Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[IntelliVolume]

Does any UB9000 owner here have a regular Blu-ray copy of Captain America: Civil War?

I ask because I noticed an artifacting issue -- that I also noticed when playing this disc as upscaled to 4K on the Cambridge (though it was worse on the Panasonic) -- early on in the film when the camera zooms in on the red book with the Soviet star on it...

Can anyone check that scene for me?

Specifically, it's THIS moment in the beginning that I'm talking about:



In this scene, that left part of the area where the book is being held breaks up into nasty twitchy artifacting; as if aliasing was having a proverbial seizure...

Can anyone confirm if this is on their Blu-ray (being upscaled to 4K)?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

I know we keep coming back to the Panasonics' poor DVD upconversion, but isn't there a certain moment where you just say "how good can a player make a DVD look at this resolution"? Conversely, I realize there's been talk of the Oppo 203's much better scaling quality, but, again, how much better can DVD actually look on our 4K screens? I'm sure it was better -- evidenced by the clips you provided above with the more jagged edges of the Panny -- but my CXUHD shared the same processor with the 203 and, like I said, a lot of DVDs just didn't look good...

We've all got our own tolerances and thresholds for what stuff looks like, but I can tell the difference between a DVD looking proper and looking all jagged and poorly deinterlaced. Not just in test patterns but in actual content, that's where I saw it first and then confirmed it with the test patterns.

That's not to say that I'm expecting 480i to look amazing every time, and some discs are indeed just crap anyway, but my entire viewing credo is about getting a presentation that's as transparent as possible to the source - however good or bad that source is - and when it comes to 480i DVD playback these Pannys just aren't good enough for me. YMMV.

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

We've all got our own tolerances and thresholds for what stuff looks like, but I can tell the difference between a DVD looking proper and looking all jagged and poorly deinterlaced. Not just in test patterns but in actual content, that's where I saw it first and then confirmed it with the test patterns.

I honestly don't see any DVDs on the 9000 -- and believe me I'd report them -- constantly exhibiting jagged and poorly de-interlaced characteristics, save for some trailers I mentioned (which tripped up my CXUHD as well). There was one problem disc I mentioned, the recent Grudge film that came out, which showed some macroblocking problems in a very dark sequence in a closet, but I've experienced challenging areas like this before with the CXUHD and that player too exhibited shitty scaling results on certain DVDs (I chalked all this up to the difficulty of upscaling 480 to 2160).

But I'm not regularly seeing jagged edges and poor quality on each disc; you've experienced this?

That's not to say that I'm expecting 480i to look amazing every time, and some discs are indeed just crap anyway, but my entire viewing credo is about getting a presentation that's as transparent as possible to the source - however good or bad that source is - and when it comes to 480i DVD playback these Pannys just aren't good enough for me. YMMV.

I see what you mean, and I'd generally concur; but there is something to be said about how difficult it is to scale 480 to 2160 -- I mean, this does place a great strain on a processor's brain. At any rate, there are indeed discs that, no matter what they're played on, will look awful because of their mastering (heck, there were DVDs that made my Oppo 83 with its revered Anchor Bay chip look as if it cost 99 U.S. dollars)...but what I'm saying is that with every title I've thrown at the Panasonic thus far, I'm not seeing constant and regular aliasing, CUE issues, etc. There are some issues that do pop up, but it's not really affecting everyday play of titles I'm familiar with.

Anyway, I appreciate your input here, even if I'm back to square one wondering what to do.

[moparbob]

It’s been awhile but does everybody still use the HDR optimizer? I just set it and forget it.

[sapiendut]

Still use mine for both my projector, OLED and LCD

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by moparbob

It’s been awhile but does everybody still use the HDR optimizer? I just set it and forget it.

I use it and leave the sliders in that menu to "0," as I don't really understand what they do...

Is that what you meant by "set it and forget it"?

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by moparbob

It’s been awhile but does everybody still use the HDR optimizer? I just set it and forget it.

I have turned it off to let my A9G handle all the tonemapping...and I kind of just forgot about it and ran with it off. I can't tell what's "better", just differences.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by moparbob

It’s been awhile but does everybody still use the HDR optimizer? I just set it and forget it.

My TV can do 1000-nit content in its sleep which takes care of Fox and Disney discs, and most major titles from Par, Uni, Lionsgate, Warners and StudioCanal come with Dolby these days so that's the mapping handled there too. It's pretty much only Sony movies that I use the Optimiser for, as they master their catalogue stuff to stupidly bright levels and don't use DV much. I'd never leave it on full-time anyway though because of the banding.

