Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Robert Zohn]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

Robert I saw the latest FW added Netflix. Do you still go into that odd tile screen for net apps, or is it just an app icon like other players now? You'd figure Amazon would be swift.

The Smart GUI looks exactly like the UB900.

[Robert Zohn]

Just got confirmation that the UB820 and UB9000 will support Dolby Vision's Profile 5 Low Latency HDR.

I'm expecting a reply to my last email asking for the expected firmware update along with a few additional questions and enhancement requests. I have an excellent relationship with all of the fine folks at HQ and the USA and they enjoy working with me and want to make this the best BD player possible.

[curlyjive]

Originally Posted by evan201

Someone mentioned the HDR to SDR conversion was really good from what they could see.

Yes and my original question quoted him and asked about the luminance slider. He said he thought it was not functional when outputting sdr. That would be a feature that has been disabled from the ub900 and for some projector owners like me, a no go. Now I have mine sitting in a box and I will try to get time tonight to test and see what the deal is.

My gut tells me that the other user might have been mistaken as I cannot see Panasonic making sdr conversion less flexible on this player than their previous model. It would make no sense to do so. As good as Panasonic has done with their sdr conversion, that luminance control was a really important feature.

[MechaGodzilla]

Has the 480i issue reported by Geoff and others been addressed on these? If not, have Panasonic at least been made aware of it?

[PuppetMasterBlu]

Originally Posted by curlyjive

Yes and my original question quoted him and asked about the luminance slider. He said he thought it was not functional when outputting sdr. That would be a feature that has been disabled from the ub900 and for some projector owners like me, a no go. Now I have mine sitting in a box and I will try to get time tonight to test and see what the deal is.

My gut tells me that the other user might have been mistaken as I cannot see Panasonic making sdr conversion less flexible on this player than their previous model. It would make no sense to do so. As good as Panasonic has done with their sdr conversion, that luminance control was a really important feature.

I apologize but I am new to all of this. I didn't know about the options button.....oops. But good news and bad news. The Luminance slider is indeed disabled. When I try to select it, it says "only for use on SDR content". Now of course I do have to convert everything to SDR as I am only using a 1080P projector. So maybe it's a glitch and it thinks it's HDR because it's an HDR source? The good news is that there is a setting "Optimum HDR adjustment" That allows you to mess with tone curves white and black, brightness and Dynamic range conversion adjustment which fixed with darkness problem with Unforgiven. It allows you to save 3 different sets of adjustments so you can switch between them. This player does the job.

[eddievanhalen]

Can this player output a native 10 bit or 12 bit from HDR10 or Dolby Vision disc but discard the HDR part?
Just a silly question. I know the Oppos can play 10 bit video out of UHD BD HDR10 encoded discs without the HDR part.

[curlyjive]

Originally Posted by PuppetMasterBlu

I apologize but I am new to all of this. I didn't know about the options button.....oops. But good news and bad news. The Luminance slider is indeed disabled. When I try to select it, it says "only for use on SDR content". Now of course I do have to convert everything to SDR as I am only using a 1080P projector. So maybe it's a glitch and it thinks it's HDR because it's an HDR source? The good news is that there is a setting "Optimum HDR adjustment" That allows you to mess with tone curves white and black, brightness and Dynamic range conversion adjustment which fixed with darkness problem with Unforgiven. It allows you to save 3 different sets of adjustments so you can switch between them. This player does the job.

It looks liked they changed the luminance slider to control only sdr. Not sure if that is meant for blu ray or why it's needed for sdr mastered content at all. The new equivalent setting is under the hdr optimizer section as you noted.

Seems like sdr conversion is pretty much the same as the ub900. You can tweak the dark and bright tone curve settings and a brightness setting as well as the dynamic range control, which does what the luminance slider used to.

When outputting sdr I am not sure if what kind of display you choose in the main settings makes any difference at all.

[PuppetMasterBlu]

Originally Posted by curlyjive

It looks liked they changed the luminance slider to control only sdr. Not sure if that is meant for blu ray or why it's needed for sdr mastered content at all. The new equivalent setting is under the hdr optimizer section as you noted.

Seems like sdr conversion is pretty much the same as the ub900. You can tweak the dark and bright tone curve settings and a brightness setting as well as the dynamic range control, which does what the luminance slider used to.

When outputting sdr I am not sure if what kind of display you choose in the main settings makes any difference at all.

It doesn't. It actually says for HDR TV.

[curlyjive]

Originally Posted by PuppetMasterBlu

It doesn't. It actually says for HDR TV.

