Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[blueman_Richie]

Can anyone tell me why turning off 24p also turns off HDR output?
(this is on the 820)

[sojrner]

Originally Posted by 53Fatman

I own my UB9004 in the third year now, i did have a faulty disc drive, but was lucky it happened 1 month before the warrenty went out. (disc drive was not opening anymore).

Despite this i did not have any problems beside one defective disc (1917, Universal), the picture went to complete modern art at the same time stamp for ~2min. But this was on the 824 from my dad too, even worse, the picture pixelated and the player freezes. The error correction/disc drive on the UB9004 seems to handle this a bit better. It was clear it was a disc issue, got a new one from Amazon and everything was fine.

Yesterday i watched the Great Escape (german Capelight disc) and this happened again, same pixelation at around 1hour 58min, after that point everything was like it, seems like the complete third layer was defective. I pressed Stop und fast forward to the same timestamp and again. But i did not shut off the player. Today i tested the disc in the 824 just to be sure before i email Capelight, et voila, nothing. Played perfectly fine. Back in the 9004, no problems at all. Did this three times in a row (with shutting it down in between), and the problem did not reoccur.

Anyone experienced something similar?

I would understand if the player freezes completly or it happened once at the layer change but why it was repeatable the first time?

Disc is super clean and has no scratches.

If I could hazard a guess, I would say the disc was not super clean. You can easily get some off-gassing from the case onto the disc, yet not see it at first glance. A quick cleaning of that play surface can remove what is there. (if you don't have formal disc cleaner, a simple soft rag and mild dish soap with warm water will suffice) Check the movie case as well to ensure there isn't more of that gunk.

The behavior you describe sounds like a dirty disc or laser, with the former being likely because it happened on two players. If you encounter it again on any disc, immediately do a quick cleanup on it (even if you don't see anything) and try again to see if that corrects the issue. If not, then explore it being a faulty disc.

Hope that helps.

[gizmo83]

Sometimes it happens even with a simple fingerprint you cant see it in a pitch black room.
Other times is just the disc that is faulty, if you had the chance .. try it on others player

I live in Italy and I already have 9 BDs that currently no longer work

[blueman_Richie]

Originally Posted by blueman_Richie

Can anyone tell me why turning off 24p also turns off HDR output?
(this is on the 820)

replying to my own post but found this in another thread case anyone else wants to know.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The Pannysonic players do that (disabling HDR on 60Hz output) but only if the 4K60 setting is on 4:2:0,

So I guess that's why! I have to use 4:2:0 as my tv even though 4K is a bit shit (5 year old LG LED with MAJOR purple splotch issues )

Turning off 24p was the only way i could fix audio sync issues across the board. Using either audio delay on my AVR or the audio delay on the 820 meant that only one configuration worked. I would be in sync through the AVR but not when through the tv OR vice versa.

The trade off it losing HDR but my TV can only do the basic one anyway (and as I said the panel has some horrible purple splotches issue I can't fix. You get what you pay for I guess!).

[ronand]

Audio sync issues are most likely caused by the TV. Try disabling any true motion or motion smoothing and it should be fine in 24p mode.

[53Fatman]

Originally Posted by sojrner

If I could hazard a guess, I would say the disc was not super clean. You can easily get some off-gassing from the case onto the disc, yet not see it at first glance. A quick cleaning of that play surface can remove what is there. (if you don't have formal disc cleaner, a simple soft rag and mild dish soap with warm water will suffice) Check the movie case as well to ensure there isn't more of that gunk.

The behavior you describe sounds like a dirty disc or laser, with the former being likely because it happened on two players. If you encounter it again on any disc, immediately do a quick cleanup on it (even if you don't see anything) and try again to see if that corrects the issue. If not, then explore it being a faulty disc.

Hope that helps.

Originally Posted by gizmo83

Sometimes it happens even with a simple fingerprint you cant see it in a pitch black room.
Other times is just the disc that is faulty, if you had the chance .. try it on others player

I live in Italy and I already have 9 BDs that currently no longer work

Thanks for the reply,

as written in the original post, this did not happen on two players, only on the UB9004 once, but when it happened it was repeatable, everytime you go beyond the 01:58:XX mark you get that pixelation for the rest of the runtime. In the 824 this did not happen and all attempts in the 9004 after that, the issue was gone.

The typical smeary film is not there, its from a mediabock with the transparent plastic, not the soft black stuff from the standard cases.

I hope this was a one time glitch sand will never come back...

Another strange thing with this disc tho, and this is on both Panasonic devices, the bitrate shown in the playback info is completly wrong, it ranges from ~140 to 370Mbps, never seen that on any other disc.

[blueman_Richie]

Originally Posted by ronand

Audio sync issues are most likely caused by the TV. Try disabling any true motion or motion smoothing and it should be fine in 24p mode.

Thanks. I've always had all those things turned off but will double check everything.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by DaylightsEnd

but many uhd discs make that cheapo unit sound like it is literally trying to take flight, or disassemble itself from within, when the disc spins up.

Ah the Xbox 360 spin as I like to call it. My Sony unit does that, it's unbearable when it lasts the entire movie. Wish I knew why it happens but can only guess some discs aren't made to size spec or something and a cheap unit will do that. Panny is whisper quiet besides that low Panny click I notice sometimes.

[bl4ck]

Can anyone confirm correct operation of 3D disc only(not 2D/3D ) on firmware 1.82?

