Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Wintermute]

Here's a strange case regarding the Top Menu trick on my 820 -- I'd greatly appreciate any theories or thoughts:

I took a gamble and imported Studio Canal's Region B release of The Vanishing, and it did indeed play on my Region A Panasonic 820 with the Top Menu trick....but only once! Here are the details:

After hitting Top Menu 2 or 3 times, it took me to the menu screen -- hooray, success! (...or so I thought.) This menu offered options to click either Germany or U.K (for German or English subtitles). I selected U.K., then the Studio Canal intro video/audio played...but then I was suddenly back to a menu looking identical to the first, only this time without Germany or U.K. or any Play option at all -- just the image/words "The Vanishing."

I pressed buttons like Play, FF, next chapter, etc., and I even waited to see if the film would start playing on its own...but no luck. So I pressed Stop, ejected the disc, and tried again from scratch. This time I selected Germany, but same deal: back to the menu screen with only the movie title in German, and no Play option.

So I stopped the disc and tried again with the U.K. option, figuring it probably just wouldn't work, but still hoping that there was some trick I could devise, since I felt so close -- and I'm not sure if it was some extra, random series of buttons that I pressed while the Studio Canal intro played, or if it was just chance or what, but this time it took me to an English menu that did show Play Film as an option -- and voila, it worked, and the film started playing!

So that's how I got it to work...once. But now, I can't get it play again. I don't know what button (or combination of buttons) I randomly mashed or what the hell I did to get it to offer up the English menu with Play Film as an on-screen option, and now I can't seem to replicate that success.

Are there any Panny specialists here who can analyze this situation and offer some insights?

[Telemachus]

I have two ways to get the trick to work. On most discs it will go to the region lock screen, then I press stop once and top menu once, works everytime.

Now on some discs, I won't even get the region lock screen, it will just bounce back to the menu after failing to start the disc... but I figured out on these if I power down the player and start it back up with the disc in the player, it will work and load me to the region lock screen where I can do the remote trick.

I have also found the player will auto resume a locked disc if I was already watching it without doing the trick again. Also have been meaning to try the Second Sight Dawn of the Dead Blu rays but multiple people told me they won't work but I haven't tried on the latest firmware maybe they do.

[Bernardo A.]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

I have two ways to get the trick to work. On most discs it will go to the region lock screen, then I press stop once and top menu once, works everytime.

Now on some discs, I won't even get the region lock screen, it will just bounce back to the menu after failing to start the disc... but I figured out on these if I power down the player and start it back up with the disc in the player, it will work and load me to the region lock screen where I can do the remote trick.

I have also found the player will auto resume a locked disc if I was already watching it without doing the trick again. Also have been meaning to try the Second Sight Dawn of the Dead Blu rays but multiple people told me they won't work but I haven't tried on the latest firmware maybe they do.

I wish I were that ingenious.

[Wintermute]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

I have two ways to get the trick to work...

This Studio Canal/Region B copy of The Vanishing always gives me a region lock screen ("region mismatch between disc and player"), and pressing Stop once, then Top Menu at least 3 or 4 times (for some reason, this one takes more Top Menu presses than other locked discs) always takes me to the menu where I can choose between Deutschland and U.K.

The problem comes after that; once I choose U.K., it has always taken me to a sub-menu screen that (aside from the cover-art image & title, "The Vanishing") is functionally blank, with no Play option -- except for one time, where that sub-menu screen included a "Play Film" option in the bottom right corner, which worked just fine.

And once I've reached the sub-menu screen that's missing the Play Film option, I have to either eject the disc or power the player down and start over, because otherwise the Top Menu trick just takes me straight to that faulty sub-menu screen with "The Vanishing" in English but no Play option, as opposed to the Top Menu (which offers options to choose Deutschland or U.K.).

There must be some sort of instructions the player can receive to make it show the sub-menu screen with Play Film option, because when I did get it to work, I was mashing random buttons out of desperation during the interim period between Top Menu and sub-menu. That must've somehow done the trick, but I can't replicate it for the life of me. I feel like some Panasonic engineer/programmer might be able to reason out what is going on here and what I did to make it work -- but short of that, the disc is in a frustrating gray-zone of being un-watchable yet also potentially fine!

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by Wintermute

There must be some sort of instructions the player can receive to make it show the sub-menu screen with Play Film option, because when I did get it to work, I was mashing random buttons out of desperation during the interim period between Top Menu and sub-menu. That must've somehow done the trick, but I can't replicate it for the life of me. I feel like some Panasonic engineer/programmer might be able to reason out what is going on here and what I did to make it work -- but short of that, the disc is in a frustrating gray-zone of being un-watchable yet also potentially fine!

The trick reminds of of the old region mod codes in game systems that you could trigger with a save file or something, all hidden there by devs to test things on retail systems most times. Next time it works watch the whole disc before you power it down lmao

[chip75]

Not to be a dick, and I get trying to work out secret cheat codes to get something, but think about buying a region free player or BD drive for your computers.

[Bernardo A.]

