Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[kristoffer]

Is it always TV-Led then?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by kristoffer

Is it always TV-Led then?

It selects whatever the TV's EDID tells it to. Works just fine on my player-led ZD9.

[David M]

Originally Posted by Kasim2409

Looking into upgrading to the UB820, can anyone tell me if the "playback info" gives you info on the bitrate and such? Always been curious with stuff like that lol

Yes, but the bitrate viewer isn't accurate.

[rickardl]

Originally Posted by David M

Yes, but the bitrate viewer isn't accurate.

Interesting. In what way? Both video and audio? Any other players that do it better?

[MrHT]

I have a Panasonic UB420, but since I don't see a thread for it here, I decided to post my question here since both 420 & 820 are similar and have almost the same settings and features. I currently have my player set to HDR>SDR BT2020 conversion because my TV just sucks at tone mapping. So I think the player does a better job at it. But I'm struggling with the "Dynamic Range Conversion Adjustment" slider and getting it just right. If I slide it up to around +4/5ish, I get a nice bright picture, but I lose detail in the contrast. It becomes overly white. But if I move it down to zero, it seems like I get the right details in the contrast/white levels but then the overall picture is just dark. It's almost as if zero is the "accurate" setting as the player states, but I don't get why the overall picture is dark. For example, I can play a movie in a decently lit indoor setting and the picture will look dark on a HDR movie, but if I play the SDR 1080p BD counterpart, it's very very bright. Big difference in brightness. I'm trying to set it so it somewhat matches the SDR counterpart, and I get there when moving the slider to around +5, but then the whites become just overly white and lose detail. This whole thing is just weird.

I have a Sony 43X800E TV which is around 400 nits. Can someone please let me know what is the "accurate" setting to adjust the slider? I've read through many posts here and on AVS forum and everyone says to adjust to my liking. But my "liking" is to get what is ACCURATE. I don't want to blast the slider to +5 to get it nice and bright if that's not how it's supposed to look.

So can someone please let me know what the accurate setting is for the "Dynamic Range Conversion Adjustment" slider? Should I leave it at "0"?

[sapiendut]

Don’t use SDR2020. Use “low nit LCD” for the HDR optimizer setting.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Don’t use SDR2020. Use “low nit LCD” for the HDR optimizer setting.

I tried, it's not good. My TV has poorly washed out black levels on HDR mode and not even the Panny's HDR optimizer can fix it. I need to use SDR BT 2020 to completely stop the TV from any sort of tone mapping and leave it to the player to do the job completely.

[sapiendut]

The washed-out ness is because of the edge lighting of the 800E TV, there is nothing you can do about that. I remember that year very clearly as the absolute minimum acceptable 4K Tv was the 900E (which I had) and anything below that were washed out (regardless of brand)

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

The washed-out ness is because of the edge lighting of the 800E TV, there is nothing you can do about that. I remember that year very clearly as the absolute minimum acceptable 4K Tv was the 900E (which I had) and anything below that were washed out (regardless of brand)

But why doesn’t it appear washed out when watching SDR content? And when I use the SDR BT2020 conversion, it’s not washed out. Blacks are deep, which is why I’m opting to use the player’s conversion feature.

[sapiendut]

It’s the backlight level that pushes the black higher in a failed attempt to make bright parts brighter. This can only be reduced if you use full array backlight or if you don’t want raised black level at all, an OLED

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

It’s the backlight level that pushes the black higher in a failed attempt to make bright parts brighter. This can only be reduced if you use full array backlight or if you don’t want raised black level at all, an OLED

Ok, so why do you think it’s better to not use the SDR 2020 if my TV handles HDR poorly? Do you think I’m getting a worse picture quality that way?

I know either way, I’m not getting perfect picture, but with SDR 2020, it gets rid of the washed out look and therefore, I’m getting deeper blacks and better colors. But of course, as I just mentioned, contrast does seem to suffer when using this setting.

[sapiendut]

Yeah, unfortunately all edge-lit TV of that vintage (and in many cases today’s vintage too) are what I consider as fake 4K. They can only do 4K pixel count properly. Colourspace and HDR can’t be done in any acceptable manner.

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Yeah, unfortunately all edge-lit TV of that vintage (and in many cases today’s vintage too) are what I consider as fake 4K. They can only do 4K pixel count properly. Colourspace and HDR can’t be done in any acceptable manner.

Yeah, this is why SDR BT2020 works best with my set up. Just trying to get the DR Conversion Adjustment just right. But colors are really beautiful when I keep it at SDR. So the color space seems to be good but just the HDR mode kills it. Like you said, HDR mode is blowing up my backlight so it’s best to keep it at SDR.

