Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

Yep, but with Bob Iger saying that Disney needs to be refocusing their marketing and production back to home media entertainment, it's safe to say that physical media players will be sticking around for awhile.

Studios are realizing now that streaming isn't a huge moneymaker than they once thought. The money is actually in all the mediums that movies and TV shows can exist in (theatrical, physical, digital, streaming). All of those together can make a profit. I hope things swing back in physical media's favor!

I hope that is what he means and not... let's push them toward streaming even more heavily because streaming on Disney+ is also considered home media entertainment.

[Freddy2]

Hello all!

Since late 2019 I've been a huge fan of the DP-UB824 and I still am, just so you know...

But since last year I've finally come around to getting a surround setup, and now a few bugs have come to light and I would like to know if there are more of you who have noticed these.

First of all, my surround setup isn't as regular as most of you might have.
I'm using the analog outputs to send the front signals to my tv (that has fine sound quality) and for the surround signals I'm using powered LG speakers (that sound great as well). So there is no surround receiver and all the setting up has to be done on the 824 itself.

And it is doing a fine job all around but, as pointed out, the analog section has a few bugs, one of which is a big one:

- the first one has to do with all kinds of DTS 5.1 surround. As per the official DTS specs, DTS 5.1 is expanded to 7.1 by default, but when doing this they forgot to turn the surround and back speakers down by 3 dB. So now, every time a DTS/DTS-HR/DTS-HD MA 5.1 track is automatically expanded to 7.1, I have to turn the surround and back speakers down by 3 dB manually. This can be done, so it's not that big a problem, but it is a bug.

- the second one is more serious. If any native 7.1 surround track is being used, the back speakers are ahead of the rest by quite a big margin, bigger than can be corrected with the delay settings, I guess around 45 ms. This does not happen in the previous case, where 5.1 is expanded to 7.1; in that case all is fine regarding the delays. As this can not be fixed manually, native 7.1 tracks can only be used mixed down to 5.1 (by enabling Secondary Audio), which is ok of course, but still quite a big bug.

Can any of you confirm or deny these bugs concerning the analog outputs?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

Yep, but with Bob Iger saying that Disney needs to be refocusing their marketing and production back to home media entertainment, it's safe to say that physical media players will be sticking around for awhile.

Studios are realizing now that streaming isn't a huge moneymaker than they once thought. The money is actually in all the mediums that movies and TV shows can exist in (theatrical, physical, digital, streaming). All of those together can make a profit. I hope things swing back in physical media's favor!

I think the bottom line is people like streaming, but they don't like purchasing copies of digital movies.

So if they kill off physical media, they may end up killing off most purchases. I know I wouldn't buy anymore if digital was only option, or at least I wouldn't spend more than $5 on a release. And as you said, the streaming money sucks compared to purchases.

What they really wanted was people who were purchasing to drop physical purchase and move to digital purchases (not change from purchasing to streaming), because then it eliminates all the replication, packaging, art, etc, making the profit margin higher. But that effort hasn't been very successful. I think the reason why is that unlike music, there is minimal functionality advantage to a digital vs physical movie. With music , having to switch CDs if you want to listen to a track or two from 5 different artists is a big pain; plus its a big pain to store a bunch of CDs in the car; and, digital music files like hires FLAC are actually higher quality than CD. With movies, they last 2 hours so you aren't going to be switching every 3-5min like music, and you also can't watch them when you drive so portability doesn't matter much; and even if you did have a portability use case like the train, movies take up too much space on the phone and you may not have internet to stream them during parts of the trip; plus digital is lower quality than physical due to bandwidth. All of that makes a digital movie purchase a tough sell.

[MisterXDTV]

Originally Posted by Ruined

I think the bottom line is people like streaming, but they don't like purchasing copies of digital movies.

So if they kill off physical media, they may end up killing off most purchases. I know I wouldn't buy anymore if digital was only option, or at least I wouldn't spend more than $5 on a release. And as you said, the streaming money sucks compared to purchases.

What they really wanted was people who were purchasing to drop physical purchase and move to digital purchases (not change from purchasing to streaming), because then it eliminates all the replication, packaging, art, etc, making the profit margin higher. But that effort hasn't been very successful. I think the reason why is that unlike music, there is minimal functionality advantage to a digital vs physical movie. With music , having to switch CDs if you want to listen to a track or two from 5 different artists is a big pain; plus its a big pain to store a bunch of CDs in the car; and, digital music files like hires FLAC are actually higher quality than CD. With movies, they last 2 hours so you aren't going to be switching every 3-5min like music, and you also can't watch them when you drive so portability doesn't matter much; and even if you did have a portability use case like the train, movies take up too much space on the phone and you may not have internet to stream them during parts of the trip; plus digital is lower quality than physical due to bandwidth. All of that makes a digital movie purchase a tough sell.