[Hedrox]

Originally Posted by bl4ck

Can anyone confirm correct operation of 3D disc only(not 2D/3D ) on firmware 1.82?

You'll have to be more specific.

Discs that are 3D only will not play unless the player is connected to a 3D capable display, regardless of what the player or firmware is. There's no way to bypass that.

[scohenmarinetech]

Anyone have luck replacing their UB820 disc drive with TXP0183? I've got a UB820 from a few years ago that now cannot play any 4K discs. It just spins until you hear a slight grinding noise, then it restarts and does the same thing all over again. I believe the rubber spacer in the drive unit is hitting the disc for some reason when it's spinning. Went in and cleaned everything to no avail.

The drive still plays standard Blu-ray just fine, though.

[b0b]

Which has better chroma upsampling when watching 4K Blu-rays - the UB820 or LG C3/G3?

[TheHistorian]

I was really hoping the 9000 would get me past the inexplicable playback issues that were rife on my Sony. Apparently not.

I check new 4Ks as they arrive, as they are so much more prone to problems than anything else. Threw in Cat People (Shout Factory) last night and hit a problem about 50 minutes in. Checked the disc, saw nothing, wiped it with a microfiber cloth anyway, and tried again. No improvement. Put it in the Sony and it played fine. No idea why.

So annoying. To be clear, I'm more annoyed at 4K fragility than the player, but still.

[Daz_85]

Originally Posted by blueman_Richie

Turning off 24p was the only way i could fix audio sync issues across the board. Using either audio delay on my AVR or the audio delay on the 820 meant that only one configuration worked. I would be in sync through the AVR but not when through the tv OR vice versa.

Audio sync is my AV bane. I'm currently playing with leaving the 820 sync to 0, but setting output to 4K (not automatic) so every source decodes that way, and adjusting the Denon AVR sync to 100ms.

[dj_intrepid]

Originally Posted by scohenmarinetech

Anyone have luck replacing their UB820 disc drive with TXP0183? I've got a UB820 from a few years ago that now cannot play any 4K discs. It just spins until you hear a slight grinding noise, then it restarts and does the same thing all over again. I believe the rubber spacer in the drive unit is hitting the disc for some reason when it's spinning. Went in and cleaned everything to no avail.

The drive still plays standard Blu-ray just fine, though.

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.

[Dubliner1]

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.

(wipe the greasy stuff off the inside of the disc case using some clean, dry cotton wool. Afterwards, make sure no fibers are left on the inside of the case- used a spectacle cleaning microfiber cloth and blow on it too if necessary to remove anything remaining).

[jurid]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

I've had mine outputting 4k only for awhile, there was a visible difference to me with Blu ray upscaling vs. my LG, the Panny looked better way up close for grain detail. I don't play DVDs on this unit for reasons that became obvious (they look like ****) so I use a good old Toshiba deck from 2007 outputting vanilla 480i and the picture sings for me letting the LG do everything.

Which Toshiba are you using for DVDs? I found that I get best results with DVDs
by letting my XA2 upscale to 1080/24p and let the TV(s) do the rest.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by jurid

Which Toshiba are you using for DVDs? I found that I get best results with DVDs
by letting my XA2 upscale to 1080/24p and let the TV(s) do the rest.

I have an HD-A35, an XA2 and an HD-A1. I was doing what you're doing, but I currently don't even do any player upscaling but 480i HDMI output so TV does everything. Over time this has given me the best picture. Some video based discs were not playing nice with the double upscale for some reason, mostly animation judder and some music video collection stuff/concert footage, doing this solved it. 24p output was also not ideal for DVD playback on my setup, something was fighting with my Real Cinema setting on certain discs. Just outputting 60i fixed it. I got the idea because of a friend who runs LaserDisc setups and told me not to bother upscaling just input the raw composite signal. I first thought the LG oleds wouldn't take 480i but they do. If I'm watching HDDVD of course I use 1080/24 as long as I'm not on the A1. I have retired most of my discs lately do these will be DVD machines till the wheels fall off.

[jurid]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

I have an HD-A35, an XA2 and an HD-A1. I was doing what you're doing, but I currently don't even do any player upscaling but 480i HDMI output so TV does everything. Over time this has given me the best picture. Some video based discs were not playing nice with the double upscale for some reason, mostly animation judder and some music video collection stuff/concert footage, doing this solved it. 24p output was also not ideal for DVD playback on my setup, something was fighting with my Real Cinema setting on certain discs. Just outputting 60i fixed it. I got the idea because of a friend who runs LaserDisc setups and told me not to bother upscaling just input the raw composite signal. I first thought the LG oleds wouldn't take 480i but they do. If I'm watching HDDVD of course I use 1080/24 as long as I'm not on the A1. I have retired most of my discs lately do these will be DVD machines till the wheels fall off.

Almost all movie (and many TV show) DVDs are in fact 24p. (In fact, if you remove interlace flags with software you can save the mpg as 24p without re-encoding!). Sony, Oppo, Toshiba and some other players can figure that out and output the 24p signal. On the other hand, most of anime, TV shows are 60i, so putting XA2 in 1080/24p mode will be quite detrimental (stutter and loss of resolution). I found that with movies, XA2 is superb.

[IlCorvo]

https://www.avforums.com/threads/let.../post-32658037

1.82 enhanced firmware is online!