Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Oscarilbo]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Especially due to the lack of WCG, I doubt you’ll see the difference.

Well.. Interesting, I finally tried forcing YcbCr 4:2:2 at both 12 bit and 10 bit. Both cases I got some banding issues in background from a UHD bluray disc. Turned Ycbcr to auto with both 12 and 10 bit and all perfect and smooth, playback info says output 4:4:4 at 12 bit.

Could it be that AUTO really finds the better balanced combo in some way?
Or could it really be the non-premium 25 feet HDMI cable I’m using from my receiver to my projector?

[riptor3076]

Any news on if or when we will see firmware 1.64 or newer? New 820s have had it preloaded for a while now but nothing has shown up for existing players. I'm hoping that it might fix the Dolby Vision issues on newer LG discs.

[Geoff D]

Nothing yet. Wouldn't surprise me if they were holding 1.64 over to actually add the Lionsgate DV fix.

[cappyj]

Originally Posted by 405line

Newbie - please be gentle!

I have just upgraded direct from a rather old Sony Trinitron CRT and DVD player to a Panasonic TX-40GX800 TV and Panasonic DP-UB820 Blu-ray. So I have a lot of learning to do, even though my background is engineering, broadcast TV and tone-mapping technology.

There is clearly a lot of overlap in the capabilities of the TV and the Blu-ray... My initial plan was/is to just use the Blu-ray as a disk player and nothing more - but now I'm wondering if that is the best setup, maybe I should use the Blu-Ray for Freeview Play etc and the TV just as the display. I would appreciate advice from folks on this forum - and I apologise if this has been previously answered, I did look before posting.

I would prefer not to split functionality across both units because I assume there would be some duplication of traffic - and I have limited Internet bandwidth.

Thanks for your words of wisdom.
Steve

Is that a typo? Did you really go straight from a CRT/DVD to 4K TV/Player? That has to be a record for most pronounced single upgrade.

To your actual question, I'll let others weigh in. But my personal preference is 4K players are horrible at doing anything other than playing 4k discs (maybe OPPO is the exception?). Horrible might be an exaggeration, but for streaming services, most TVs are better, and for playing local files, something like a Shield are leagues better (quality wise due to the 820 not playing lossless audio for local non-disc files; but also for other reasons like cataloging, etc.).

[405line]

Thanks for your reply cappyj.
No, it's not a typo - the TV is a Sony KD28DL11 bought in about 2004. The reason I kept it so long is because in about 2009 I personally replaced the line output transformer - and I was rather chuffed with myself! So I have been reluctant to bin it when it still works - but the time has come...

[Oscarilbo]

A quick question. When a factory reset is done in any of these Panasonic models, does the latest installed firmware gets disabled too?

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by 405line

Newbie - please be gentle!

I have just upgraded direct from a rather old Sony Trinitron CRT and DVD player to a Panasonic TX-40GX800 TV and Panasonic DP-UB820 Blu-ray. So I have a lot of learning to do, even though my background is engineering, broadcast TV and tone-mapping technology.

There is clearly a lot of overlap in the capabilities of the TV and the Blu-ray... My initial plan was/is to just use the Blu-ray as a disk player and nothing more - but now I'm wondering if that is the best setup, maybe I should use the Blu-Ray for Freeview Play etc and the TV just as the display. I would appreciate advice from folks on this forum - and I apologise if this has been previously answered, I did look before posting.

I would prefer not to split functionality across both units because I assume there would be some duplication of traffic - and I have limited Internet bandwidth.

Thanks for your words of wisdom.
Steve

I would let the TV act as your source for "smart" applications, and the player for all video content. Either way, you can try both and see which way feels more seamless. It should be identical performance, but accessing menus and crispiness can vary. I'm not familiar with Freeview Play in particular, nor your Pansonic TV....but on my Sony TV it's a little easier to navigate the TV apps and use ARC to play back on my speakers/AVR.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by Oscarilbo

A quick question. When a factory reset is done in any of these Panasonic models, does the latest installed firmware gets disabled too?

