Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Stream]

Originally Posted by CreasyBear

So considering the light fluctuations on titles like Halloween and Hard Target and Howling using DV only seem to be present on the Panasonic players, it has to be a player issue. They don't occur at all on my Sony X800M2.

Others have this flickering problem with some titles on Sony players (700/800) e.g Vigilante, from Blue Underground.
Maybe would it make sense to create a thread with let's say releases at risk ? Please apologise if it is already existing.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by PissedOffPeoN

Anyone know how to open the 820 and clean the dust out?

Literally just unscrew everything. I’ve done it on my clients’ (smokers home) a couple of times.

[Penton-Man]

Sap ^, esp. if you do any installations along with your calibration business, you may be interested in this too when it’s YouTube posted - https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...s#post19945152

[Nori]

My copy of Halloween 1 (shout release) didn’t flicker at all in DV on my UB820, but Halloween II did. Very bizarre. Makes me wonder if some discs have a flaw that others don’t.

[IlCorvo]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

450 has a different chipset/firmware than the 420/820/9000 models, hence why it doesn’t have the same DV problems as those and why it doesn’t support matey’s hacked firmware.

Is there any difference - PQ-wise - in comparison to the 820/824? I mean both DVD and Blu-Ray. And obviously 4K UHD.

[Maggot]

Pulled the trigger on a 9000 after owning an 820 for some time. So far so good!

[DavePS3]

I think it's important to mention that both DV and HDR10+ are Dynamic metadata and as such, authoring discs is varied. Being dynamic really means it can fluctuate on the fly, especially for OLED, so it doesn't overshoot boundaries. So, you'll see some discs lighten and darken in scene changes on the odd disc release but that's typically how the disc was done and how the display is handling it not so much the player from what I've seen so far. The older HDR10 was static metadata and those discs had a habit of often making darker scenes look a bit too light because it couldn't change on the fly. Panasonic pays Dolby labs for the chip/software and all the ongoing updates if needed so they're typically on top of things.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by IlCorvo

Is there any difference - PQ-wise - in comparison to the 820/824? I mean both DVD and Blu-Ray. And obviously 4K UHD.

It's the same player with different names for different territories.

[IlCorvo]

Originally Posted by Naiera

It's the same player with different names for different territories.

Sorry, I meant if there is any difference between the 450 and the 820 PQ-wise?

[Cinematt]

Originally Posted by George.P

What do they charge? Not sure why it isn’t just on their website.

And maybe they want the MAC Id for software purposes - just talking out my ass, but maybe they could limit which machines their firmware can be installed on to prevent firmware sharing.

Also, what wiring did you do? That was with Region Freedom?

I think it's not on their website because they don't 'charge' for the upgrade, instead they ask for a contribution to their software development programme. It's probably a slightly shady way to avoid taxes or something
The 'minimum contribution' was €40 for the 820, I recall it being €30 for my old BD player years ago so I'm not sure if that's inflation across the board or if they charge different amounts for different players.

They claim the MAC is required for the firmware to update properly without bricking it, whether that's a function they have built in themselves to protect their product from being shared or if it's a genuine part of the Panasonic process I couldn't say, though of course I don't have to tap in my MAC address when I'm updating the firmware normally so I have my suspicions. You'd imagine a knowledgable person could adapt their firmware file to a new MAC address even if that's a requirement, but I'm happy enough with the price to pay anyway and I don't mind keeping them in business so they're still there when my next player needs an upgrade.

There's no wiring involved, you just download the firmware to a USB stick, and they send full instructions on how to format it and upgrade the player, really simple to follow.

[MyGosh]

Originally Posted by deeppurpleman

What are the main issues? Are there certain movies that are worse than others? I don't have a lot of discs with DV on them so I haven't noticed anything myself.

Hi, I'm a new member to this forum. I've walked thru the forum and collected all disc problems noted after firmware update 1.69. All problems were reported by multiple forum members.. The problems are:
- Exclusive to LG TVs, Halloween Boxset (intermittent brightness changes, back & forth)
- Donnie Darko theatrical version (stutters)
- Vertigo (DE pressing) (glitchy & knocks out audio)
- SpongeBob (glitches)
- Disney discs (slow menus)
- Evil Dead II & Joker (loud noises)
- Knives Out (audio drop)
- Double layer 4k discs (unable to play) like Salt, The New York Ripper & Independence Day
- Unable to play Ghostbusters II & Many Saints of Newar
- all NTSC DVDs (poor deinterlacing, display outcome is atrocious)
- audio drops after pausing <- China only firmware update 1.66 solves this & provides external subtitle feature

[Nocheduro]

For anyone using a Sony A90J, what setting are you using for HDR Display Type on your Panasonic player?

