Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by garyd97

Does this have a better build quality than the Sony x-100ES?

The 820 does not.

[Geoff D]

It's funny, but with the specific example of the setting sun in Furious 8 that Vincent uses for the Panny's clipping I see no difference between the two players on the ZD9 (in low latency mode, natch) except that the Panny is a touch brighter, with the exact same TV settings across both inputs. But that's not to say that there isn't a clipping issue because there is, if I play DV content that's got some silly bright >4000 nit highlights like The Meg or the Montage in Spears & Munsil UHD Benchmark then it clips like mad on the Panny. Chapter 2 of the Montage, horsies in the snow, is totally nuked and I'm not being hyperbolic.

Odd thing is, the DV test patterns that Stacey Spears aksed me to evaluate go all the way out to 10k nits even on the Panny, his theory is that because the patterns just had L1 (automated) metadata then the low latency mode is fine with reading that, but with the manual trim metadata then it starts to struggle and so I'm not sure how 'dynamic' the LL mode actually is, it may be more of a generic mapping according to what peak brightness is assigned to it (I think the LL mode doesn't read the specific peak brightness from the TV's EDID like the TV-led mode does).

The OPPO does draw out more highlight information than the Panny (OPPO just clips higher up the range than the Panny does), but I think that's why the OPPO's LL mode is darker as that's kinda how tone mapping works: you want more range then you can have it, but it can dim the average brightness somewhat. Whereas the Panny's LL implementation is keeping the average level more consistent to where it should be, but it's sacrificing some highlight information - albeit extreme >4000 nit highlights - to do it. That's just my theory.

As luck would have it, the main studio that continually masters their stuff to silly peak brightness - Sony - doesn't use DV a whole lot on disc so this issue isn't a chronic concern with 99.9% of real world content. Universal, Paramount, Lionsgate, Warners and StudioCanal are the main purveyors on DV on disc and they rarely employ the Light Cannon™. So I still use the Panny for DV into the ZD9, and it resolves chroma a bit cleaner than the OPPO does too.

[Oniiz86]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The OPPO does draw out more highlight information than the Panny (OPPO just clips higher up the range than the Panny does), but I think that's why the OPPO's LL mode is darker as that's kinda how tone mapping works: you want more range then you can have it, but it can dim the average brightness somewhat. Whereas the Panny's LL implementation is keeping the average level more consistent to where it should be, but it's sacrificing some highlight information - albeit extreme >4000 nit highlights - to do it. That's just my theory.

As luck would have it, the main studio that continually masters their stuff to silly peak brightness - Sony - doesn't use DV a whole lot on disc so this issue isn't a chronic concern with 99.9% of real world content. Universal, Paramount, Lionsgate, Warners and StudioCanal are the main purveyors on DV on disc and they rarely employ the Light Cannon™. So I still use the Panny for DV into the ZD9, and it resolves chroma a bit cleaner than the OPPO does too.

I thought the Panasonics employ aggressive Chroma sharpening and can cause colour fringing on edges, is that no longer the case?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Oniiz86

I thought the Panasonics employ aggressive Chroma sharpening and can cause colour fringing on edges, is that no longer the case?

They do, it's very aggressive. But it's practically invisible in real world viewing and when looking at some DV test patterns it does a better job with the chroma in DV than the OPPO does.

[EddieLarkin]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

They do, it's very aggressive. But it's practically invisible in real world viewing and when looking at some DV test patterns it does a better job with the chroma in DV than the OPPO does.

Should the 820's chroma upsampling be set to -1 or is that just the chroma upscaling?

[Vriess]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

As luck would have it, the main studio that continually masters their stuff to silly peak brightness - Sony - doesn't use DV a whole lot on disc so this issue isn't a chronic concern with 99.9% of real world content. Universal, Paramount, Lionsgate, Warners and StudioCanal are the main purveyors on DV on disc and they rarely employ the Light Cannon™. So I still use the Panny for DV into the ZD9, and it resolves chroma a bit cleaner than the OPPO does too.

That's good to hear, I was concerned about what I had heard, thanks

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by EddieLarkin

Should the 820's chroma upsampling be set to -1 or is that just the chroma upscaling?

Wait until the master confirms, but I'm pretty sure he has advised to leave it alone because it potentially introduces another negative to fix that one. I think I've asked the same thing a while back!

However, Edge Correction to +1 (for 1080p blu-rays ).

[tama]

Originally Posted by pbz06

Wait until the master confirms, but I'm pretty sure he has advised to leave it alone because it potentially introduces another negative to fix that one. I think I've asked the same thing a while back!

However, Edge Correction to +1 (for 1080p blu-rays ).

Why? What does that do?

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by tama

Why? What does that do?

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=726

https://www.avforums.com/reviews/pan...0-review.15619

"In the Picture Settings menu, under Sharpness Adjustment, there is a control called Edge Correction, which I would recommend setting to +1 for Blu-rays because as with all of Panasonic's other players, the zero setting introduces slight ringing around fine details."

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by EddieLarkin

Should the 820's chroma upsampling be set to -1 or is that just the chroma upscaling?

There's a Chroma sharpness setting which I nudge down to -1.

