Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[chip75]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

I don't know if it will be 704 or 720 since I don't have a way to generate that info at least on the equipment I have...or at least I don't think I can get that type of info.

I think if you play 4:3 content at 480p and place markers on the screen (I placed some Tac on my TV's bezel), and then switch to 4K you should see a difference in horizontal information.

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by samuelkhan999

https://www.eurogamer.net/new-xbox-s...microsoft-leak

Xbox abandoning blu ray?

They've wanted to go all digital ever since the original Xbox One

[samuelkhan999]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

They've wanted to go all digital ever since the original Xbox One

True. DRM and always on Kinect. Xbox was way ahead of itself and now Facebook/ Meta have got a kinesthetic like camera for FB/WhatsApp messaging.

[Cerberus40000]

New firmware(1.76) is out for these machines, just updated my 820 and 9000

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by chip75

I think if you play 4:3 content at 480p and place markers on the screen (I placed some Tac on my TV's bezel), and then switch to 4K you should see a difference in horizontal information.

I didn't place anything on my screen but I did take pictures of three results. At the bottom, you'll see the links for the images labled 480p, 4K and 1080p.

Image 1; Player set at 480p

Image 2; Player set at 4K

Image 3; Player set at 1080p


I've discovered having the player set at 4K for SD content has the least overscan of any of the settings but I do not know if it's the full SD resolution or not.

Additional note: When the player is set at 480p, and I switch my TV between AUTO and FULL, there are slight differences in overscan. Even so, having the player set at 4K provides the least overscan.

As far as the quality of the up-scaling; I did not check for that at all. The weird thing is, Vincent always demos how well the Sony A90J does at up-scaling SD content as he usually says that it's slightly sharper looking than other TV. And, I think he's talked about little to no overscan too but I can't seem to confirm that.

Here he touches on it for about a second in one of his reviews...

https://www.youtube.com/supported_br...tube.com/watch

[chip75]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

I didn't place anything on my screen but I did take pictures of three results. At the bottom, you'll see the links for the images labled 480p, 4K and 1080p.

Annoyingly, if you watch 4:3 content through the player's USB, you get 720x480 or 720x576!

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by chip75

Annoyingly, if you watch 4:3 content through the player's USB, you get 720x480 or 720x576!

Hmmm, food for thought.

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by Cerberus40000

New firmware(1.76) is out for these machines, just updated my 820 and 9000

It was released 2 weeks ago.

[HeightOfFolly]

@DMRI2006

Fortunately, they already have a system for people without Internet. It's called Xbox 360.

[chip75]

Blerg or Borg. Popped in Star Trek: Origins Blu-ray to watch "Space Seed" and the disc started breaking up nearly ten minutes in, checked it and there was some pitting on the outer rim (and that's not an plot point), and a welt in the middle of the disc. Can't remember if I've played the episode before on my Panasonic, but it played fine on my Samsung.

Not sure if the damage was on the disc when I bought it, I'd assume it was, as I think it predates my Panasonic players, but it highlights the fine line with disc playback with these machines. Might try it on my other player.

Not sure if I bought another copy of the disc, I think I passed on it even though it was only a few pounds.

[martydmc12]

Player: Panasonic DP-UB9000

I recently made a post in the "The Lady Vanishes" thread about what I experienced with my watch of it last night, but I'll quote what I wrote...

Originally Posted by martydmc12

I've been having myself a Hitchcock film festival and finally got around to watching "The Lady Vanishes" last night. Originally purchased directly from Criterion in 2017, and it's been sitting on my shelf ever since.

I put the disc in and everything was going perfectly fine up until the one hour and twenty minute mark (1:20:XX). The image became pixelated and started freezing and the sound went mute. The picture continued to progress, struggling though with pixelation, but the audio remained silent. I went back to the main menu which now also struggled with freezing and pixelation, and I tried again going back to the 1:20 mark, only to have the same thing happen. I ejected the disc, no signs of scratches, dust or lint either. I decided to try it on my external Samsung Blu-ray drive and plugged it into my MacBook Pro, which worked perfectly fine. No freezing, no pixels, no audio problems, neither in the film itself or the main menu. I finished watching the movie, and I was curious to see what would happen when I put it back into my 4K Blu-ray player. No menu issues, and I skipped to the timeline at the 1:17:00 where that chapter began, and the film played without issue this time, no freezing, pixels or audio problems from that point on until the end of the film unlike before.