[MyGosh]

Regarding those debating whether the DVD, Bluray & UHD Bluray market will die, let's see the stats.

According to cnbc.com, the US market (expressed in billion dollars) has shrunk about 50% since 2011.

Itigic.com has researched that shrunken market and wrote a great article titled "DVD Sales Surpass Blu-ray in 2021: Physical Format Market". It states the number of discs sold in the US for 2021 was:
71.6% DVDs
23.6% Bluray
4.8% UHD Bluray

It noted the reason for high DVD sales is price and "the majority of TV Shows & most movies are still sold only on DVDs". Conclusion is DVDs are not dead. Take note Panasonic - you better fix the deinterlacing problem.

[MyGosh]

BTW, the US disc market was $2500 billion earned from "1993 to 2018". Wow!

[Naiera]

People who buy DVDs don’t have UHD players or high standards, so they don’t care if they are actually playing the DVD on a UHD player that doesn’t do that well.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by Naiera

People who buy DVDs don’t have UHD players or high standards, so they don’t care if they are actually playing the DVD on a UHD player that doesn’t do that well.

I buy DVDs, own a UHD player, and have (reasonably) high standards. I definitely care how well a UHD player can play a DVD. I care how well they play every format that they claim to support.

I still buy DVDs when that's the only format that a title is available upon and I certainly want them to look the best that they can.

[Vilya]

Originally Posted by MyGosh

BTW, the US disc market in 2021 was 2500 billion dollars. Wow!

2500 billion is the same as 2.5 trillion. The disc market has never been anywhere close to being worth a trillion dollars.

According to the Digital Entertainment Group, U.S. disc sales for 2021 were only $1.973 billion.

https://www.degonline.org/portfolio_...inment-report/

Global disc revenue for 2021 was only $6.5 billion and this includes disc rental revenue:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2316

https://www.motionpictures.org/wp-co...port-FINAL.pdf

^scroll to page 7.

[MyGosh]

Originally Posted by Vilya

2500 billion is the same as 2.5 trillion. The disc market has never been anywhere close to being worth a trillion dollars.

According to the Digital Entertainment Group, U.S. disc sales for 2021 were only $1.973 billion.

https://www.degonline.org/portfolio_...inment-report/

Global disc revenue for 2021 was only $6.5 billion and this includes disc rental revenue:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=2316

https://www.motionpictures.org/wp-co...port-FINAL.pdf

^scroll to page 7.

My bad, I meant to state $2500 billion earned from "1993 to 2018" -- I've edited the post.

[MyGosh]

Originally Posted by Naiera

People who buy DVDs don’t have UHD players or high standards, so they don’t care if they are actually playing the DVD on a UHD player that doesn’t do that well.

I've always been a videophile & audiophile. My media standard is very high. I buy all disc types from CDs, SACDs, DVD-As, DVDs, Blurays, UHD Blurays. I have spent over $40,000 on my disc collection todate. I've had an official home theater since 2007. I am currently upgrading my home theater to 7.1.4 with minimum 24-bit 768kHz in all my sources ($2300 media streamer, $1300 UHD Player, $7000 Preamp Processor & additional $4000 Power Amplifer). My Digital Collection is currently stored on 36TB.

Now, do you dare repeat I don't care if I am playing a DVD on a UHD player. I do. Thus, my post to remind Panasonic that there are many people like me who insist they fix this DVD problem before I buy their UHD Player.

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by DavePS3

I think it's important to mention that both DV and HDR10+ are Dynamic metadata and as such, authoring discs is varied. Being dynamic really means it can fluctuate on the fly, especially for OLED, so it doesn't overshoot boundaries. So, you'll see some discs lighten and darken in scene changes on the odd disc release but that's typically how the disc was done and how the display is handling it not so much the player from what I've seen so far. The older HDR10 was static metadata and those discs had a habit of often making darker scenes look a bit too light because it couldn't change on the fly. Panasonic pays Dolby labs for the chip/software and all the ongoing updates if needed so they're typically on top of things.

It's not my OLED, because my Sony X800M2 hooked up to the same receiver and TV does not show these fluctuations. It's the UB9000.