I don't know if it gets specifically "disabled", but the new one would overwrite and superceded it completely. There's no way of reverting back, and I don't think there's any shared services.

[Oscarilbo]

Originally Posted by pbz06

I don't know if it gets specifically "disabled", but the new one would overwrite and superceded it completely. There's no way of reverting back, and I don't think there's any shared services.

Thank you. So basically factory setting will just revert personal preferences and erc. but not firmware version

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by Oscarilbo

Thank you. So basically factory setting will just revert personal preferences and erc. but not firmware version

That's exactly how I understand it, but I've never tried it myself. I believe that firmware is "permanent" and will stick even with a factory reset.

[HDTV1080P]

Every brand and model of Blu-ray player made since the year 2006, the firmware version that was installed before the factory reset will be the exact same firmware version after the factory reset. All a factory reset does is erases all user settings and passwords for streaming settings and restores the Blu-ray player back to factory defaults. Now on the latest OPPO UDP-203/UDP-205 models one can save and restore user settings to an external USB drive so that any factory reset or firmware update, one can instantly restore 100% of all the user settings. However as far as I am aware that is a OPPO exclusive to be able to save and restore user settings to a USB flash drive. So far I am not aware of any other brand and model of Blu-ray player on the market that offers that feature. Saving and restoring user settings to a USB drive is something that almost all Blu-ray players would be able to do if a programmer wrote a firmware update with that feature. Hopefully Panasonic and Sony will offer that feature in the future with a firmware update.

[Oscarilbo]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Every brand and model of Blu-ray player made since the year 2006, the firmware version that was installed before the factory reset will be the exact same firmware version after the factory reset. All a factory reset does is erases all user settings and passwords for streaming settings and restores the Blu-ray player back to factory defaults. Now on the latest OPPO UDP-203/UDP-205 models one can save and restore user settings to an external USB drive so that any factory reset or firmware update, one can instantly restore 100% of all the user settings. However as far as I am aware that is a OPPO exclusive to be able to save and restore user settings to a USB flash drive. So far I am not aware of any other brand and model of Blu-ray player on the market that offers that feature. Saving and restoring user settings to a USB drive is something that almost all Blu-ray players would be able to do if a programmer wrote a firmware update with that feature. Hopefully Panasonic and Sony will offer that feature in the future with a firmware update.

Thank you for your detailed explanation

[Oscarilbo]

Looking for an advice here. I’m on my first 30 days of trial for my new Panny so I’m testing it as much as I can so I can switch it in case I got a faulty unit.
So all fine on previous UHD discs I’ve watched. But last night I came across a quick instant of little distortion/pixelation on two 4K discs. One was The Revenant and the other Bad Boys 2. In the case of Bad Boys 2 I know there must be something wrong with that disc (and maybe the batch) because a little forward where the issue happened in about chapter 4 there’s a whole sequence where the image completely distorts and freezes and that happened also in my sonyx700.

In both cases If I rewind the scene 80% of the time the issue repeats in the exact same point. In cases like this where the issue is perfectly located, which is more likely de problem.. The disc? The player? HDMI cable (bandwidth problem)? player-disc compatibility?

Thanks in advance for your guidence

[Matthew.H]

Originally Posted by Oscarilbo

Looking for an advice here. I’m on my first 30 days of trial for my new Panny so I’m testing it as much as I can so I can switch it in case I got a faulty unit.
So all fine on previous UHD discs I’ve watched. But last night I came across a quick instant of little distortion/pixelation on two 4K discs. One was The Revenant and the other Bad Boys 2. In the case of Bad Boys 2 I know there must be something wrong with that disc (and maybe the batch) because a little forward where the issue happened in about chapter 4 there’s a whole sequence where the image completely distorts and freezes and that happened also in my sonyx700.

In both cases If I rewind the scene 80% of the time the issue repeats in the exact same point. In cases like this where the issue is perfectly located, which is more likely de problem.. The disc? The player? HDMI cable (bandwidth problem)? player-disc compatibility?