My 4K Blu-ray player is a Panasonic DP-UB9000, and I've noticed I've had issues like this with some of my other Criterion and older Shout! Factory titles. Not sure if this is a player issue or a disc issue? Should I consider reaching out to Criterion and getting a replacement of "The Lady Vanishes" or just chalk this up to some sort of weird anomaly that went away on its own?

Anyone have any thoughts on this or suggestions?

*UPDATE: I just tried the disc again, started playing it from the beginning, and once it got to the 1:20 mark it did the same thing again as last night, froze, pixelated and went mute. Same thing with going back to the main menu.

So tonight I decided to throw in "The Silence of the Lambs" Criterion Blu-ray. I've watched this disc before without any sort of problem, yet tonight at the one hour and eighteen minute mark (1:18:00) my picture starting freezing and pixelating just like my Criterion copy of "The Lady Vanishes" did last night. I ejected the disc and put it back in, and it worked fine after that.

Maybe I'm completely wrong about this, but my theory is this seems to be happening on the layer change of the disc, "The Lady Vanishes" at the 1:20 mark and "The Silence of the Lambs" at the 1:18 mark. Isn't this usually where the layer change is on most Blu-ray discs?

Like I said I've watched this disc of "Silence of the Lambs" before a couple of times without a problem and now I'm experienced an issue. Or perhaps there is an issue with older Criterion releases, as I know some of the early 2010's releases had some issues. Or is it my player? Or perhaps this has something to do with the latest firmware update from a few weeks ago?

Anyone else with players experiencing this? Is it my discs or is it my player, or maybe it's both?

[Tim n Tempe]

I'm very upset that I paid over $1K a couple years ago for the 9000, and find out it is starting to act very temperamental with certain pressed DVD, and MOD DVD discs. Locking up-- where as my Xbox plays the same discs flawlessly. I have had zero issues with my 4K discs (so far), but I own a a lot of rare and lesser known DVD titles that I would expect it to play, and it isn't.

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by Tim n Tempe

I'm very upset that I paid over $1K a couple years ago for the 9000, and find out it is starting to act very temperamental with certain pressed DVD, and MOD DVD discs. Locking up-- where as my Xbox plays the same discs flawlessly. I have had zero issues with my 4K discs (so far), but I own a a lot of rare and lesser known DVD titles that I would expect it to play, and it isn't.

I would imagine certain DVDs might be harder to play with newer drives since the aren't made as well. I mean sure I think all discs should work in a 4K player, but it's possible these drives can't play "not as good" quality discs.

You may also want to power cycle your player if you haven't already. Sometimes power has something to deal with the readability with these drives.

[Ruined]

Sounds like ROM drives going bad on some of the panasonics. happened back in the day with the a110/a310 dvd players, mass faulty drives

[sapiendut]

Originally Posted by Tim n Tempe

I'm very upset that I paid over $1K a couple years ago for the 9000, and find out it is starting to act very temperamental with certain pressed DVD, and MOD DVD discs. Locking up-- where as my Xbox plays the same discs flawlessly. I have had zero issues with my 4K discs (so far), but I own a a lot of rare and lesser known DVD titles that I would expect it to play, and it isn't.

Make sure you don’t put the player on top of anything but solid shelf in a cool and well ventilated area. I see so many people put their players on their pre/pro and receiver/amp.

[DMRI2006]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Sounds like ROM drives going bad on some of the panasonics. happened back in the day with the a110/a310 dvd players, mass faulty drives

Indeed. As amazing as the picture quality is, the build quality for a player of this expense is shameful.

[Tim n Tempe]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

I would imagine certain DVDs might be harder to play with newer drives since the aren't made as well. I mean sure I think all discs should work in a 4K player, but it's possible these drives can't play "not as good" quality discs.

You may also want to power cycle your player if you haven't already. Sometimes power has something to deal with the readability with these drives.

I tried to power off/unplug. It did nothing unfortunately.

