Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[PissedOffPeoN]

So everyone email dolby about it .

[Kris Deering]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

The 820 and 9000 are better in PQ (more accurate, actually) than the 205 (which I had, actually). But for DV, Oppo is better than the very slightly elevated DV of the Pana.

The difference in general video playback is subtle though, and only the most grueling patterns really show the difference. But I find the operability of the Oppo easier to live with on a day to day basis. The Panasonic players are quite sluggish in comparison for daily use, which makes them tedious by comparison.

[eddievanhalen]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

The 820 and 9000 are better in PQ (more accurate, actually) than the 205 (which I had, actually). But for DV, Oppo is better than the very slightly elevated DV of the Pana.

In what sense you find the 820 to have a more accurate picture than the Oppo 205. I'm just curious as I've never had the chance to see the Oppo 205 playing an UHD BD disc.
I have a Panasonic DP-UB420 that is a cheaper player than the 820 but it has the same picture quality as the 820, the 420 lacks any analog out and its build quality is lower, but I love how it looks. I had a Sony X-800 before the Panasonic (I still have but it's been left for music playing only) and I find the picture of the Sony X-800 flat, dull and boring next to the Panasonic's, HDR Optimizer used or not.

[JohnAV]

Originally Posted by eddievanhalen

In what sense you find the 820 to have a more accurate picture than the Oppo 205. I'm just curious as I've never had the chance to see the Oppo 205 playing an UHD BD disc.
I have a Panasonic DP-UB420 that is a cheaper player than the 820 but it has the same picture quality as the 820, the 420 lacks any analog out and its build quality is lower, but I love how it looks. I had a Sony X-800 before the Panasonic (I still have but it's been left for music playing only) and I find the picture of the Sony X-800 flat, dull and boring next to the Panasonic's, HDR Optimizer used or not.

Its better to look at HDTest video if you want a technical in-depth comparison. David's background with the UDP-205 doesn't yield he really played with it that much IMHO.

Panasonic UB9000 4K Blu-ray Player Review (vs OPPO 203) - YouTube

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by eddievanhalen

In what sense you find the 820 to have a more accurate picture than the Oppo 205. I'm just curious as I've never had the chance to see the Oppo 205 playing an UHD BD disc.
I have a Panasonic DP-UB420 that is a cheaper player than the 820 but it has the same picture quality as the 820, the 420 lacks any analog out and its build quality is lower, but I love how it looks. I had a Sony X-800 before the Panasonic (I still have but it's been left for music playing only) and I find the picture of the Sony X-800 flat, dull and boring next to the Panasonic's, HDR Optimizer used or not.

I had many conversations with a couple of people from Pixar who happens to own the 9000 and an Atmos sound engineer for Disney, plus I have spoken at length with Stefan Sonnenfeld at CES2019. They claim the Pana chroma upsampling is more accurate than other players they’ve tried in the past. I tend to believe them over users here.

[eddievanhalen]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

Its better to look at HDTest video if you want a technical in-depth comparison. David's background with the UDP-205 doesn't yield he really played with it that much IMHO.

Panasonic UB9000 4K Blu-ray Player Review (vs OPPO 203) - YouTube

Thanks for the video,very useful and informative. I like how Panasonic UHD BD player do chroma upsampling, even my inexpensive DP-UB420.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Kris Deering

The difference in general video playback is subtle though, and only the most grueling patterns really show the difference. But I find the operability of the Oppo easier to live with on a day to day basis. The Panasonic players are quite sluggish in comparison for daily use, which makes them tedious by comparison.

Very much this, especially the sluggishness part. Don't get me wrongo, the 420 actually loads up discs slightly faster than the OPPO but the in-movie navigation (fast forward, rewind) is jerkier and more cumbersome on the Panny.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

I had many conversations with a couple of people from Pixar who happens to own the 9000 and an Atmos sound engineer for Disney, plus I have spoken at length with Stefan Sonnenfeld at CES2019. They claim the Pana chroma upsampling is more accurate than other players they’ve tried in the past. I tend to believe them over users here.

Dude, explain to that Atmos sound engineer at Disney the next time you talk to them to go over to Warner Brothers and Sony and Dolby Labs, and get another lesson in mixing in full blown Atmos. Jeezus, Disney is behind the times in comparison. We don't want fixed printout Atmos tracks either, which Dolby Labs does not recommend doing (this bit of info came from FilmMixer over at AVS Forum... he was in contact with Dolby and they were explaining that fixed printouts were available as a feature, but should not be used)!


These lower quality Atmos tracks have got to stop!

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Dude, explain to that Atmos sound engineer at Disney the next time you talk to them to go over to Warner Brothers and Sony and Dolby Labs, and get another lesson in mixing in full blown Atmos. Jeezus, Disney is behind the times in comparison. We don't want fixed printout Atmos tracks either, which Dolby Labs does not recommend doing (this bit of info came from FilmMixer over at AVS Forum... he was in contact with Dolby and they were explaining that fixed printouts were available as a feature, but should not be used)!


These lower quality Atmos tracks have got to stop!