Originally Posted by pbz06

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...&postcount=726

https://www.avforums.com/reviews/pan...0-review.15619

"In the Picture Settings menu, under Sharpness Adjustment, there is a control called Edge Correction, which I would recommend setting to +1 for Blu-rays because as with all of Panasonic's other players, the zero setting introduces slight ringing around fine details."

I keep Edge Correction to OFF now. Although the +1 setting removes the ringing from the upscaling, it then causes moiré patterns on areas of fine slanted detail.

[PissedOffPeoN]

Has anyone figured out a way to get rid of Dolby vision being on all the time on Netflix on this player? It forces it on everything, even menu and even if it isn't in vision it makes it that without turning it off in the player menu settings.

[Geoff D]

I dunno about Netflix but my 820 has a bug where if a UHD disc has any DV content on it then the player forces everything on that disc into DV, including the menu, SD special features etc.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

There's a Chroma sharpness setting which I nudge down to -1.



I keep Edge Correction to OFF now. Although the +1 setting removes the ringing from the upscaling, it then causes moiré patterns on areas of fine slanted detail.

That's right, I got them reversed.

The Chroma sharpness to -1 is both for UHD and regular Blu right?

[Geoff D]

Yes, I just leave it on -1.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yes, I just leave it on -1.

Which S&M UHD pattern did you use to get to that setting? Even when reading the instructions and looking at the "sample", it's challenging correlating the description to what I'm supposed to see.

[Geoff D]

Any set of HDR colour bars will show up the ringing on certain colours quite clearly. But as real world content doesn't consist of giant static blocks of colour then it's virtually invisible in normal viewing, but I put it on -1 anyway for the fractional difference it makes. You can't turn it down too far because it's like the luma ringing on the upscaling: genuine detail is mixed in with the upsampled luma and chroma, so if you correct it it'll look fine on a test pattern but could cause issues with proper viewing, like with Edge Correction set to +1: the ringing is gone but you can get some gnarly moiré on other content (which isn't in the content itself) as a result.

[James_Younger_Gang]

I have the oled cx 65 plus the panasonic ub 420 4k player. When playing 4k uhd disks, the tv has dynamic tone mapping, AI picture pro, plus the 4k player has hdr optimizer. My question : Can. I keep all three features active without affecting hdr or picture quality? Or should I only keep one active? Please be specific as to what I should keep on and off in order to get the best hdr quality. I will be grateful for your answers.

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by James_Younger_Gang

I have the oled cx 65 plus the panasonic ub 420 4k player. When playing 4k uhd disks, the tv has dynamic tone mapping, AI picture pro, plus the 4k player has hdr optimizer. My question : Can. I keep all three features active without affecting hdr or picture quality? Or should I only keep one active? Please be specific as to what I should keep on and off in order to get the best hdr quality. I will be grateful for your answers.

This is from my experience with my LG C9, which is almost like the CX. I would turn off the AI Picture Pro, turn on the Dynamic Tone Mapping and Turn on the Optimizer. I have been experimenting a lot and going back on forth between turning the Optimizer On or Off, Turning the Dynamic Tone Mapping of the TV On or off, or just leaving both On or both Off. My conclusions have been that leaving both of them On produces the best picture.

As of right now, the LG's Tone Mapping is not perfect but the Optimizer can take over and tone map the things that the LG CX cannot do. Now that doesn't mean the Optimizer won't make mistakes tone mapping as Geoff and I have discovered when looking at a scene from the 4K version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but that's due to HDR pass and how "fake" / crappy job that was done to it. But that combination with a movie with a good HDR Pass will give you the best picture.

In reality though, there really isn't any right or wrong way to view these movies right now. Different TVs interpret HDR static metadata differently, thus coming up with different results. But these are my findings and my experience finding the best picture.

[James_Younger_Gang]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

This is from my experience with my LG C9, which is almost like the CX. I would turn off the AI Picture Pro, turn on the Dynamic Tone Mapping and Turn on the Optimizer. I have been experimenting a lot and going back on forth between turning the Optimizer On or Off, Turning the Dynamic Tone Mapping of the TV On or off, or just leaving both On or both Off. My conclusions have been that leaving both of them On produces the best picture.

As of right now, the LG's Tone Mapping is not perfect but the Optimizer can take over and tone map the things that the LG CX cannot do. Now that doesn't mean the Optimizer won't make mistakes tone mapping as Geoff and I have discovered when looking at a scene from the 4K version of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, but that's due to HDR pass and how "fake" / crappy job that was done to it. But that combination with a movie with a good HDR Pass will give you the best picture.

In reality though, there really isn't any right or wrong way to view these movies right now. Different TVs interpret HDR static metadata differently, thus coming up with different results. But these are my findings and my experience finding the best picture.

Yes , I have noticed tgat combining both the tone mapping and optimizer helps a lot. Those AI settings, do they help at all with sdr?

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by James_Younger_Gang

Yes , I have noticed tgat combining both the tone mapping and optimizer helps a lot. Those AI settings, do they help at all with sdr?

I have actually not used the setting. But what I gather is that when the feature is turned On, the TV will pick the best resolution the content should be shown at. It basically forces the content to whatever resolution it thinks is appropriate. Personally, I would rather have the source resolution shown. Think about it, if the TV show you are watching is in 480i and the TV thinks it should be upcoverted to 4K, it probably will look like garbage. That said, I think that feature should be turned off.