Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by DOULG1VEN

After a few hours of testing with the HDR optimiser on and off, there's no way anyone can tell a difference, unless you specifically pause a frame with something very bright/specular highlights and manually go between HDR optimiser ON/OFF. The optimiser ON keeps some detail that otherwise would be blown out/clipped, but the amount of frames this happens in during most movies can be counted on a single hand. I think I was over hyped by everyone recommending this player lol

To be fair, you don't exactly have a pitiful portable picnic player of a TV lol

[DOULG1VEN]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

To be fair, you don't exactly have a pitiful portable picnic player of a TV lol

That's a lot of P's

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by DOULG1VEN

That's a lot of P's

I only steal from the very besht:

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by DOULG1VEN

After a few hours of testing with the HDR optimiser on and off, there's no way anyone can tell a difference, unless you specifically pause a frame with something very bright/specular highlights and manually go between HDR optimiser ON/OFF. The optimiser ON keeps some detail that otherwise would be blown out/clipped, but the amount of frames this happens in during most movies can be counted on a single hand. I think I was over hyped by everyone recommending this player lol

I mostly agree, at least on the "over hyped" part regarding the HDR Optimizer. I love this player in terms of PQ output and do use the Optimizer, but it doesn't do much/anything for the majority of the content which are mastered at 1,000 nits anyway (well, Geoff says it can introduce minor banding in some instances but I end up using Smooth Gradation anyways).

Using the S&M demo disc, there are lots of instances where the Optimzer would be needed for an OLED (I have A9G) and are obviously improved with it on, but I don't think those are necessarily fair scenes to judge because most movies hover around far less full scene brightness...in actual content, it's only the small peak highlights that get clipped/blown with high nits and aren't as noticeable. Like you said, you would need to pause and observe.

[Member-425016]

I'm going to sell my 9000. The Series X is all the BD player I need.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by pbz06

I mostly agree, at least on the "over hyped" part regarding the HDR Optimizer. I love this player in terms of PQ output and do use the Optimizer, but it doesn't do much for the majority of the content which are mastered at 1,000 nits anyway (well, Geoff says it can introduce minor banding in some instances but I end up using Smooth Gradation anyways).

Using the S&M demo disc, there are lots of instances where the Optimzer would be needed for an OLED (I have A9G) and are obviously improved with it on, but I don't think those are necessarily fair scenes to judge because most movies hover around far less full scene brightness...in actual content, it's only the small peak highlights that get clipped/blown with high nits and aren't as noticeable. Like you said, you would need to pause and observe.

Aye. With most new discs that don't have DV but still show silly nit levels I just watch it 'untouched' on my TV's 1000-nit calibrated viewing mode and if anything stands out as badly clipped then I'll turn on the Optimiser and have a look. As you all say, most sensible gradings restrict the >1000 nit part of the signal (if any) to just the specular highlights which, IMO, is how it should be done. The main exception is Sony's Light Cannon™ approach which pushes even the average brightness into thousands of nits and that's where the ZD9 struggles. Clipping tiny speculars is one thing, but when it's clipping a big chunk of the image it can make it look much harsher. Still, as I said upthread I can't recall the last time I felt compelled to use the Optimiser. But I've got Sony HDR10 discs like Mask of Zorro and the Resi 1-6 UHD set to get through, so I'll return to let you know how I got on with them.

[Gretiem]

Originally Posted by Filmfan73

I'm going to sell my 9000. The Series X is all the BD player I need.

No dolby vision support though ?

[evanft]

Originally Posted by Filmfan73

I'm going to sell my 9000. The Series X is all the BD player I need.

You disgust me.

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Aye. With most new discs that don't have DV but still show silly nit levels I just watch it 'untouched' on my TV's 1000-nit calibrated viewing mode and if anything stands out as badly clipped then I'll turn on the Optimiser and have a look. As you all say, most sensible gradings restrict the >1000 nit part of the signal (if any) to just the specular highlights which, IMO, is how it should be done. The main exception is Sony's Light Cannon™ approach which pushes even the average brightness into thousands of nits and that's where the ZD9 struggles. Clipping tiny speculars is one thing, but when it's clipping a big chunk of the image it can make it look much harsher. Still, as I said upthread I can't recall the last time I felt compelled to use the Optimiser. But I've got Sony HDR10 discs like Mask of Zorro and the Resi 1-6 UHD set to get through, so I'll return to let you know how I got on with them.

That's one of the reasons why I decided on keeping the Optimizer set at Super High Luminance (1,500 nits). The few movies that go overboard with the higher nits (Harry Potter for instance), allows player to take care of that. Otherwise, my TV takes care of the rest. I've been very happy with the results and will not touch a single setting now that I have it set right. I'm done worrying about it and I can now enjoy watching my movies.

