Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[elwaylite]

Must have found a disc(s) that was an issue. PHL has been good about testing discs before releasing in the past.

[Robert Zohn]

@grodd, correct. ver. 1.51 fixes disc playback stability and a small tweak to the operating system. All good.

[Clark Burk]

I wish Panasonic’s firmware would update faster like Oppo’s. I’m always worried that something’s gone wrong when you keep staring at that “update 5/5” for minutes.....
Phew, all good.

[Geoff D]

Imagine how it is when the player doesn't have a front display at all! Gonna update my 420 later

[JoeDeM]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Imagine how it is when the player doesn't have a front display at all! Gonna update my 420 later

I like having the front display, beside how much do they really save by not including one.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by JoeDeM

I like having the front display, beside how much do they really save by not including one.

A front display should be mandatory IMO (along with the option to turn it off for those who don't need/want it ).

[michaelhazin]

Hey guys finally pulled the trigger on the 820. It’s in route. I bought it because im saving up for an OLED or QLED and wang to see some of the great 4k restorations in the meantime. I know the 820 is supposed to be the best HDR to SDR. So when I hook this up to my 1080p Plasma, do I need a new special HDMI cord or can I use a normal one I already have?

[Clark Burk]

Originally Posted by michaelhazin

Hey guys finally pulled the trigger on the 820. It’s in route. I bought it because im saving up for an OLED or QLED and wang to see some of the great 4k restorations in the meantime. I know the 820 is supposed to be the best HDR to SDR. So when I hook this up to my 1080p Plasma, do I need a new special HDMI cord or can I use a normal one I already have?

The normal one will probably work fine but the Monoprice certified cables are only about $6 for a 6’. You just bought a $500 dollar player. Treat it to some good cables. You’ll be all set when you get that 77” OLED you’ve been dreaming about...in fact you will likely need it then.
This is what to look for:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15427
Choose the length that you need.

[SuperErik]

Originally Posted by michaelhazin

Hey guys finally pulled the trigger on the 820. It’s in route. I bought it because im saving up for an OLED or QLED and wang to see some of the great 4k restorations in the meantime. I know the 820 is supposed to be the best HDR to SDR. So when I hook this up to my 1080p Plasma, do I need a new special HDMI cord or can I use a normal one I already have?

Just make sure it's a high speed HDMI cable. You'll need that bandwidth to process the 4K and Atmos signal.

[elwaylite]

When you get ready for 4K, dont look for anything else but this:



Nothing else matters. And you can get some cheap ones from Monoprice that are slim and bend easy, and work great. I have them on my setup and they handle 4k/60 444 without a blip.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by eddievanhalen

The Panasonic UHD BD players can upconvert SDR to HDR? My Samsung TV can, it's called HDR+ (nothing to do with HDR10+) but there's not much difference between HDR+ and straight SDR. HDR+ just ups contrast, increases both contrast and luminance on specular highlits a bit and lowers contrast on darker areas which sometimes crushes blacks. It doesn't seem to do any improvement on color which is a pity, I've played a couple of BD's with mild banding and banding is still there untouched. Does the Panasonic players really improves picture SDR when converted to HDR?

From what little experience I've seen with the function, it doesn't convert SDR content into HDR, but it does with the Netflix menus, SDR content still looks like SDR, but having the player remain in HDR mode helps some users, but that's from limited my use. It's not a faux HDR mode like HDR+.

But I might not be seeing the full affect as my HDR doesn't seem to work.

[michaelhazin]

Originally Posted by Clark Burk

The normal one will probably work fine but the Monoprice certified cables are only about $6 for a 6’. You just bought a $500 dollar player. Treat it to some good cables. You’ll be all set when you get that 77” OLED you’ve been dreaming about...in fact you will likely need it then.
This is what to look for:
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=15427
Choose the length that you need.

Haha I’ll be happy to treat it with some new cables. I was just concerned with weather or not my plasma will even recognize the newer 4k hdmi cables. But you’re saying it won’t be an issue?

[jwort93]

Originally Posted by chip75

From what little experience I've seen with the function, it doesn't convert SDR content into HDR, but it does with the Netflix menus, SDR content still looks like SDR, but having the player remain in HDR mode helps some users, but that's from limited my use. It's not a faux HDR mode like HDR+.

But I might not be seeing the full affect as my HDR doesn't seem to work.

I can't say I agree, when watching SDR content on netflix on my UB9000 there is a definite faux HDR look to the content.

[jwort93]

Originally Posted by michaelhazin

Haha I’ll be happy to treat it with some new cables. I was just concerned with weather or not my plasma will even recognize the newer 4k hdmi cables. But you’re saying it won’t be an issue?

Correct, Premium Certified HDMI cables are the same type of cable, just better shielded from EMI, which is needed to prevent transmission errors when sending high bandwidth 4k HDR content.

[SuperErik]

So... I'm about to buy the UB820.

Now I'm looking for some info but people who already own this device will know better of course.
Is it possible to stream video files from my Synology nas with this player? Like really use the UB820 as a media player to browse through my files. It would save me the money of buying a 4K capable HTPC (which I don't have right now).

[jwort93]

Originally Posted by SuperErik

So... I'm about to buy the UB820.

Now I'm looking for some info but people who already own this device will know better of course.
Is it possible to stream video files from my Synology nas with this player? Like really use the UB820 as a media player to browse through my files. It would save me the money of buying a 4K capable HTPC (which I don't have right now).

Yes and no, it's possible but only to the bare minimum. All content is output at 60Hz, it won't switch to 24Hz for the appropriate content. It also doesn't support most lossless audio formats like Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio over the network, it does support multi-channel FLAC though, so you could transcode other audio formats into FLAC, but you'd lose Atmos and DTS-X metadata. I don't believe it supports PGS subtitles over the network either, but I'm not certain on that. Unfortunately, the best player on the market with regards to streaming content over the local network, was the Oppo UDP-203, but those resale prices are really high.

[GeneD5]

Originally Posted by jwort93

I can't say I agree, when watching SDR content on netflix on my UB9000 there is a definite faux HDR look to the content.

Yeah - there is some setting in there about applying it to streaming (don’t know the name off the top of my head).

It made Jersey Boys look incredible to me, and let me use the HDR slider to boot on the faux HDR it applied.

[guile]

Originally Posted by grodd

New Firmware update today 1.51

Stability of system
Playability of Blu-ray Disc™

I don’t suppose this update has added support for VC-1 files, fixed the AWFUL Amazon ap, and added Vudu and Movies Anywhere to available apps? (being sarcastic)

[jwort93]

Originally Posted by GeneD5

Yeah - there is some setting in there about applying it to streaming (don’t know the name off the top of my head).

It made Jersey Boys look incredible to me, and let me use the HDR slider to boot on the faux HDR it applied.

I thought I tried turning that setting off, and I still noticed faux HDR in netflix, I'll give it another try though.

[chip75]

HDR is now working after the update, not sure how it stopped working, but I'm happy it's back.