Thanks in advance for your guidence

Most likely the disc. Haven't had any issues on any discs on my 820 yet.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by Oscarilbo

Looking for an advice here. I’m on my first 30 days of trial for my new Panny so I’m testing it as much as I can so I can switch it in case I got a faulty unit.
So all fine on previous UHD discs I’ve watched. But last night I came across a quick instant of little distortion/pixelation on two 4K discs. One was The Revenant and the other Bad Boys 2. In the case of Bad Boys 2 I know there must be something wrong with that disc (and maybe the batch) because a little forward where the issue happened in about chapter 4 there’s a whole sequence where the image completely distorts and freezes and that happened also in my sonyx700.

In both cases If I rewind the scene 80% of the time the issue repeats in the exact same point. In cases like this where the issue is perfectly located, which is more likely de problem.. The disc? The player? HDMI cable (bandwidth problem)? player-disc compatibility?

Thanks in advance for your guidence

My guess is the actual disc encoding or maybe something your TV is doing. It would depend on your setup and settings too...

[Oscarilbo]

Originally Posted by pbz06

My guess is the actual disc encoding or maybe something your TV is doing. It would depend on your setup and settings too...

Thank you both.

Yeah, funny thing is when I tried to force ycbcr 4:2:2 at both 12bit 10bit i got banding. Which in theory I shouldn’t have. But in auto everything works perfect
So what it is causing the issue... receiver? display (projector)? or the non-certified 25ft HDMI cable? ..

[Fred Bang]

Originally Posted by Oscarilbo

Looking for an advice here. I’m on my first 30 days of trial for my new Panny so I’m testing it as much as I can so I can switch it in case I got a faulty unit.
So all fine on previous UHD discs I’ve watched. But last night I came across a quick instant of little distortion/pixelation on two 4K discs. One was The Revenant and the other Bad Boys 2. In the case of Bad Boys 2 I know there must be something wrong with that disc (and maybe the batch) because a little forward where the issue happened in about chapter 4 there’s a whole sequence where the image completely distorts and freezes and that happened also in my sonyx700.

In both cases If I rewind the scene 80% of the time the issue repeats in the exact same point. In cases like this where the issue is perfectly located, which is more likely de problem.. The disc? The player? HDMI cable (bandwidth problem)? player-disc compatibility?

Thanks in advance for your guidence

Most of the freeze I’ve had were due to some light fingerprints/dust on my disc. I find the ub820 a bit sensitive to dust personally .

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Fred Bang

Most of the freeze I’ve had were due to some light fingerprints/dust on my disc. I find the ub820 a bit sensitive to dust personally .

I do as well with fingerprints.

[Oscarilbo]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I do as well with fingerprints.

Thanks both... I’ll try that. Some people say even if you don’t see it there may be something there blocking.

[dcx4610]

Originally Posted by Oscarilbo

Looking for an advice here. I’m on my first 30 days of trial for my new Panny so I’m testing it as much as I can so I can switch it in case I got a faulty unit.
So all fine on previous UHD discs I’ve watched. But last night I came across a quick instant of little distortion/pixelation on two 4K discs. One was The Revenant and the other Bad Boys 2. In the case of Bad Boys 2 I know there must be something wrong with that disc (and maybe the batch) because a little forward where the issue happened in about chapter 4 there’s a whole sequence where the image completely distorts and freezes and that happened also in my sonyx700.

In both cases If I rewind the scene 80% of the time the issue repeats in the exact same point. In cases like this where the issue is perfectly located, which is more likely de problem.. The disc? The player? HDMI cable (bandwidth problem)? player-disc compatibility?

Thanks in advance for your guidence

I'm a fairly new owner myself. I had a freeze/distortion on Rise of Skywalker and Rogue One. I could skip past the chapter and it would work but it would freeze on the same spots.

Inspecting the discs in the light, I could see a scratch on both discs. Thanks to Disney double stacking their disc, it ended up scratching. I did check some of the other Star Wars discs and they also had light scratches but I had no problems playing them. I guess the Panny is a little sensitive to certain scratches.

Other than that, I've probably played 20 other movies since owning the player and haven't had an issue. If a disc freezes, I'd inspect the disc under some light.