Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[DRC72]

Originally Posted by Maggot

Yeah, I have a 9000 and an 820, which play ping pong with each other for content. I try to even out the usage......

I just bought an 820 and put it next to my 9000. I will be doing the same thing.

[shrex]

Originally Posted by shrex

I'm currently having disc drive issues

I've tried multiple "unplugs" "whacks" and "resets" to no avail.

Bought my player in November 2020 and the disc drive no longer opens

Depending on cost to fix, I may wind up just buying a 420/450 at this point.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Hedrox

The problem with the optimizer is that it uses 500 nits increments as reference for tonemapping, so 500, 1000 and 1500 (there's an extra 350 option on the UB9000 and patched UB820). So for example if your TV can do more, say 700 or 1300, the optimizer will not be able to take full advantage of your display's brightness.

They really should've implemented a custom nits cap, instead of the vague naming it currently uses, where no one can tell what they actually mean unless they look it up online.

Said that at the start re: a custom nits cap, or even 100 nit increments. It's a very blunt instrument.

[John Earls Umbrella]

Sounds to me like the optimiser is a waste of space (and extra cash), so I may go for the 450 to support my creaking Sony player. If any tech informed colleagues here advise differently I’m all ears.

[Geoff D]

450's a decent little player. Has good file playback as well because it doesn't use Panny's own chip like the 420/820/9000, it uses MediaTek silicon. Makes a bit of a racket tho, my GF thought her ears were ringing but it's just the whine from the player!

[John Earls Umbrella]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

450's a decent little player. Has good file playback as well because it doesn't use Panny's own chip like the 420/820/9000, it uses MediaTek silicon. Makes a bit of a racket tho, my GF thought her ears were ringing but it's just the whine from the player!

Thanks for that. I just looked at the 9000. Comes with a hefty price tag, build quality looks exceptional but is the performance gain worth it Geoff? Comments about the dodgy tray on the 820 puts me right off as I’ve had all sorts of loading issues with the Sony x800.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by John Earls Umbrella

Thanks for that. I just looked at the 9000. Comes with a hefty price tag, build quality looks exceptional but is the performance gain worth it Geoff? Comments about the dodgy tray on the 820 puts me right off as I’ve had all sorts of loading issues with the Sony x800.

The 820 and 9000 will give you identical picture quality, build quality is another matter.

[IXOYE1989]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

450's a decent little player. Has good file playback as well because it doesn't use Panny's own chip like the 420/820/9000, it uses MediaTek silicon. Makes a bit of a racket tho, my GF thought her ears were ringing but it's just the whine from the player!

How's the Dolby Vision quality when comparing the 450 to 820? Are they identical in terms of picture quality?

[HeavyHitter]

The ability to play 4K MKV files via USB would nice on the 450. No Source Direct mode, correct?

[Bernardo A.]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

450's a decent little player. Has good file playback as well because it doesn't use Panny's own chip like the 420/820/9000, it uses MediaTek silicon. Makes a bit of a racket tho, my GF thought her ears were ringing but it's just the whine from the player!

Does the 450 read DV from .mkv containers?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by IXOYE1989

How's the Dolby Vision quality when comparing the 450 to 820? Are they identical in terms of picture quality?

Haven't done any comparisons.

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

The ability to play 4K MKV files via USB would nice on the 450. No Source Direct mode, correct?

Yep, no source direct.

Originally Posted by Bernardo A.

Does the 450 read DV from .mkv containers?

Not as far as I know.

[Misioon_Odisea]

Originally Posted by IXOYE1989

How's the Dolby Vision quality when comparing the 450 to 820? Are they identical in terms of picture quality?

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Haven't done any comparisons.

Last I've read is that the UB450 is actually better at Dolby Vision than the UB820 and UB9000, since the UB450 apparently doesn't suffer from the same issues regarding highlights clipping the other two models have:

Originally Posted by Misioon_Odisea

The UB450 not only has auto-switching Dolby Vision, it also apparently doesn't exhibit the brightness clipping problems the UB820 and UB9000 suffer from, according to the following review: https://www.trustedreviews.com/revie...sonic-dp-ub450

I guess Geoff D will be able to verify and confirm this in practice to see if it is true, and maybe check for any other video anomalies that may be present on any of the player models.

[teddyballgame]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Does anyone have any 820 wallpapers they can share? I tried making one in photoshop and saving it in 4k resolution and the files never get recognized by the player, but I have been using one from member danny24 which worked and looks great. What is the exact format they have to be saved in? I tried jpeg and png and nothing works. It's sort of like when the Panny won't play a video file for whatever reason.

I wanted to look at roughly 25 wallpapers last night but only 6 of them were recognized by the player. It was a mix of .bmp, png, jpg files but the only ones that worked were jpg. The largest was 7508x5005 and 22.5mb and it loaded fine so I don't think size is necessarily the problem.

