the settings seem to let me output 4k HDR with UHD blurays, but I can use the player's upscaler to output normal blurays at 4k, and even the player's boot menu outputs at HDR. My TV is the LG 65CX and with my previous player (LG UBKM9), hdr and dolby vision work out of the box for UHD blurays using the same cable and output. Changing the deep color setting in the TV doesn't do anything for my UB 820. Any advice to get it working?

[FullMetalJapio]

So I’ve been collecting 4k movies for half a year now.
Last month was finally the time to jump from a 11 year old HD Tv to a Panasonic hz1000 series OLED and the 820 4k player (known in The Netherlands as the 824).
But after 5 weeks the 4k player still hasn’t arrives with a delivery date in sight.
All out of stock everywhere.

The difference the oled only already makes is amazing, with the standard blu rays.
Really curious to see what the 820 is capable of! The 4k collection keeps growing too fast.
I blame you guys for this

[sapiendut]

I have the older GZ2000 OLED, when I watched Seven Worlds using my UB820, the image looks like I’m looking through a crystal window!

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by Jabbatheblack

Thank you, this is very informative. I also have a C9 and have been thinking about replacing my Sony X700 with a UB820. Would you say the high price is worth it to upgrade?

Absolutely!! I actually purchased the 820 about a year (last year) before I got the C9, which was just about a month in a half ago. I knew down the road I would be upgrading to a 4K TV. Even with my 1080p TV, the 820 produced an amazing picture! Now that I have a 4K TV, I can truly see why the 820 (as well as the 9000) has been regarded as one of the best 4K players on the market today! The Optimizer on it alone makes it worth it. The picture processing is top notch, which has always been expected coming from Panasonic. It also has super fast load times!

I've only issue 2 issues with it though. One of the issues is that if you accidentally hit the Netflix button and try to get out of it quickly before it loads, the player freezes for a bit. It takes about a minute or 2 to fix itself. The other issue was that a few times the player did not want to play any disc that I put into it (4K UHD, Blu-ray, even DVD). I had to unplug it from the power and replug it in after about a minute and it seemed to solve the problem. Though after thinking about it, I don't think it was a player issue. It was more of a power issue since I had an older surge protector from Monster Cable (Yes I know, stupid right.) I replaced it with a Monoprice surge protector and haven't had any power issues since.

Overall, I love the 820!! It's one of the best players of all disc media players I have ever had! I highly recommend it!!

[Jabbatheblack]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

Absolutely!! I actually purchased the 820 about a year (last year) before I got the C9, which was just about a month in a half ago. I knew down the road I would be upgrading to a 4K TV. Even with my 1080p TV, the 820 produced an amazing picture! Now that I have a 4K TV, I can truly see why the 820 (as well as the 9000) has been regarded as one of the best 4K players on the market today! The Optimizer on it alone makes it worth it. The picture processing is top notch, which has always been expected coming from Panasonic. It also has super fast load times!

I've only issue 2 issues with it though. One of the issues is that if you accidentally hit the Netflix button and try to get out of it quickly before it loads, the player freezes for a bit. It takes about a minute or 2 to fix itself. The other issue was that a few times the player did not want to play any disc that I put into it (4K UHD, Blu-ray, even DVD). I had to unplug it from the power and replug it in after about a minute and it seemed to solve the problem. Though after thinking about it, I don't think it was a player issue. It was more of a power issue since I had an older surge protector from Monster Cable (Yes I know, stupid right.) I replaced it with a Monoprice surge protector and haven't had any power issues since.

Overall, I love the 820!! It's one of the best players of all disc media players I have ever had! I highly recommend it!!

Thanks for the information! I definitely plan on getting it sometime in the near future! My only real problem with the X700 is that I have to manually turn Dolby Vision on and off in the player settings, which does get tedious at times. Is the 820 like this or does it do it automatically when detecting Dolby Vision content?