Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[chip75]

Originally Posted by chip75

Going through final steps...

Went through the process with my 420, at times it was a bit stressful and it took a while to power on after removing the USB stick for the final time, but now when I press the PLAYBACK INFO. button twice I get the HDR metadata.

I had to enter the code to activate the feature, but it's a sign it works. I'll try making it region free later.

Thanks to everyone for their hard work.

[SmittysGelato]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I tried to, a year ago. My first 820 player started pixelating on certain discs (misaligned laser) just over a year after I bought it, so it was out of warranty.

I found that Panasonic doesn't have a repair facility of their own in the US, they work through a licensed repair place in Florida. It seemed kinda shady and was difficult to get info out of. I seem to remember it mostly does cameras, and it was confusing to see if they would even repair a UHD player at all.

Since I was out of warranty, certified shipping to Florida for such a huge package and the flat fee to just get it in the door to be looked at would already cost like half of what a new one would cost, before the cost of any repairs, and it would still be a repaired old machine, so I gave up and bought a brand new one.

My memory is a bit fuzzy on this one, I might be slightly off on a few details, but the gist of it is that it seemed like a waste of time. These machines aren't really meant to be repaired, it seems, just replaced.

Again, though, I was 4-5 months beyond the 1-year warranty, maybe it's slightly different if you're still within it.

Do you know how lasers get misaligned in the first place?

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by SmittysGelato

Do you know how lasers get misaligned in the first place?

Not sure. I'm assuming it's a combination of the normal wear and tear of use, and also maybe faulty original assembly. I opened it up to see if I could clean it or fix anything, but it didn't help.

I do kind of wonder if using PAUSE too much causes it, I tend to pause movies a lot when I get up to do something, so I've taken to stopping and restarting them instead. I have absolutely no idea if that contributed to my first machine failing, to be clear, just a hunch.

[mdhaus]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Not sure. I'm assuming it's a combination of the normal wear and tear of use, and also maybe faulty original assembly. I opened it up to see if I could clean it or fix anything, but it didn't help.

I do kind of wonder if using PAUSE too much causes it, I tend to pause movies a lot when I get up to do something, so I've taken to stopping and restarting them instead. I have absolutely no idea if that contributed to my first machine failing, to be clear, just a hunch.

I guess it's possible that pausing the disc could impact it...But then again, the drives are engineered to skip forward and backwards as they need to.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by mdhaus

I guess it's possible that pausing the disc could impact it...But then again, the drives are engineered to skip forward and backwards as they need to.

Yep, I might just be paranoid about that. I think UHD players are just SUPER sensitive. A friend who has the 820 has also been having penalization problems.

[UndyAHundy]

Originally Posted by eChopper

Per Bob Pariseau at avsforum try changing the colour space in your player to 4:2:2

Reduces the bandwidth of data travelling in the HDMI cable while still still preserving what what was encoded on the disc

I did that a few months ago and I have had hardly nil freezes since then

Hoped this would.work for me, but it seems to be the finicky drive they use for the 820. Discs that work fine on other players seem to have issues on the 820.

The cheap plastic drive also likes to lock up with discs inside and need to be manually ejected with a paperclip too.

[UndyAHundy]

Originally Posted by HorrorBlu

Sigh. My tray wouldn't open again tonight. And while I was able to get the disc out via the usual method, and now I should be good for another dozen or two uses, my warranty ends in November. So I have to ask:

Has anyone sent their player in for this reason, and if so, how did it go? Has it happened since?

I'd have to pay shipping, and I feel like they'd just plug it in, press eject, and when it ejects just fine for them, they'd pack it back up and ship it back.

I shipped mine in and they seemed to just send me a different unit (maybe refurbed?). It didn't have the issue for around 4 months, and then started acting like the other one and I'm back to the paperclip again. Out of warranty now.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by chip75

I had to enter the code to activate the feature, but it's a sign it works. I'll try making it region free later.

Popped in Mr. Destiny and got the region locked screen, a few clicks later and the player restarted, popped in the disc and it loaded to the menu. Fantastic!

Not sure if I'll rush to do the 820 (although there's no reason not to), as I have a SONY BD player that's region free and I use that for DVD playback and region titles, but having the 420 is a great bonus.

[Muyfa666]

Originally Posted by chip75

Popped in Mr. Destiny and got the region locked screen, a few clicks later and the player restarted, popped in the disc and it loaded to the menu. Fantastic!

Not sure if I'll rush to do the 820 (although there's no reason not to), as I have a SONY BD player that's region free and I use that for DVD playback and region titles, but having the 420 is a great bonus.

