Panasonic DMP-UB900 Ultra HD Player

[Kinsella5]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

Panasonic has released other 4K Blu-ray players such as the UB400 but these player currently are not available in the US. Because of competition I believe Panasonic is limiting 4K player availability to only high end models. I believe Best Buy will give you a credit towards a comparably priced Blu-ray player.

From the Best Buy web site: "It clearly states a gift card to not exceed the original purchase amount may be provided at our sole discretion in lieu of a replacement item."

Ok thanks, yeah the store may end up doing that, giving a gift card which would cover that new Panasonic player that is coming out. I was just curious how big of a difference the upcoming player is vs the current model.

[d514]

Originally Posted by Kinsella5

I then saw that sometime in September or October they will be releasing the DMP-UB200 for $249.99. Of the two, is it worth waiting for the new one? There is a big price difference just curious if the UB900 is 1st gen and the UB200 would be considered 2nd gen, hence the big price drop or is there a big difference between the two?

I don't know but my guess is that the UB200 will be using some kind of MediaTek chipset while the UB900 (and UB70x) use Panasonic's own chip design - formerly known as Uniphier.


Right now it looks like these players have similar firmware and should have roughly the same quality - with a few features on the higher models the lower ones don't get:

"Cheap" chipset:
- DMP-UB200/300/310/314/390/400/404

"Better" chipset:
- DMP-UB700/704, DMP-UB900

[Kinsella5]

Originally Posted by d514

I don't know but my guess is that the UB200 will be using some kind of MediaTek chipset while the UB900 (and UB70x) use Panasonic's own chip design - formerly known as Uniphier.

Curious if the UB900 price will come down once the cheaper UB200 hits. Do you think there is a significant difference players to justify a $350 price difference between the two? Just curious to opinions as I am not overly familiar with the 4K players, but thinking about making the jump soon. Thanks in advance.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by d514

I don't know but my guess is that the UB200 will be using some kind of MediaTek chipset while the UB900 (and UB70x) use Panasonic's own chip design - formerly known as Uniphier.


Right now it looks like these players have similar firmware and should have roughly the same quality - with a few features on the higher models the lower ones don't get:

"Cheap" chipset:
- DMP-UB200/300/310/314/390/400/404

"Better" chipset:
- DMP-UB700/704, DMP-UB900

According to AVF there's no difference between the 300/400/700/900 in terms of basic playback quality, operating platform and so on, they specifically say it's got the same chipset and processing as its bigger brothers. The firmware appears to not cover all models (I can't even find the 300/400 on the Panny firmware download site) but I think the difference comes because of certain omissions along the way, e.g. the 300 loses the second HDMI out and Wifi. If anything the chipset inside the newer 300 and 400 is actually slightly more advanced because they contain a HLG to PQ conversion feature that the 700/900 lack.

While this is no guarantee as to what the US UB200 will have, it wouldn't surprise me if it got the same excellent processor at its core.

[Kinsella5]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

According to AVF there's no difference between the 300/400/700/900 in terms of basic playback quality, operating platform and so on, they specifically say it's got the same chipset and processing as its bigger brothers. The firmware appears to not cover all models (I can't even find the 300/400 on the Panny firmware download site) but I think the difference comes because of certain omissions along the way, e.g. the 300 loses the second HDMI out and Wifi. If anything the chipset inside the newer 300 and 400 is actually slightly more advanced because they contain a HLG to PQ conversion feature that the 700/900 lack.

While this is no guarantee as to what the US UB200 will have, it wouldn't surprise me if it got the same excellent processor at its core.

Thanks for the info as well. I know technology drops in price as its been out, this 200 series I believe would be Panasonic's 2nd generation 4K player so perhaps with most first generation tech items being expensive, they want to competitive price-wise against Samsung, etc and that's why there is such a large price difference between the two. I do wish they would come back to the USA with regards to 4K televisions, I love my 1080p plasma by them, nearly 10 years old and still going very strong.

[d514]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

While this is no guarantee as to what the US UB200 will have, it wouldn't surprise me if it got the same excellent processor at its core.

I would be surprised. They stopped doing that with their Blu-ray players five years ago.

