Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by Rocklandsboy

It seems bizarre that the Oppo 203 which hasn't had an update for years (for obvious reasons) is more capable of playing today's discs than Panasonic players that have active support and "regular" updates...

I don't know what "more capable" means, but my UB9000 has been flawless since it was released in the US. I ended up selling my Oppo 203 because I much preferred the PQ of the Panasonic.

[sojrner]

Originally Posted by Bernardo A.

And what on earth is that?

Originally Posted by samuelkhan999

Love oleds but thr bx died in 3 years. Also I've got a 4 and 1 1/2 year old. No point having an oled if your playing cocomelon and Dora the explorer

I too am wanting deets and elaboration. What do you mean, "died?" Natural causes, or nefarious murder? Does it suddenly not show a picture, not power on because of rigor mortis, or is it literally wrapped in plastic and decomposing in your basement? You have a 2020 model TV, but we don't know the things this poor device survived. A 4.5 year old kid could mean anything (like, spawn of Satan, or gift of God?), but are you in a hot, humid environment, or cool and dry? Is there a swamp cooler blowing on the TV, or does it sit above a fireplace? Was it allowed to run its refresh procedures automatically, or did you disable that?

We must know these things!

[samuelkhan999]

Originally Posted by sojrner

I too am wanting deets and elaboration. What do you mean, "died?" Natural causes, or nefarious murder? Does it suddenly not show a picture, not power on because of rigor mortis, or is it literally wrapped in plastic and decomposing in your basement? You have a 2020 model TV, but we don't know the things this poor device survived. A 4.5 year old kid could mean anything (like, spawn of Satan, or gift of God?), but are you in a hot, humid environment, or cool and dry? Is there a swamp cooler blowing on the TV, or does it sit above a fireplace? Was it allowed to run its refresh procedures automatically, or did you disable that?

We must know these things!

Lamo.

The BX had 2 lines of stuck pixels which didn't get resolved even with the pixel refresher. I sent it away to the retailer and they gave me a partial refund.

I loved my OLED. Anyways, it now pronounced dead in some landfill with its innards taken out for gold and copper.

Well my 4.5 years is human/demon/angel altogether. I live in England.

Back to the question. Does the UB820 show any DV advanced options for U8K or it only does that for the G3/G4 and A95L? Thanks.

[sojrner]

Originally Posted by samuelkhan999

lamo.

[Show spoiler]
the bx had 2 lines of stuck pixels which didn't get resolved even with the pixel refresher. I sent it away to the retailer and they gave me a partial refund.

I loved my oled. Anyways, it now pronounced dead in some landfill with its innards taken out for gold and copper.

well my 4.5 years is human/demon/angel altogether.

[Show spoiler] i live in england.

Back to the question. Does the ub820 show any dv advanced options for u8k or it only does that for the g3/g4 and a95l? Thanks.

This is the appropriate answer from a parent.

[I5o]

Originally Posted by Vic Arpeggio

I'm very tired of my glitchy all-region UB9000, which refuses to play about half of my blu-rays and every tenth 4K disc. I got it just after Christmas. With Panasonic's less-than-stellar warranty and the fact that I bought it modded from 220 Electronics to make it region free, I'm thinking about getting the lower-end Magnetar (I love my still-working old OPPO BDP-103) and using that while this gets fixed and used in the bedroom on the non-4K TV there. Anyone with compare-and-contrast experience with OPPO and Magnetar?

Gidday Vic Arpeggio,

I agree with Cybersoga and second the suggestion for a repair of your UB9000.
I have both the UB820 and UB9000 and thankfully with a new disc drive there are no more glitches playing BD, 4K or DVDs.

Now just in case you have received a unit who's laser assemply on the drive has now become faulty or misaligned when trying to play certain BDs or 4Ks discs the next question would be if those BD and 4K may have had smudges or small scratches that may contribute to your random non-playing discs. And don't forget a disc drive is a wear and tear item and are massed produced so one can receive a dodgy one which then finally begins to fail. Subsequently the random failures eventually full failure.

So if you happen to feel very confident you can invest in buying a new discdrive TXP0035 OR the newer versions TXP0126 OR TXP0128, whatever you can source from Panasonic around $US 220 mark.

Now you need to first have the disc drive tray in the out position then turned off the unit and carefully place it on a stable table and now carefully check the Black colured bezel with Ultra HD written on it and on the bottom part you will have to very carefully pry out that bezel in order to take out the disc drive and before removing it you remove its 4 phillips head screws. I enclose a photo showing bezel upside down with disc drive in same position

Then you can very carefully open your UB9000 and note where each top panel and back panel screw goes back. You do not touch any of the side panels screws ok.