I haven't been paying attention. Is this the new region mod thing there's been talk about?

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Muyfa666

I haven't been paying attention. Is this the new region mod thing there's been talk about?

Yes, the one from the AVForums thread:

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

I took a break while doing it, so it took a couple of hours.

[Muyfa666]

Originally Posted by chip75

Yes, the one from the AVForums thread:

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

I took a break while doing it, so it took a couple of hours.

So cool that it's actually working.

I'm hardware modded, so I won't attempt it on my main player, but I may get a 420 for my second display. :-)

[Naiera]

I don’t care about the regions, but I would absolutely love to get that extra bit of performance and to turn off the off-timer.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Naiera

I don’t care about the regions, but I would absolutely love to get that extra bit of performance and to turn off the off-timer.

The guide is pretty straightforward if you take your time, but you need to have your player and PC relatively close together.

I haven't checked the power off feature. I'll have to give it a try.

[Hedrox]

Originally Posted by chip75

The guide is pretty straightforward if you take your time, but you need to have your player and PC relatively close together.

I haven't checked the power off feature. I'll have to give it a try.

So does the custom firmware also include all those extra features like external subtitles, 60/50hz content and so on, or is it just the region switching?

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Hedrox

So does the custom firmware also include all those extra features like external subtitles, 60/50hz content and so on, or is it just the region switching?

As far as I know it has the same features, but it ommitts anything that bypasses copy protection. The 420 doesn't have the subtitle feature and I'm in 50HZ land so I'm limited to what I can test. But the metadata option has been added.

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

Not sure. I'm assuming it's a combination of the normal wear and tear of use, and also maybe faulty original assembly. I opened it up to see if I could clean it or fix anything, but it didn't help.

I do kind of wonder if using PAUSE too much causes it, I tend to pause movies a lot when I get up to do something, so I've taken to stopping and restarting them instead. I have absolutely no idea if that contributed to my first machine failing, to be clear, just a hunch.

I have no idea what the root cause of my old player’s issues was, but pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding definitely seemed to trigger pixelation. I mentioned this a few pages back but I eventually made a point of avoiding unnecessary pauses at all costs. Felt like that helped for a bit but eventually it became clear that the player simply didn’t like some discs no matter how gentle you were with the player.

I’m almost tempted to try swapping out disc drives with my new player to see if that fixes the old player. I’m pretty inexperienced with that kind of thing though and would worry about voiding my new player’s warranty. FWIW, a new disc drive costs a bit over $200 (plus shipping?) and that’s more than half of what the 820 costs when it goes on sale.

[Hedrox]

Originally Posted by Cherokee Jack

I have no idea what the root cause of my old player’s issues was, but pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding definitely seemed to trigger pixelation. I mentioned this a few pages back but I eventually made a point of avoiding unnecessary pauses at all costs. Felt like that helped for a bit but eventually it became clear that the player simply didn’t like some discs no matter how gentle you were with the player.

This is why it's a good thing to get that UB9000 replica remote that comes with "-10s" and "+60s" buttons. No more stressing the drive with fast-forwarding.

[James Luckard]

Originally Posted by Cherokee Jack

I have no idea what the root cause of my old player’s issues was, but pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding definitely seemed to trigger pixelation. I mentioned this a few pages back but I eventually made a point of avoiding unnecessary pauses at all costs. Felt like that helped for a bit but eventually it became clear that the player simply didn’t like some discs no matter how gentle you were with the player.

I’m almost tempted to try swapping out disc drives with my new player to see if that fixes the old player. I’m pretty inexperienced with that kind of thing though and would worry about voiding my new player’s warranty. FWIW, a new disc drive costs a bit over $200 (plus shipping?) and that’s more than half of what the 820 costs when it goes on sale.

Yep, when repairs approach half the cost of a new machine, I feel like replacing it completely is the best option.

[RevolverOcelScott]

So, with my disc tray dead on my previous UB820, I bought a new one. I noticed the back of the plater has a white serial number sticker with a "Jan 2023 revision" or something similar noted on it. Anyone know if anything was changed versus a model earlier?

One thing I did notice, after updating the firmware, this pop up appears when starting a movie:

You can close it out by hitting the back button, but I can't seem to find a setting to permenantly disable it, even in the "option menu".

Also, anyone in the past have the tray repaired and have a cost estimate? As my "old" player is currently broken, getting it fixed (depending on the cost) would be good to have as a backup or for my other living room.

[chip75]

I think the pop-up displays when you use another remote to control the player. I haven't noticed it when just using the player's.

I will have a play around with mine and see what I get.