Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[sephirothkefka]

Originally Posted by thebigcheese3k

That’s an interesting problem, have you tried disabling Dolby Vision on the 820? That could help you narrow down the problem, also are you running the 820 through an AVR? You could try plugging it directly into the TV to see if the problem persists. My best guess is a setting somewhere is throwing off the playback, I doubt it’s a defective disc.

I do remember having weird issue with dv on my 820. IIRC a factory reset fixed it. Again it's very well possible it could be a conflict somewhere.

[jiggyblau]

Originally Posted by thebigcheese3k

That’s an interesting problem, have you tried disabling Dolby Vision on the 820? That could help you narrow down the problem, also are you running the 820 through an AVR? You could try plugging it directly into the TV to see if the problem persists. My best guess is a setting somewhere is throwing off the playback, I doubt it’s a defective disc.

Originally Posted by sephirothkefka

I do remember having weird issue with dv on my 820. IIRC a factory reset fixed it. Again it's very well possible it could be a conflict somewhere.

Thanks for those thoughts! I am not home for a few days, but I'll see what happens with these options. I agree, I don't think it's a disc problem. I am indeed using an AVR. Currently I'm running it through an Onkyo TX-NR6050.

One question, though - is a factory reset worth it if I just updated the firmware? It seemed pretty reset afterwards. But I may try it anyway.

[Optimus]

I have noticed grey bars when viewing Dolby Vision discs on my UB820.

Dolby Vision on other sources like Disney+ is fine, no grey bars.

Very strange.

My panel was replaced over a month ago under warranty, due to it having dead pixels. Don't know if that's a factor. The repair tech told me there was no need to change any of my settings for anything, as the mainboard is still the original one.

[ronboster]

For those that remember intellivolume (banned)....he's still complaining about his Panasonic 9000. Banned from AVS as well, but now under a new name:

His latest complaint:

https://www.avsforum.com/threads/pio...#post-61867451

Blast from the past, two years ago here:

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

I originally chalked this up to the upscaling of the CXUHD when I first saw it, Chip, and the MediaTek processor perhaps tripping up on this scene...but it's occurring with my UB9000 now, so something isn't right.

It's difficult to explain -- and I'll try to take a pic the next time I watch the disc -- but it's like that area to the left of the red book in that opening sequence begins to dance and twitch, with severe artifacting that makes the whole "box" the book is sitting in look weird and "jumpy"...

What do they say: You can't avoid taxes, death and intellivolume complaining about whatever electronics he owns.

[TravisTylerBlack]

Originally Posted by rroeder

I used to let my Sony 900F handle the upscaling when I had a Sony player but let the Panny handle it now just cause it's easier, you have to change resolution setting then a couple prompt screens. It seems to do as good a job as the Sony does. On DV make sure you check TV settings once it goes into DV mode, mine had completely diff settings for DV and HDR10 and they were kinda wonky, so I just replicated the settings(aside from slightly higher contrast)I used for HDR10

It's minimal but DV w/native 4K resolution looks best to my eyes

Hey there, would you mind giving a quick rundown on exactly how to change the upscale settings so that my X900F does all the heavy lifting?

As I said in an earlier post, I vastly prefer the way it upscales standard def material via Plex/Infuse vs directly playing DVDs on the 820. If there's a way to bypass the Panny's handling of all SD material that would

[chip75]

Originally Posted by TravisTylerBlack

Hey there, would you mind giving a quick rundown on exactly how to change the upscale settings so that my X900F does all the heavy lifting?

Not sure you can, unless you're changing the resolution on the Panasonic it's going to upscale.

[rroeder]

Just change the resolution to 480p under HDMI settings, the tv should show it's getting a 480p signal and will do the upscaling

[Member-425016]

The Double edged sword of upscaling (forget players, the TV is the heart of the elephant)is that if you want the best upsclaing available on a current TV...you have to go Samsung. Which most around here tend to turn their nose up at.
For some reason unknown to most, Samsung still care about SD content on their display.
Maybe it's because most of their customers are still stuck on DVD, Who knows?

