Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by Scanner238

820 arrived on Tuesday from amazon. The 3 DV discs I've tried all encounter flickering, and what appears to be dropping frames throughout. When I play the blu-ray versions of the same films, the problem goes away. Turn DV off, the problem goes away. Not an issue with HDMI cables - I've experimented swapping them out.

Bought it strictly for the DV, so looks like I'm going back to the PS5 which has always been consistent. Maybe DV just isn't for me.

What TV do you have by chance? And are the HDMI cables 2.0/ 18 Gbps and certified? And last thing, how do you have the player hooked up? Is it via directly to the TV or through an AV receiver or soundbar?

[Daz_85]

I wonder if some of these 820 playback issues are from connecting the player directly to the TV with HDMI, but outputting the audio to bitstream for passthrough to an AVR or soundbar? If so, try PCM audio.

When I got my LG OLED last year, I played around with different configurations, and I did have hickups with the above, but no problem with playback having the 820 connected via HDMI to the AVR > TV eARC.

[trekky76]

How do I clear cache on this player? Cannot find any option other than factory reset.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

I know it looks like you got this fixed, but White Snowy Noise is a good indication that it’s a cable issue. I remember my dad buying 2 $150 Monster Cable HDMI cables and it produced white snow. This was back in 2009/2010 when we didn’t know better.

Obviously we know now Monster Cable is a huge rip off! Once we discovered this, we bought HDMI Cables from Monoprice and that did the trick. We have been buying from them since. Don’t trust anyone else but them.

But I will say, I also get a drop out of picture when I start up a Dolby Vision disc on my LG C9 from my Panny 820. But the playback of the movie is fine. I think it just enters a DV mode or something with the TV.

Commenting on the Monster Cables. All of my Monster Cables HDMI during HDMI 1.3 era are all working no problem today even when pushed at a constant bitrate of 18 gbps (4K/60). Even the cable from the receiver to my projector can deal with 14 gbps (4K/24) with no problem. So yeah, they are expensive, but not needing to pull a long HDMI cables for more than 10 years is priceless.

[Cortiz]

I've used Monsters cable almost exclusively since the BD era. They are good quality cables and never had any issues with them. But yeah, back in the day they were grossly overpriced

[sapiendut]

Now Monster is selling a 4-pack of lighted (read: useless gimmick) HDMI cables for approx US$40 per each set. Nothing ridiculous in price anymore.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

I know it looks like you got this fixed, but White Snowy Noise is a good indication that it’s a cable issue. I remember my dad buying 2 $150 Monster Cable HDMI cables and it produced white snow. This was back in 2009/2010 when we didn’t know better.

Obviously we know now Monster Cable is a huge rip off! Once we discovered this, we bought HDMI Cables from Monoprice and that did the trick. We have been buying from them since. Don’t trust anyone else but them.

But I will say, I also get a drop out of picture when I start up a Dolby Vision disc on my LG C9 from my Panny 820. But the playback of the movie is fine. I think it just enters a DV mode or something with the TV.

I've got short runs (6 foot) but have been using these Monoprice ones without issues in my set-up for a few years.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...3?ie=UTF8&th=1

[Scanner238]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

What TV do you have by chance? And are the HDMI cables 2.0/ 18 Gbps and certified? And last thing, how do you have the player hooked up? Is it via directly to the TV or through an AV receiver or soundbar?

TV is a 2024 Hisense 100" U70N QLED, which works well with streaming DV.

UB820 hooked directly into TV thru 2.1 HDMI (Highwings 8K @ 60, 48gbps). This is the same cord that works with the PS5, and I'd hope is good enough for DV even though I now see people mentioning the Monoprice cords.

[Bernardo A.]

Originally Posted by Scanner238

TV is a 2024 Hisense 100" U70N QLED, which works well with streaming DV.

UB820 hooked directly into TV thru 2.1 HDMI (Highwings 8K @ 60, 48gbps). This is the same cord that works with the PS5, and I'd hope is good enough for DV even though I now see people mentioning the Monoprice cords.

It's more than enough for DV.

[StarFuryG7]

Originally Posted by Scanner238

820 arrived on Tuesday from amazon. The 3 DV discs I've tried all encounter flickering, and what appears to be dropping frames throughout. When I play the blu-ray versions of the same films, the problem goes away. Turn DV off, the problem goes away. Not an issue with HDMI cables - I've experimented swapping them out.

Bought it strictly for the DV, so looks like I'm going back to the PS5 which has always been consistent. Maybe DV just isn't for me.

It sounds as though your TV doesn't support DV.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by StarFuryG7

It sounds as though your TV doesn't support DV.