The only thing I could see in the manual was a bit about progressive jpg


Update: That did the trick!
Open your image in GIMP to export as JPG but look under advanced options and uncheck progressive. They all work for me now.

PS. If you want it to cover the entire screen be sure it's cropped to 16:9

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by John Earls Umbrella

Sounds to me like the optimiser is a waste of space (and extra cash), so I may go for the 450 to support my creaking Sony player. If any tech informed colleagues here advise differently I’m all ears.

I wouldn't say the optimizer is a waste space. It really depends on what type of TV you have. On top of that, people tend to forget that added in with the Optimizer is an HDR Options Menu where you can adjust the "Dynamic Tone Adjustment," Brightness, Tone Curve (White), Tone Curve (Black), and System Gamma. These allow you to tweak and perfect HDR10 content the best you possibly can with your setup.

I've been dabbling around these settings for the past few months and I think I have found a good way of getting as close to a Dolby Vision picture possible with HDR10 content. It's not 100% perfect (It can't be), but it's very, very close! And that is only possible with that HDR Options Menu, which is exclusive to the HDR Optimizer found on the 420, 820, 9000.

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Keep the optimizer off until you think you need it, if you never think you need it you don't, I don't use it at all anymore except for Heat. Much more useful for a projector.

I think it depends on the TV and how you have things setup. I have my Optimizer set to "On" at all times. I have found that sometimes there are small nuances in some movies that the Optimizer helps out with.

For instance, in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, there is a small scene in the library where Hermione shows Harry and Ron about the Polyjuice Potion. As they have a discussion, there is a wall behind Harry and Ron that shows some shadows from the window. At least on my C9, if the Optimizer is "Off," the colors are a bit off. But when "On," the Optimizer corrects the colors to how it should look. The only way I know this is comparing the Dolby Vision streaming version with the HDR10 disc version. Having the Optimizer set to "Off" doesn't reproduce the proper colors.

[panasonicst60]

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by panasonicst60

Ah, the one who seems to always doubt my statements.

Well, take a seat and learn something:

It took me a bit to figure all of this out but I have finally done it. I have an LG C9, as most on here know. I have a Panny 820 and use the HDR Optimizer set to OLED. On top of that, I use the Dynamic Tone Mapping setting on my C9.

Now, if you leave everything on Default in the HDR Options, the picture is completely blown out because yes, the Dynamic Tone Mapping on the C9 (and most older LG TVs) over brighten things and makes things inaccurate. But making adjustments in the HDR Options Menu can compensate for all of that.

Here are the settings I have come up with:

Dynamic Tone Adjustment: -2
Brightness: -4 (Should be -3.5 but we can get that specific with the player)
Tone Curve (White): +4
Tone Curve (Black) 0
System Gamma 0

I have found these settings will allow you to use Dynamic Tone Mapping on an LG OLED while still being almost as accurate as possible to DV. For awhile, I just adjusted Dynamic Tone Adjust and Brightness but the key was what I adjusted recently, the Tone Curve for White. It seems the DTM on LGs over blow that and setting it to +4 brings that way down. Now it won't be 100% DV because DV acts differently along with it being 12 bit color spacing rather than 10. Nonetheless, this is as close as I have gotten to it.

If you don't believe me, ask Mierzwiak. We had a discussion a few months back and Mierzwiak agreed that it's pretty darn close to what Dolby Vision was showing.

[Telemachus]

Keeping it turned off seems so much simpler tho

[BigStef71]

Does the UB9000 have the same issues the 820 seems to have with users? I was planning on upgrading to an 820 from my ps5 which has worked for me relatively well but reading all this issues online from people make me very hesitant. I used an Xbox one x before the ps5 and that was horrendous. The biggest issue with playback issues if the discs have scratches which I always check now and get replaced if possible. Still have a bunch of discs that need to be replaced lol. But anyways I would like to hear some peoples recommendations. I wish the Quality Assurance was better for these players same with these freaking discs being pressed in Mexico.

[danny24]

Originally Posted by BigStef71

Does the UB9000 have the same issues the 820 seems to have with users? I was planning on upgrading to an 820 from my ps5 which has worked for me relatively well but reading all this issues online from people make me very hesitant. I used an Xbox one x before the ps5 and that was horrendous. The biggest issue with playback issues if the discs have scratches which I always check now and get replaced if possible. Still have a bunch of discs that need to be replaced lol. But anyways I would like to hear some peoples recommendations. I wish the Quality Assurance was better for these players same with these freaking discs being pressed in Mexico.

No the optical drive in the UB9000 is beefier and a little better. Performance wise for video about the same though. You can still have playback issues with it but I see more UB820 complaints than UB9000. I have not tried an optical drive swap from UB820 to UB9000. not sure if it will work. I know the UB900 optical drive works in the UB820.