Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Tok]

Originally Posted by sofaman

Hi guys. So I've had my 820 for about 18mths now. Never had a problem with it, it handled every disc I threw at it. Until I bought the GoT box set a few months ago.
Season1 was fine, but every disc after that had problems being read...I was having to constantly eject, wipe, reinsert etc. Some discs worked eventually, some didn't. Done some reading and I'm not alone with this set it seems.

The problem is that it's now happening to all my 4k discs, they all only have a 50/50 chance of being read. I've tried a factory reset to no avail. Any ideas?
Normal blus work fine, just the 4k's...

Are you connected to the internet with the player? Try disabling that feature and I think you can clear/wipe the players memory. I had a few instances where BD-Live feature seemed to lock up the player or cause slow downs since the servers the disc were looking for were no longer available.

The factory reset may have cleared the memory already. I would strongly suggest to disable the internet connection to see if it loads problematic discs. Also if you’re using any external memory device like a hard drive or USB drive disconnect it.

Good luck.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Tok

Yes BD is old too but it was designed to be used on a higher resolution display than DVD.

There are workarounds but YMMV. Instead of having the player upscale everything try to have the display do the upscale. Some TVs and other displays have really good scalers compared to what they had a decade ago. But again these things weren’t designed to necessarily make extremely low resolution interlaced video look good so again YMMV.

If one wants the best UHD players now Panasonic’s units are where to go. Reality is none of the manufacturers care about DVD playback at this point. Oppo walked from the market. It’s time to let it go.

Was Oppo truly a universal disc player? It never played Laserdiscs or vinyl records. Why?

That's the problem though: the Pannysonics don't present an unmolested 480i output that the TV can then upscale, it'll only go down to 480p and this still bakes in their cack-handed deinterlacing no matter what you do. I even tried forcing a 1080i output to see if that would help but nope, it's just re-interlacing the already-deinterlaced (and jaggy AF) signal. If the Pannys had a proper source direct mode then we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Why do you keep focusing on the display type though? What difference is that making to the output of these modern players in themselves? It's not the quality of DVD in itself that's being discussed, that's just more tiresome whataboutery. No, it's the quality of the respective players in handling this material i.e. the Pannys aren't messing up the output of DVD just because we're not watching on CRT TVs, they're still using 4:2:0 YCbCr BT.601 video and using interframe codecs for DVD, it's far closer in tech terms to its bigger brothers than you'd think. The output might well be interlaced 60Hz for NTSC material but with 3:2 pulldown and good deinterlacing you'd never know it was intended for such steam-driven TVs.

[sofaman]

Originally Posted by Tok

Are you connected to the internet with the player? Try disabling that feature and I think you can clear/wipe the players memory. I had a few instances where BD-Live feature seemed to lock up the player or cause slow downs since the servers the disc were looking for were no longer available.

The factory reset may have cleared the memory already. I would strongly suggest to disable the internet connection to see if it loads problematic discs. Also if you’re using any external memory device like a hard drive or USB drive disconnect it.

Good luck.

Thanks for the tip. The reset turned off my network, so it isn't that. When I put a disc in I get "alien chatter" for a minute, at that point it either loads or carries on till it says it can't read it (usually the latter). All discs work fine on my xbox...

[Tok]

Originally Posted by sofaman

Thanks for the tip. The reset turned off my network, so it isn't that. When I put a disc in I get "alien chatter" for a minute, at that point it either loads or carries on till it says it can't read it (usually the latter). All discs work fine on my xbox...

Could be the drive? But if BDs are working without issue I doubt it. They’re technically the same disc type other than the triple layer variety. Do you notice if it has more problems with BD100 triple layer discs? If that’s the case I would tend to suspect the drive more.

Could possibly be a slightly dusty laser pickup. You could try a laser cleaner disc but I prefer to take the player apart and lightly spray some compressed air on the pickup or use a lens cloth gently on the pickup.

[sofaman]

Originally Posted by Tok

Could be the drive? But if BDs are working without issue I doubt it. They’re technically the same disc type other than the triple layer variety. Do you notice if it has more problems with BD100 triple layer discs? If that’s the case I would tend to suspect the drive more.

Could possibly be a slightly dusty laser pickup. You could try a laser cleaner disc but I prefer to take the player apart and lightly spray some compressed air on the pickup or use a lens cloth gently on the pickup.

