Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Kirk Out]

Originally Posted by Keoma

I just purchased a UB9000. I am using it in the following manner with a Sony A80J oled and Denon receiver:

HDMI 1 outputs both audio and video directly to the Oled.
HDMI 2 outputs audio only to the Denon.

In this configuration, when playing a DTS title, the player seems to be outputting PCM via HDMI 2 and the Denon is displaying this as "Multi In" instead of DTS-HD.

All output settings are set to "bitstream".

Could it be that the Sony oled does not support DTS? HDMI 2 is only outputting audio, but HDMI 1 is outputting both video and audio, so the Panasonic detects that the Sony is not compatible with DTS and then converts it to PCM on both HDMI outputs. Maybe that is the reason?

Is there any way to force the player to output the DTS signal?

Thanks in advance.

Make sure you switch downmix from stereo to surround on the panny , jus in case you haven’t

[sa5150]

Originally Posted by Wintermute

Are you talking about the Panasonic 820/9000? I thought those were the best at upscaling 1080p blu-rays!

No not at all from what many have said.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by Wintermute

Are you talking about the Panasonic 820/9000? I thought those were the best at upscaling 1080p blu-rays!

Yep the Panny UB820 which came out in 2018 (scaling chip may be older?), I have a current day LG, it is blatantly better at upscaling 1080p Blu rays after going back and forth with both. Very noticable comparing disc menus, that's how I started seeing the difference in motion.

[kevers7290]

I find that Blu-rays look pretty good, but DVD playback is seriously lacking on the 820/9000.

[Wintermute]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Yep the Panny UB820 which came out in 2018 (scaling chip may be older?), I have a current day LG, it is blatantly better at upscaling 1080p Blu rays after going back and forth with both. Very noticable comparing disc menus, that's how I started seeing the difference in motion.

Wow, interesting! What model LG player? Can it do Dolby Vision? Does it have any equivalent to the Panasonic Top Menu trick for playing region-locked discs?

[Academyratio]

I'm experiencing Dolby Vision issues on a few Shout Factory discs, as well as one Kino Lorber disc. The signal will randomly drop, screen goes black for 3-4 seconds, before coming back with the "Dolby Vision" logo on the top right corner of my LG OLED. Happens continuously throughout the film.

The affected discs play fine once I disable DV on the 820, but it's still annoying.

This is happening on 3 out of 107 4K discs I own (Carrie, Coraline & Night of the Hunter)

Has anyone else here been experiencing the same thing? Maybe it's just a weird firmware issue interfering with the DV layer, not sure.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Yep the Panny UB820 which came out in 2018 (scaling chip may be older?), I have a current day LG, it is blatantly better at upscaling 1080p Blu rays after going back and forth with both. Very noticable comparing disc menus, that's how I started seeing the difference in motion.

No. The scaling chips are identical regardless of the version. And all use the exact same firmware and software. There is absolutely no way that the upscaling is better on the LG unless you prefer exaggerated colour saturation and overly sharpened picture (if you like that then it’s fine, but a bad upscale is a bad upscale- objectively)

[Telemachus]

Hard Target is the only problem DV disc I've found so far on the UB820, it has the flicker during almost every scene change, I turned DV off and disc looks the same to me. Hilarious that it will play in DV fine on my Sony, but the Sony always freezes during the last layer, literally can't have it all. Someone said some of the Halloween Shout discs does it but I haven't watched those since before I got this player. New Shout discs working fine like Point Break.

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by Academyratio

I'm experiencing Dolby Vision issues on a few Shout Factory discs, as well as one Kino Lorber disc. The signal will randomly drop, screen goes black for 3-4 seconds, before coming back with the "Dolby Vision" logo on the top right corner of my LG OLED. Happens continuously throughout the film.

The affected discs play fine once I disable DV on the 820, but it's still annoying.

This is happening on 3 out of 107 4K discs I own (Carrie, Coraline & Night of the Hunter)

Has anyone else here been experiencing the same thing? Maybe it's just a weird firmware issue interfering with the DV layer, not sure.

I actually experience this on some DV discs with my Panny 820. It only occurs when first loading up the disc. I have the LG C9. I believe it’s a handshake issue. I’ve tried it out with different cables but it does the same thing. I feel like it’s just going into DV mode and has a slight issue doing so.

I can’t remember if it always had this issue or it only happened when the player (or TV) had a firmware update. Nonetheless, the movies seem to play normally so I’m not too worried about it.

[Wintermute]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

No. The scaling chips are identical regardless of the version. And all use the exact same firmware and software. There is absolutely no way that the upscaling is better than LG unless you prefer exaggerated colour saturation and overly sharpened picture (if you like that then it’s fine, but a bad upscale is a bad upscale- objectively)

Just to be clear, are you saying that there's no way that the Panny's upscaling is "better than LG," or did you mean to say that "there's no way that the upscaling is better on the LG,"?

I'm just wondering, because I see that you have a Panasonic UB9000 yourself.

[lgans316]

Apologies for the dumb question.

Planning to go for modded ABC UB-820 after encountering few Region A locked UHDs. I can still watch my full fat rips but my OCD says I should try one lol. If it works, I can sell my old 820 and keep the new one. I do have a spare 820 as a back-up thanks to my OCD again lol.

Am I right that the 4K region locking is the same as BD region locking?

I do have a Region free BD player btw.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by lgans316

Am I right that the 4K region locking is the same as BD region locking?

I do have a Region free BD player btw.

It's basically the code for the Blu-rays pasted into the UHD structure. It shouldn't be there, but it works the same way.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by Wintermute

Just to be clear, are you saying that there's no way that the Panny's upscaling is "better than LG," or did you mean to say that "there's no way that the upscaling is better on the LG,"?

I'm just wondering, because I see that you have a Panasonic UB9000 yourself.

My bad. I fixed my post. I do mean that there is no way that the upscaling is better on the LG.

[rroeder]

Is Telemachus referring to an LG player or TV being better at upscaling? My Sony TV was better at upscaling than my previous Sony player but the Panasonic player is just as good so I just use the player to upscale blu's now

[Cortiz]

I believe you. I don't have the same tv but i do have a Sony 95K and the upscaling is better than any player i've ever owned including the Panny. Some members of these forums will not accept anynone commenting that something is better than the Panny.

[maperez1987]

Just saw that my player has a new firmware update. Thumbs up or thumbs down to download the update?

[chip75]

Originally Posted by maperez1987

Just saw that my player has a new firmware update. Thumbs up or thumbs down to download the update?

1.76? it's about four months old.

[Arcluna]

Is the 820 and 9000 being discontinued? I was thinking of upgrading from my Sony M2 and it's showing not available on Panasonic's own website.

[jess1581]

Originally Posted by Arcluna

Is the 820 and 9000 being discontinued? I was thinking of upgrading from my Sony M2 and it's showing not available on Panasonic's own website.

Sure hope not for other's sake. It's all we got

[Cortiz]

There is a pretty good chance new players will be announce at CES (we don't know yet which company) so it's possible that Panasonic will have new models. If that's the case, then that might be the reason.