Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[idlebrain]

Originally Posted by NIN7474

I just bought the N2QAYA000131 also on ebay with a "make a offer" for $1 less and free shipping. Plan on using with my UB820. Thank you everyone for the recommendation

I got one from parts express. Its too flimsy and buttons keeps stuck into holes. Hope you get better one. Let us know the quality of remote, probably will order from same seller.

[Member-425016]

I decided to keep it after all. I guess the "high clarity sound 'on'" prompt whenever I fire up the machine is just something I will have to live with.....even if it isn't really "on"

[u2popmofo]

I watched several discs last night on my brand new 820, they all looked fantastic with the exception of Mission Impossible: Fallout which seemed to be crushing blacks in Dolby Vision. Not sure if that's just how this disc looks, or I need to make some adjustments. I assume there's nothing on the 820 itself I can adjust specifically for brightness in Dolby Vision, correct?

[Kaonashi]

Tried some other Sony’s (Crouching Tiger and Close Encounters) and again the optimiser on OLED just made them overall brighter, when I find them to be bright enough. It made some of the highlights in Close Encounters look flat and pink-tinted. It looked less natural.

[shrex]

Originally Posted by NIN7474

I just bought the N2QAYA000131 also on ebay with a "make a offer" for $1 less and free shipping. Plan on using with my UB820. Thank you everyone for the recommendation

Originally Posted by idlebrain

I got one from parts express. Its too flimsy and buttons keeps stuck into holes. Hope you get better one. Let us know the quality of remote, probably will order from same seller.

Same here. Ended up offering $10.88.

The seller was remote_control_usa. We’ll see, I’m not expecting much for the price.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by Kaonashi

Tried some other Sony’s (Crouching Tiger and Close Encounters) and again the optimiser on OLED just made them overall brighter, when I find them to be bright enough. It made some of the highlights in Close Encounters look flat and pink-tinted. It looked less natural.

My guess is that without it, your TV was compressing/tonemapping more aggressivley to try and resolve detail. The HDR Optimizer likely follows the EOTF curve a little more faithfully.

[u2popmofo]

I notice on SDR Blus that there's a picture option with "Standard, Cinema, Cinema Fine, and a number of other options". What exactly are these options? I can't find anything about them in the manuals. They seem to slightly adjust brightness, contrast, colors. Are they just preset image setting / color modes, like what you may see on a TV (standard, cinema, vivid, etc.)?

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by u2popmofo

I notice on SDR Blus that there's a picture option with "Standard, Cinema, Cinema Fine, and a number of other options". What exactly are these options? I can't find anything about them in the manuals. They seem to slightly adjust brightness, contrast, colors. Are they just preset image setting / color modes, like what you may see on a TV (standard, cinema, vivid, etc.)?

The "standard" is the untouched as-is video from the disc to your TV. The others just alter various things if you want to mess with them, no different than messing with your TV picture presets or settings....a little redundant.

I don't touch any of those since I'm calibrated and also prefer the most accurate picture.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

...and as Die Hard only has 1000-nit mastering display metadata on the disc then the Optimiser literally does nothing to the image when set to anything higher than Basic luminance. This will be true for virtually every disc produced by Universal, Paramount, Disnee and Fox as they master out to 1000 nits 99% of the time, so with the Optimiser set to OLED, Medium/High or Super High then it will do nada on those discs.

So it sounds to me like even though my set is an LED, since it can only hit around ~550 nits it would make no sense to set it to anything beyond basic luminence for my setup, correct? For a set with 550 nits would there ever be an advantage to setting it higher?

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by mar3o

So it sounds to me like even though my set is an LED, since it can only hit around ~550 nits it would make no sense to set it to anything beyond basic luminence for my setup, correct? For a set with 550 nits would there ever be an advantage to setting it higher?

Yup, you are correct.

[Geoff D]

Ja, keep it on Basic.

[NIN7474]

Originally Posted by shrex

Same here. Ended up offering $10.88.

The seller was remote_control_usa. We’ll see, I’m not expecting much for the price.

My seller is zaosa-55. Hopefully it's a good unit.

[morris_schaffer]

Originally Posted by mar3o

So it sounds to me like even though my set is an LED, since it can only hit around ~550 nits it would make no sense to set it to anything beyond basic luminence for my setup, correct? For a set with 550 nits would there ever be an advantage to setting it higher?

Switching from OLED, which is what I have, to Basic Luminance, did result in some subtle changes when I turned the Optimizer on and off while watching Die Hard. The picture seemed to brighten up subtly but perceptibly. With all sliders at their default '0' value.

I just had the slight impression the picture wasn't as warm now, just a bit, well I dunno what to call it, processed? unnatural? Mind, it could well be it was an improvement and I'm seeing things that aren't there.

