Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[rroeder]

Telemachus is right about the pressed in Mexico discs tho, I've had some discs that were mint that pixelated to hell, I've bought 2 diff sets of the LOTR movies and had 2 diff discs in the set pixelate, skip and freeze, both mint. Bought a copy of Goodfellas last year when it was back in production the disc was mint, froze up and pixelated like hell the last 20 mins. These are the only 2 examples of playback issues I've had with my 820 it usually plays discs even scratched ones just fine, never had an issue with an import.

jmpage2- I have a similar setup with my 820 one cable to TV and one to receiver, when I pause or rewind too much I will get the audio drop too receiver still shows correct audio format. I have to eject disc and reload to get it back. Annoying but I've tried everything to fix it and it only happens occasionally

My copy of Aliens played just fine in DV btw, but I played the theatrical cut so can't comment on the extended version but I'm sure it would play fine.

[roar]

I don't think he's wrong, I just think it is a tough pill to swallow that the solution to the most expensive Blu Ray player not playing discs, that plenty of other lower priced players have no trouble reading, is to source an import copy of the same move manufactured somewhere else. It's tough, but, it is what it is, I can complain about it, or I can do something about it. At this point I won't import though, I'll just use my PS5.

[jmpage2]

Originally Posted by rroeder

Telemachus is right about the pressed in Mexico discs tho, I've had some discs that were mint that pixelated to hell, I've bought 2 diff sets of the LOTR movies and had 2 diff discs in the set pixelate, skip and freeze, both mint. Bought a copy of Goodfellas last year when it was back in production the disc was mint, froze up and pixelated like hell the last 20 mins. These are the only 2 examples of playback issues I've had with my 820 it usually plays discs even scratched ones just fine, never had an issue with an import.

jmpage2- I have a similar setup with my 820 one cable to TV and one to receiver, when I pause or rewind too much I will get the audio drop too receiver still shows correct audio format. I have to eject disc and reload to get it back. Annoying but I've tried everything to fix it and it only happens occasionally

My copy of Aliens played just fine in DV btw, but I played the theatrical cut so can't comment on the extended version but I'm sure it would play fine.

The only possible disc manufacturing explanation for two discs failing at the exact same spot in the exact same way is that they produced a large batch of discs with an identical physical failure in the pressing process and that seems incredibly unlikely to me.

The more likely explanations would be that there is an issue with the player and that particular cut of the movie with DV enabled. As I had previously mentioned, I tried the non DV playback and it was fine.... I don't even normally use DV but this movie is supposed to have some particularly good DV mastering and I wanted to see it in the "Best" quality available.

I haven't tried the movie in my PS5 but I expect it will work fine in that player adding additional data to the problem being in the BD 820.

Worth noting that my PS5 is also configured to play audio back to the AVR through the TV using eARC.

[DasCC]

I have a DVD (DTS surround) that I can't seem to get the UB820 to output 5.1. The blu-ray player is connected to the soundbar system (Sonos player) via optical audio cable. I have also disabled audio via HDMI, so I know that is it pushing through the optical. Are there any settings that I would need to change on the blu-ray menu to get it to work? Right now it's just showing PCM Stereo when playing the disc.

[Telemachus]

It's definitely not just on Panny, they are pressing some flawed discs in Mexico in addition to their scratch problem, I had to return flawless looking discs that didn't play on my Sony X700 in the same way, usually a replacement solves the problem, the Panny just doesn't freeze on the triple deckers. Remember all those Warner HD DVDs that rotted, pretty sure they were also pressed by Technicolor. I have never had a problem with an import UHD, not one single time. Just grabbed an 88 Films boxset, smooth sailing, minty fresh. Opened a Shout Factory Jackie Chan set with 7 discs, half of them scratched, it's never ending irritation.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by DasCC

I have a DVD (DTS surround) that I can't seem to get the UB820 to output 5.1. The blu-ray player is connected to the soundbar system (Sonos player) via optical audio cable. I have also disabled audio via HDMI, so I know that is it pushing through the optical. Are there any settings that I would need to change on the blu-ray menu to get it to work? Right now it's just showing PCM Stereo when playing the disc.

Which Sonos do you have? Some soundbars do not have DTS decoders, so the player is trying to decode it and convert it internally to PCM.

[DasCC]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Which Sonos do you have? Some soundbars do not have DTS decoders, so the player is trying to decode it and convert it internally to PCM.

Ahh my bad. Auto spell check. I meant Sonos Playbar, not player.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by DasCC

Ahh my bad. Auto spell check. I meant Sonos Playbar, not player.

He's right tho, quite a few soundbars don't do DTS at all.

[DasCC]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

He's right tho, quite a few soundbars don't do DTS at all.

Yeahs that what I’m finding out. There seems to be conflicting info online about the Playbar. Can’t quite tell if I should have DTS surround or not.

I just wanted to rule out it was a settings issue on the Panasonic.

[rroeder]

Originally Posted by jmpage2

The only possible disc manufacturing explanation for two discs failing at the exact same spot in the exact same way is that they produced a large batch of discs with an identical physical failure in the pressing process and that seems incredibly unlikely to me.

