Panasonic DMP-UB900 Ultra HD Player

[BrownJerry]

Originally Posted by Tru-way

Same as elwaylite I left everything on auto and it's fine!

There's a reason the UB900 thread has less than half the pages of the 203, people are too busy enjoying their movies.

I also left everything auto including deep colour output on my samsung tv.. i didnt see any banding on martian, mad max, deadpool etc. samsung tv can handle 12 bit 4.4.4 just fine

Btw BD upscale on UB900 is amazing.. just finished watching 1080p battle of bastard GOT.. it looks better than most of my 4k movies lol

[elwaylite]

I think the accusation from the Oppo side is that the Panny has some "special sauce" going on. Dont really care, it looks great...

[Tru-way]

Originally Posted by BrownJerry

Btw BD upscale on UB900 is amazing.. just finished watching 1080p battle of bastard GOT.. it looks better than most of my 4k movies lol

My GOT Blu-rays never looked better, so detailed and colorful. They look 4k with the upscaling the UB900 provides and they fill up the whole screen. The BOTB episode looked excellent!

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

I think the accusation from the Oppo side is that the Panny has some "special sauce" going on. Dont really care, it looks great...

Eh. I've run a battery of tests both visually and objectively measured and the Panny doesn't seem to be doing anything untoward at all, aside from the chroma sharpness being very aggressive at the default 0 level which can cause ringing in both the horizontal and vertical planes, plus the 1080p upscaling has some baked in ringing with Edge Correction at 0 but at +1 the ringing disappears (which I first noted at AVF back in April of last year ). But apart from those tiny niggles, it's the best BD player I've ever owned and that includes an OPPO 95.

If anything it's the opposite re: tinkering, as the (wonderful) hdfever review states that the Panny is passing a slight layer of noise which other manufacturers prefer to slightly DNR - that would certainly seem to be the case with the OPPO as several people said that it looked much smoother and less noisy to them than the Panny.

As for the sharpening itself, I mentioned something in the Oblivion thread about how good it actually is for juicing up that particular disc. I did actually try it on other discs after that but it produced too many ringing artefacts for my liking, whereas Oblivion's UHD has been softened to hell and back so it can stand being sharpened up so strongly. I keep all sharpening at 0 when watching UHD, with only Edge Correction set to +1 when playing BD. Thankfully the three separate picture settings (one standard, two custom) make it a doddle to switch between my -4 contrast setting for Sony discs, and standard UHD/BD.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Eh. I've run a battery of tests both visually and objectively measured and the Panny doesn't seem to be doing anything untoward at all, aside from the chroma sharpness being very aggressive at the default 0 level which can cause ringing in both the horizontal and vertical planes, plus the 1080p upscaling has some baked in ringing with Edge Correction at 0 but at +1 the ringing disappears (which I first noted at AVF back in April of last year ). But apart from those tiny niggles, it's the best BD player I've ever owned and that includes an OPPO 95.

If anything it's the opposite re: tinkering, as the (wonderful) hdfever review states that the Panny is passing a slight layer of noise which other manufacturers prefer to slightly DNR - that would certainly seem to be the case with the OPPO as several people said that it looked much smoother and less noisy to them than the Panny.

As for the sharpening itself, I mentioned something in the Oblivion thread about how good it actually is for juicing up that particular disc. I did actually try it on other discs after that but it produced too many ringing artefacts for my liking, whereas Oblivion's UHD has been softened to hell and back so it can stand being sharpened up so strongly. I keep all sharpening at 0 when watching UHD, with only Edge Correction set to +1 when playing BD. Thankfully the three separate picture settings (one standard, two custom) make it a doddle to switch between my -4 contrast setting for Sony discs, and standard UHD/BD.

I have chroma sharpness set to -3 and edge correction to +1. Am I correct by saying this should only be for watching regular Blu-ray and not UHD? In other words should both settings be set to default 0 when watching UHD?

As for other settings:

I have 4K output set to 4K(50/60p) 4:2:0. I didn't notice any banding on my TV with 4:4:4 but I switched to 4:2:0 all the same. From what I understand it is also of no use to select 4:4:4?

I have selected YCbCr (Automatic), is that correct or should I choose YCbCr (4:2:2)? The disclaimer says that when 4:4:4 is selected during UHD playback, the player will still output in 4:2:0 anyway.

I have Deep Colour Output set to off as it is my understanding this option does nothing in particular.

Also under sound options, I have set Dynamic Range Compression to off.