But still, there was this one shot that I paused. It was during the film's finale. There was a closeup of an active sprinkler system and lots of flames. And I actually settled on HDR optimizer off. It looked warmer, the water sprays better defined.

So part of me tells me not to bother at all with this optimizer nonsense. Just leave the TV on OLED and optimizer to OFF.

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by morris_schaffer

Switching from OLED, which is what I have, to Basic Luminance, did result in some subtle changes when I turned the Optimizer on and off while watching Die Hard. The picture seemed to brighten up subtly but perceptibly. With all sliders at their default '0' value.

I just had the slight impression the picture wasn't as warm now, just a bit, well I dunno what to call it, processed? unnatural? Mind, it could well be it was an improvement and I'm seeing things that aren't there.

But still, there was this one shot that I paused. It was during the film's finale. There was a closeup of an active sprinkler system and lots of flames. And I actually settled on HDR optimizer off. It looked warmer, the water sprays better defined.

So part of me tells me not to bother at all with this optimizer nonsense. Just leave the TV on OLED and optimizer to OFF.

Leaving the TV on the OLED setting (well really the player) and the Optimizer set to "Off" does absolutely nothing other than allowing the TV to do it's own tone mapping and that's it. It receives no help from the player.

The whole point of the Optimizer is figuring out where your specific TV has issues with tone mapping and leaving that setting at that point. Here is the break down of all the settings for the Optimizer on the 820:

Basic Luminance: Your TV will tone map everything up to 500 nit HDR graded content and then the player will take over for everything higher than that

Medium/High Luminance and OLED: Your TV will tone map everything up to 1,000 nit HDR graded content and then the player will take over for everything higher than that

Super High Luminance: Your TV will tone map everything up to 1,500 nit HDR graded content and then the player will take over for everything higher than that

The 9,000 has 2 more settings which help out projectors.

[mar3o]

Well my UB420 was supposed to arrive today from Amazon but instead now I got an email saying it won't arrive now until the 22nd-26th. I hate Amazon. I bought it the other day when it was just $199 since they were clearly matching the price of Best Buy who also had it on sale for $199. I also had a gift card balance of $40 so that brought it down to $160 for me. Now Best Buy is back up to $249 again. Amazon no longer offers the option of buying this from Amazon directly, only 3rd party sellers (not fulfilled by Amazon). When I ordered last week it said more would be in stock soon and it let me order it from Amazon. Now that option is gone. I have no idea how they run things these days.

So if i cancel now I'd have to spend almost $100 more to get it from Best Buy, plus I'd have to have it shipped anyways since I can't get down to my local Best Buy store currently. So I have to sit here for weeks more and wonder if I'll ever see this player or if Amazon will cancel my order or give me another delay when the 26th rolls around. I really hate supporting them. I should have just bought it from Best Buy last week and paid $199, but I hate their lousy 14 day return policy.

[sapiendut]

Just wait for a couple of weeks it’s not a big deal.

[dcforsyth]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Just wait for a couple of weeks it’s not a big deal.

Agreed,

I know it sucks waiting for a new toy but just be patient.

I had a horrible experience with Best Buy with this player. I unfortunately got a defective player from them. No big deal not their fault sheet happens. But is their fault when I returned it for a replacement. They and all Best Buys around me were out of stock for weeks. I got an unexpected early email saying my replacement was available for pickup. Ye-ha. When I went to pick it up (7days earlier than expected) they tried to give me the exact player I returned? I know for a fact it was the same player because the box had all the tape and an indention on the box that I noticed when I received it. This nightmare continues but no need to elaborate although I did eventually get a new replacement.

PS: Best Buy and I'm sure others, especially Amazon, have this illegal habit of restocking/selling used or opened items as new.

I know I'm off topic but here's another example of them reselling returns as new.

Bought Toy Story 4k. Went home to play it and the disc asked me if I'd like to resume the movie??? Never seen that ever with a new purchase???

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Just wait for a couple of weeks it’s not a big deal.

I don't mind the wait. I'm used to that at this point. I'm just worried they may have problems getting more stock in and might end up cancelling the order and me losing the price I paid. I called them and they said they're having trouble getting this item stocked currently, but that's probably common with them.

[dcforsyth]

Sorry for the issues your having. Is your Sony 700 unplayable, did you try the lens disc cleaner?

I know you're not happy with that player, but if it can hold you over until Amazon gets stock?

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by mar3o

I don't mind the wait. I'm used to that at this point. I'm just worried they may have problems getting more stock in and might end up cancelling the order and me losing the price I paid. I called them and they said they're having trouble getting this item stocked currently, but that's probably common with them.

You should be able to lock in that price. It's part of Amazon's Price Guarantee. If they don't, you can explain your situation and I'm sure they will re-price it. But I think they will lock your price in.