The more likely explanations would be that there is an issue with the player and that particular cut of the movie with DV enabled. As I had previously mentioned, I tried the non DV playback and it was fine.... I don't even normally use DV but this movie is supposed to have some particularly good DV mastering and I wanted to see it in the "Best" quality available.

I haven't tried the movie in my PS5 but I expect it will work fine in that player adding additional data to the problem being in the BD 820.

Worth noting that my PS5 is also configured to play audio back to the AVR through the TV using eARC.

I don't know, I've had playback issues with multiple players my previous Sony players were worse constant freezing and breakup that's why I switched to the 820. I've had much better luck with this player but still a few issues on a couple discs that were clean and scratch free. I'm leaning more towards the discs but I know people have had issues with this player and the Sony's.

To your first point tho, before I got the 820 I had the X700(and briefly the M800 before returning it)but on the X700 I had one scene with the EE Two Towers 2nd disc that would pixelate and freeze, all other discs played fine. Returned the set for another one and exact same thing, same scene froze and brokeup while the other discs played fine. Must be the discs in this case at least. Funny thing is the 820 played it fine the next time I watched them, but now another one of the discs freezes and pixelates, I'm sure it's the discs and I plan on importing another set.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by DasCC

Yeahs that what I’m finding out. There seems to be conflicting info online about the Playbar. Can’t quite tell if I should have DTS surround or not.

I just wanted to rule out it was a settings issue on the Panasonic.

The info I can find is that the Playbar can only decode PCM and Dolby Digital lossy. No DTS decoder, no lossless decoders for Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio. It also gets knocked for sound quality, but most soundbars and portable sound units are not known for high fidelity audio.


I'm not sure if the Panasonic 4k players can internally decode multi-channel DTS to multi-channel PCM or if it only outputs decoded stereo PCM. It's possible that you can't output multi-channel PCM through Toslink optical anyway. More than likely not enough bandwidth.


It's time to get yourself a real home theater system... receiver (or pre-amp and separate amp combo) and the required speakers and subwoofers.

[gnicks]

Has anyone tried burning a 100gb BD-R and playing it on the 820 or 9000? Does it work at all? If so, are there any limitations?

[Bernardo A.]

Originally Posted by gnicks

Has anyone tried burning a 100gb BD-R and playing it on the 820 or 9000? Does it work at all? If so, are there any limitations?

Is recordable media still a thing? lol

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

The info I can find is that the Playbar can only decode PCM and Dolby Digital lossy. No DTS decoder, no lossless decoders for Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio. It also gets knocked for sound quality, but most soundbars and portable sound units are not known for high fidelity audio.


I'm not sure if the Panasonic 4k players can internally decode multi-channel DTS to multi-channel PCM or if it only outputs decoded stereo PCM. It's possible that you can't output multi-channel PCM through Toslink optical anyway. More than likely not enough bandwidth.


It's time to get yourself a real home theater system... receiver (or pre-amp and separate amp combo) and the required speakers and subwoofers.

Correct...optical can't do PCM higher than 2.0. Lossy 5.1 DD and DTS are supported, natch, but not 5.1 PCM. As the soundbar doesn't do DTS at all then the player is decoding it into the nearest thing the optical can transmit, which is 2.0 PCM (no DTS to DD transcoding either).

[DasCC]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

It's time to get yourself a real home theater system... receiver (or pre-amp and separate amp combo) and the required speakers and subwoofers.

I agree.

[DasCC]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Correct...optical can't do PCM higher than 2.0. Lossy 5.1 DD and DTS are supported, natch, but not 5.1 PCM. As the soundbar doesn't do DTS at all then the player is decoding it into the nearest thing the optical can transmit, which is 2.0 PCM (no DTS to DD transcoding either).

Thanks for the technical details.

Good to know for future reference.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by DasCC

I agree.

If you ever want any gear advice... don't hesitate to ask.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by gnicks

Has anyone tried burning a 100gb BD-R and playing it on the 820 or 9000? Does it work at all? If so, are there any limitations?

100gb discs only work on data drives I've been told, or if they work on a Blu ray player it will only see two layers, I always thought they specifically have to support those discs, I think the M-Disc drives are one of the models.

[pjl69]

I've had a problem with at least some blu-ray discs, that the sound has been out of sync in places. I don't know if this is caused by the Sony player (X800M2) or my amplifier (Yamaha) or if the problem is caused by a combination of the two. However, last night I watched the theatrical version of Star Trek The Motion Picture on my new Panasonic player UB9000, and the sound was perfect. I guess it can be concluded from this that the problem is caused by the Sony player. The last time I watched that Star Trek on my Sony player, the sound was disturbingly out of sync.

[mx77]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

100gb discs only work on data drives I've been told, or if they work on a Blu ray player it will only see two layers, I always thought they specifically have to support those discs, I think the M-Disc drives are one of the models.

It seems that most of the Sony players indeed play bd-xl discs if the amount of the data on the disc doesn't exceed 66gb. And then again, Panasonic DP-UB150 and DP-UB450 should play bd-xl disc if it has data written on all of the three layers, exceeding 66gb. However, BD-XL playback on my DP-UB450 was very irregular so I bought a Magnetar player to watch my imported discs with subtitles. Not a single issue with that one so far. Never had an isue with my Panasonic 450 either.