Panasonic DMP-UB900 Ultra HD Player

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

They did until 2013 or 2014 IIRC, when they dumped the Uniphier for a MediaTek chip and then they started failing simple video tests like fine chroma resolution. Cost cutting I guess, but the BDT500 and BDT700 were great units and still had a Uniphier, too bad the 700 never made it in the US.

BDT500 was the last model the US got with the Uniphier, I owned it, and it was a good one.

Yup, it can't be denied that their MediaTek-equipped units were just as shite as everyone else's, perhaps even MORE so, but them Uniphiers are bad mother****ers.

If the UHD player is basically a BDT700 with UHD bolted on then that's fine by me. To further that assumption (which I called as soon as I saw the picture of the 'prototype' seen at CES 2015, here's a picture of the BDT700's front end from the AVF review:

[Show spoiler]

compared to a picture of the UHD player's front end, there's something similar there but I can't quite put my finger on it...

[Show spoiler]

Hell, that's probably what Panasonic's front end looks like on all their current players, MediaTek shite included, but it's nice to see the continuity from HD to UHD.

[Lion]

Superfi in the UK now have the DMP-UB900 listed on their website:

http://www.superfi.co.uk/p-17884-pan...dgQaAryD8P8HAQ

[Viking61]

What Hi-Fi has got one already. Screen capture of a What Hi-Fi tweet.

[waldi111]

What passes audio from MKV after usb dmp - ub900 --- dts master hd ?.....

[LuminousMotion]

What an interesting combo of pack-in discs to test, given experiences with the Sammy player, display calibration, HDR-grading and whether, given whomever it was involved in that grading process, they match the original creative artistic intent. Mad Max, which some feel may have strayed somewhat and Pan, which seems to have not benefited (given the review on this site) all that much, if any, from the regrading process. Be interesting to see what, if any, differences, they can eek out.

[saprano]

No word on when this is coming to the U.S.?

[Adrian Wright]

I see this player seems to have the ability to turn HDR output on or off.

[Rocklandsboy]

If a player is to be had, this is the one!

But I doubt you can fully disable HDR due to there not being an alternative version of the movie pressed onto the disc.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Rocklandsboy

If a player is to be had, this is the one!

But I doubt you can fully disable HDR due to there not being an alternative version of the movie pressed onto the disc.

True, but actually having a manually activated HDR on/off mode could mean that it's a wee bit more cultured in respect of the SDR conversion than the Sammy. Again, not holding my breath, but it'd be a lovely bonus. Panasonic have been including things like 3D LUTs inside their TVs so it's not inconceivable that they've worked at including some kind of proprietary SDR transform, especially given all their work at the Panasonic Hollywood Lab over the years.

[Adrian Wright]

Menu on the Panasonic UHD BD player gives you the option to have HDR set to output either Automatic or Off. Using a little Bing Translator I am sure the menu states 'If the video is not displayed correctly, set this to off" under the HDMI / HDR Section of the Settings Menu. Overall, seems to be a few more options when compared to the Samsung player.

[Viking61]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKrvT9hgfGw

[sneak76]

If you speak German seems to be quite a long review at 48 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmglqVy4m8s

I tried the English subs but they don't seem to translate very well.

[dvdmike]

Another here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1i0...ature=youtu.be

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Viking61

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKrvT9hgfGw

Amazed no-one's picked up on this: I see there's an ADJUSTABLE transform for SDR. Panasonic appear have put a lot more thought into the issue of SDR conversion than the ultra-simplistic hard-clipped SDR output on the Samsung (as I'd hoped might be the case). What's tantalising about it is whether the player will output this regraded SDR signal in 10-bit, if it does then it could have the potential to carry across a higher dynamic range than 8-bit. As my set can kick out almost 500 nits peak and can handle 10-bit sources...shit could get real interesting.

Sure, the issue of accuracy to the creative SDR intent is still up in the air, but seeing as the metadata-derived dynamic SDR transform doesn't appear to be ready for prime time this is as good as it'll get for now. (Wouldn't surprise me if the Oppo player appears in time for the dynamic SDR transform feature to be implemented, but that player will cost so much dosh I'll probably be able to buy a new HDR TV for the same amount anyway, so I might as well get the Panny now!!)

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Amazed no-one's picked up on this: I see there's an ADJUSTABLE transform for SDR. Panasonic appear have put a lot more thought into the issue of SDR conversion than the ultra-simplistic hard-clipped SDR output on the Samsung (as I'd hoped might be the case). What's tantalising about it is whether the player will output this regraded SDR signal in 10-bit, if it does then it could have the potential to carry across a higher dynamic range than 8-bit. As my set can kick out almost 500 nits peak and can handle 10-bit sources...shit could get real interesting.

Sure, the issue of accuracy to the creative SDR intent is still up in the air, but seeing as the metadata-derived dynamic SDR transform doesn't appear to be ready for prime time this is as good as it'll get for now. (Wouldn't surprise me if the Oppo player appears in time for the dynamic SDR transform feature to be implemented, but that player will cost so much dosh I'll probably be able to buy a new HDR TV for the same amount anyway, so I might as well get the Panny now!!)

Can open worms everywhere

[Geoff D]

Eh, it's better than a closed can at this point!

Sure, that sliding scale is tantamount to doing your own personal SDR regrade rather than being the 'true' SDR transform, but given how all over the shop people's settings are anyway (HDR, SDR, doesn't matter) then doing your own thing is par for the course at this stage of proceedings.

Even if the idea of it being able to convey some sort of pseudo-wide-range signal is off the mark, you could use the sliding scale when comparing back and forth to the standard Blu-ray to try and get the UHD as close to the actual SDR grade as possible.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Eh, it's better than a closed can at this point!

Sure, that sliding scale is tantamount to doing your own personal SDR regrade rather than being the 'true' SDR transform, but given how all over the shop people's settings are anyway (HDR, SDR, doesn't matter) then doing your own thing is par for the course at this stage of proceedings.

Even if the idea of it being able to convey some sort of pseudo-wide-range signal is off the mark, you could use the sliding scale when comparing back and forth to the standard Blu-ray to try and get the UHD as close to the actual SDR grade as possible.

Or two discs, like 3d that would be neat

[Geoff D]

Two UHD discs for SDR and HDR is never gonna happen, not while they're packing in the regular SDR Blu-ray anyway. They could put an SDR encode in the same transport stream as the HDR version, but the lack of 100GB media will put the kibosh on that.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Two UHD discs for SDR and HDR is never gonna happen, not while they're packing in the regular SDR Blu-ray anyway. They could put an SDR encode in the same transport stream as the HDR version, but the lack of 100GB media will put the kibosh on that.

I have a dream.....

[kristoffer]

But no video shows it turning on and starting up yet.