[MrEWhite]

I have a LG CX, and I have a UB820. I was just curious if I should use HDR Optimizer with the dynamic tone mapping of the TV or if I should turn the DTM off? I currently have HDR Optimizer on and set to OLED, and DTM off.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by MrEWhite

I have a LG CX, and I have a UB820. I was just curious if I should use HDR Optimizer with the dynamic tone mapping of the TV or if I should turn the DTM off? I currently have HDR Optimizer on and DTM off.

Better to use one or the other, but I'd suggest keeping how you have it currently.

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by MrEWhite

I have a LG CX, and I have a UB820. I was just curious if I should use HDR Optimizer with the dynamic tone mapping of the TV or if I should turn the DTM off? I currently have HDR Optimizer on and set to OLED, and DTM off.

I actually use both. I have an LG C9 and have DTM “On” as well as the Optimizer. But I have the Optimizer set to Super High Luminace (1,500 nits). Essentially, I have discovered that the TV does a great job Tone Mapping HDR Content up to about 1,400-1,500 nits. Then the Optimizer helps it out the rest of the way.

The reason why I use DTM is that LG TVs look at the Mastering Monitor rather than the true metadata on the disc and Tone Maps to that. This is when DTM is “Off.” So say if a film’s highest MAXLL is 500 nits yet the Mastering Display is at 4,000 nits, the LG TV will tone map the image down/lower the APL down to compensate for that, this giving a dimmer picture.

When it’s “On,” it will dynamically tone map the picture as best as it can, giving an overall brighter picture. Sometimes it is inaccurate but overall DTM does a good job. The Optimizer sort of helps correct what the DTM seems to have issues with. My advice, just experiment to see what you like best. But I’m a Pro DTM and Optimizer at the same time user!

[samuelkhan999]

Originally Posted by Kool-aid23

MGVC is Japanese exclusive. The Japanese UB9000 in addition to MGVC support also has different parts as well. They have not upgraded to the new DAC that the international version is using. Also, it's close to $2000.

Is there a UB820 version in Japan with MGVC?

[samuelkhan999]

Originally Posted by MrEWhite

I have a LG CX, and I have a UB820. I was just curious if I should use HDR Optimizer with the dynamic tone mapping of the TV or if I should turn the DTM off? I currently have HDR Optimizer on and set to OLED, and DTM off.

55OLED BX & QLED 50QN90A with UB820 here. If the 4K disc is mastered in like 1000 nits eg Predator, then there I see no difference. If the 4k disc is mastered in 4000 nits eg. Mad Max Fury road, then I find using the optimiser useful.

[Kool-aid23]

Originally Posted by samuelkhan999

Is there a UB820 version in Japan with MGVC?

The UB820 was not released in Japan. The UB32 would be the closest, but without the HDR optimizer etc.

[biggquis]

So, about the HDR optimizer. How should I go about setting it? I've had the set for a minute (2019 Samsung with local dimming). Should I set it to LED? I've had it set to middle/high luminance LCD since I got it. Looking at the specs for my set at https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/q70-q70r-qled, it lists HDR brightness as:

HDR Real Scene Peak Brightness
747 cd/m²
HDR Peak 2% Window
621 cd/m²
HDR Peak 10% Window
775 cd/m²
HDR Peak 25% Window
646 cd/m²
HDR Peak 50% Window
471 cd/m²
HDR Peak 100% Window
436 cd/m²
HDR Sustained 2% Window
613 cd/m²
HDR Sustained 10% Window
756 cd/m²
HDR Sustained 25% Window
641 cd/m²
HDR Sustained 50% Window
470 cd/m²
HDR Sustained 100% Window
434 cd/m²
HDR ABL
0.032

Should I move the setting to LED, leave it, or downgrade it to basic luminance so that the brightness of the disc (1000 nits?) isn't above the upper range of my set?

