Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Animatic33]

So, tonight after watching a bluray on my 820, the tray jammed trying to eject the disc. It opened half way and the disc looked to be still engaged. The film was MGM’s Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

After much cursing and almost unbelievable sadness, I was able to pry the disc from the player, as repeated open/close/play did not solve the issue. The tray itself came loose as well. I opened the player up and was able to re-add the tray and the spring mechanism that is responsible for the retraction took hold. I then carefully re-assembled this “investment” and tried the same disc again. Same behavior, except this time I got the disc and it retracted as normal.

I have since tried 6 other discs and the player has not exhibited any unbecoming behavior. Things load fine, play fine and open/eject fine. Unfortunately I don’t know what will cause this to occur in the future and am worried.

This is not what I expected from an expensive panasonic player. Quite besides myself right now.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Animatic33

So, tonight after watching a bluray on my 820, the tray jammed trying to eject the disc. It opened half way and the disc looked to be still engaged. The film was MGM’s Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

After much cursing and almost unbelievable sadness, I was able to pry the disc from the player, as repeated open/close/play did not solve the issue. The tray itself came loose as well. I opened the player up and was able to re-add the tray and the spring mechanism that is responsible for the retraction took hold. I then carefully re-assembled this “investment” and tried the same disc again. Same behavior, except this time I got the disc and it retracted as normal.

I have since tried 6 other discs and the player has not exhibited any unbecoming behavior. Things load fine, play fine and open/eject fine. Unfortunately I don’t know what will cause this to occur in the future and am worried.

This is not what I expected from an expensive panasonic player. Quite besides myself right now.

It's the old adage: they don't build 'em like they used to.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by Animatic33

So, tonight after watching a bluray on my 820, the tray jammed trying to eject the disc. It opened half way and the disc looked to be still engaged. The film was MGM’s Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure.

After much cursing and almost unbelievable sadness, I was able to pry the disc from the player, as repeated open/close/play did not solve the issue. The tray itself came loose as well. I opened the player up and was able to re-add the tray and the spring mechanism that is responsible for the retraction took hold. I then carefully re-assembled this “investment” and tried the same disc again. Same behavior, except this time I got the disc and it retracted as normal.

I have since tried 6 other discs and the player has not exhibited any unbecoming behavior. Things load fine, play fine and open/eject fine. Unfortunately I don’t know what will cause this to occur in the future and am worried.

This is not what I expected from an expensive panasonic player. Quite besides myself right now.

it was a fluke.... relax! It's a great player.

[MEB]

Originally Posted by AKORIS

it was a fluke.... relax! It's a great player.

I'd describe it with an f word too, but it wouldn't be the word fluke.

Mark

[TheWildWhelk]

For the UK we are on firmware 1.60 last updated July 2019. What further improvements have been made with 1.66?

[J Nada]

Is 1.66 officially out for the 820? I've got the regionfreedom 1.66, so I'm not sure what is standard and what is added by them, but the only difference I'm aware of is the subtitles from USB feature.

That said, I don't own a copy of Knives Out (yet) or Midway, so I don't know if it has fixed the playback issues with those discs.

[Mierzwiak]

Even official note from Panasonic says only about "Playability of Blu-ray Disc".

I think they wouldn't make it only for Chinese UB9000s if there was a plan to release it for other models and parts of the world.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by MEB

I'd describe it with an f word too, but it wouldn't be the word fluke.

Mark

Boo hoo, all because it turns off after 20 minutes.

[dcx4610]

If it's not permitted to talk about, just let me know but what is the process for getting the regionfree firmware? The site is very vague. I have some Region B stuff that's useless to me currently and would be nice to have the option.

[evanft]

Originally Posted by dcx4610

If it's not permitted to talk about, just let me know but what is the process for getting the regionfree firmware? The site is very vague. I have some Region B stuff that's useless to me currently and would be nice to have the option.

You buy the kit from Rattlebyte and install it. You will need to solder.

[J Nada]

Originally Posted by dcx4610

If it's not permitted to talk about, just let me know but what is the process for getting the regionfree firmware? The site is very vague. I have some Region B stuff that's useless to me currently and would be nice to have the option.

If you are talking about the one by Region Freedom, you have to fill in the contact us form, make a pledge and take some photos. I've read of people having problems due to the process (maybe some here can elaborate on that) but I followed the process correctly and was supplied with the firmware very quickly after that. I've been very happy with it - retired my crappy 'Laser' machine I used for region A discs and just play everything on the Panasonic.

[RoxanneTheThiccWolf]

Originally Posted by wxman2003

You could always get an LG UBKM9 UHD player for less than $200 for DV. Haven't heard about any issues with DV on that player.

How does the Dolby Vision output of that player compare to the OPPO 203? Does retain the specular highlight detail on Dolby Vision content? And can it also deliver a more brighter, colorful image like the Dolby Vision output of the Panasonic UB820/UB9000?

[wxman2003]

Originally Posted by RoxanneTheThiccWolf

How does the Dolby Vision output of that player compare to the OPPO 203? Does retain the specular highlight detail on Dolby Vision content? And can it also deliver a more brighter, colorful image like the Dolby Vision output of the Panasonic UB820/UB9000?

I have both the 9000 and Oppo 203. The 9000 blows out specular highlights more than the OPPO 203. However, I own an E6 that requires the player to allow the tv to do the DV processing. With newer OLEDs, they can support both TV-LED and Player-LED profiles. Each model year, whether OLED or LCD will perform differently with DV, so what player works best with my tv for DV may not be the best player for your tv. The OPPO 203 works best with DV on my tv. However, with that being said, the 820/9000 is vastly superior to the LG player simply because of the HDR Optimizer for HDR10 material. Also, the highlights being blown out with DV is not that big of an issue. You wouldn't even know it was an issue unless you did a side by side with the 203.

