Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[sapiendut]

Yeah, I don’t think it’s designed to run continuously like that. But if it doesn’t suit your viewing habit then perhaps it’s not for you b

[Robert Zohn]

Originally Posted by Scorsese

You're probably right

Guess I'll have to upgrade my TV then

Mr. Scorsese, you have an OLED TV, I delivered it to your NYC home.

[Fred Bang]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Yeah, I don’t think it’s designed to run continuously like that. But if it doesn’t suit your viewing habit then perhaps it’s not for you b

I will not use it more than 3-4 hours per day in normal times. But I was just testing it to make sure it runs better than the other one. If it doesn't crash during normal viewing, I'll be satisfied, but I won,t lie that I would have been happier if it didn't crash at all lol.

[sapiendut]

Me too. I use both 9000 and 820. Even after one movie my 9000 runs hot. Moreso than 2 hours on the 820. I know it’s the video processor running hot. Hence the reason it doesn’t allow you to pause a movie longer than 30 minutes.

[Fred Bang]

Question to you guys: I'm debating whether to use that optimizer or not. I've set that TV type to 'Medium to High luminance" which blocks the output to 1000 nits. While it brings some more details in highlights, I also feel it dampens the highlights too much. To me the best of both world is setting the player to "Super High Luminance" which outputs to 1500 nits. It gives a bit more brightness without being too washed out.

Do you see any drawbacks to using this setting (which, as I understand it, is not in line with my x950G)? For example, is there any effect on colors or is it really just about luminance?

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Fred Bang

Question to you guys: I'm debating whether to use that optimizer or not. I've set that TV type to 'Medium to High luminance" which blocks the output to 1000 nits. While it brings some more details are more apparent in highlights, I also feel it dampens the highlights too much. To me the best of both world is setting the player to "Super High Luminance" which outputs to 1500 nits. It gives a bit more brightness without being too washed out.

Do you see any drawbacks to using this setting (which, as I understand it, is not in line with my x950G)? For example, is there any effect on colors or is it really just about luminance?

Why don't you play with the slider? leave it at Medium to High Luminance, raise to increase the brightness (losing contrast detail) or lower it to increase the contrast (lowering the brightness). You have the pre-set options too.

[Fred Bang]

Originally Posted by chip75

Why don't you play with the slider? leave it at Medium to High Luminance, raise to increase the brightness (losing contrast detail) or lower it to increase the contrast (lowering the brightness). You have the pre-set options too.

I may be wrong, that doesn't seem to do the same thing. It seems to bring everything up, not just the highlights. (I,ve set it to "Natural" since my living is relatively bright and has bias lighting).

When you play around with the optimizer its only the hightlights that are affected. For example if you are watching a night scene with street lamps and turn the optimizer on and off, only the street light changes. Or a day scene with the sunny sky in the background, you'll see only the sky darken down (basically everything that is over 1000 nits, I assume)

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by Fred Bang

Well I exchanged the player and still got the issue. Although it happened only after 8 hours of mostly continuous play. Maybe it’s relatively «*normal*». I’ll stop pushing it to it’s limit now and use it normally to see if it annoys me or not.

Back in the 90’s I know several retail stores that used Laserdisc players to feed the TV signal, and they ran between 16 hours to 24 hours everyday on repeat for over 3 years without problems. Even the cheapest $50 or $69.99 Sony Blu-ray player works flawlessly for over 16 hours a day. I have personally used my OPPO UDP-203 for 16-20 hours a day and it has worked flawlessly for over a month while watching various 4K Ultra HD and regular Blu-ray TV series (9 seasons of Little House on the Prairie takes time to go through). All the BD-25, BD-50, and BD-66 discs work great in the OPPO UDP-203. I have had some minor issues with around 10% of the 100GB 4K Blu-ray discs I play, but those are some optical disc stamping issues at the factory from what I understand.

So my point is you Panasonic 4K Blu-ray player should be able to be used continuously also for as many hours that you want.

[Robert Zohn]

In our a/v showroom our UB9000 runs from 9am - 6pm M-F and 10am - 5PM Saturdays. the UB9000 is connected to our AVPro HDMI 8x16 matrix switch that feeds all of the TVs and our two theaters. The same UB9000 has been running our store video distribution for more than 1.5 years without a glitch. It's set to repeat play.

[Scorsese]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

Mr. Scorsese, you have an OLED TV, I delivered it to your NYC home.

Haha!

