Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Carlos2992]

Hello, can someone explain how to use external subtitles after the 1.66 firm update?

[gkolb]

Originally Posted by NewAgeYankee

I got my UB9000 this week and I am loving it for the most part but I am having an issue when playing HDR 10 discs where when I start a UHD the screen goes does not start but if I switch inputs on my receiver and then switch back the video appears. I dont have that issue with Dolby Vision discs. I have a Denon AVR X2700h receiver and Sony Z8H tv. Any ideas why this is happening or solutions?

Just a hunch your problem sounds like an HDMI handshake issue.
If you unplug both units power (or three is it?) and then unplug all the HDMI ends and reseat them before repluging the power.

If this doesn’t fix issue, you likely need to make sure the HDMI’s are premium certified (search Amazon for Monoprice or Blue Jeans brands for prem cert high speed). Those two brands are under $10 ea for 3 meter typically. Do not be lured by any high priced HDMI cable claims. They send 0 and 1’s. They’re not analog.

Good luck.

[J Nada]

Originally Posted by Carlos2992

Hello, can someone explain how to use external subtitles after the 1.66 firm update?

Sure - it isn't obvious at all! You need to create a folder on your usb drive called 'sub', rename the srt file to 'sub.srt' and put it in that folder. Then if you play the disc, hit the option button and go to subtitles, there are additional menu options including external subs.

Please note both folder and srt file need to be all lower case - 'sub' not 'Sub'.

[NewAgeYankee]

Originally Posted by gkolb

Just a hunch your problem sounds like an HDMI handshake issue.
If you unplug both units power (or three is it?) and then unplug all the HDMI ends and reseat them before repluging the power.

If this doesn’t fix issue, you likely need to make sure the HDMI’s are premium certified (search Amazon for Monoprice or Blue Jeans brands for prem cert high speed). Those two brands are under $10 ea for 3 meter typically. Do not be lured by any high priced HDMI cable claims. They send 0 and 1’s. They’re not analog.

Good luck.

Tried unplugging the cables and seemed to solved the problem. I am using premium certified cables and I run the diagnostics for them using my Denon.

[wxman2003]

I am noticing a difference between DV on my OPPO 203 and DV on the Panny 9000. The first picture is the OPPO 203. The 2nd picture is from the panny. The 3rd is from the Panny with DV turned off. The Panny is definitely more saturated with skins tones in DV compared to the OPPO 203. The colors are not as orange as the pictures show with DV, but there is a big difference. There is something really off on the 9000. When I turn off DV in the Panny, the colors look a lot closer to what the OPPO 203 does with DV. I don't think the 9000 is doing DV correctly from what I am seeing. For DV, tv is set to Warm 2, and color gamut is greyed out to Wide. For HDR10, Color gamut Normal and set to Warm 2. Just weird that 2 different UHD players are processing DV differently.

[Geoff D]

Maybe I'm not understanding you correctly but when I look at those images then the top two - OPPO in DV then Panny in DV - are very very similar, the skin tones are very overcooked in both.

FWIW, I see differences in brightness between the DV outputs of the OPPO and the Panasonic 820 but no differences in colour at all. I'm using the same TV settings on both. And if I turn off DV then the HDR10 image is all but identical.

[kevers7290]

So...is it safe to update my UB820 to the 1.66 firmware before its "official" rollout? (insert Marathon Man reference)

[hgwy407]

Originally Posted by kevers7290

So...is it safe to update my UB820 to the 1.66 firmware before its "official" rollout? (insert Marathon Man reference)

I think that has already been answered....read the posts above.

[wxman2003]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Maybe I'm not understanding you correctly but when I look at those images then the top two - OPPO in DV then Panny in DV - are very very similar, the skin tones are very overcooked in both.

FWIW, I see differences in brightness between the DV outputs of the OPPO and the Panasonic 820 but no differences in colour at all. I'm using the same TV settings on both. And if I turn off DV then the HDR10 image is all but identical.

Ok I think I figured it out. The SC version of the Fifth Element is pushing red way too much with it's DV encode. The HDR10 base layer is just fine. If I play the Sony version of that disc, and force it to output as DV on the OPPO 203 the skin tones look normal. The SC disc is the first DV disc that I noticed that DV was messed up with color.

[jurid]

Originally Posted by wxman2003

Ok I think I figured it out. The SC version of the Fifth Element is pushing red way too much with it's DV encode.

But that's the director's intent! How dare you... Just kidding

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by wxman2003

Ok I think I figured it out. The SC version of the Fifth Element is pushing red way too much with it's DV encode. The HDR10 base layer is just fine. If I play the Sony version of that disc, and force it to output as DV on the OPPO 203 the skin tones look normal. The SC disc is the first DV disc that I noticed that DV was messed up with color.

Yeah I'm getting nothing like that at my end. Skin tones are warm and yellowy on the SC, not lobster-faced monstrosities.