And once open you can clearly see the Panasonic premium discdrive with one small flexible flat cable going to main motherboard. There are 18 pins on the cable and be very careful handling it do not bend or twist in the middle area.

You only need to remove the top panel screws which needs a size 10 Torx screwdriver and phillips head for the back panel screws only and thats it.

Now I recommend wearing anti-static gloves when carefully removing the disc drive and the flex cable from the motherboard then one out very carefully gently pull on the disc drive side with a small plier not and pulling out the flex cable and re-inserting into your new disc drive. Also be careful when removing and replacing the disc drive as there is a small PCB at the underside back area of the disc drive where the flex cable is re-inserted.


If you don't feel confident doing these actions then you will have to pay for someone to do it for you. As you no longer have Panasonic warranty because 220 has modded your UB9000.

Now finally I enclose two photos of my discr drives , one from UB820 is mainly black coloured plastic and one photo of my UB9000 year 2019 that is with open top and you can see the different premium disc drive. I needed to learn the total insides because I will eventually put a rattlebye modchip in both units and now I know how to swap a faulty disc drive with a new one which will give me more years of playing with the proviso that I keep all my disc clean and without scratches as much as possible.

Ok good luck if you decide to fix and save your UB9000 before tossing your money at other players. Which will eventually have disc drive issues as its a wear and tear item. cheers!

[Vic Arpeggio]

Originally Posted by I5o

Gidday Vic Arpeggio,

I agree with Cybersoga and second the suggestion for a repair of your UB9000.
I have both the UB820 and UB9000 and thankfully with a new disc drive there are no more glitches playing BD, 4K or DVDs.

Now just in case you have received a unit who's laser assemply on the drive has now become faulty or misaligned when trying to play certain BDs or 4Ks discs the next question would be if those BD and 4K may have had smudges or small scratches that may contribute to your random non-playing discs. And don't forget a disc drive is a wear and tear item and are massed produced so one can receive a dodgy one which then finally begins to fail. Subsequently the random failures eventually full failure.

So if you happen to feel very confident you can invest in buying a new discdrive TXP0035 OR the newer versions TXP0126 OR TXP0128, whatever you can source from Panasonic around $US 220 mark.

Now you need to first have the disc drive tray in the out position then turned off the unit and carefully place it on a stable table and now carefully check the Black colured bezel with Ultra HD written on it and on the bottom part you will have to very carefully pry out that bezel in order to take out the disc drive and before removing it you remove its 4 phillips head screws. I enclose a photo showing bezel upside down with disc drive in same position

Then you can very carefully open your UB9000 and note where each top panel and back panel screw goes back. You do not touch any of the side panels screws ok.

And once open you can clearly see the Panasonic premium discdrive with one small flexible flat cable going to main motherboard. There are 18 pins on the cable and be very careful handling it do not bend or twist in the middle area.

You only need to remove the top panel screws which needs a size 10 Torx screwdriver and phillips head for the back panel screws only and thats it.

Now I recommend wearing anti-static gloves when carefully removing the disc drive and the flex cable from the motherboard then one out very carefully gently pull on the disc drive side with a small plier not and pulling out the flex cable and re-inserting into your new disc drive. Also be careful when removing and replacing the disc drive as there is a small PCB at the underside back area of the disc drive where the flex cable is re-inserted.


If you don't feel confident doing these actions then you will have to pay for someone to do it for you. As you no longer have Panasonic warranty because 220 has modded your UB9000.

Now finally I enclose two photos of my discr drives , one from UB820 is mainly black coloured plastic and one photo of my UB9000 year 2019 that is with open top and you can see the different premium disc drive. I needed to learn the total insides because I will eventually put a rattlebye modchip in both units and now I know how to swap a faulty disc drive with a new one which will give me more years of playing with the proviso that I keep all my disc clean and without scratches as much as possible.

Ok good luck if you decide to fix and save your UB9000 before tossing your money at other players. Which will eventually have disc drive issues as its a wear and tear item. cheers!

Thanks, man!

I ended up getting a brand-new OPPO 203 off eBay (not cheap but, hey) and am sending off the Panasonic to be repaired by 220 tomorrow. They may replace the whole box. I'm saving all of your information if I ever need to replace the disc drive myself!

PS - Many of the discs I had issues with were brand-new-out-of-the-shrinkwrap discs. The player wouldn't even recognize many of them!

