Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

What would be a nice quality 4K player recommendation besides Panasonic that doesn't have freezing or skipping issues? I'm new to 4K and just found out that Kino and SF 4Ks have technical issues in Dolby Vision on Panasonic players connected to LG OLED TV setups causing constant PQ dropouts where the screen shuts off for a couple seconds then comes back on randomly. I'm looking into replacing my Panasonic UB-9000 sadly as it's been working great for me besides those 2 labels. Apparently it's caused by how Kino and SF encode their DV layers from what I understand. FEL vs. MEL.

Might even need to replace my TV instead from LG OLED to another brand/model.

Now I don't know where your picture shuts off, but mine does it for almost every DV movie I pop in. But it's only at the beginning, like the player is shifting to another mode so the TV has to adjust. Never had an issue during playback of DV movies though.

[sapiendut]

Mostly because your cable can’t deal with a constant 4K/60 10bit at 17.8 gbps stream. Many cheap cables can’t do that either. Try different cable.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

Now I don't know where your picture shuts off, but mine does it for almost every DV movie I pop in. But it's only at the beginning, like the player is shifting to another mode so the TV has to adjust. Never had an issue during playback of DV movies though.

That's another strange thing. So far with every DV title I've watched that isn't SF I get zero PQ shut offs, but with SF 4Ks it shuts off initially like it's shifting like you said but then persists throughout the viewing. Naturally since it drives me out of my mind I just end up stopping the 4K not far into the film and switching to the BD instead.

[cascade 15]

Originally Posted by ToonySpoonGoon

I got the Oppenheimer 4K the other day and sampled it on my UB820 and noticed flickering in the back of most scenes, anyone know if theres a remedy for this? I don't notice this on most other 4Ks

my tv is a LG C2

It plays fine on my 820 with an LG C1. You might want to first clean the disc and then check the HDMI cable connections as well as the speaker wire connections.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

Ugh. I don't understand what's going on. Do you guys have any reasonably priced/good quality HDMI cable options? Is the one that comes with the Panny 9000 player not very good? My cable runs from my player directly to my TV just fyi. No receiver yet.

I only use PixelGenDesign HDMI cables. They are not the cheapest (but far from being expensive) but they are individually tested so it’s never a gamble buying cables from them.

[Law212]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

Ugh. I don't understand what's going on. Do you guys have any reasonably priced/good quality HDMI cable options? Is the one that comes with the Panny 9000 player not very good? My cable runs from my player directly to my TV just fyi. No receiver yet.

Its not an HDMI issue. I have an issue with my UB820. Some movies just wont play. They will get to a certain point and start to having all these distorted blocks, and sound will cut out and it just gets janky from there. I replaced my HDMI cables with the new fangled super high speed HDMI cables. Didnt fix it.

player has the latest firmware , still no fix.

Some movies play fine, others dont. Recently I found Color out of space starts acting up near the start, Smile acts up about 39 minutes in. I have a huge backlog so going through movies will be hit or miss.

So much for a 600 CAD player. My older non DV phillips player plays everything without issue and it was 200 brand new.

On the good side, Batman played just fine , but I did notice a one second freeze about halfway into the movie.

[sojrner]

Originally Posted by Law212

Its not an HDMI issue. I have an issue with my UB820. Some movies just wont play. They will get to a certain point and start to having all these distorted blocks, and sound will cut out and it just gets janky from there. I replaced my HDMI cables with the new fangled super high speed HDMI cables. Didnt fix it.

player has the latest firmware , still no fix.

Some movies play fine, others dont. Recently I found Color out of space starts acting up near the start, Smile acts up about 39 minutes in. I have a huge backlog so going through movies will be hit or miss.

So much for a 600 CAD player. My older non DV phillips player plays everything without issue and it was 200 brand new.

On the good side, Batman played just fine , but I did notice a one second freeze about halfway into the movie.

What you're describing is not what MovieBuff was saying. Yours is more akin to bad disc manufacturing, outgassing film on the disc needing to be cleaned, scratches, and yes, possible player needing to be cleaned or replaced... MovieBuff is talking about complete picture dropouts (screen turning off), which absolutely is indicative of an HDMI issue.

[pjl69]

My first blu-ray player was Phillips. Didn't even manage some modern copy-protected discs (like Skyfall when it was new), just jammed when I tried to play them. Got rid of it and bought a Sony, which worked fine even with modern discs, lol.

[backwater]

Originally Posted by b_scott

if time machines existed, then that would matter Today it's about $450 new with tax on amazon.

I'll sell my modded one for $325.

Ah, thought you meant best sale price ever.

[danny24]

Originally Posted by pjl69

My first blu-ray player was Phillips. Didn't even manage some modern copy-protected discs (like Skyfall when it was new), just jammed when I tried to play them. Got rid of it and bought a Sony, which worked fine even with modern discs, lol.

Same here. Philips was my first Blu-ray player. It was a BDP7200/F7. It still works good. I also got the Philips BDP7501 UHD player and that still plays discs fine to.

[silverguise]

Originally Posted by chip75

I think it's a quirk of the players. It's been mentioned a few times.