[IntelliVolume]

Funny Sony UHDs were mentioned...last night I revisited the first 4K disc we ever bought, Antoine Fuqua's Equalizer 2, which is a Sony release, and was again struck by how ridiculously bright they mastered this in certain scenes, which cause my dumb edge-lit LCD to explode into gray-ish blobs of ugliness...

What the HDR Optimizer did here, I can't tell ya...

Don't think the member who originally asked about this cares any longer, though, or is interested in replying to any of us.

Yo G -- you get banding with the Optimizer on? Which model do you have, the 820?

[IntelliVolume]

Here's something else that was a bit quirky to me using the 9000...

Suddenly, when I watch regular Blu-rays, the loading icon (with Universal it's their studio logo) that usually pops up as the disc loads isn't there anymore...all I get is the Panasonic's "Now Loading..." banner (a bit obnoxiously huge incidentally).

Is this banner a kind of "override" for the discs' loading icons? Is there any way to eliminate the annoying larger Panasonic banner so that just the disc loading symbols are on-screen?

What a bunch of little things to get used to with this unit as compared to the operation of the Oppos and Cambridges of the world...

[TJtennispro]

Dude seriously in two threads you’ve completely taken over the discussion. I’ll watch the Civil War Scene for you if you stick to one.

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

Does any UB9000 owner here have a regular Blu-ray copy of Captain America: Civil War?

I ask because I noticed an artifacting issue -- that I also noticed when playing this disc as upscaled to 4K on the Cambridge (though it was worse on the Panasonic) -- early on in the film when the camera zooms in on the red book with the Soviet star on it...

Can anyone check that scene for me?

Specifically, it's THIS moment in the beginning that I'm talking about:



In this scene, that left part of the area where the book is being held breaks up into nasty twitchy artifacting; as if aliasing was having a proverbial seizure...

Can anyone confirm if this is on their Blu-ray (being upscaled to 4K)?

[ronboster]

Originally Posted by TJtennispro

Dude seriously in two threads you’ve completely taken over the discussion. I’ll watch the Civil War Scene for you if you stick to one.

Make it three. He's reposting the same questions in the HDR thread as well. This is a pattern that existed in the Samsung TV thread and as you know in the cambridge thread.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/faq.php?fa...forumrulesfull

"Please do not post the same topic in multiple areas."

[chip75]

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

In this scene, that left part of the area where the book is being held breaks up into nasty twitchy artifacting; as if aliasing was having a proverbial seizure...

I don't see any issues, went through it frame-by-frame.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by ronboster

Make it three. He's reposting the same questions in the HDR thread as well. This is a pattern that existed in the Samsung TV thread and as you know in the cambridge thread.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/faq.php?fa...forumrulesfull

"Please do not post the same topic in multiple areas."

these video problems take a toll on certain people apparently.....

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by chip75

I don't see any issues, went through it frame-by-frame.

Same here. No problem on my NX7 projector and Panasonic GZ2000 OLED.

[solarrdadd]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

these video problems take a toll on certain people apparently.....

dude, i'm alone in my office at the government and i saw that and i was like

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by chip75

I don't see any issues, went through it frame-by-frame.

That's really weird, because, as I said, even on my Cambridge I saw it.

Jesus Christ...did I get yet ANOTHER malfunctioning Blu-ray player then? That scene looks REALLY bad on my display being upscaled to 4K by either the 9000 or CXUHD (though it was definitely noticeable on the Cambridge, it looked worse on the 9000 -- I mean, that whole area was twitching and shimmering).



You guys are SURE you're viewing the regular Blu-ray version, right, not the native 4K?

[solarrdadd]

[chip75]

Originally Posted by IntelliVolume

You guys are SURE you're viewing the regular Blu-ray version, right, not the native 4K?

I don't have the UHD, just the 2D and 3D release. Went through both on my PC to double-check.

[IntelliVolume]

Originally Posted by chip75

I don't have the UHD, just the 2D and 3D release. Went through both on my PC to double-check.

Strange; what do you think would be causing this on two different players of mine then? The display settings for SDR content aren't off the wall -- on the NU8000, I'm in MOVIE picture mode with everything pretty much at default levels save for backlight (that's on "11") and a couple of other tweaks. My sharpness is also at "0," so no added filtering is going on there...

What do you make of this, Chip? Did I get a bad Blu-ray?