Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Geoff D]

I watched a DVD on my 65" 4K TV the other day (though not played in the Panny, needless to say) and didn't vomit blood as a result. True story.

[DJR662]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

"Exactly" my ass. For such good quality players to have such shite DVD playback is a curious inconsistency, if it advertises DVD playback and costs this much fookin money then you'd think it'd be top of the pile for playing them old discs, but no such luck. Just because you don't play DVDs on them doesn't mean no-one else does, it's always wild when someone's excuse for whatever poor performance of x tech is "meh, I don't use it so it doesn't matter".

They're Panasonics, they can't do wrong in any way.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

"Exactly" my ass. For such good quality players to have such shite DVD playback is a curious inconsistency, if it advertises DVD playback and costs this much fookin money then you'd think it'd be top of the pile for playing them old discs, but no such luck. Just because you don't play DVDs on them doesn't mean no-one else does, it's always wild when someone's excuse for whatever poor performance of x tech is "meh, I don't use it so it doesn't matter".

A region free UB9000 that could play DVDs as well as an Oppo would be the perfect disc player. No such luck.

[CreasyBear]

I still have my Oppo 103 hooked up on the odd occasion I play a DVD, which is rare. But I also really like the SACD and Blu-ray playback at 1080p and letting my A80J do the rest. The UB9000 is an excellent Blu-ray upscaler though.

[Pagey123]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

I watched a DVD on my 65" 4K TV the other day (though not played in the Panny, needless to say) and didn't vomit blood as a result. True story.

I've been impressed with how well DVDs hold up on our 55" LG SM8600 and the Sony UBP-X800M2. Especially newer content that's been well mastered. Yes, if I have a higher quality source, I'll pick it most of the time, but I still have a ton of DVDs that I never upgraded to BD, and even fewer that I've upgraded to UHD BD. As long as it's anamorphic and decently mastered, I'm good to go with a DVD.

[chrisandy007]

Originally Posted by hansolo

I'm refering to my old post in this thread some 30 pages back.
https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...postcount=9322

As you can see from the photo I took with external subtitles normal Subtitles setting needs to be "off" and External Subtitles setting below it "on". External subtitles have bluish semi-transparent box behind them, which I do not like at all. I used folder named "sub" and filename was "sub.srt". I think External Subtitles won't show up in settings if things are not correct and of course you need to have firmware, which have this feature enabled.

So I unfortunately don't have that option. I'm assuming to get to that menu you need to actually be watching a disk.

In Subtitle Settings I have

Subtitle
Subtitle Style
Subtitle Position
Subtitle Luminance

Perhaps a misunderstanding on my end - it is possible to use external subs with a UHD or is it for media files off the USB only?

[whedon]

So ended up giving regionfreedom a second chance, customer service remains nonexistent and they are still quite rude but in the end I got it sorted and got to cancel the replacement RA player I had on order. Only tested it with Creature so far but nice to see the disc load and really looking forward to using the external subtitles feature as the number of Asian films on Blu with no English subtitles is a crime but at least now I don't have to mess about myself to get them working.

Has anyone with RF firmware installed tried a 4K with external subs? Burning got a German 4K release and I'd happily order it if subs work with it. Same for the Sadness which so far only has a German release coming.

[hansolo]

Originally Posted by chrisandy007

So I unfortunately don't have that option. I'm assuming to get to that menu you need to actually be watching a disk.

In Subtitle Settings I have

Subtitle
Subtitle Style
Subtitle Position
Subtitle Luminance

Perhaps a misunderstanding on my end - it is possible to use external subs with a UHD or is it for media files off the USB only?

Yes, it is. UHD BD title is playing in my photo.
Conditions are (I assume):
1. you need to have firmware supporting this feature
2. USB drive must be connected, have "sub" folder in root directory and inside it subtitle file named "sub.srt".
3. Disc needs to be loaded and playback on (this part I assume, haven't tested. Is it even possible to enter Subtitles menu if disc is not playing?)

Regarding 1. What firmware are you using?

[lgans316]

Or a dedicated media player where you get all these features.

[George.P]

Originally Posted by lgans316

Or a dedicated media player where you get all these features.

But no disc playing feature… might be a problem for some people.

