Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[CaptainZombie]

Originally Posted by MooneyRara

Sony has SACD and DVD-Audio support.

I don’t use either of those formats so I should be good then. I ordered the 820 from Best Buy, hoping this is better than both the X800 and X800M2 with stability.

[Robert Zohn]

Love the aggressive Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale Prices for the UB9000P1k and UB820!

UB9000P1k is now $949.99 and the UB820 is $399.99 all prices include double boxed shipping!

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

Love the aggressive Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale Prices for the UB9000P1k and UB820!

UB9000P1k is now $949.99 and the UB820 is $399.99 all prices include double boxed shipping!

Panasonic makes some great quality long lasting Blu-ray players. While I do not own those models you mentioned, since Panasonic does not offer legacy SACD and DVD-Audio support, however a lot of consumers that do not own any SACD’s and DVD-Audio discs love those Panasonic models that Robert mentioned. Some of my family members first standalone Blu-ray players which were 2K models are Panasonic Blu-ray players that were purchased back in the year 2010. Those 2010 Panasonic Blu-ray players are still working perfectly fine. Panasonic advantages are build quality, both auto HDR10+ and Dolby Vision HDR, and tone mapping.

[Robert Zohn]

We enjoy supporting all of our clients so they do not need to use Panasonic's online tech support messaging service.

Here's more details on Panasonic's Promotional Calendar:

Model #s Promo Dates Retail Prices Instant Rebate Black Friday Sale

[PuppetMasterBlu]

Originally Posted by CaptainZombie

I don’t use either of those formats so I should be good then. I ordered the 820 from Best Buy, hoping this is better than both the X800 and X800M2 with stability.

It certainly will be. I have never had a single freeze up on the player. Had a few bad discs of course but when they were replaced they played fine.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by CaptainZombie

Is there anything that the UB820 lacks on vs. the Sony players?

UB820 is trash for file playback and DVDs look worse than anything else I own that does DVD. The Sony is a great player it's just a dumpster fire for BD100 discs

[Bernardo A.]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

UB820 is trash for file playback and DVDs look worse than anything else I own that does DVD. The Sony is a great player it's just a dumpster fire for BD100 discs

That's interesting because Sony's PS5 seems to handle triple-deckers just fine.

[sfmarine]

UB820 dropped to $350 on Amazon this morning. It seems to do this every holiday season.

[artidiabel]

Originally Posted by WITCHCULT

The dark theme is really nice! Good update.

OMG this looks so amazing! Thanks for sharing.

[HDTV1080P]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

UB820 is trash for file playback and DVDs look worse than anything else I own that does DVD. The Sony is a great player it's just a dumpster fire for BD100 discs

A family member I know has been using the year 2017 Sony UBP-X800 since 2017 and they have never once mentioned playback problems with BD-100 or BD-66 4K Blu-ray discs. The year 2019 Sony UBP-X800M2 just adds manual Dolby Vision HDR and to my knowledge uses the exact same 4K BD-ROM drive as the prior Sony model from 2017.

Most places have a 30 day return or exchange policy on Panasonic or Sony 4K Blu-ray players. I would suggest buying a lot of BD-100 discs and playing them during the first 30 days. One should buy the Sony if they have a large selection of SACD and DVD-Audio discs. But if one does not own legacy SACD and DVD-Audio discs then the Panasonic is better because of auto Dolby Vision HDR, HDR10+, and tone mapping (Plus no front LCD display on the Sony players and no 7.1 analog audio outputs on the Sony’s). Only reason I did Sony was because of the SACD and DVD-Audio playback features, but to some people that is a non-issue. Panasonic offers better video quality and Sony offers better audio quality. Consumers that want the best of both worlds buy a Magnetar UDP900 or UDP800. The Magnetar is better than the Sony and Panasonic.

https://www.soundandvision.com/conte...-player-review

[Joeyseven]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

UB820 dropped to $350 on Amazon this morning. It seems to do this every holiday season.

Price matching Best Buy.
Sadly over the two I prefer Amazon.
Target is now carrying the UB820. But it sold by a 3rd party and they will not price-match 3rd party items, which is understandable.

[LordoftheRings]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

UB820 dropped to $350 on Amazon this morning. It seems to do this every holiday season.

That's reasonable.

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

A family member I know has been using the year 2017 Sony UBP-X800 since 2017 and they have never once mentioned playback problems with BD-100 or BD-66 4K Blu-ray discs. The year 2019 Sony UBP-X800M2 just adds manual Dolby Vision HDR and to my knowledge uses the exact same 4K BD-ROM drive as the prior Sony model from 2017.