[hkyplayr10]

I have the 820 and am wondering if there's that much of a difference in PQ if I go directly into my TV vs going through my receiver, which is an Onkyo RZ630. Do most of you run the 820 directly to your TV and the use the secondary HDMI for audio to your receiver?

[Mikke73]

Originally Posted by hkyplayr10

I have the 820 and am wondering if there's that much of a difference in PQ if I go directly into my TV vs going through my receiver, which is an Onkyo RZ630. Do most of you run the 820 directly to your TV and the use the secondary HDMI for audio to your receiver?

I do that, but mainly because I don't have any choice with the receiver I have. After 20 months I still have some lipsync issues...

[dcx4610]

I've had the player for about a month now and I'm really happy with it.

At first I was a little annoyed that I couldn't turn off the display (I like a completely dark room for movies) but ended up finding the setting under Audio which is a little bizarre but hey, it works.

I do wish you could display auto-playback. It seems like every player loves auto-playback and will play a movie when you close the tray.

Other than that, perfect quality wise and you get a lot of settings that you don't normally get. It feels enthusiast grade with its interface vs. consumer grade which I appreciate.

[Fred Bang]

I think I may have found the issue of my cracking sound, but it's just a theory and only time will tell. So my UB-820 is plugged in my x950G through HDMI and the television does an optical passthrough to an old Harman Kardon from 2006 that does only 5.1.

I always suspected that this is a decoding issue more than a optical reader issue (since I would be really unlucky to get two lemons in a rows)

Yesterday, when it started doing weird static sound again I realized that the signal sent to the receiver was never in 5.1.

I went in the Panasonic Audio setting and set the "secondary Audio" option to ON (which according to it's description downsamples Atmos to 5.1 and DTS-HD to DTS).

Now the sound is in 5.1 and the static seems to have stopped. But it's hard to say since the symptoms always seems to occur after a few hours.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by hkyplayr10

I have the 820 and am wondering if there's that much of a difference in PQ if I go directly into my TV vs going through my receiver, which is an Onkyo RZ630. Do most of you run the 820 directly to your TV and the use the secondary HDMI for audio to your receiver?

There wouldn't be any difference, assuming your receiver supports HMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2. Just make sure you're not adding any post-video options if you use your AVR.

The main reason for connecting directly to the TV is the generally convenience of using the displays picture options and not using the AVR's pass-through (assuming your AVR supports HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2 and HDR).

[gnicks]

Originally Posted by Mikke73

I do that, but mainly because I don't have any choice with the receiver I have. After 20 months I still have some lipsync issues...

Have you tried using a disc that has a 24p A/V sync meter like the Spears & Munsil ones? I am also running sound through the receiver and video through the display, and after using the disc to add the appropriate delay to the receiver, I'm pretty happy with the results.

[Mikke73]

Originally Posted by gnicks

Have you tried using a disc that has a 24p A/V sync meter like the Spears & Munsil ones? I am also running sound through the receiver and video through the display, and after using the disc to add the appropriate delay to the receiver, I'm pretty happy with the results.

I don't have any such disc, so I've just been trying to get the sync fixed when watching movies. But it seems like everytime I get the sync more or less correct, with the next disc is off.
At least it's not too far off with any disc now, with current settings I only notice it if I start looking at it specifically. I can live with it.

[gnicks]

Originally Posted by Mikke73

I don't have any such disc, so I've just been trying to get the sync fixed when watching movies. But it seems like everytime I get the sync more or less correct, with the next disc is off.
At least it's not too far off with any disc now, with current settings I only notice it if I start looking at it specifically. I can live with it.

If it does start to bother you, I would highly recommend buying a disc. It's extremely difficult to do by eye. I tried for a long time and was never satisfied until I had something to accurately sync to.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by hkyplayr10

I have the 820 and am wondering if there's that much of a difference in PQ if I go directly into my TV vs going through my receiver, which is an Onkyo RZ630. Do most of you run the 820 directly to your TV and the use the secondary HDMI for audio to your receiver?

There wouldn't be a difference in PQ with a pass through setting. People do it if they don't have a 4K HDCP 2.2 AVR.

[Mikke73]

Originally Posted by gnicks

If it does start to bother you, I would highly recommend buying a disc. It's extremely difficult to do by eye. I tried for a long time and was never satisfied until I had something to accurately sync to.

Yeah, I've noticed it's difficult. Before buying a disc I think I'll try it with some concert video, should be a bit easier to sync with drums.