Originally Posted by sapiendut

Make sure you don’t put the player on top of anything but solid shelf in a cool and well ventilated area. I see so many people put their players on their pre/pro and receiver/amp.

I have it stored on a separate shelf in a very open ventilated area, and I've treated it with much care in handling it. My home is always comfortably climate control.

I'm now thinking of just hooking up a separate DVD player. specifically for DVD discs, and the Panasonic for 4K, and standard BD (which have also played flawlessly). It is what it is I guess

[martydmc12]

I made a post about this the other day, but I'm continuing to have problems with my 9000 player. At first I thought it was my discs, but now I'm not so sure. Three Blu-ray discs in row (all Criterion btw) that I've had issues with over the last couple of days.

1. The Lady Vanishes
2. The Silence of the Lambs
3. The Game

I've watched "The Silence of the Lambs" numerous times, and never had a problem until the other night. Like clockwork, all three movies started freezing and pixelating around the one hour and twenty minute mark (1:20:00), even the audio going mute. Ejecting the disc and putting it back seems to fix the issue, but when I did an experiment with "The Lady Vanishes" the next day, the same problem occurred with the only solution of ejecting and putting the disc back in seemed to solve the issue.

I've can't recall having experienced any problems with any 4K discs or DVD's, but the more I think about it, I've had issues with other standard Blu-ray's, "Prometheus" and "Marvel's The Avengers" are two the come to mind. I don't remember the time stamp at which they had problems, so I'll have to go back and re-watch them to find out.

I keep thinking that this is where the layer changeover occurs on these discs, around the 1:20:00 mark, and where the player is struggling to have a problem, or am I completely wrong about this?

My player was manufactured in June 2021, and was purchased in August of 2021, so it's not an older machine by any means. I had a slight issue with it in December of 2021 with my "Godzilla (1998)" 4K disc where it wouldn't eject no matter what I did, and just kept re-reading the main menu over and over again. I tried hard resets, unplugging the machine, etc. When I took it to an authorized Panasonic dealer, the disc ejected fine without problem for them, and I haven't had that issue again. But now with this freezing issue consistently happening, I'm starting to think there's something seriously wrong with my player and it's not the discs at all. This is also after the latest firmware update.

Anyone else experiencing anything like this with their 9000 players?

UPDATE/ADDITIONAL QUESTION: While searching the internet to see if anyone else is experiencing similar problems with their 9000 players, I'm getting mixed information whether the 9000 is now a discontinued model or not? Panasonic Canada (where I purchased mine from) has them listed as out-of-stock, and the Panasonic USA website shows them as "no resellers available." I see that both Amazon US and Canada have them still available, but is that just whatever remaining stock they still have available, and Panasonic is no longer manufacturing this model?

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by DMRI2006

Indeed. As amazing as the picture quality is, the build quality for a player of this expense is shameful.

I think the build quality is fantastic. Better than the oppo 203 even. But even with the best build quality you might have a part with some design flaw or issue that will surface in 2 years. Something like a laser getting misaligned after 2 years is not really related to build quality IMO

[bhampton]

I bought a Panasonic UB150 from Walmart today for $169.

My UB9000 is going into storage unless I decide to recycle it completely.
(The UB9000 is fine apart from the tray not always opening and closing ... there is a work around but the drives used in the 9000 are it's weak link.)

The menus are mostly identical to the UB9000 but this player lacks many, many features.

That's fine. Give me the bitstreamed audio and SDR/HDR10 and 3D and I don't actually want more. It's easy for me to believe they designed this player expressly for me.

I don't know if the region hack works - will have to try it with the only R2 disc I still routinely watch. My guess is this player is even simpler to mod for region as it's simpler in every way.

update- THe top menu trick did not seem to work for the only R2 blu ray I have (The Big Blue) and Crank 2 will not play in either player without a USB drive inserted because the BD Java menus on that disc are buggy. (Maybe a new version can be found.)

I am begining to wonder if I can't swap the tray from this player into the UB9000 ... Most likely not but I may have a look and I may try to order a replacement drive for the UB9000 even though I'm certain it's a defective drive model ... who knows maybe new ones are better .... not likely.