I'm the type of person who wants to keep unnecessary and unwanted processing to an absolute minimum unless the PQ really does benefit from it. I like my picture (and sound) as untouched and pure as possible, the way it was intended to be seen.

[elwaylite]

IIRC, DC On will have it output 444 instead of 422 12 bit with UHD and it causes issues for some.

I also concur, this really is a great player.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by DJR662

I have chroma sharpness set to -3 and edge correction to +1. Am I correct by saying this should only be for watching regular Blu-ray and not UHD? In other words should both settings be set to default 0 when watching UHD?

As for other settings:

I have 4K output set to 4K(50/60p) 4:2:0. I didn't notice any banding on my TV with 4:4:4 but I switched to 4:2:0 all the same. From what I understand it is also of no use to select 4:4:4?

I have selected YCbCr (Automatic), is that correct or should I choose YCbCr (4:2:2)? The disclaimer says that when 4:4:4 is selected during UHD playback, the player will still output in 4:2:0 anyway.

I have Deep Colour Output set to off as it is my understanding this option does nothing in particular.

Also under sound options, I have set Dynamic Range Compression to off.


I'm the type of person who wants to keep unnecessary and unwanted processing to an absolute minimum unless the PQ really does benefit from it. I like my picture (and sound) as untouched and pure as possible, the way it was intended to be seen.

The chroma sharpness affects UHD as well as BD, whereas the Edge Correction doesn't make a difference with UHD unless you really push the sharpness all the way out (seem my link to the Oblivion thread above).

But while the chroma sharpness generates obvious vertical and horizontal ringing on colour bars (behaving similarly to the chroma enhancement feature on my older Panny BD player) it's not something that's obvious during live action content so I changed my chroma from -3 back to 0, whereas on an animated feature the ringing may become more obvious so I'll tone it back down as and when I need to.

As for the 4K50/60 setting, I would advise changing that to 4:4:4 otherwise you won't get any HDR WCG playback from 4K60 content, as by setting it to 4:2:0 it automatically downrates 4K60 material to 8-bit SDR 709. Not so much a problem now, sure, seeing as there's only one 60fps movie disc (Billy Lynn's), but I'd set it to 4:4:4 all the same if your TV can handle full-fat 4K60 content. Mine cannot, so it automatically set the 4:2:0 4K60 output during initial set-up.

I've left Deep Colour on, it does nothing to the UHD 24p output which is 12-bit 4:2:2 anyway, but upscaled Blu-rays look a bit more polished in 12-bit 4:2:2 than 8-bit 4:4:4, as the latter is what the player will default to for BD playback if I turn DC off.

[elwaylite]

Ah, cool, I had not paid attention to that.

Someone claimed DC on sent 12 bit 444 on UHD and caused banding awhile back on AVS, but that did not make sense to me. I never checked.

I've left Deep Colour on, it does nothing to the UHD 24p output which is 12-bit 4:2:2 anyway, but upscaled Blu-rays look a bit more polished in 12-bit 4:2:2 than 8-bit 4:4:4, as the latter is what the player will default to for BD playback if I turn DC off.

[Geoff D]

I heard the same thing (probably from the same person) about that but IMO it's the 12-bit 4:4:4 signal itself that causes banding, not the Deep Colour setting on the Panny. I think people get a bit confused and think that it's similar to the Samsung player, which has a native 10-bit 4:4:4 output that becomes 12-bit 4:4:4 when DC is enabled, and I saw reports about banding with that player right from the start.

But by 'causes' I mean that the TV's processing is choking on the full-fat 12-bit 4:4:4 4K24 signal which maxes out the data rate of HDMI 2.0, so it's not the player itself that's generating the banding, if you take my meaning. But don't just take my meaning, Vincent Teoh from HDTVtest said the same thing about the Panny when discussing the newer 300 and 400 players.

Don't get me wrongo, if the player did a native 10-bit signal from the start then we wouldn't have had the 12-bit 4:4:4 output exposing such processing problems on TVs that weren't up to snuff, but it is what it is. Panny will be adding a proper 10-bit output in an upcoming firmware update, so this issue will become a moo point in due course.

[elwaylite]

Gotcha.

Swapping gears, watching The Gate blu-ray. right now on the 900. The dark shots are a little washed due to the source, but the day shots look tremendous on the 900 and OLED.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The chroma sharpness affects UHD as well as BD, whereas the Edge Correction doesn't make a difference with UHD unless you really push the sharpness all the way out (seem my link to the Oblivion thread above).

