Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by PoorSignal

That seems nice, but overkill to just watch netflix and amazon stream. I will checkout black friday for deals on Nvidia or Roku Ultra.

It is a little overkill, but I think it's worth it. It has the most Dolby Vision and Atmos support across the major apps (Netflix, Disney+, Amazon, Hulu), a nice processor and upscaler for HD content, and receives constant upgrades and support.

Keep an eye out for sure during Black Friday.

[stargazeruk]

Originally Posted by pbz06

It is a little overkill, but I think it's worth it. It has the most Dolby Vision and Atmos support across the major apps (Netflix, Disney+, Amazon, Hulu), a nice processor and upscaler for HD content, and receives constant upgrades and support.

Keep an eye out for sure during Black Friday.

If it's just streaming from the apps and not running plex server or streaming from plex for the UHD files with lossless audio then most users can get away with a Chromecast with Google TV, Amazon Fire Stick or Roku as the Shield is a powerful device and a bit overkill for most average people as you said.

If they want to do gaming, play their UHD disk files with lossless audio or (the only android device I know that handles the auto refresh rate with third party) wanting native frame rate from their streaming apps then the shield is the only device to go for if they want the lossless audio to play as well. I went with the fire TV and was looking for the native framerate function only to find the apps were never programmed to use it which left me a little annoyed. I do wish the app developers done 2 versions, one in store for the normal users with it off and another with the change refresh rate function enabled as a sideloaded download version for the advance users that wanted that functionality.

[rickardl]

How does the player recognize that an UHD has been played before and offer the resume capability to start where you left off?
Is it foolproof with checksums of the content or something like CDDB /FreeDB with CDs?

The reason I ask is that I received a replacement UHD of Psycho and the player recognized the disc as played before
and I wonder if it really is identical to the first one or if an audio track could have been replaced with a similar one
and it would still register as the same.

[Toddarino]

Apologies if it’s been mentioned, but does this or any other Panasonic UHD player have the multi region top menu trick that the BD players have?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by rickardl

How does the player recognize that an UHD has been played before and offer the resume capability to start where you left off?
Is it foolproof with checksums of the content or something like CDDB /FreeDB with CDs?

The reason I ask is that I received a replacement UHD of Psycho and the player recognized the disc as played before
and I wonder if it really is identical to the first one or if an audio track could have been replaced with a similar one
and it would still register as the same.

So they're sending out the new Psycho discs at last? Yay!

I've no idea what they used to identify the resume feature but yes, they can literally just swap out something and use the exact same code for everything else.

I experienced the exact same thing with The Good, The Bad and The Ugly when IIRC the initial European pressings of the remastered BD had a downmixed mono instead of the hybrid OG mono. The US version released a little while later was silently fixed to include the proper mono, and when I first played it on my player it aksed me to resume from where I'd left off, because the player thought it was the same disc according to the [tech the tech] it was reading from the disc.

[rickardl]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

So they're sending out the new Psycho discs at last? Yay!

yes, but it does not look promising...

Originally Posted by rickardl

I received the replacements, an UHD and a blu-ray of Psycho, today from Universal in Sweden.
However, they seem to be same as the ones I already got...
First, the squeek is still there when she turns the knob/faucet to turn on the water in shower.
Second, my panasonic 820 asked me if should RESUME when I put the UHD in... can that happen if the discs are not identical?

Will listen a bit more later...

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by rickardl

yes, but it does not look promising...


Will listen a bit more later...

Even so, this can and does happen with replacement discs so that in itself isn't a great big alarm bell. But the audio being the same downmix as before most definitely is!

[rickardl]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Even so, this can and does happen with replacement discs so that in itself isn't a great big alarm bell. But the audio being the same downmix as before most definitely is!

Yep, the ones I received does not contain the original mono soundtrack.
I ran an old Region 1 DVD of Psycho with the original sound on my laptop to the right ear (through headphones) and had the UHD synced in the left through another pair of headphones and they were different. Not much, but some missing foley of doors opening/closing and added / more detailed foley of chairs creaking and crickets and shower knob squeks in the left downmixed ear... too bad.
Hopefully, it was a mixup at the local Universal office.

