Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Telemachus]

3 1/2 years of a player being a work horse unit before having problems is probably pretty average. If you had another player as a backup, or maybe played normal Blu rays and DVDs on yet other players that time could be stretched out even more. That's my current situation so knock on wood. I still get salty having a Logitech mouse wheel break after 2 years only when old Intellimouse units lasted like 7 years but things don't have the quality now.

[danny24]

Originally Posted by panasonicst60

Not saying it would or should break, but that's quite a bit of movies, give or take 1000. Normally the first thing to go bad is the optical dive. Like some have said, I would replace the drive rather than buying a new unit. They are fairly easy to do. Google for disassemble instructions.

It's pretty easy but most people don't have an ifixit screwdriver kit which I recommend buying because it's magnetic and makes the process easier.

I said to the user to open it up and clean the laser lens. It might be dirty which could cause issues. It's likely though the optical drive failing and yeah just buy a parts one with a good optical drive and do the swap. save some $$$'s.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

3 1/2 years of a player being a work horse unit before having problems is probably pretty average. If you had another player as a backup, or maybe played normal Blu rays and DVDs on yet other players that time could be stretched out even more. That's my current situation so knock on wood. I still get salty having a Logitech mouse wheel break after 2 years only when old Intellimouse units lasted like 7 years but things don't have the quality now.

I do alternate between my three players, they're holding up pretty well considering I have them paused for minutes at a time when doing comparisons.

[Bernardo A.]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I do alternate between my three players, they're holding up pretty well considering I have them paused for minutes at a time when doing comparisons.

Would that be bad for the players?

[ronand]

I doubt it is bad. There is probably less wear and tear than actually playing the disc.

[ij72]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

I still get salty having a Logitech mouse wheel break after 2 years only when old Intellimouse units lasted like 7 years but things don't have the quality now.

The wheel, and not one of the button mechanical switches crapping out - like a normal person?

Weirdo!

[deatheats]

Got a UB420 for Christmas to replace a 15 year old Samsung Blu-ray player in the garage. It was slow, but surprisingly still working. Keeping the 820 as my main player, the 420 lives in the bedroom now and the old Sony gets garage duties.

[the sordid sentinel]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

3 1/2 years of a player being a work horse unit before having problems is probably pretty average. If you had another player as a backup, or maybe played normal Blu rays and DVDs on yet other players that time could be stretched out even more. That's my current situation so knock on wood. I still get salty having a Logitech mouse wheel break after 2 years only when old Intellimouse units lasted like 7 years but things don't have the quality now.

Understood..and I do put my player under a pretty heavy workload. That said, I have a Panny DVD player that I gave to my parents that's 20ish years old and a Sony Blu Ray player in my bedroom that is over 10 years old. Both have spun countless #s of discs and still work like a charm. I just expected more life out of something I paid over $400 for.

[danny24]

Originally Posted by the sordid sentinel

Understood..and I do put my player under a pretty heavy workload. That said, I have a Panny DVD player that I gave to my parents that's 20ish years old and a Sony Blu Ray player in my bedroom that is over 10 years old. Both have spun countless #s of discs and still work like a charm. I just expected more life out of something I paid over $400 for.

If you don't feel like cleaning the lens (it can be a pain in the butt for some people) maybe try a factory reset with the remote:

For anybody who has this issue like I did, I fixed the issue by factory resetting the ub820. You do that by holding down "ok" and yellow and blue for over 5 seconds at the same time until "00 ret" pops up. Then press right until you see "08 fin" and then hold "ok".

It likely won't work but who knows. It's worth a shot.

[Telemachus]

I always pause my 820 cause I leave the room a lot, it goes to sleep after 10 minutes or less anyway, never had any probs. If you're worried about burn in, what do you think those black bars are doing for 2 hours during films? I've never known a unit being paused to wear it down, have left CD players paused for hours before by mistake, had an NES paused for a whole day once to save a game.

Originally Posted by ij72

The wheel, and not one of the button mechanical switches crapping out - like a normal person?

Weirdo!

I scroll Blu-ray.com posts all day, it's a cruel mistress

[Maggot]

Yeah, I have a 9000 and an 820, which play ping pong with each other for content. I try to even out the usage......