Only people who are clueless about SMPTE standards can say that Disney Atmos mixes are wrong. Yes a small number of them are crap, but most of them are actually NOT dynamically compressed as most Atmos mixes out there. It’s like CD loudness war with most current Atmos mixes for UHD. It’s the same reason we need to crank the volume higher for music mixes before the loudness war.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by eddievanhalen

Thanks for the video,very useful and informative. I like how Panasonic UHD BD player do chroma upsampling, even my inexpensive DP-UB420.

That exactly it. Better chroma upsampling than any other UHD players, past and current.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Only people who are clueless about SMPTE standards can say that Disney Atmos mixes are wrong. Yes a small number of them are crap, but most of them are actually NOT dynamically compressed as most Atmos mixes out there. It’s like CD loudness war with most current Atmos mixes for UHD. It’s the same reason we need to crank the volume higher for music mixes before the loudness war.

Trinnov Altitude analysis of the output channels shows that there is something wrong with quite a few of them... not just the master volume they're mastered at. Crushed dynamics (not just loudness), filtered bass, minimal and subdued surround activity, limited and fixed channel Atmos print-outs without dynamic 3D objects, etc. Home Atmos can allow for up to 16 discrete 3D objects at one time plus the 7.1 bed channels before spatial compression kicked in... in case the theatrical mix contained more than 16 objects at a time.


Even FilmMixer (an industry sound engineer), in his diplomatic way, said that there was no reason for Disney to be rendering fixed print-outs and that Dolby themselves didn't recommend anyone do that. It actually takes more time to do it wrong with a print-out, and the results were not the best.


F.M. even found that the few times spatial compression had to kick in with a home Atmos mix, it didn't really do noticeable damage to the original cinema mix because too many discrete objects used at one time during a theatrical mixing session made for a jumbled sonic mess anyway. You had a harder time discerning the separate objects in the mix and where they were located with any pinpoint accuracy even with discrete, individually addressable objects (no spatial compression is used with commercial Dolby Atmos).

[kevers7290]

Is there any way to turn off the "high clarity audio" notifications? Every time I watch a movie, I get a notification on the players about high clarity audio. Can this be completely disabled?

[LordoftheRings]

They just have to hire the pro audio sound mixers who did Blade Runner 2049, Sicario, 13 Hours, Roma, ... for top notch Atmos soundtracks.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by kevers7290

Is there any way to turn off the "high clarity audio" notifications? Every time I watch a movie, I get a notification on the players about high clarity audio. Can this be completely disabled?

You can turn it off in the setup menu.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by LordoftheRings

They just have to hire the pro audio sound mixers who did Blade Runner 2049, Sicario, 13 Hours, ... for top notch Atmos soundtracks.

Or Gravity... etc.

[LordoftheRings]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Or Gravity... etc.

I completely forgot that one too, yes. ...And Black Hawk Down.

[Mobe1969]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Only people who are clueless about SMPTE standards can say that Disney Atmos mixes are wrong. Yes a small number of them are crap, but most of them are actually NOT dynamically compressed as most Atmos mixes out there. It’s like CD loudness war with most current Atmos mixes for UHD. It’s the same reason we need to crank the volume higher for music mixes before the loudness war.

In my opinion, if I have to crank it up 6db to hear it, it is wrong. It is equivalent of having a 16bit CD but the max bits used for the loudest sound on the CD being just 8 bits. It is wasting available storage and means that the dynamic range just can't be as good as if they'd used the full range available. It means it has the dynamic range of an 8 bit audio format, not 16 bit.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by Mobe1969

In my opinion, if I have to crank it up 6db to hear it, it is wrong. It is equivalent of having a 16bit CD but the max bits used for the loudest sound on the CD being just 8 bits. It is wasting available storage and means that the dynamic range just can't be as good as if they'd used the full range available. It means it has the dynamic range of an 8 bit audio format, not 16 bit.

You’re wrong. Too many people think louder = better dynamics. It’s wrong. Proper mixing done for music back in the 70s, 80s and early 90s tend to needed to be played back with volume level between +5 to +8 dB more than “modern” music. Once you extract the audio to any audio software, you’ll see that the modern and louder recording are seems to be louder simply because the average loudness have been pushed up higher creating a more narrow dynamic range. Most movies in UHD have only headroom of about 10 dB where the proper headroom is supposed to be 20 dB.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

You’re wrong. Too many people think louder = better dynamics. It’s wrong. Proper mixing done for music back in the 70s, 80s and early 90s tend to needed to be played back with volume level between +5 to +8 dB more than “modern” music. Once you extract the audio to any audio software, you’ll see that the modern and louder recording are seems to be louder simply because the average loudness have been pushed up higher creating a more narrow dynamic range. Most movies in UHD have only headroom of about 10 dB where the proper headroom is supposed to be 20 dB.

But as I mentioned before... there's more going on than just a lower overall master volume mix level.


And it should not be happening.

[PissedOffPeoN]

Originally Posted by kevers7290

Is there any way to turn off the "high clarity audio" notifications? Every time I watch a movie, I get a notification on the players about high clarity audio. Can this be completely disabled?

you can turn it off while playing a video just hit options and scroll down to the sound part and click high clarity sound video off.