Thanks. Man, you'd think a player that came out so many years ago, which seems to still be a seller, would have received a fix by now :/

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by silverguise

I have issues when playing DTS-HD on the UB820. It upmixes the audio to output at 7.1 multichannel PCM - even if it is a DTS-HD Mono track. Most of the time, this isn't a giant issue, but for some movies/shows it results in a poor audio experience. What I want is the 5 channel and lower mixes to output to my audio system.

I know it is the UB820, as my PS5 has no issues under the same conditions outputting just what is on the disk. It's almost as if the 7.1 Audio Reformatting is activated even though i have it set to Off. I have tried toggling the settings it with no success.

Wondering if anyone here has encountered similar issues as me or know a fix. Thanks

My setup is:

**TV**: Sony A90k | HDMI picture type: Enhanced | Passthrough enabled

**Sound System**: Sonos Beam (G2) + One Surrounds + Sub Mini | Tv Passthough eArc connection

**Player**: Panasonic UB820 | Video and Audio through same HDMI cable

**Relevant (?) Player Settings**: 7.1ch Audio Reformatting = Off | Downmix = Surround Encoded | Dynamic Range Compression = Off| Digital Audio Output: Dolby = Bitstream; DTS/DTS-HD = PCM; BD-Video Secondary Audio = Off

The problem is that like a lot of soundbars, this Sonos does not have built-in DTS decoders. One of the many reasons I would NEVER recommend a soundbar to anyone except for a secondary bedroom system.

When standard set top DVD and Blu-ray disc players have to internally decode and decompress DTS back to uncompressed PCM data (soundtracks start as PCM), this kicks in an upmix feature that was demanded long ago by DTS for some strange reason, and that has not been changed in many, many years.

Unless you have a receiver or pre-amp/processor with DTS included and can bitstream the audio to said gear for it to decode the audio back to PCM, you will run into this issue.

[MassiveMovieBuff]

I have an update for my blackout issue I was experiencing. So I found out that if I shut the 24p output setting from auto to off on my panny 9000 player it seems to have fixed the blackout issue. I'm not sure what that setting is for but I'm just relieved it worked. It's so bizarre how it only happened with certain titles. Is that 24p setting something I need to have on auto?

[Boland]

Originally Posted by silverguise

I have issues when playing DTS-HD on the UB820. It upmixes the audio to output at 7.1 multichannel PCM - even if it is a DTS-HD Mono track. Most of the time, this isn't a giant issue, but for some movies/shows it results in a poor audio experience. What I want is the 5 channel and lower mixes to output to my audio system.

I know it is the UB820, as my PS5 has no issues under the same conditions outputting just what is on the disk. It's almost as if the 7.1 Audio Reformatting is activated even though i have it set to Off. I have tried toggling the settings it with no success.

Wondering if anyone here has encountered similar issues as me or know a fix. Thanks

My setup is:

**TV**: Sony A90k | HDMI picture type: Enhanced | Passthrough enabled

**Sound System**: Sonos Beam (G2) + One Surrounds + Sub Mini | Tv Passthough eArc connection

**Player**: Panasonic UB820 | Video and Audio through same HDMI cable

**Relevant (?) Player Settings**: 7.1ch Audio Reformatting = Off | Downmix = Surround Encoded | Dynamic Range Compression = Off| Digital Audio Output: Dolby = Bitstream; DTS/DTS-HD = PCM; BD-Video Secondary Audio = Off

It's the Sonos. If you really want to go the soundbar route, get a Samsung setup... They support Atmos and DTS... Plus have a second HDMI input which works really well with extra HDMI out of the 820 (using audio only), while still having eARC/ARC input.

[silverguise]

Originally Posted by Boland

It's the Sonos. If you really want to go the soundbar route, get a Samsung setup... They support Atmos and DTS... Plus have a second HDMI input which works really well with extra HDMI out of the 820 (using audio only), while still having eARC/ARC input.

I'm not so sure about that, because when I play the same movie/audio track on my PS5 (same tv setup) and have that decode DTS-HD/X to PCM, my Sonos will output the correct number of channels in PCM.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

I have an update for my blackout issue I was experiencing. So I found out that if I shut the 24p output setting from auto to off on my panny 9000 player it seems to have fixed the blackout issue. I'm not sure what that setting is for but I'm just relieved it worked. It's so bizarre how it only happened with certain titles. Is that 24p setting something I need to have on auto?

Only if you want to watch movies at the correct frame rate

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Only if you want to watch movies at the correct frame rate

I've watched 3 that I'm really familiar with since and they all played normal AFAIK. I noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by MassiveMovieBuff

I've watched 3 that I'm really familiar with since and they all played normal AFAIK. I noticed nothing out of the ordinary.

Most people wouldn't, to be fair

[MassiveMovieBuff]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Most people wouldn't, to be fair

From what I've researched on it though I guess you're supposed to get severe judder/frame rate issues during playback with it set to off which I've had none of that so far. This is beyond frustrating. I don't know if my setup just doesn't mesh or if I have a defective player/TV. My return window on Amazon is closing. Don't know what to do.

[ronand]

It will depend a lot on your TV - if you have a basic 60Hz panel which can't really display 24p natively anyway you probably can't see any difference