[dcx4610]

Strangely, I don't notice any difference turning the HDR optimizer on or off on the new TV. I could clearly see a difference on my old Samsung LCD but nothing on the OLED. Is the new TV just better at handling tone mapping I wonder or is the built in tone mapping mapping overriding the setting? On my Samsung, it gives me the option of Static/Active (I'm on static) with no way to disable it.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by dcx4610

Strangely, I don't notice any difference turning the HDR optimizer on or off on the new TV. I could clearly see a difference on my old Samsung LCD but nothing on the OLED. Is the new TV just better at handling tone mapping I wonder or is the built in tone mapping mapping overriding the setting? On my Samsung, it gives me the option of Static/Active (I'm on static) with no way to disable it.

There is a difference with it on, even if you don't change any of the levels. I can only describe it as some discs get tamed a bit. Two discs I can list as an example are Interstellar and The Mummy. Toggling the optimizer on/off with no settings changed will mess with the HDR brightness in a tiny way, I believe it's duller with it on, because Panny uses their own curve no matter what. It should be off for intention of the source.

[elgee]

Originally Posted by the sordid sentinel

Hello all..my 820 has recently stopped loading discs with DV content. Any ideas? I've ordered a lens cleaner disc, but have a feeling I may be looking to purchase a new player soon.

Check this thread: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=371716

[danny24]

Originally Posted by elgee

Check this thread: https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=371716

Good idea but I'll post the remote reset trick again for them:

In my original post I said that I had factory reset the UB820, and that is true, however there is more than one way to do so. I had factory reset the player through the menu, which had no effect on the issue. But there is a second way to factory reset the player which fixed the issue, which I found in this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/hometheater...onic_ub820_on/

Here are the steps from the linked post:

1. Turn OFF unit.

2. Hold "OK" + "yellow" + "blue" buttons on remote for 5+ seconds. "00 RET" will display on front.

3. Press right until "00 FIN". Hold "OK" for 5+ seconds.

Unit will power cycle. Complete initial set up.

I have the UB9000 and mine had issues playing 4K discs last year and was giving me F99 error code and this worked and fixed it. Can't say it will work for everyone but sometimes the laser lens really does get out of alignment and this helps reset it.

[Hedrox]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

There is a difference with it on, even if you don't change any of the levels. I can only describe it as some discs get tamed a bit. Two discs I can list as an example are Interstellar and The Mummy. Toggling the optimizer on/off with no settings changed will mess with the HDR brightness in a tiny way, I believe it's duller with it on, because Panny uses their own curve no matter what. It should be off for intention of the source.

The problem with the optimizer is that it uses 500 nits increments as reference for tonemapping, so 500, 1000 and 1500 (there's an extra 350 option on the UB9000 and patched UB820). So for example if your TV can do more, say 700 or 1300, the optimizer will not be able to take full advantage of your display's brightness.

They really should've implemented a custom nits cap, instead of the vague naming it currently uses, where no one can tell what they actually mean unless they look it up online.

[danny24]

One other thing could be worth a shot to get their UB820 up and working properly again go into settings and disable Blu-ray live. It likely won't fix anything but it's still worth a shot. You just never know what is causing issues like this it could be something simple or a little more complicated.

[Hedrox]

Originally Posted by danny24

One other thing could be worth a shot to get their UB820 up and working properly again go into settings and disable Blu-ray live. It likely won't fix anything but it's still worth a shot. You just never know what is causing issues like this it could be something simple or a little more complicated.

I believe this helps with older Universal discs that try to connect to BDlive before hitting main menu and end up hanging on a blank screen because the service is dead.

[danny24]

Originally Posted by Hedrox

I believe this helps with older Universal discs that try to connect to BDlive before hitting main menu and end up hanging on a blank screen because the service is dead.

Correct. I don't know what discs that user is trying to play thought it might be worth a shot.

[IXOYE1989]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

Keep the optimizer off until you think you need it, if you never think you need it you don't, I don't use it at all anymore except for Heat. Much more useful for a projector.

Would the UB450 be a good option than the UB820, since the main difference that the UB820 has seem to be the HDR optimizer and better upscaling? Mainly looking for a Dolby Vision player, and since it's recommended to keep the HDR optimizer off, I think the UB450 would suffice for around $171 vs $400+. Can the optimizer be turned on for DV contents too? And if so, guessing not much of a difference?