Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[eddievanhalen]

I have a mid range 49" Samsung set coupled with a Panasonic UB420 that is an HDMI only version of the 820. This Samsung set according to Samsung can output around 700 nits. If I set the 420 to Low Nit Display or Projector I find picture is too dim, if I set it to Mid to Hig LCD some highlights are blown.
With Samsung HDR sets backlight has to be set to its maximum level (on my set it's 20) and so is Contrast (maximum is 100). I have Brightness set to 50 which is a good compromise, it displays some specular highlights but doesn't mess contrast up that is what happens if I set brightness higher.
I watched my movies on fully dark room except for an IKea lamp that diffuses the light from a 3.5 Watts LED bulb, that is behind the TV, it can not be seen only the little light it emits as I have it as bias light.
I'd thank your advice.

[panasonicst60]

Originally Posted by eddievanhalen

I have a mid range 49" Samsung set coupled with a Panasonic UB420 that is an HDMI only version of the 820. This Samsung set according to Samsung can output around 700 nits. If I set the 420 to Low Nit Display or Projector I find picture is too dim, if I set it to Mid to Hig LCD some highlights are blown.
With Samsung HDR sets backlight has to be set to its maximum level (on my set it's 20) and so is Contrast (maximum is 100). I have Brightness set to 50 which is a good compromise, it displays some specular highlights but doesn't mess contrast up that is what happens if I set brightness higher.
I watched my movies on fully dark room except for an IKea lamp that diffuses the light from a 3.5 Watts LED bulb, that is behind the TV, it can not be seen only the little light it emits as I have it as bias light.
I'd thank your advice.

Sounds like you need to play with the tone curve white to dial it in. If you have test patterns it will help u dial it in perfectly.

[eddievanhalen]

Originally Posted by panasonicst60

Sounds like you need to play with the tone curve white to dial it in. If you have test patterns it will help u dial it in perfectly.

With some UHD BD's like 2001 and Aquaman I set Tone Curve (Black) to -3, that helps to "tone down" those discs.
I only have the test patterns available on the Sony UHD BD discs.

[panasonicst60]

Originally Posted by eddievanhalen

With some UHD BD's like 2001 and Aquaman I set Tone Curve (Black) to -3, that helps to "tone down" those discs.
I only have the test patterns available on the Sony UHD BD discs.

What tone curve black does is that it lowers the low end of the eotf only. When you lower it, it can crush details. If your highlights are blowned out you need to adjust tone curve white by increasing it.

[LordoftheRings]

Click on ^

[eddievanhalen]

Originally Posted by panasonicst60

What tone curve black does is that it lowers the low end of the eotf only. When you lower it, it can crush details. If your highlights are blowned out you need to adjust tone curve white by increasing it.

I only lower the Black tone with 2001 and Aquaman that in my opinion have elevated white levels, for the rest I don't touch anything and leave all the controls to zero.
I've done what you suggested me, I increased the Tone Curve White first to +3 and later to +6 and it works, it avoids clipping, the side effect is that white seem to be afected and looks a bit yellow.
I know the cure for all this, MONEY to buy a new TV set, something like Geoff's Sony LED set as I'm not a fan of OLED.
Unfortunately I'm flat broke so my current Samsung set will have to do.

[panasonicst60]

Originally Posted by eddievanhalen

I only lower the Black tone with 2001 and Aquaman that in my opinion have elevated white levels, for the rest I don't touch anything and leave all the controls to zero.
I've done what you suggested me, I increased the Tone Curve White first to +3 and later to +6 and it works, it avoids clipping, the side effect is that white seem to be afected and looks a bit yellow.
I know the cure for all this, MONEY to buy a new TV set, something like Geoff's Sony LED set as I'm not a fan of OLED.
Unfortunately I'm flat broke so my current Samsung set will have to do.

I'm sure you meant elevated black levels. Got it. Not sure if your tv is calibrated or not. But if it's not calibrated I suggest you look in to it. The cost will be one time only and you're good for all your future TV's.

Not a fan of oled? Too bad for you . Yes it's not perfect tech but once calibrated it looks pretty amazing. I'm the opposite. I'm not a fan of LCDs. Only the highest end ones gets my respect.

[eddievanhalen]

Originally Posted by panasonicst60

I'm sure you meant elevated black levels. Got it. Not sure if your tv is calibrated or not. But if it's not calibrated I suggest you look in to it. The cost will be one time only and you're good for all your future TV's.

Not a fan of oled? Too bad for you . Yes it's not perfect tech but once calibrated it looks pretty amazing. I'm the opposite. I'm not a fan of LCDs. Only the highest end ones gets my respect.

I took 2001 and went to scenes were Floyd and the rest go on the moon where the monolith is. The monolith is lighted by big spotlights that clip if I don't use Panasonic HDR Optimizer. I switched HDR optimizer off and then started to play with both the black and white tone curves. By setting the White Tone curve to +3 I avoid clipping on this scene and others on 2001. I also tested Sully and Aquaman, with this simple setting I avoid clipping, I need to test more movies and see the results.
As I said earlier with 2001 and Aquaman I like to lower the Black Tone curve to -3, that's the only way to get real black (as black as an inexpensive Samsung LED can get) out of it, I don't know why Warner Bros. mastered it like this. I do the same with Aquaman, I find its overly bright picture tiring to my eyes.