It's completely random: seems to be virtually every disc has to be tried several times before working, assuming it eventually does work. Think I'll have to try the taking apart route....eek

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

That's the problem though: the Pannysonics don't present an unmolested 480i output that the TV can then upscale, it'll only go down to 480p and this still bakes in their cack-handed deinterlacing no matter what you do. I even tried forcing a 1080i output to see if that would help but nope, it's just re-interlacing the already-deinterlaced (and jaggy AF) signal. If the Pannys had a proper source direct mode then we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Why do you keep focusing on the display type though? What difference is that making to the output of these modern players in themselves? It's not the quality of DVD in itself that's being discussed, that's just more tiresome whataboutery. No, it's the quality of the respective players in handling this material i.e. the Pannys aren't messing up the output of DVD just because we're not watching on CRT TVs, they're still using 4:2:0 YCbCr BT.601 video and using interframe codecs for DVD, it's far closer in tech terms to its bigger brothers than you'd think. The output might well be interlaced 60Hz for NTSC material but with 3:2 pulldown and good deinterlacing you'd never know it was intended for such steam-driven TVs.

Then bite the bullet and get a good quality used player that does it better. I’ve got several players in my rack since none of them are truly universal. You can probably find something that outputs 480i but I think a lot of display’s aren’t supporting that either. So as I said maybe setup a system that truly was designed to deliver the best that DVD can do. I have so few DVDs left in my collection I really couldn’t care less how my Panasonic UB9k handles them. I’ve got an old Panasonic DVD-CP72 with the Faroudja chipset that I use if I need the best I can get out of the format. Sure there were a few better chipsets but the Faroudja is good enough for when I need a good quality DVD experience.

I’m sure there some good DVD or BD players from Oppo that don’t command the outrageous used prices of the UDP models. Vintage used gear is usually better for formats than expecting a piece of equipment to do something well that was thrown on as an after thought.

I still use cassette tapes with music. The vintage era cassette decks are still significantly better than any cheaply made deck today that was built just to serve a small market of enthusiasts.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by sofaman

It's completely random: seems to be virtually every disc has to be tried several times before working, assuming it eventually does work. Think I'll have to try the taking apart route....eek

Sounds like a dirty or failing pickup. Suggest a good cleaning to see if it improves.

Is this player sitting directly above a high heat component like an AVR or amplifier? That’s usually not good for the lifespan of these players.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by sofaman

Hi guys. So I've had my 820 for about 18mths now. Never had a problem with it, it handled every disc I threw at it. Until I bought the GoT box set a few months ago.
Season1 was fine, but every disc after that had problems being read...I was having to constantly eject, wipe, reinsert etc. Some discs worked eventually, some didn't. Done some reading and I'm not alone with this set it seems.

The problem is that it's now happening to all my 4k discs, they all only have a 50/50 chance of being read. I've tried a factory reset to no avail. Any ideas?
Normal blus work fine, just the 4k's...

I've been experiencing the exact same thing as you: 1080p discs will always play just fine, while a lot of 4K discs will not load (have to keep trying until it eventually does play).

I did some testing last week and I noticed something (on my player at least): it's double layer 4K discs that will not play, triple layer discs seem to work (now). I repeatedly tried playing The New York Ripper, Salt and Independence Day, and they all failed each and every time (lots of noises coming from the drive, you just know it will not play). Then I did the same thing with Bladerunner 2049, Dune (2021), Black Hawk Down and Zombie, and every title immediately played each and every time I tried (insert disc, begins playing the movie, stop, eject and insert again, rinse, repeat).

Not sure if this has always been the case though (BD66 not working vs BD100 working), or if this just happen to have evolved recently...

[Tok]

Originally Posted by DJR662

I've been experiencing the exact same thing as you: 1080p discs will always play just fine, while a lot of 4K discs will not load (have to keep trying until it eventually does play).

I did some testing last week and I noticed something (on my player at least): it's double layer 4K discs that will not play, triple layer discs seem to work (now). I repeatedly tried playing The New York Ripper, Salt and Independence Day, and they all failed each and every time (lots of noises coming from the drive, you just know it will not play). Then I did the same thing with Bladerunner 2049, Dune (2021), Black Hawk Down and Zombie, and every title immediately played each and every time I tried (insert disc, begins playing the movie, stop, eject and insert again, rinse, repeat).

Not sure if this has always been the case though (BD66 not working vs BD100 working), or if this just happen to have evolved recently...

Sounds like something in the pickup but weird only if happens with dual layered 4K. Those discs are essentially BD50s. Do you have problems with those?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Tok

Sounds like something in the pickup but weird only if happens with dual layered 4K. Those discs are essentially BD50s. Do you have problems with those?