[I5o]

Gidday Vic Arpeggio,

No problemo man and hey congratulations on getting an Oppo 203 and in brand new shape, I have the oldy but goody Oppo 93 mainly for SACD and CD pleasure.

Run the Oppo through lots media discs so you can test the discdrive.

And if your UB9000 disc were near new or new then I bet 100% it is the laser assembly of the disc drive on its way out.

Try to get your old disc drive when 220 fix it unless they say that they keep the faulty drive.

Just that sometimes you can open the top panel of the drive and clean it with alcohol on a cotton stick and carefully clean the glass laser assembly as perhaps dust and particles may have settled on it.

And as a backup try to see if you can source a new Panasonic drive in case you Oppo declines discs and then you can revive your UB9000 with a new disc drive as they may become very hard to source in the future.

Anyhow well done and enjoy the Oppo 202 you lucky man! Cheers

[sfmarine]

Me after finally getting around to testing out the “Region-Free hack” remote trick on the 820.

[jess1581]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

Me after finally getting around to testing out the “Region-Free hack” remote trick on the 820.

What did you do?

[sfmarine]

Originally Posted by jess1581

What did you do?

To get it to read the disc?

[jess1581]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

To get it to read the disc?

Yeah, how did you do the hack?

[sfmarine]

Originally Posted by jess1581

Yeah, how did you do the hack?

Once you get the screen that it’s not the correct region OR it just fails to do anything… Go Home

Then hit the down arrow once immediately followed by “Top Menu” and press it repeatedly several times and it should work.

[HippieDalek]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

Me after finally getting around to testing out the “Region-Free hack” remote trick on the 820.

It's also useful for skipping straight to menus on Blu Rays of own region.

Originally Posted by jess1581

What did you do?

Press stop once when you get the region lock message, then press Top Menu twice.

Doesn't work for every disc, but it works for almost every locked Region A title I own. I think Shout Factory are the only label I've encountered where the trick consistently doesn't work.

[jess1581]

Ok, guys. Thank you. Been wanting to play the special features BD disc of my Dawn of the Dead 4K.

[sfmarine]

Originally Posted by jess1581

Ok, guys. Thank you. Been wanting to play the special features BD disc of my Dawn of the Dead 4K.

That’s on my list. Currently working through my StudioCanal release of They Live.

Also watched The Mummy ‘59.

Report back if you get it to work. As HippieDalek pointed out, it doesn’t work for every disc but most should spin up.

Good to know Shout discs can be hit or miss. I think they’re even locking some 4K discs now.

[waxHead]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

Once you get the screen that it’s not the correct region OR it just fails to do anything… Go Home

Then hit the down arrow once immediately followed by “Top Menu” and press it repeatedly several times and it should work.

So after running into the "region error" message, hit Stop twice to end up back at the main player screen (one with "Video", "Music", "Photos", etc)? Then hit the Down arrow followed by "Top Menu" a bunch of times?

I have a few Region B Blu-rays which I've never been able to play on the 820, curious if this new trick will do it. I also saw the longer trick that Telemachus posted a few months ago.

There's one Region B disc I own which loads the main disc menu. It allows you to start playing the film and then the dreaded "region error" message appears:



Would love to know if there's any way past that one.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

Me after finally getting around to testing out the “Region-Free hack” remote trick on the 820.

[Show spoiler]

I'm like 30 locked discs deep since discovering it, welcome to the world

[sfmarine]

Originally Posted by waxHead

So after running into the "region error" message, hit Stop twice to end up back at the main player screen (one with "Video", "Music", "Photos", etc)? Then hit the Down arrow followed by "Top Menu" a bunch of times?


.

Try “Home” instead of “Stop” followed by the Down Arrow & then press “Top Menu” a few times.

Edit: “Stop” worked for me as well. I immediately hit the down arrow followed by a few quick presses of “Top Menu” & the player recognized the disc.

[waxHead]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

Try “Home” instead of “Stop” followed by the Down Arrow & then press “Top Menu” a few times.

Edit: “Stop” worked for me as well. I immediately hit the down arrow followed by a few quick presses of “Top Menu” & the player recognized the disc.

Thanks for the updated instructions. I tried it numerous times on these four releases and they simply do not load:



Would love to know if anyone gets these working with the 820.

[Telemachus]

Fearless Hyena won't ever work, it's like some of the Second Sight discs, I keep trying to brute force that Second Sight Dawn special features disc from time to time and it just won't ever. Hopeuflly 88 Films is doing a 4k of that eventually, same with Armour of God/Condor, if the Project A set sells well I'm sure they will do more upgrades.