Yeah I did try the extremes of the choices and didn't see any changes. Makes sense thst this would apply to hdr output only.

So far sdr tone mapping seems at least as good as the ub900. It's definitely faster. I don't notice any excessive noise that some reported.

I hate the remote and ordered a ub900 remote from eBay. In reality I'll be using my Harmony remote but while I'm still messing with the settings in my bat cave I keep hitting the wrong buttons on this one.

I am going to run through some more content tonight

[JWB2]

Originally Posted by curlyjive

Yeah I did try the extremes of the choices and didn't see any changes. Makes sense thst this would apply to hdr output only.

So far sdr tone mapping seems at least as good as the ub900. It's definitely faster. I don't notice any excessive noise that some reported.

I hate the remote and ordered a ub900 remote from eBay. In reality I'll be using my Harmony remote but while I'm still messing with the settings in my bat cave I keep hitting the wrong buttons on this one.

I am going to run through some more content tonight

Do u need a linker/vertex like the UB900 for the tone mapping?

[curlyjive]

Originally Posted by JWB2

Do u need a linker/vertex like the UB900 for the tone mapping?

You needed those to get bt2020 and or 4k if you had an hdmi 1.4 display. You could get sdr rec709 1080p without.

[curlyjive]

Found one odd issue. Try playing the 20th century fox logo and music when yoy actually start a movie. Not the one that comes up before the menu loads. If outputting pcm the drums sound oddly delayed to the rears. Switch to Bitstream and it's fine.

Verified my avr settings are the same globally as any other input. Same title on blu ray through my oppo 103d doing pcm and no issue. Tried the blu ray in the ub820 and heard it with pcm but not Bitstream. Odd.

[Apari]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

I'm expecting a reply to my last email asking for the expected firmware update along with a few additional questions and enhancement requests. I have an excellent relationship with all of the fine folks at HQ and the USA and they enjoy working with me and want to make this the best BD player possible.

Are they planning to make it possible to watch Netflix with Dolby Vision and Atmos with ub820/9000? Because that would make this player a must have player if it isn't already.

[DJR662]

Interested in reading user experiences from other projector owners.

[TheSweetieMan]

What’s the consensus on its handling of ‘simulating’ dynamic metadata for HDR10 discs?

[madfloyd]

Originally Posted by DJR662

Interested in reading user experiences from other projector owners.

Setup my 820 last night for use with my JVC RS4500. Turned on the HDR optimizer and adjusted the curves a bit and wound up with a spectacular image.

Basically I'm adjusting the HDR gamma curve (not converting to SDR) and outputting HDR to my HDR mode on the projector (bypassing my Lumagen's HDR-SDR conversion as well).

I was using Thor Ragnarok as my test disc and I think I got the best picture I've ever seen with this title. Details in shadows are fantastic as is very fine details throughout. I am seeing a very satisfying amount of light without washing out colors.

I'll have to feed it more discs (test some more) but very happy with the unit so far.

[Robert Zohn]

Originally Posted by Apari

Are they planning to make it possible to watch Netflix with Dolby Vision and Atmos with ub820/9000? Because that would make this player a must have player if it isn't already.

Yes, with the Dolby Vision firmware update all streaming services that have DV and Dolby Atmos content will work with the UB820.

[Robert Zohn]

Originally Posted by curlyjive

Found one odd issue. Try playing the 20th century fox logo and music when yoy actually start a movie. Not the one that comes up before the menu loads. If outputting pcm the drums sound oddly delayed to the rears. Switch to Bitstream and it's fine.

Verified my avr settings are the same globally as any other input. Same title on blu ray through my oppo 103d doing pcm and no issue. Tried the blu ray in the ub820 and heard it with pcm but not Bitstream. Odd.

I'll check this on our UB820s. Is it only our of sync with the FOX logo and music at the opening and when the film plays the audio is in sync?

[curlyjive]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

I'll check this on our UB820s. Is it only our of sync with the FOX logo and music at the opening and when the film plays the audio is in sync?

I'll have to do some more listening, but I think I noticed it during playback. It's especially noticeable on those first two drum rolls in the intro. Otherwise I might not have noticed it so fast. It was oner of those, "wait what was that" moments. This was using the separate audio HDMI into my AVR just so you can replicate the setup.

[Apari]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

Yes, with the Dolby Vision firmware update all streaming services that have DV and Dolby Atmos content will work with the UB820.

I guess I'll have to buy the 820 then. Been looking for a UHD player from which I could watch netflix in DV and with Atmos sounds and I think this is the first to do that.