[wxman2003]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yeah I'm getting nothing like that at my end. Skin tones are warm and yellowy on the SC, not lobster-faced monstrosities.

Probably because your tv, a Z9D, if I am correct, requires the player led DV profile, while my tv the E6, requires the TV-Led profile. The DV codec on the Fifth Element Disc may cause my tv to produce a more orange baked skin tone. The fact that it's the only DV I own that does that, tells me something is not right on the Fifth Element disc.

[wxman2003]

One thing that I really like about the 9000 is the black tone setting in the HDR sub menu. On my E6, using a black pluge pattern, bars 68 and 72 can not really be seen even in a totally black room, and if I put my nose up to the screen they are very very faint with bar 68 slightly brighter than 72. So I am crushing everything below 1%. If I raise my brightness 1 click, my OLED screen glows. However, if I raise the black tone setting 3 clicks, I can now faintly see bar 68, 72 which is 0.9% can be seen in a dark room and is now brighter than 68. I do not loose my perfect blacks, and near black scenes look a lot better.

[Gretiem]

Ending up finally gettting a ub9000. Best buy had open box excellent condition for $649 .. couldn't resist for that price. Apparently they still have them available if anyone is interested.

[Mierzwiak]

Originally Posted by FrightNight

Unfortunately, these instructions do NOT work.

Of course they do.

Which player do you have?

[cupboy]

Originally Posted by Gretiem

Ending up finally gettting a ub9000. Best buy had open box excellent condition for $649 .. couldn't resist for that price. Apparently they still have them available if anyone is interested.

Yep. They have plenty of them. Mine showed up last week. Totally battered box with foam inserts hanging out of it while still barely sealed, but the machine looks perfect.

The remote control eats batteries. Got no more than a week out of the first set. I'll see how long the 2nd set lasts. Could be the batteries were weak to begin with (the two that came with the player).

[ibanezjp]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

That's because the Sony player is running baked-in noise reduction on sub-4K sources in the Auto picture quality setting, if you set it to Direct I dare say you'd see those same 'artefacts' because that mode defeats the noise reduction.

And yes, I have everything to 0 or off in the Panasonic except for Chroma Sharpness which is at -1, it only makes a fraction of a difference to the chroma ringing (on a test pattern at that) but I do it anyway.

Ok, so after a lot of back and forth comparing I’m really starting to come around on the Panny for BD instead of the x800m2. On Bravia mode the x800m2 really cleans things up on standard BD’s and while it looks clean, after going back and forth with the Panny, the processing that the x800 is doing really starts to look almost fake. Faces for example look like they have a bunch of makeup on and on the Panny you can see all the details on the skin clearly. I think I’m getting to where the only thing the x800 is besting the Panny in is standard DVD playback. 4k HDR stuff they are identical and 4K DV is miles better on the Panny. Thanks for showing me the light Geoff!

[teddyballgame]

Originally Posted by wxman2003

One thing that I really like about the 9000 is the black tone setting in the HDR sub menu. On my E6, using a black pluge pattern, bars 68 and 72 can not really be seen even in a totally black room, and if I put my nose up to the screen they are very very faint with bar 68 slightly brighter than 72. So I am crushing everything below 1%. If I raise my brightness 1 click, my OLED screen glows. However, if I raise the black tone setting 3 clicks, I can now faintly see bar 68, 72 which is 0.9% can be seen in a dark room and is now brighter than 68. I do not loose my perfect blacks, and near black scenes look a lot better.

That's something I noticed as well after setting up the 820 with my c9 last week. They say there's 50 steps with brightness but let's be honest it's like 2 before massive crush. The panny gives you probably at least 5 steps to work with. Big fan of more granular control

[Cruel Angel]

Originally Posted by ibanezjp

I think I’m getting to where the only thing the x800 is besting the Panny in is standard DVD playback. 4k HDR stuff they are identical and 4K DV is miles better on the Panny.

Is the Sony upscale for DVDs really that much better than the 820?

I have a lot of tv series on DVD and that was always one of my concerns as to how they would look on a 4k tv.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by wxman2003

Probably because your tv, a Z9D, if I am correct, requires the player led DV profile, while my tv the E6, requires the TV-Led profile. The DV codec on the Fifth Element Disc may cause my tv to produce a more orange baked skin tone. The fact that it's the only DV I own that does that, tells me something is not right on the Fifth Element disc.

Yes, I know it's player led but there is still a Dolby processing engine inside the player - which, if anything, is more up to date than the DV engine inside your E6 - and quite often when there's a DV artefact or processing issue then it happens across the board, like the issues with recent Lionsgate UHD discs on the Panasonic players. People are reporting the freezing on Midway and Knives Out regardless of the Panny's output being player or TV led (though this is an automatic selection and not user-driven), and the same goes for the persistent flickering on Ghost in the Shell. It's odd that literally no-one else has reported this lobsterised effect with Fifth Elephant.