Most places have a 30 day return or exchange policy on Panasonic or Sony 4K Blu-ray players. I would suggest buying a lot of BD-100 discs and playing them during the first 30 days. One should buy the Sony if they have a large selection of SACD and DVD-Audio discs. But if one does not own legacy SACD and DVD-Audio discs then the Panasonic is better because of auto Dolby Vision HDR, HDR10+, and tone mapping (Plus no front LCD display on the Sony players and no 7.1 analog audio outputs on the Sony’s). Only reason I did Sony was because of the SACD and DVD-Audio playback features, but to some people that is a non-issue. Panasonic offers better video quality and Sony offers better audio quality. Consumers that want the best of both worlds buy a Magnetar UDP900 or UDP800. The Magnetar is better than the Sony and Panasonic.

https://www.soundandvision.com/conte...-player-review

Those Magnetos are quite bit more expensive than the Panny 820.
The crowd we have here is more into the target range of the Panny 820.
And that same crowd in general aren't into SACD and DVD-Audio music discs.

Now, streaming and files reading/playback; which is best between the Panny 820 and Sony X800M2?

[HDTV1080P]

Most people do not care about streaming apps in their Blu-ray player. If you want the best streaming player buy an Apple TV streaming box for $149 or a ROKU Ultra for $79.99.

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-tv/apple-tv-4k/128gb (1,000Mbps ethernet with 128GB of internal storage)

https://www.roku.com/products/roku-ultra (only 100Mbps Ethernet)

Blu-ray.com should be a website that welcomes all people including billionaires looking for a dual projector DLP IMAX setup that costs $1 million to $20+ million dollars once the IMAX building is built with speakers. And entry level projectors for around $6,000 like a JVC or Sony LCOS model. Same is true for Blu-ray players. Some consumers might want to spend $50 on a 2K Blu-ray and other people might want to purchase several $3,000+ high-end 4K Blu-ray player models for their home or mansion. Blu-ray.com should be a website that welcomes everyone regardless of their income level. The person that makes $20,000 a year and the CEO or movie director that makes over $1.2 million dollars a year are both welcome. Plus Blu-ray.com keeps people's identities private. But some people are afraid to talk about $100,000+ or higher priced speakers or projectors. Maybe someone should create a website for ultra-high-end products that only certain people are able to access those secure forums. But in the ideal world people should be able to talk about a speaker for $100 and a speaker for $1 million dollars in the same forum. But of course, we do not live in an ideal world.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

Blu-ray.com should be a website that welcomes all people including billionaires

Thank you, this needed to be said

[sojrner]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

If you want the best streaming player buy an Apple TV streaming box for $149 or a ROKU Ultra for $79.99.

...but not this.

[DRC72]

Originally Posted by sfmarine

UB820 dropped to $350 on Amazon this morning. It seems to do this every holiday season.

I picked up an 820 at Best Buy yesterday for $349. I bought it as a back up player for my 9000.

[Robert Zohn]

@DRC72, You got an excellent price that is actually $50. below Panasonic's Black Friday/Cyber Monday Sale, which is now $100. off so the sale price is $399.99.

We follow all manufacturers' Promotional RoadMaps that gives us the future promotional deals, but we also meet all authorized dealers prices and free Double Boxed Nationwide Delivery to your home.

We also have one more big savings for our clients, so even without matching Best Buy's unauthorized sale we're only $13. higher priced and when requested we'll meet their price.

[callahan09]

Can anyone verify whether or not my American Region A (not modified/region free) UB820 supports external subtitles during disc playback? I'm thinking it doesn't based on my google search, but I'm not sure. I don't currently have a USB device to put a subtitle file on to test it, so I'm looking for answers before I spend money on that.

Edit: I found an old USB thumb drive lying around so I was able to test it. I didn't have an .srt file for a movie I actually own on disc, but I tested an unrelated movie with an .srt file I downloaded, and it did NOT work.

I read in a previous page in this thread that I should create a top-level folder on the USB drive called "sub" and then put the .srt file in there named exactly "sub.srt".

My player did not recognize the file. Is there a specific firmware that I need? I'm on 1.82, and I assume there are different regions for firmware? It sounds like Chinese 1.66 is the firmware that has this feature? I'm so confused by all of this...

[scohenmarinetech]

Originally Posted by dj_intrepid

Yes. I replaced mine in September. It was pretty easy to complete. The new drive is quieter than the original and I've had no playback issues with 4k discs, other than two Shout 4k titles, both of which inexplicably started having playback issues since I last watched them. I blame the gassy substance that the cheap cases emanate from. It literally coats the discs within a days time after cleaning them off.

Hey there! Just wanted to say thank you for the feedback here. I went ahead and ordered a new drive from Encompass today with a two-year warranty added on. Still cheaper than a new player. Cheers!

[CaptainZombie]

Thank you everyone for recommending the UB820. I received the player yesterday and have ran several discs at it, and plan to do some more testing this weekend. So far, the 4K discs I have thrown at it have worked, so I am hoping that this continues as both the Sony players drove me nuts having to always unplug and replug them in.