They're really not BD50s. Much higher data rate on a UHD66.

[nachoju95]

Originally Posted by whedon

It's from the UK, going to test the subs on a 4K later by downloading some subs for one I own and testing external subs that way, will make a few changes to them so I know it's reading correct external ones.

Someone who has the Panasonic from EEUU was able to install the RF Firmware?

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by Tok

Sounds like something in the pickup but weird only if happens with dual layered 4K. Those discs are essentially BD50s. Do you have problems with those?

No problems with BD50s.

[chrisandy007]

Originally Posted by hansolo

Yes, it is. UHD BD title is playing in my photo.
Conditions are (I assume):
1. you need to have firmware supporting this feature
2. USB drive must be connected, have "sub" folder in root directory and inside it subtitle file named "sub.srt".
3. Disc needs to be loaded and playback on (this part I assume, haven't tested. Is it even possible to enter Subtitles menu if disc is not playing?)

Regarding 1. What firmware are you using?

Firmware: 1.69

Regarding 2. Can confirm I'm using an NTFS USB with a single sub folder and in that the subtitle called sub.srt.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

They're really not BD50s. Much higher data rate on a UHD66.

The difference between reading up to 50Mbps or up to 100Mbps for todays electronics is not really that significant.

The focal points for a signal pickup on BD50 and BD66 are essentially the same.

[Geoff D]

Same RPM too? The physical layers themselves are also different. But he’s said he’s got no problems reading BD50s, so bang goes that theory anyway.

[sofaman]

Originally Posted by DJR662

I've been experiencing the exact same thing as you: 1080p discs will always play just fine, while a lot of 4K discs will not load (have to keep trying until it eventually does play).

I did some testing last week and I noticed something (on my player at least): it's double layer 4K discs that will not play, triple layer discs seem to work (now). I repeatedly tried playing The New York Ripper, Salt and Independence Day, and they all failed each and every time (lots of noises coming from the drive, you just know it will not play). Then I did the same thing with Bladerunner 2049, Dune (2021), Black Hawk Down and Zombie, and every title immediately played each and every time I tried (insert disc, begins playing the movie, stop, eject and insert again, rinse, repeat).

Not sure if this has always been the case though (BD66 not working vs BD100 working), or if this just happen to have evolved recently...

This sounds identical to me, although I watched Independence Day a few days ago and it only took 3 attempts

Last night I tried to watch Ghostbusters II, but after 30mins or so had to give up. Only took 10mins to get the Many Saints of Newark working tho, lol.
I just tried Bladerunner 2049 and it worked first time...twice!

I can categorically assure you this only started happening a few months ago, every disc worked fine before then without a sniff of a problem!

[George.P]

Originally Posted by CreasyBear

You know you can have two devices hooked up at the same time, right?

Sure, guessing most people know that. That wasn’t the OP’s point - they wondered if there was a way to have those subtitle features while playing a UHD on the Panasonic.

[chrisandy007]

Originally Posted by hansolo

Yes, it is. UHD BD title is playing in my photo.
Conditions are (I assume):
1. you need to have firmware supporting this feature
2. USB drive must be connected, have "sub" folder in root directory and inside it subtitle file named "sub.srt".
3. Disc needs to be loaded and playback on (this part I assume, haven't tested. Is it even possible to enter Subtitles menu if disc is not playing?)

Regarding 1. What firmware are you using?

Also tried again on fat32, same thing. Firmware: 1.69.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by sofaman

This sounds identical to me, although I watched Independence Day a few days ago and it only took 3 attempts

Last night I tried to watch Ghostbusters II, but after 30mins or so had to give up. Only took 10mins to get the Many Saints of Newark working tho, lol.
I just tried Bladerunner 2049 and it worked first time...twice!

I can categorically assure you this only started happening a few months ago, every disc worked fine before then without a sniff of a problem!

Is your player above an AVR or amplifier. I don’t recommend placing disc readers directly above high heat generating devices. Laser pickup can age prematurely in high heat environment.

Try cleaning the assembly too.

[sofaman]

Originally Posted by Tok

Is your player above an AVR or amplifier. I don’t recommend placing disc readers directly above high heat generating devices. Laser pickup can age prematurely in high heat environment.

Try cleaning the assembly too.

Hi Tok. No mate, the player is sat alone with plenty of ventilation, as is my AV amp. I'm expecting some compressed air to arrive today so I'll try that first. Is Isopropyl ok to use on the lens, should I need to?