[kevers7290]

Probably something rudimentary, but is there a way to completely turn off the display (on the 820) during video playback?

[Boogie Wizard]

Today I have a Panasonic DP-UB420, but do you guys think it's worth an upgrade to a DP-820 just to get the advantage of Dolby Vision? Is it worth the money?

I have an LG OLED C7 tv that can play DV.

[Chris_Carr]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the forum, and I recently bought the Panasonic UB820 after reading all the positive reviews.

I installed and connected the player to my Panasonic TC-43FX500L (4K HDR TV for Latin America - Costa Rica) and did all the settings to get the best picture ever.

Something that bothers me is that while watching HDR content on Netflix, the picture on my TV screen looks like a negative picture (or solarized). I tried messing around with the settings from the 4K player until I was able to change the HDCP output setting to HDCP1.4 Limit, which changed High Dynamic Range to Dynamic Range Conversion output. Obviously, all the content from Netflix changed to HD (1080p) and the picture image and colors became normal (HD) (1080p).

I tried to give it another shot by unplugging the device from the power outlet and by changing the settings back to factory settings (including HDCP to Auto), and I was able to reproduce HDR content on Netflix.

Two weeks ago, I played Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame in 4K UHD and the picture/color was fine through High Dynamic Range (HDR) (a little dark, but I was able to make some picture adjustments to make it look brighter).

Last night, I was trying to watch Rambo (2008) 4K UHD in HDR mode and the picture looked again like a negative picture (solarized - no colors).

Again, I changed the settings from the player, but this time I changed the color gamut output from HDR/BT.2020 to SDR/BT.2020 and the movie picture/color came back to normal, but through the Dynamic Range Conversion output. Then, I changed it back to HDR/BT.2020 and again the picture looked solarized (like a negative picture without color).

I tried with different HDMI cables and HDMI ports, but nothing worked. The cable I am using is a 6 inches HDMI 4K cable from Fusion4K, which I bought on Amazon.

I really don't know what's the issue. The problem is only with this movie (Rambo) (and sometimes Netflix) since I only have purchased Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame, both in 4K UHD, and they look fine in HDR mode (HDR/PQ).

I doubt there is a problem with the 4K player. Nevertheless, could this be a problem that my LCD is only getting the HDR signal from the Panasonic player and not processing it? Could this be a HDR/BT.2020 color gamut issue or that my TV doesn't support HDCP2.2? I have the player connected directly to the TV (no amplifier or speaker) and just to clarify, I don't get any black screens (only a negative or solarized picture on these two video sources: Rambo and Netflix). Any thoughts!

Thank you!

[sapiendut]

Have you tried setting the Blu-ray player to allow luminance LCD as your target display? After doing that, you need to put a disk with HDR and go to option and turn on HDR optimizer. From there, you will have to go to HDR optimizer button on your remote to turn it on again.

[Chris_Carr]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Have you tried setting the Blu-ray player to allow luminance LCD as your target display? After doing that, you need to put a disk with HDR and go to option and turn on HDR optimizer. From there, you will have to go to HDR optimizer button on your remote to turn it on again.

Thank you for the input! What I did with the Rambo HDR disc is I went to option to turn on the HDR optimizer, but it didn't work.

I'm not so sure how to allow luminance LCD as the target display under the Blu-ray player settings.

[Chris_Carr]

Is that under HDR TV Type (to set the type of the connected HDR compatible TV)? I remember I have it in Middle or High Luminance LCD (fabric settings).

[sapiendut]

Yours is definitely not high luminance, but either mid or low I don’t know. Usually for smaller TVs, it’s low luminance

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by Chris_Carr

Is that under HDR TV Type (to set the type of the connected HDR compatible TV)? I remember I have it in Middle or High Luminance LCD (fabric settings).

Yes, that’s the location.

[Chris_Carr]

Yes, the other option is Basic Luminance LCD and Projector. I remember I tried to play around with the setting and changed it to Basic Luminance to see what happened, but it didn't work. Then I changed it back to Middle or High (recommended).

[Chris_Carr]

Hi Sapiendut!

I changed the HDR TV Type to Basic Luminance. Then, I inserted the Rambo 4K UHD disc into the Blu-ray player and went to the HDR optimizer button on my remote. When I turned 'off' the HDR Optimizer (under Video Settings, Set 1 or Set 2), the picture image/color gets fixed, but if I leave it 'on', it looks solarized (negative picture).

I wonder why is that? Nevertheless, it seems I shouldn't change that for that particular disc...

[guile]

Having audio issues when attempting to stream some files from the server.

Does the the USB820 NOT play Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) files?

[sapiendut]

Never had any problem playing any legit file with both 820/9000