Originally Posted by chip75

Not to be a dick, and I get trying to work out secret cheat codes to get something, but think about buying a region free player or BD drive for your computers.

Are eBay modded players reliable?

[Wintermute]

Originally Posted by chip75

Not to be a dick, and I get trying to work out secret cheat codes to get something, but think about buying a region free player or BD drive for your computers.

I don't watch movies on my computer. I prefer watching things on my Panasonic 820, on my main TV. I don't have the space on my TV stand (or the patience) for another player & cables, and from what I've heard, nothing will look as good on any region-free player as it would on the Panasonic 820.

The 820 plays a bunch of Region B titles just fine -- I haven't come across enough titles that don't to warrant a region-free player. I just got the Studio Canal version of The Vanishing because I read that it might look better than Criterion's Region A blu-ray.

[Bernardo A.]

Originally Posted by Wintermute

I just got the Studio Canal version of The Vanishing because I read that it might look better than Criterion's Region A blu-ray.

As per usual.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Bernardo A.

Are eBay modded players reliable?

You'd be better off with one of the specialist companies and a midrange SONY player and just use that for Blu-rays and DVDs.

[bjp1979]

Originally Posted by bjp1979

It does work really well most of the time on Viera link, but I guess it’s only a minor inconvenience to switch to the hdmi port on the tv.

I’ll turn it off and see if that corrects the issue.

I tried this morning with Viera link off and unfortunately I still had a disc read error. I turned Viera link back on, shut everything down and then restarted the disc by pressing play so everything came back on and the disc resumed 🤔

[samuelkhan999]

Originally Posted by bjp1979

I tried this morning with Viera link off and unfortunately I still had a disc read error. I turned Viera link back on, shut everything down and then restarted the disc by pressing play so everything came back on and the disc resumed ��

Send the player back and ask them to give u a fresh new unit.

I bought an opened region free ub820 unit off TPS. It had disc error issues. I sent the player to them. They fixed the disc drive and its smooth sailing since then.

[samuelkhan999]

Anyone whose got access to AR glasses like from TCL and other manufacturers that is compatible with the UB420/820/9000?

[TheHighRoller]

I was watching The Bling Ring, and towards the end when Emma Watson is giving her speech to the cameras, the whole disc froze and pixelated. I tried letting it play through and it just booted me to the main disc menu. I then tried skipping past it and it would just freeze again. The disc didn't look rotted, and it had no chipping on the info side, nor any scratches on the clear side.

This hasn't happened to other discs I own. The most common ones this happens to is library discs (some of which also look new). Not sure if its a disc issue or a player issue (I have the 820).


Is this a common occurrence on these?

[HorrorBlu]

Originally Posted by TheHighRoller

Not sure if its a disc issue or a player issue (I have the 820).

Did you try it on another player?

[TheHighRoller]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

Did you try it on another player?

I got rid of the Sony one when I upgraded to this. Well, I do have a PS4 so I can try that I guess.

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by TheHighRoller

I got rid of the Sony one when I upgraded to this. Well, I do have a PS4 so I can try that I guess.

Yeah, definitely give that a try. My PS5 played several discs my old UB820 choked on. Some Panasonics are very sensitive to any disc flaws, including those that aren’t visible to the naked eye.

[cybersoga]

Originally Posted by Cherokee Jack

Yeah, definitely give that a try. My PS5 played several discs my old UB820 choked on. Some Panasonics are very sensitive to any disc flaws, including those that aren’t visible to the naked eye.

I had that issue with a Sony UBP-X800M2. My new UB820 has been flawless so far.

[WITCHCULT]

Originally Posted by Wintermute

I don't watch movies on my computer. I prefer watching things on my Panasonic 820, on my main TV. I don't have the space on my TV stand (or the patience) for another player & cables, and from what I've heard, nothing will look as good on any region-free player as it would on the Panasonic 820.

The 820 plays a bunch of Region B titles just fine -- I haven't come across enough titles that don't to warrant a region-free player. I just got the Studio Canal version of The Vanishing because I read that it might look better than Criterion's Region A blu-ray.

If you're slightly tech savvy, you can modify the firmware on your own to make it region free with regionfreedom patches. Instructions are on the avforums.

[BluRayOK]

Hi.

New to this forum and I've been trying to find an answer, but for ONLY the discs in the Criterion Collection of the original (Showa-Era) films [see https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Godzi...u-ray/248527/], I am having this problem:

1) at normal speed, no sound

2) at the first level of higher speed, sound (but at that higher speed)

My Panasonic UB820 feeds into a Sony STR-DG720, which is indicating that the signal is trying to use

1') at normal speed, a surround system (not attached!),

2') at the higher speed, 2-channel (which IS attached).

Never had this happen before, and I have

• updated the firmware
• tried to force the player to use 2-channel audio

Obviously, in the plethora of settings, I seem to be not getting this latter step right.

I'm assuming that both these discs and this issue are known problems, so please castigate me as needed and point me in the proper direction.

I can provide screen shots of the audio settings as needed; I'm sure there is some combo of settings I have gotten wrong.

Thanks for any pointers on saving this situation.