Yeah, subscription services killed the digital purchase market....

But it's also true for music...

Why should I buy a single song for 1 dollar if I can listen to all the music ever recorded for 10 dollars/month, via Spotify or similar services???

[b_scott]

Originally Posted by Ruined

I know I wouldn't buy anymore if digital was only option, or at least I wouldn't spend more than $5 on a release.

keep in mind, even though you wouldn't, most people are doing this. we are the minority and the bigwigs don't care about us.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by b_scott

keep in mind, even though you wouldn't, most people are doing this. we are the minority and the bigwigs don't care about us.

That's actually not true, though. While streaming subscriptions have taken off, digital purchases (i.e., $20 for a digital copy of a movie) have largely floundered - from 2012-2022 there has been virtually no growth in spending in this category compared to streaming subs:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...nment-by-type/

Purchasing a movie for $20+ is where studios make the big profit margin. $10/month for an entire streaming service with tons of movies and studios gets them pennies per watch, or fractions of a penny; that might be ok for low demand content, but isn't great for high demand content. Studios are also finding out that people aren't going to buy a $10 sub for every studio's streaming service.

[b_scott]

Originally Posted by Ruined

That's actually not true, though. While streaming subscriptions have taken off, digital purchases (i.e., $20 for a digital copy of a movie) have largely floundered - from 2012-2022 there has been virtually no growth in spending in this category compared to streaming subs:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/...nment-by-type/

Purchasing a movie for $20+ is where studios make the big profit margin. $10/month for an entire streaming service with tons of movies and studios gets them pennies per watch, or fractions of a penny; that might be ok for low demand content, but isn't great for high demand content. Studios are also finding out that people aren't going to buy a $10 sub for every studio's streaming service.

I'm not paying for an account to see the stats at that link. But the bottom says:

"Consumer spending on digital home entertainment in the United States amounted to over 34 billion U.S. dollars in 2022. SVOD spending grew by around 4.5 billion U.S. dollars between 2021 and 2022, reflecting the consistent and growing demand for content available on platforms using this model."

There are $5-10 sales all the time on Vudu. I can't imagine people aren't just buying their faves there over buying a $25 4K disc, if the option is one or the other. I'm not factoring in people who will never buy a copy of anything, that's moot.

[mdhaus]

I agree that digital purchases have not been the huge moneymaker that the studios were hoping for. Yes, they are getting streaming subs...but the profit margin there on a film is not nearly the same as what they collect with a physical media purchase.

Ultimately, I think this is why we are continuing to see physical releases for almost all current theatrical films. The studios are also releasing a ton of catalog titles to 4K disc...And they wouldn't be doing that if there wasn't a profit.

My guess is that studios have learned that their business model needs to cover both physical and digital - That combination covers all end-users and is where they make the most money.

[TAC]

Anyone know how to keep that remote control menu to quit popping up and freezing? I have a barely used player that im going to attempt to sell. However, with that happening alot. I wouldn't want to sell it with that happening. Thanks

This happens on my 820. I posted in the 9000 forum on accident.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by TAC

Anyone know how to keep that remote control menu to quit popping up and freezing? I have a barely used player that im going to attempt to sell. However, with that happening alot. I wouldn't want to sell it with that happening. Thanks

This happens on my 820. I posted in the 9000 forum on accident.

Panny never fixed that issue. Hit the back button on the remote when it doesn't go away.

[Freddy2]

Originally Posted by TAC

Anyone know how to keep that remote control menu to quit popping up and freezing? I have a barely used player that im going to attempt to sell. However, with that happening alot. I wouldn't want to sell it with that happening. Thanks

As far as I know this only happens when On-Screen Messages in the System Settings is turned off. If it is set to Automatically more messages are shown yes, but they also disappear again as they should. I know, it's weird...

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by mdhaus

I agree that digital purchases have not been the huge moneymaker that the studios were hoping for. Yes, they are getting streaming subs...but the profit margin there on a film is not nearly the same as what they collect with a physical media purchase.

Ultimately, I think this is why we are continuing to see physical releases for almost all current theatrical films. The studios are also releasing a ton of catalog titles to 4K disc...And they wouldn't be doing that if there wasn't a profit.

My guess is that studios have learned that their business model needs to cover both physical and digital - That combination covers all end-users and is where they make the most money.

Yep, this is it.