Apparently features like High Clarity Sound, Digital Tube Sound Simulation, Multi Channel Audio Reformatting and unlimited channels support by the Dolby Decoder are only available on the 390/400/404.

But that is just by design and can be activated with that alternate firmware on the 200/300/310/314, too.

Something has to be different between the models <700 and the higher end models. It can't be the 2nd HDMI output because the 400/404 also has two outputs.

[Geoff D]

But that says it all if those same features can then be activated via the custom firmware, they really DO all have the same custom chip at their core then, although the HLG to PQ conversion doesn't seem to be available for the 700/900 at all so perhaps there was a slight hardware tweak for the 300/400 version of the chip (that would also be why the firmware is separate from the 300/400 to the 700/900).

Yes, Panasonic have been using cheaper chips for years since abandoning the Uniphier, bringing it back for the BDT700 (which was essentially a dry run for the UHD player), but that was for Blu-ray not UHD. Point being that they've developed their own SoC playback solution for UHD and just because the MediaTek one has now appeared doesn't mean they're gonna throw the Uniphier under the bus just as soon as they're able to. The mooted UB200 model may be cheap by UHD standards but it's still very expensive compared to the average rinky-dink BD player so there's no need to go chasing the lowest common denominator just yet.

[Laserdisk]

And net no region free!.

[Geoff D]

There is, but it's only available from a place the name of which I shall not utter here.

[Laserdisk]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

There is, but it's only available from a place the name of which I shall not utter here.

I don't count that as an option for obvious reasons.

[Geoff D]

Then without them there's nothing. Some Pannys had a hardware mod but they were the models with MediaTek chips, as soon as you switch to the Uniphier models then the hardware mod is off the table. You can at least use the remote mod for DVD region free playback and that'd do me, I wish I could get that done on my Sony X800.

[Laserdisk]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Then without them there's nothing. Some Pannys had a hardware mod but they were the models with MediaTek chips, as soon as you switch to the Uniphier models then the hardware mod is off the table. You can at least use the remote mod for DVD region free playback and that'd do me, I wish I could get that done on my Sony X800.

I barely watch DVD anymore sadly, I did think of it the other day tho.

[Kinsella5]

I noticed Best Buy has dropped the price on the UB900 down to $449.98. It doesn't appear to be sale price, but the every day price and I believe when items end in .98 cents it is a sign of something going clearance so the price may drop even more. They probably are doing this with the upcoming UB200 coming out in late September/early October.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/panasoni...?skuId=5457202

[Robert Zohn]

Same price at all Panasonic authorized dealers, which include all Magnolia and my personal favorite, Value Electronics.

[Mezzanine]

New firmware as of today, version 1.77:

• Network service compatibility

http://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/...b900_euro.html

[agoofykindasuperman]

Originally Posted by Mezzanine

New firmware as of today, version 1.77:

• Network service compatibility

http://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/...b900_euro.html

Still no Dolby Vision...

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by agoofykindasuperman

Still no Dolby Vision...

What, are you kidding? It's been announced that Panasonic will be supporting HDR10+ (as a company, I don't mean on the UB900 specifically) so that means DV is dead in the water for them, not that Panny were entertaining the idea to begin with.

[agoofykindasuperman]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

What, are you kidding? It's been announced that Panasonic will be supporting HDR10+ (as a company, I don't mean on the UB900 specifically) so that means DV is dead in the water for them, not that Panny were entertaining the idea to begin with.

Ah well, one can dream right? lol

[vincentric]

Am actually in the market now for a non-dv player and this one for my needs on sale at $450 looks very tempting. But the price ending at .98 leads me to believe an even bigger discount is around the corner. Decisions, decisions.

[Robert Zohn]

Originally Posted by Kinsella5

I noticed Best Buy has dropped the price on the UB900 down to $449.98. It doesn't appear to be sale price, but the every day price and I believe when items end in .98 cents it is a sign of something going clearance so the price may drop even more. They probably are doing this with the upcoming UB200 coming out in late September/early October.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/panasoni...?skuId=5457202

UB200s are in stock now.

I don't know of any further price reduction on the UB900 and not sure why other retailers price ends .98. We're at $449.00, which is the minimum UPP allowable.