[nachoju95]

Originally Posted by whedon

So ended up giving regionfreedom a second chance, customer service remains nonexistent and they are still quite rude but in the end I got it sorted and got to cancel the replacement RA player I had on order. Only tested it with Creature so far but nice to see the disc load and really looking forward to using the external subtitles feature as the number of Asian films on Blu with no English subtitles is a crime but at least now I don't have to mess about myself to get them working.

Has anyone with RF firmware installed tried a 4K with external subs? Burning got a German 4K release and I'd happily order it if subs work with it. Same for the Sadness which so far only has a German release coming.

Hi.
What country is your panasonic from?

[whedon]

Originally Posted by nachoju95

Hi.
What country is your panasonic from?

It's from the UK, going to test the subs on a 4K later by downloading some subs for one I own and testing external subs that way, will make a few changes to them so I know it's reading correct external ones.

[Gold Ranger]

Is anyone available to help me with the region freedom, region unlocking?

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by George.P

But no disc playing feature… might be a problem for some people.

You know you can have two devices hooked up at the same time, right?

[medikoo]

Originally Posted by whedon

Has anyone with RF firmware installed tried a 4K with external subs?

I have RF firmware and external subs worked. Still note that given option is displayed in a menu only if USB stick with properly named subtitles files is injected.

Nonetheless I found this feature useless as font that's used for subs doesn't support many characters, e.g. in Polish we have some diactric letters, and out of ca7 only 2 are displayed well, rest are presented as squares.
Maybe for German specific chars there's better support.

AFAIK this feature was made specifically for Chinese market, so main focus is on Chinese chars there

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Naiera

A region free UB9000 that could play DVDs as well as an Oppo would be the perfect disc player. No such luck.

It’s time to let the Oppo arguments die. They quit making players. If someone really cares that much about DVD playback quality then search out an older player known for good DVD playback. Something with Faroudja or SI chipsets. Plenty of units available on EBay or other reselling sites.

DVD is a tech that’s well over twenty years old. And we’re talking really low resolution compared to 4K or even 1080 HD. Approximately 8MP to 2MP to 350kP. Look I get it some have titles that will probably never get BD or UHD releases but in the grand scheme if DVD playback is that important one may want to do what retro gamers do. Have an old CRT system setup so you can enjoy it on a technology it was designed to be used on.

[Geoff D]

Blu-ray is 16 years old. Oh noes!

And it's not about DVD being a match in quality for other formats because - newsflash - it's not, but there is still no excuse for a lack of simple competence in playing such discs in a deck that costs a thousand dollarpounds.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Blu-ray is 16 years old. Oh noes!

And it's not about DVD being a match in quality for other formats because - newsflash - it's not, but there is still no excuse for a lack of simple competence in playing such discs in a deck that costs a thousand dollarpounds.

Yes BD is old too but it was designed to be used on a higher resolution display than DVD.

There are workarounds but YMMV. Instead of having the player upscale everything try to have the display do the upscale. Some TVs and other displays have really good scalers compared to what they had a decade ago. But again these things weren’t designed to necessarily make extremely low resolution interlaced video look good so again YMMV.

If one wants the best UHD players now Panasonic’s units are where to go. Reality is none of the manufacturers care about DVD playback at this point. Oppo walked from the market. It’s time to let it go.

Was Oppo truly a universal disc player? It never played Laserdiscs or vinyl records. Why?

[RustinCohle]

Originally Posted by DJR662

I hear ya.

I just checked mine (820/824) and there is no option to disable the front display completely; something which I think should have been available even though I personally do want it on at all times.

You can disable it. I have on both of my 820s.

Originally Posted by Mobe1969

Yes you have to turn on the high quality or clarity audio setting to turn the display off.

[sofaman]

Hi guys. So I've had my 820 for about 18mths now. Never had a problem with it, it handled every disc I threw at it. Until I bought the GoT box set a few months ago.
Season1 was fine, but every disc after that had problems being read...I was having to constantly eject, wipe, reinsert etc. Some discs worked eventually, some didn't. Done some reading and I'm not alone with this set it seems.

The problem is that it's now happening to all my 4k discs, they all only have a 50/50 chance of being read. I've tried a factory reset to no avail. Any ideas?
Normal blus work fine, just the 4k's...