[RoxanneTheThiccWolf]

Originally Posted by wxman2003

I have both the 9000 and Oppo 203. The 9000 blows out specular highlights more than the OPPO 203. However, I own an E6 that requires the player to allow the tv to do the DV processing. With newer OLEDs, they can support both TV-LED and Player-LED profiles. Each model year, whether OLED or LCD will perform differently with DV, so what player works best with my tv for DV may not be the best player for your tv. The OPPO 203 works best with DV on my tv. However, with that being said, the 820/9000 is vastly superior to the LG player simply because of the HDR Optimizer for HDR10 material. Also, the highlights being blown out with DV is not that big of an issue. You wouldn't even know it was an issue unless you did a side by side with the 203.

So if I were to get a 2019 or 2020 OLED with the UB820/B9000, it wouldn't clip highlights on Dolby Vision content like it would on OLEDs from 2016 to 2018? This should be the case since I'm planning to import the Panasonic HZ2000 OLED, especially since Panasonic OLEDs have superior tone mapping to LG and Sony OLEDs, right?

[sapiendut]

Panasonic OLED, especially the GZ2000 and HZ2000 have amazing out of the box tone mapping, gamma, colour accuracy, you name it. It’s too bad they don’t sell it in Canada anymore so I can’t upgrade my GZ2000 to the superior HZ2000

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Panasonic OLED, especially the GZ2000 and HZ2000 have amazing out of the box tone mapping, gamma, colour accuracy, you name it. It’s too bad they don’t sell it in Canada anymore so I can’t upgrade my GZ2000 to the superior HZ2000

Unfortunately, they've never sold them in the U.S. Honestly, since being in HT (from 1999) I've always been impressed with Panasonic displays and players. I recall some of their excellent DVD and BD players I owned. My 2004 Sony CRT RPTV used Panasonic made CRTs which were widely regarded as the best ones. Panasonic also made the best plasmas during the their final years as well. And now very pleased with my 820. Panasonic knows video. Period.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Mierzwiak

So, as it turned out, Panasonic UB820 is indeed clipping highlight details in Dolby Vision. I checked scene from IT mentioned in Forbes review and yeah, in DV sun, tree and wire is clipped.

In HDR10, at least on OLED, it's also clipped, to bring the details back you need to use LG's dynamic tone mapping (let's call it DTM) or Panasonic's HDR Optimiser.

[Show spoiler]
Dolby Vision UHD


HDR10 UHD, DTM OFF


HDR10 UHD, DTM ON


HDR10 UHD, Optimiser ON


Another example of similar scene is Spider-Man: Homecoming, at the end of the movie Ned and Peter are walking down the hallway and window behind them is overblown in Dolby Vision. In HDR10 there are trees visible, but only with DTM, Optimiser doesn't work in that scene.

What's weird is that you can see lost details by... bringing pop-up menu, which casts, how to call it, some kind of layer over image that makes it darker but brings additional details.

Dolby Vision UHD


Dolby Vision UHD with pop-up / progress bar

What's interesting is that window in mentioned scene from Homecoming is also overblown in Dolby Vision version on iTunes. Does it mean both Apple and Panasonic are using the same Dolby Vision profile?

I don't know if I ever replied to this but I checked Homecoming (UHD disc) on my 820 into the ZD9 (so this is the low latency mode) and the bit at the end with Ned and Peter is perfectly resolved, regardez:



I haven't checked IT on it yet, but it's very clear that the Panny players are doing different things to different TVs when playing in DV.

[thebigcheese3k]

I'm having some odd playback issues with The New York Ripper in Dolby Vision on my 820. There's a very noticeable color and brightness shift throughout the film. The brightness will shifts every few seconds causing a noticeable flicker and change in color saturation. Also during playback if I press the Top Menu button the entire screen looks like a green filter was applied to the movie before going back to the menu. Turning off Dolby Vision on the player makes all of these issues go away. I'm watching on a LG C9 in Cinema Mode and the 820 has the OLED picture mode turned on.

I've tried three different cables all with the same result. I've never had issues like this before with DV and I'm wondering if it's an issue with the disc itself. Has anyone experienced similar playback issues?

Edit: Did a factory reset and some further testing, I'm leaning towards an issue with the disc. I noticed during DV playback the bitrate dropped to under 1 Mbit/s sporadically.

[RoxanneTheThiccWolf]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I don't know if I ever replied to this but I checked Homecoming (UHD disc) on my 820 into the ZD9 (so this is the low latency mode) and the bit at the end with Ned and Peter is perfectly resolved, regardez:



I haven't checked IT on it yet, but it's very clear that the Panny players are doing different things to different TVs when playing in DV.

It appears the clipping in the Dolby Vision output of the Panasonic UB820/UB9000 occur on LG OLEDs, seeing how they were at least three forum members here who said they saw highlights blown out when watching Dolby Vision content on the UB820/UB9000 all own an LG OLED, one from 2016, another from 2017, and one from 2018. And it also appears Vincent Teoh from HDTVTest used two 2018 LG OLEDs in his review of the UB9000 when comparing it to the OPPO 203, judging by the stands of the two TVs seen when they were illuminated by the screen at the 4:56 mark in his review look like the stands of LG OLEDs. Maybe someone should test watching Dolby Vision content with the UB820/UB9000 on the Panasonic GZ2000 or HZ2000 OLED to see in the player's DV output will still clip highlights, since those two OLEDs have the best tone mapping due to having a higher peak brightness than any conventional OLED TV.

[tama]

This is from my LG970 player in DV. It displays the same clipping as the Panasonic. Clearly not just a Panasonic player issue.