But while the chroma sharpness generates obvious vertical and horizontal ringing on colour bars (behaving similarly to the chroma enhancement feature on my older Panny BD player) it's not something that's obvious during live action content so I changed my chroma from -3 back to 0, whereas on an animated feature the ringing may become more obvious so I'll tone it back down as and when I need to.

As for the 4K50/60 setting, I would advise changing that to 4:4:4 otherwise you won't get any HDR WCG playback from 4K60 content, as by setting it to 4:2:0 it automatically downrates 4K60 material to 8-bit SDR 709. Not so much a problem now, sure, seeing as there's only one 60fps movie disc (Billy Lynn's), but I'd set it to 4:4:4 all the same if your TV can handle full-fat 4K60 content. Mine cannot, so it automatically set the 4:2:0 4K60 output during initial set-up.

I've left Deep Colour on, it does nothing to the UHD 24p output which is 12-bit 4:2:2 anyway, but upscaled Blu-rays look a bit more polished in 12-bit 4:2:2 than 8-bit 4:4:4, as the latter is what the player will default to for BD playback if I turn DC off.

Thanks for the feedback!

I'll change the chroma sharpness back to 0 and just leave the edge correction at +1 then. If I see any problems during an animated movie I can always turn it down again.

I have ab-so-lute-ly no need for 4K/60p content unless it's a documentary or music concert. I'm very much against using HFR for motion pictures, 24p is the only way to go for me. So this setting wouldn't matter to me at the moment even though my TV accepts the signal. Btw I've ordered The Last Reef and the upcoming Planet Earth II, I wonder if these will be 24 or 60p?

I'll leave Deep Color at automatic then if it doesn't affect UHD discs and has no negative impact on regular Blu-ray. I thought with Blu-ray being 8bit it would be better to turn Deep Color off.

Thanks again Geoff, for your informative posts.

[Geoff D]

Planet Earth II was apparently shot at 25fps but it seems as if the UHD discs will all get a 24p version. I dunno for sure though, things may have changed since the last time I checked that thread.

You'd normally think so re: the 8-bit thing for Blu-ray, I'd usually keep it on 8-bit too, but the 12-bit copes with banding (that's baked into the source, e.g. pretty much any Lionsgate Blu-ray) just a lil' bit better.

[PS3_Kiwi]

Finally jumped on the 4K bandwagon. I managed to negotiate a great price for the Panasonic 58DX900 4K UHD TV bundled with the Panasonic UB900 4K UHD player. Taking into account that this is the UB900 thread, early thoughts are that its a humdinger of a player. I need to have a bit more time with it before I can give it a gold star.

I spent most of my day setting up both machines (firmware updates etc.), but I still had time to watch Deadpool 4K and it was glorious. As I've read in other threads, I think that the 4K discs need to be played on an Ultra HD Premium TV to get the best out of them. 3D was not good (crosstalk) but it may be possible to improve it a little. I may have to swap my 3D glasses for sunglasses. Some of the scenes in Deadpool were bright to say the least.

Had a look at a couple of upscaled Blu's, which were also excellent, but not as good as the 4K disc. I expect that I will have to be selective with what I buy, or I may be disappointed with some of the lesser offerings. I'm gonna have myself a great time over the next few years. Also had a good laugh at Deadpool's brilliant one liners.

One happy camper

[PS3_Kiwi]

One feature that I like on the Panny is the option to change the background on the home screen. I downloaded several movie related 4K HD walipapers, and I will try a new one each week. Starting with Hacksaw Ridge.

[agoofykindasuperman]

Cool, I did not know you could do that! Thanks Kiwi

[PS3_Kiwi]

Yeah, I downloaded lots of 4K HD pics from a site called HD Wallpapers. Not just movie wallpapers, many categories to choose from. I copied them onto a USB stick, and voila!

Here is the link to HD Wallpapers.

http://www.hdwallpapers.in/

[Cortiz]

Is it normal for this player to lose the signal for a few seconds while a movie is loading? Sometimes i've seen long delays before I can see anything on the screen, and sometimes I get audio for a few seconds before the picture kicks in. Is this normal behavior for these new 4K players?

[Geoff D]

Mine doesn't do that. Sounds like the HDMI handshake is a bit more squinky on your set-up.

[PS3_Kiwi]

Just seconding Geoff's reply. Mine doesn't do it either.

[DJJez]

Originally Posted by Cortiz

Is it normal for this player to lose the signal for a few seconds while a movie is loading? Sometimes i've seen long delays before I can see anything on the screen, and sometimes I get audio for a few seconds before the picture kicks in. Is this normal behavior for these new 4K players?

do a factory reset . should fix it