[wxman2003]

Using HDR optimizer greatly improves the Samsung S95B QD-OLED with 4000 nit MaxMDL discs. The tone mapping with those discs is too dark compared to OLED tvs. No issue with 1000 nit MaxMDL discs. Others have noticed the same thing and it appears it does not track EOTF correctly with those discs, rolling off much faster than the 1000 nits discs. Turn HDR optimizer on, and set to OLED (1000) nits, and the image is much better.

[trekky76]

Originally Posted by wxman2003

Using HDR optimizer greatly improves the Samsung S95B QD-OLED with 4000 nit MaxMDL discs. The tone mapping with those discs is too dark compared to OLED tvs. No issue with 1000 nit MaxMDL discs. Others have noticed the same thing and it appears it does not track EOTF correctly with those discs, rolling off much faster than the 1000 nits discs. Turn HDR optimizer on, and set to OLED (1000) nits, and the image is much better.

It's just much brighter and if brightness is all you would care about then fine. But, it's very inaccurate. Just look at the menu bar itself; turn the optimizer ON and the menu bar goes hella bright with content mastered on 4000 nits. You don't get any of that on content mastered at 1000 nits. Shouldn't that be brighter as well? It's not even a minor change, it's massive. Only demonstrates what a cluster**** the HDR can be.
And what is this obession with turning everything super bright.. You'd think most people lived in the middle of the desert with skylight above their home theater rooms.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by trekky76

It's just much brighter and if brightness is all you would care about then fine. But, it's very inaccurate. Just look at the menu bar itself; turn the optimizer ON and the menu bar goes hella bright with content mastered on 4000 nits. You don't get any of that on content mastered at 1000 nits. Shouldn't that be brighter as well? It's not even a minor change, it's massive. Only demonstrates what a cluster**** the HDR can be.
And what is this obession with turning everything super bright.. You'd think most people lived in the middle of the desert with skylight above their home theater rooms.

HDR Optimizer doesn't brighten anything. It tonemaps DOWN to your TV capabilities, and it maintains the proper EOTF as much as possible.

[Waboman]

All this talk about the Optimizer got me thinking. The majority of my discs are DV. Doesn’t even use the optimizer. I have been thinking of switching the setting from oled to mid/high lcd on the Panny. See if it does anything.

[wxman2003]

Originally Posted by trekky76

It's just much brighter and if brightness is all you would care about then fine. But, it's very inaccurate. Just look at the menu bar itself; turn the optimizer ON and the menu bar goes hella bright with content mastered on 4000 nits. You don't get any of that on content mastered at 1000 nits. Shouldn't that be brighter as well? It's not even a minor change, it's massive. Only demonstrates what a cluster**** the HDR can be.
And what is this obession with turning everything super bright.. You'd think most people lived in the middle of the desert with skylight above their home theater rooms.

With those 4000 MaxMDL discs, the S95B EOTF curve is wrong. It's starts rolling off around 250 nits, whereas with the 1000 MaxMDL discs, it follows the EOTF curve correctly all the way to 1000 nits before rolling off. The tv is not correctly tone mapping those 4000 nit MaxMDL discs.

As far as the toggle, when you turn HDR optimizer on with those discs, yes, it gets super bright for a few seconds, but then the tv correctly tone maps it as if it were a 1000 nit disc and looks fine. I thought the same thing you did until someone pointed it out. I paused a movie, turned HDR optimizer on, and it got super bright on the S95B for a a few seconds, and then you could gradually watch it correct itself as it tone mapped it to 1000 nits. Thus the best choice is to leave HDR optimizer always on with the S95B.

On my Sony A90J, I do not need to do that, because the A90J has a gradation preferred setting, and it reads those discs correctly and tone maps accordingly. That's what the S95B needs, but does not have.


And you can see on this RTINGS link below how poor the 4000 nit tone mapping is. Look how quickly it rolls off thus creating an image that is too dark. That's why HDR Optimizer needs to be on.

https://www.rtings.com/tv/1-8/graph#32382/13907