[Naiera]

You need a new TV. There's no way to make it any better. Using HDR sucks because it's LCD and converting HDR to SDR sucks because it's not a Lumagen Radiance Pro or a MadVR Dynamic Tone Mapping solution.

With Panasonic's HDR to SDR conversion, which is the best static tone mapping you'll get in a UHD player, you're going to lose contrast or lose the ability to see WTF is going on in darker scenes. I have a 824 and used that setting at +8, I believe, before I was able to buy a Lumagen Radiance Pro. Eventually I stopped watching UHD discs, though, because it's just not worth it with the compromises that come with static tone mapping.

Buying a new TV is much, much cheaper than an LRP, and OLED usually starts at 55", so there's every reason to upgrade. Watch the regular Blu-rays that came with those UHD releases in the meantime. I don't know about OLED prices in the US, but they aren't even $1000 over here. Just make sure it's LG, Sony or Panasonic.

[vinncent]

Have a weird problem with my 820. Dont get DV suddenly when goin thru my soundabar. Worked before. If i hook up my 450 with exact same cable i get DV right away. If i go direct to my tv i get DV. Why?

[MrHT]

Originally Posted by Naiera

You need a new TV. There's no way to make it any better. Using HDR sucks because it's LCD and converting HDR to SDR sucks because it's not a Lumagen Radiance Pro or a MadVR Dynamic Tone Mapping solution.

With Panasonic's HDR to SDR conversion, which is the best static tone mapping you'll get in a UHD player, you're going to lose contrast or lose the ability to see WTF is going on in darker scenes. I have a 824 and used that setting at +8, I believe, before I was able to buy a Lumagen Radiance Pro. Eventually I stopped watching UHD discs, though, because it's just not worth it with the compromises that come with static tone mapping.

Buying a new TV is much, much cheaper than an LRP, and OLED usually starts at 55", so there's every reason to upgrade. Watch the regular Blu-rays that came with those UHD releases in the meantime. I don't know about OLED prices in the US, but they aren't even $1000 over here. Just make sure it's LG, Sony or Panasonic.

Well that's a bummer. Getting a new TV just seems out of the question at this point as I paid almost $600 for the TV and it's only about 3 or so years old. I admit, I wasn't smart when researching when buying the TV, but the reason being is that I trusted the Sony brand and since it was priced pretty high for only a 43" size, I thought it would be good. Don't know how Sony could put their name on such a low quality TV and charge a high price tag on it. But I made the error on my part and I can't go back in time and fix it, so I need to make use of it for at least a few more years. Maybe by then, a higher quality OLED will be more affordable.

It's a shame I can't get good quality SDR 4K content via UHD discs. I certainly get it via streaming. When I set my Apple TV 4K to 4K SDR, I literally get the SDR counterpart of the 4K content on Movies Anywhere, Vudu, and Prime Video. And they look great! It's too bad I can't get the same with UHD discs.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by MrHT

Well that's a bummer. Getting a new TV just seems out of the question at this point as I paid almost $600 for the TV and it's only about 3 or so years old. I admit, I wasn't smart when researching when buying the TV, but the reason being is that I trusted the Sony brand and since it was priced pretty high for only a 43" size, I thought it would be good. Don't know how Sony could put their name on such a low quality TV and charge a high price tag on it. But I made the error on my part and I can't go back in time and fix it, so I need to make use of it for at least a few more years. Maybe by then, a higher quality OLED will be more affordable.

It's a shame I can't get good quality SDR 4K content via UHD discs. I certainly get it via streaming. When I set my Apple TV 4K to 4K SDR, I literally get the SDR counterpart of the 4K content on Movies Anywhere, Vudu, and Prime Video. And they look great! It's too bad I can't get the same with UHD discs.

Most half-way decent HDR televisions are at the over $1,000 mark.

[NeilZ]

Does anyone know it there's any simple way to turn off Dolby Vision without having to stop the disc and go to the main settings?

Just asking cause when watching extra features stuck in DV it can get annoying.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Most half-way decent HDR televisions are at the over $1,000 mark.

Weird how your stuff is more expensive like that. My friend paid like $900 for a 55” Panasonic OLED with damn near the best picture quality available. It doesn’t have all the fancy features of the top models, but it does have damn good PQ.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by MrHT

It's a shame I can't get good quality SDR 4K content via UHD discs. I certainly get it via streaming. When I set my Apple TV 4K to 4K SDR, I literally get the SDR counterpart of the 4K content on Movies Anywhere, Vudu, and Prime Video. And they look great! It's too bad I can't get the same with UHD discs.

HDR should’ve been a layer that could be turned off, instead of this mess.

Only Disney+ and HBO Max don’t keep 4K SDR versions of their content, btw. I paid out the ass for DTM, but 4K SDR is still better.