[teddyballgame]

Originally Posted by DOULG1VEN

After a few hours of testing with the HDR optimiser on and off, there's no way anyone can tell a difference, unless you specifically pause a frame with something very bright/specular highlights and manually go between HDR optimiser ON/OFF. The optimiser ON keeps some detail that otherwise would be blown out/clipped, but the amount of frames this happens in during most movies can be counted on a single hand. I think I was over hyped by everyone recommending this player lol

Yep, your A8H is already doing a lot of things right. The optomiser can only help you find the lasts bits of PQ from edge case UHDs. You'll be glad you have it when you need it though (e.g.Bridge on the River Kwai and other sony lightcannon grades)

also, tbf the optomiser is just one function made available from the chroma processor, there are other benefits. It tries to reconstruct 4:4:4 from 4:2:0 which is admirable but of course it will depend on how your TV chooses to process that.
Geoff thinks they might have been clever enough to perhaps slightly oversharpen it? to counteract the TV rolloff. Also, some UHD have a conservative average light level which would be difficult to enjoy if you didn't cut out most of the ambient light. The dynamic range adjustment lets you bump APL a bit so you can casually watch something in the daytime without turning the room into a cave. It's like getting more OLED light but at the expense of accuracy. Not for critical viewing of course but a handy tool to have.

[Oniiz86]

Originally Posted by Filmfan73

I'm going to sell my 9000. The Series X is all the BD player I need.

Yeah the XBOX Series X offers a "special feature" in terms of improper playback of 24Hz discs just like the previous XBOX One X converts to 23.976Hz output

[Tim Glover]

If one has a 4K projector on the horizon would you guys still recommend this player over the UB820 or the Pioneer UDP-LX500?

[Member-425016]

Originally Posted by evanft

You disgust me.

Being without a 9000 will not make me less of a man.

[Geoff D]

No but it may turn you into a Mij, and you never want to go Full Mij.

[idlebrain]

Originally Posted by Tim Glover

If one has a 4K projector on the horizon would you guys still recommend this player over the UB820 or the Pioneer UDP-LX500?

Owned both 9000 & 820. I think 820 pretty much covers the projector requirements. Personally I would get 820 and use the extra cash towards projector calibration.

[rickardl]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

... the colour starts to clip at 1200-ish nits so even the Super Bright 1500-nit level isn't as good a fit as you'd think.

Which pattern did you use to determine colour clipping?

[RustinCohle]

For some reason this player wants to keep switching to the HDMI ARC channel on my soundbar.

I have the HDMI audio out connected directly to my soundbar (HDMI 1). Then a second HDMI cable to the TV input. Same setup as my old player. When I turned my old LG player on, the soundbar would automatically switch to HDMI 1. When I turn this player on, it keeps wanting to switch back to HDMI ARC. If I manually switch it to HDMI 1, it will switch itself back to ARC once the menu comes up, or once the movie starts.

[HDTV1080P]

The last professional standalone Blu-ray player that was reviewed by Sound and Vision magazine was the reference quality Panasonic DP-UB9000 back on September 4th 2019. 2018 and 2019 each had two professional Blu-ray player reviews from Sound and Vision magazine. In 2017 there was 4 professional reviews from Sound and Vision magazine for Blu-ray players.

https://www.soundandvision.com/conte...-player-review

The sad reality is absolutely no new standalone Blu-ray player was released in 2020, which is bad for the format. Yes the Sony PS5 videogame system was released in 2020 with a 4K BD-ROM drive, but that is more for the videogame market and not a standalone Blu-ray player. Hopefully 2021 will have some new models of Blu-ray players from Panasonic, Sony, Pioneer, etc. If not then the only choices in standalone Blu-ray players will be the existing models from Panasonic and Sony until the day comes they stop production on the models released in 2018 and 2019. We might be entering a period of time where we start seeing a new Blu-ray player introduced once every 3 years instead of once every year, until the day comes when all standalone Blu-ray players, and DVD players go out of production.

[Fendergopher]

I don't necessarily mind if manufacturers have a longer time gap between new model releases, as long as the new models actually have worthwile improvements or upgrades to make them worth buying over the older models.

[Geoff D]

TBH they can take as long as they want to produce new models as long as they update the firmware of the existing ones. I appreciate that there's a finite limit on such things, that they can't update them forever, but the lack of movement on finding a fix for the Lionsgate Dolby Vision bugs is maddening. Yeah covid is affecting all of this I'm sure, but they've had nine months to get something done about it.