[sapiendut]

My apology. I can’t find the link for the latest fw for UB9000 posted here before. Can someone please post the link again?

[rickardl]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

My apology. I can’t find the link for the latest fw for UB9000 posted here before. Can someone please post the link again?

https://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com...420/index.html

[chip75]

Has that helped with BD100 issues?

[Wormicide]

Is this player worth the cost difference between the 420? Does Dolby vision make that much of a difference over the hdr optimizer? There’s a lot more Dolby vision content on streaming vs disc. Just debating on saving $250 or not. I have a 65” c8

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by Wormicide

Is this player worth the cost difference between the 420? Does Dolby vision make that much of a difference over the hdr optimizer? There’s a lot more Dolby vision content on streaming vs disc. Just debating on saving $250 or not. I have a 65” c8

Dolby Vision and HDR Optimizer are 2 different things, it's not really a one over the other type thing. If you have a lot of DV disks you'll still be missing out on the optimium playback (dynamic metadata). HDR Optimizer is for static metadata and all it does is tonemap high nit content down to the target you select (i.e. OLED = 1,000 nits). Without getting too into it, there's benefits in having the player do it...one common scenario is when there's data on the disc that for example reads 4,000 nits max. A TV with crappy tonemapping might see that and think "OMG I need to tonemap the crap out of this and bring down the max luminance to my capability"...well, in most cases the max nit or majority of the movie is in the 200 or less nits and sometimes doesn't even reach 4,000 anyway (it's just what the mastering disaply was)...so when the TV tonemaps it alllllll down, it crunches everything and makes it dim.

That might be a dumb example, and others can explain better, but that's a benefit.

[panasonicst60]

Originally Posted by Wormicide

Is this player worth the cost difference between the 420? Does Dolby vision make that much of a difference over the hdr optimizer? There’s a lot more Dolby vision content on streaming vs disc. Just debating on saving $250 or not. I have a 65” c8

Spend the extra money for dv, it's worth it. Dv is still better than hdr10 with optimizer. Buy once, cry once.

[PoorSignal]

I did find a good thing about the ub9000 streaming...
It’s youtube cast. Normally I have the airplay to send the audio to the receiver or any device that supports it.

but the Panasonic lets you cast and basically run the app. For some reason the sound quality of YouTube music is noticeable higher quality over listening thru AirPlay, much lower distortion. I am not sure why.
I am not talking about the analog conversion. But it is able to get a higher quality stream.

[cuzzin]

I'm thinking about finally moving on from my Pioneer Elite Kuro to an LG OLED. However, I'm not sure I want to also drop an extra $1000+ on a new, HDR-capable receiver. Am I correct in thinking that because this player has two HDMI outs, that I can use one of them for 4K HDR video connected directly to the TV, and one for lossless audio connected to the AVR?

[evoll]

Yes cuzzin it will work that way. I did that years ago with a oppo till i upgraded my avr. Now i have this player and run everything through my avr but you can hook it up either way.

[morris_schaffer]

Hi, I may buy an 820 later this year, but what's also on my mind is the region trick you can do with the remote. Now, I know it doesn't work with all blu-rays, but any idea whether it works with Criterion's? I'm particularly interested in the region 1's for Silence of the Lambs and The Great Escape. Thanks.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by morris_schaffer

Hi, I may buy an 820 later this year, but what's also on my mind is the region trick you can do with the remote. Now, I know it doesn't work with all blu-rays, but any idea whether it works with Criterion's? I'm particularly interested in the region 1's for Silence of the Lambs and The Great Escape. Thanks.

Criterions are pretty much the only discs that the Top Menu trick consistently works on, including the two movies you mentioned. It works on Arrow's stuff too, but if you're based in Europe then you've already got access to most of their releases in Region B anyway.

[scottsweapon]

Originally Posted by morris_schaffer

Hi, I may buy an 820 later this year, but what's also on my mind is the region trick you can do with the remote. Now, I know it doesn't work with all blu-rays, but any idea whether it works with Criterion's? I'm particularly interested in the region 1's for Silence of the Lambs and The Great Escape. Thanks.

Sorry to be a pest but can anyone point me to details of this please?