The whole Ultraviolet & iTunes, then followed by Movies Anywhere/VUDU, free digital copies in the Blu-ray/4K - don't you think that's a bit generous? I mean, you paid for the Blu-ray/4K Disc *and* you get a free digital copy with unlimited playback (until its delisted heh) for the same price as the digital copy would have cost by itself?

The point of that program is supposed to be a trojan horse to get people interested in buying digital copies. So that a light bulb goes off and they are like, "wow, these digital copies are way more convenient, I can just skip the Blu-ray!"

But that never happened, so the free copies continue. If at some point the studios deem that people just aren't going to switch over to buying digital in mass, or the number of people who did have plateaued, those free copies will probably go away because the studio will see them as lost revenue (they are often sold off or traded).

For now, as noted by Iger and recognized by other industry leaders, digital purchases have failed to gain traction. Streaming is doing great, but as you noted the profit margin there is pathetic compared to a purchase. So back to physical media it is, which is why Disney and other studios are resuming their catalog output as you noted.

Now we just need Panasonic to take notice and add the few remaining things this player needs to be a true Oppo killer in all ways!

[b_scott]

it's already an Oppo killer. Oppo is dead. Panasonic is still here. There's nothing the Oppo does that I need that the Panny doesn't do.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by b_scott

it's already an Oppo killer. Oppo is dead. Panasonic is still here. There's nothing the Oppo does that I need that the Panny doesn't do.

There are still a couple of things the Oppo does better

In terms of functionality, the Panasonic is slower loading and less responsive than the Oppo.

Also, for the odd Blu-ray that is transferred in the wrong aspect ratio or misframed, and also for ancient non anamorphic DVDs that never received a Blu-ray, the Oppo's zoom feature is missed on the Panasonic. This is becoming less of an issue over time but I still have a few discs that benefit from it.

[b_scott]

I use my Panny for 3D, and 4K discs. Everything else gets ripped to MKV for Plex. So I would never need those features. But I'm glad the Oppo does those for you. Never had a loading issue on the Panny.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Ruined

I think the bottom line is people like streaming, but they don't like purchasing copies of digital movies.

So if they kill off physical media, they may end up killing off most purchases. I know I wouldn't buy anymore if digital was only option, or at least I wouldn't spend more than $5 on a release. And as you said, the streaming money sucks compared to purchases.

What they really wanted was people who were purchasing to drop physical purchase and move to digital purchases (not change from purchasing to streaming), because then it eliminates all the replication, packaging, art, etc, making the profit margin higher. But that effort hasn't been very successful. I think the reason why is that unlike music, there is minimal functionality advantage to a digital vs physical movie. With music , having to switch CDs if you want to listen to a track or two from 5 different artists is a big pain; plus its a big pain to store a bunch of CDs in the car; and, digital music files like hires FLAC are actually higher quality than CD. With movies, they last 2 hours so you aren't going to be switching every 3-5min like music, and you also can't watch them when you drive so portability doesn't matter much; and even if you did have a portability use case like the train, movies take up too much space on the phone and you may not have internet to stream them during parts of the trip; plus digital is lower quality than physical due to bandwidth. All of that makes a digital movie purchase a tough sell.

I’d never trust digital purchases not to disappear someday. I might purchase them for under $10 only if they were the same as disc quality meaning high bitrate video and lossless audio. Until then digital purchases are near worthless and they’ll never have any intrinsic value since you really don’t own anything physical.

[b_scott]

Originally Posted by Tok

I’d never trust digital purchases not to disappear someday. I might purchase them for under $10 only if they were the same as disc quality meaning high bitrate video and lossless audio. Until then digital purchases are near worthless and they’ll never have any intrinsic value since you really don’t own anything physical.

companies can't just take away access to purchased items without reimbursement. So, you'd just get your money back.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Also, for the odd Blu-ray that is transferred in the wrong aspect ratio or misframed, and also for ancient non anamorphic DVDs that never received a Blu-ray, the Oppo's zoom feature is missed on the Panasonic. This is becoming less of an issue over time but I still have a few discs that benefit from it.

My old Sony BD player auto zooms non-anamorphic DVDs especially with big black bars say 2.35:1 in a 4:3 frame. It doesn't look great on a 50" screen though

[ronand]

Any half decent TV should provide a custom zoom mode if needed

[Tok]

Originally Posted by b_scott

companies can't just take away access to purchased items without reimbursement. So, you'd just get your money back.

LOL… they’ve done it before and they will do it again. Read EUA on any of these digital sell through platforms. If a contract expires say good bye to some of ‘your’ titles. All you buy into is a licensing agreement… you don’t have perpetual rights to anything. At least with discs they can’t march into your home and take your discs.