Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by ngower

Howdy.

Recently purchased a Panasonic 420 after several years away from physical collecting. Recent streaming hikes and weird practices (HBO..) have me buying physical versions of "comfort" movies. Which is to say, I'm not back in the game as a completionist collector, but rather as a sort of specifically curated small collection.

My impetus for buying the Panasonic is that the PS5 is astronomically loud playing 4K discs. The Panasonic isn't quiet, but is quieter. I have read the 820 is even quieter.

I'm considering returning the 420 and using the PS5 while I wait for the 820 to return to the sale price from the holidays ($350). I don't have Dolby Vision on my TV, so it's really down to performance, build quality, stability, etc. Is this wasted money if I go this route, or is the 820 enough of a change over the 420 with respect to noise, longevity, etc that it makes this waiting game worthwhile?

The 820 only really adds Dolby Vision. The 420 and 820 share the same optical drive unit.

[ngower]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

The 820 only really adds Dolby Vision. The 420 and 820 share the same optical drive unit.

Would the slightly larger, metal chassis keep it any quieter?

[bl4ck]

Not really, I have both and even UB420 in my case has better optic drive I mean quieter, very nice small box.

[ngower]

Originally Posted by bl4ck

Not really, I have both and even UB420 in my case has better optic drive I mean quieter, very nice small box.

Hm, maybe I'll experiment with sorbothane under my PS5 or Panasonic and see if it isolates noise better. In a 12x12 room so any little hum is audible and irritating during quiet scenes.

[Telemachus]

Use anything but a PS5

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by shane01

Just dropping in to report the craziest thing that happens to 98% of my Kino Lorber discs on my 820, 4K or Blu-ray: no sound! Discs fire up, menu comes up, but no sound. Kino menus usually have music. I hit play, no sound.

It’s only when I either remove the disc and play it again sound works, or I press the AUDIO button on the remote to cycle through the tracks. Every time!

Secondary audio is OFF, both DTS and Dolby set to Bitsream. Anyone else ever encounter this?

Kino discs (I have hundreds) play fine on my 820. I've had audio (& menu) problems with recent Shout discs though where ejecting and loading again seems to fix it.

[bhampton]

I have the UB9000 and the disc tray doesn't open anymore. I can still open it manually (via the mechanical level underneath) but I'm considering having i repaired or doing it myself.

I did order the disc drive unit at one point but it was secretly not in stock with a lead time of over 6 months so I cancelled that order.

I am considering either sending it for repairs or ordering a replacement drive. It's kind of a drag replacing the drive as it's a known problem that will come back. My UB420 did the same thing eventually. I watch a lot of discs.

(It's a little tempting to make the tray just completely manual by adding a thumb tack to the front to grip and taking out the gearing inside. ... but I guess I don't want to redesign the thing.)

Edit - I dismantled the drive unit and cleaned the belt for the tray motor and the gears look to be in good shape. It works again maybe i should order a drive because I have no idea how long it will be ok.

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by CreasyBear

Anyone else get a lot of connectivity issues when switching back and forth between SDR and HDR? My UB9000 is lately trying to play HDR discs in SDR. I have it connected to a Denon S720W. The receiver accepts and passes through 4:4:4, so I don't think it's the receiver and I have no issues with this on my Sony X800M2, also connected to the same receiver. I've changed cables and same issue. I'm using the correct HDMI video/audio out as well. It doesn't happen all the time, but it is annoying, and I have to reboot the player in order to get it straight.

Turns out it was an HDMI cable issue. All of my other cables were 48gbps and the one I was using for the UB9000 wasn't. No issues now. Went with this cable.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08CWGK7J8

[Rottweiler30]

Originally Posted by bruceames

I also watch a quite a bit of old TV shows on DVD (Gunsmoke, Combat!, Maverick, Rawhide for example), and so far they all look best on the Panny 9000. I have the XA2, Oppo 83, 95 and 203 hooked up as well to compare to, and it's not even close. I guess I'm an outlier.

I have the 820.

Now, im only upscaling to 1080p but my blackadder and The Office dvds look as good if not better than they did on my Oppo983.