That TV model does support Dolby Vision.

[StarFuryG7]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

I just had one of those "unreadable disc" moments with the 820. Movie I haven't watched in a couple years (Mission Impossible), the disc worked last time, no scratches, disc looked clean in room lighting. Typical open/close and powercycle, still won't play. Throw some jeweler light on it, oh there's a streak of dried up case muck, wiped it clean, but still won't play. At his point I was actually close to chalking it up as a dead disc. I can give this thing an alcohol bath and then pull the Sony out of the closet as my last options. But I just run warm water over it for 30 seconds and give it another wipe down: disc starts up on the 820, all is well. It seriously is a process sometimes. Whenever I see someone on here complaining about the 820 not playing discs I like to think that person just never gets this far.

From what someone else was saying, if the TV doesn't support Dolby Vision, there will be trouble trying to play a disc on the 820.

That's why I was happy last weekend that I went with my instincts and purchased the 420 instead. I would have had to either return the 820, or put it back in its box, sealed it up, and stuck it into the back of a closet for God knows how long until I decided to buy another big screen television.

[Bernardo A.]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

That TV model does support Dolby Vision.

Maybe it's a handshake issue?

[StarFuryG7]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

That TV model does support Dolby Vision.

Hmmm... sounds like the 820 is very finicky then. A lot of people complain about the model, and given how pricey it is, that's a real bummer.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by StarFuryG7

Hmmm... sounds like the 820 is very finicky then. A lot of people complain about the model, and given how pricey it is, that's a real bummer.

Given what people have been saying about Panasonic players, especially those that were more recently built, I have to believe that their build quality and part tolerances have dropped.


Now, that said, there are a few Dolby Vision 4k discs where the HDR instructional metadata is out of sync with the video stream. That kind of mastering error can cause flashing. DV is more susceptible to problems because its information (HDR grading data and optional video enhancement layer) is carried on a separate data layer. If the encoder is off by so much as half a frame, there can be problems. Now that fewer home video divisions have quality control departments to check the disc master before being sent to the pressing plants, these things can slip through.

[blackray4k]

Originally Posted by KillerQ

Thank you. Do you, by chance, have a link to that forum?

If it's the one I think they're referring to, it's here:

https://www.avforums.com/threads/let...eedom.2441584/

However, it appears you need to have multiple computer science PhD's to install it. All I could ever work out reading that thread, is you need a computer running something other than Windows (Ubuntu or Linux or something) to install it correctly. Everything else is completely over my head.

[Telemachus]

Monster still exists!? What a laugh from the past. I have used monoprice HDMI cables for nearly 15 years and never had any problems on anything I tried to pipe through them.

[StarFuryG7]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Given what people have been saying about Panasonic players, especially those that were more recently built, I have to believe that their build quality and part tolerances have dropped.

The same thought crossed my mind as well, and it's not as though we haven't already seen it before, and with the Panasonic brand also for that matter. Consider when VHS Players went the cheap route, from metal cases to plastic once the writing was already on the wall that its days as a format were likely numbered. I had one of the older metal frame Panasonic VHS Players, as well as a later model with the plastic case. The later model probably did have the same parts as the player from several years earlier, but it was light as a feather with that plastic casing, and when playing, much louder than anyone would have cared to be bothered with.

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Now, that said, there are a few Dolby Vision 4k discs where the HDR instructional metadata is out of sync with the video stream. That kind of mastering error can cause flashing. DV is more susceptible to problems because its information (HDR grading data and optional video enhancement layer) is carried on a separate data layer. If the encoder is off by so much as half a frame, there can be problems. Now that fewer home video divisions have quality control departments to check the disc master before being sent to the pressing plants, these things can slip through.

I believe that once discs started getting mass produced in Mexico because it was cheaper, thanks also to the success of streaming taking over and dominating home video, these issues were of course an inevitability.

There's an obvious benefit to streaming. I just wish it hadn't been at the overwhelming expense to physical media.

[Bernardo A.]

Originally Posted by StarFuryG7

There's an obvious benefit to streaming. I just wish it hadn't been at the overwhelming expense to physical media.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by StarFuryG7

From what someone else was saying, if the TV doesn't support Dolby Vision, there will be trouble trying to play a disc on the 820.

That's why I was happy last weekend that I went with my instincts and purchased the 420 instead. I would have had to either return the 820, or put it back in its box, sealed it up, and stuck it into the back of a closet for God knows how long until I decided to buy another big screen television.

If the TV doesn't support Dobly then the 820 will automatically ignore it and pass through the HDR10 layer. That's it. No need to spread more FUD.