So I hear ya.

[ViscountCarnacki]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

I think there is something in my signature

Amazing, thanks! Your video was super useful.

Now I have everything set up so Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision work perfectly, I was wondering why my 820 was set to output PCM audio instead of Bitstream.

Then I remembered - I put in a regular DVD, and the sound was out of sync. I tried this on several DVDs, and they were all the same. Changing the sound output back to PCM fixed it.

It only affects DVDs, anything on Blu-ray is fine on bitstream.

I played with the audio sync functions on my soundbar and TV, but couldn't quite get the sync right manually.

Is this just standard for Panasonic players? I do play regular DVDs quite often, and I guess I'll just go and change the audio output to PCM for those, and remember to put it back to Bitstream for Blu-rays.

Bit of a pain!

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by ViscountCarnacki

Is this just standard for Panasonic players? I do play regular DVDs quite often, and I guess I'll just go and change the audio output to PCM for those, and remember to put it back to Bitstream for Blu-rays.

Bit of a pain!

Not normal. In my case there were two times where there was no audio coming from a DVD, I had to put it into a different player for the audio to work. However, I hadn't had that problem since.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by lgans316

Wondering if Panasonic will issue software update for DV brightness fluctuations with certain discs.

Face Off 4K plus DV Bright on my Sony 77A80J was a PITA. No issues with Face Off 4K DV iTunes.

I know some keep saying we don't need an upgraded player but we need one that fixes all these issues and is able to load the discs quick and stay silent during playback.

Media files playback also welcome.

I sure hope so!!! That would be wonderful....

[blue348]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

I sure hope so!!! That would be wonderful....

Isn’t this an issue with the metadata on the actual disc?

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by blue348

Isn’t this an issue with the metadata on the actual disc?

I'm no expert, but it only seems to surface on the Panasonic players so it seems like something can be done. I have a back up LG player and none of this flashing occurs...

[ViscountCarnacki]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

Not normal. In my case there were two times where there was no audio coming from a DVD, I had to put it into a different player for the audio to work. However, I hadn't had that problem since.

Well I do get audio, it's just out of sync. Changing the audio output to PCM fixes it. No issues on any Blu-rays with audio output set to bitstream.

[WITCHCULT]

Originally Posted by bl4ck

Not really, I have both and even UB420 in my case has better optic drive I mean quieter, very nice small box.

820 was quieter in my case.

[sapiendut]

I had two 420 that freezes as often as my X700 and X800. Annoying as feck so I never recommended the 420 to anybody. My 820 and two 9000 are flawless for about 4-5 years now and I have added Magnetar 800 too for my bedroom coupled with my lowly miniLED Roku TV.

[tama]

I loved the optimizer on this player (820) but not sure I want to repurchase another one after mine went south shortly after 3 years. No longer reads UHDs. Seems there 499 everywhere for the moment. Plus I've read recent units have given several users problems with playback.

[ngower]

It sounds like there's no real bonafide winner in the 4K player department (as a recent entry into the medium). The 420 at ~$220 I paid for it seems like the best compromise between function and price. I'm hopeful I get long life with little to no problems from it but haven't really had a chance to test it with anything yet.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by tama

I loved the optimizer on this player (820) but not sure I want to repurchase another one after mine went south shortly after 3 years. No longer reads UHDs. Seems there 499 everywhere for the moment. Plus I've read recent units have given several users problems with playback.

Not recent units, but yes there were batches with crud drives around Jan 2023~July 2023 that makes the 420 and 820 freezes almost as often as my PITA Sony X800m2. But that time has passed. Of course the scare will lingers for a while.

As far as the lifespan, players tend to have unofficial MTBF between 3-5 years. Closer to 3 if you use it a lot.

I am lucky, thus far, that all my Panasonic players since their first DVD player (about 25 years) are all still working perfectly for me (820-9000 have been working for almost 5 years). Every users miles may vary. My Sony players since their DVD-S7000 have also been great all the way up to X700 (Sony needed to replace it 3 times within 6 months of usage) and the X800 was finally replaced with X800m2 after a couple of service-center swapped in the first year).