Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[FoFo17]

Is chroma sharpness at -1 still the only recommended setting adjustment? Or is there something better now?

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Yeah it's purely a gazebo effect

With the odd rare exception I don't think storage improves playback in anyway, the problems with discs glitching is drive/disc related.

I wish it did help, and the format wasn't so slapdash, but I think it's just luck if it helps.

[sapiendut]

Extra Storage should not make any difference.

[Oscarilbo]

Hi guys
Is there any way I can tell if my projector can do SDR bt.2020 with certainty? the projector is the Hisense C1 (global) which does 107% of rec.2020 (along with Dolby Vision).

I tried the HDR to SDR 2020 conversion on my Panny 820 and in Cinema mode it looked pretty correct. The projector reported SDR 2020 signal, but I don’t know if it was indeed playing at bt. 2020 or downgrading it to rec. 709.

I ask this because although Dolby Vision looks awesome, HDR10 is hit or miss depending on the title, in which some few titles are a bit too dim.

Of course moving up the Dynamic Range Adjustment slider (under the HDR Optimizer) a few notches fix this pretty well, but wanted to try the HDR to SDR conversion at bt. 2020 to see the results. Again, looks pretty fine to me, but dont know if is actually a bt.2020 image or a rec709 one.

[wormraper]

correct. I'm not sure what the tech was going on about. The USB stick can be beneficial for offloading some BD-Live data, or some pause/resume data in some players, but for loading and recognizing of discs the system doesn't offload any data.

it's not a horrible idea to have a usb drive inserted for those really minor things mentioned above since flash drives are basically pennies per gig in this day and age, but no way is it going to speed up disc loading and recognizing of said discs.

[Lannister1098]

Ordered a region free Panasonic UB820 from 220 Electronics. Should be coming Monday, after a delay, so I’m pretty excited to finally experience other Blu-ray labels from other countries.

[PUsokrJosh305]

Originally Posted by Oscarilbo

Hi guys
Is there any way I can tell if my projector can do SDR bt.2020 with certainty? the projector is the Hisense C1 (global) which does 107% of rec.2020 (along with Dolby Vision).

I tried the HDR to SDR 2020 conversion on my Panny 820 and in Cinema mode it looked pretty correct. The projector reported SDR 2020 signal, but I don’t know if it was indeed playing at bt. 2020 or downgrading it to rec. 709.

I ask this because although Dolby Vision looks awesome, HDR10 is hit or miss depending on the title, in which some few titles are a bit too dim.

Of course moving up the Dynamic Range Adjustment slider (under the HDR Optimizer) a few notches fix this pretty well, but wanted to try the HDR to SDR conversion at bt. 2020 to see the results. Again, looks pretty fine to me, but dont know if is actually a bt.2020 image or a rec709 one.

According to the specs on the Hisense website, your projector does Rec2020. Going through the settings, if it didn't do it properly, the screen would go blank.

As to HDR dimness, I would use just use the HDR Dynamic Range Adjustment slider. I use that with my LG C9, but I keep the Dynamic Tone Mapping function on my C9, so I lower the slider rather than raise it due to the DTM function blowing out the picture too much.

[Oscarilbo]

Originally Posted by PUsokrJosh305

According to the specs on the Hisense website, your projector does Rec2020. Going through the settings, if it didn't do it properly, the screen would go blank.

As to HDR dimness, I would use just use the HDR Dynamic Range Adjustment slider. I use that with my LG C9, but I keep the Dynamic Tone Mapping function on my C9, so I lower the slider rather than raise it due to the DTM function blowing out the picture too much.

Thank you! Yes, some people say that’s double tone mapping and should not be ideal, yet to my eyes, it looks pretty good even using the Dynamic Range Adjustment slider. I know that being bt.2020 should still work even on SDR, but that’s in theory, because in practice there’s something about how HDR mode is calibrated on the projector that makes things look a bit more 3Dish, specially specular highlights. Using just SDR bt.2020 can’t quite reproduce that.

[areyouian]

i hope panasonic updates it cause the risky business 4k is screwed up, and flickers every 30 seconds the whole film.

[cybersoga]

Originally Posted by areyouian

i hope panasonic updates it cause the risky business 4k is screwed up, and flickers every 30 seconds the whole film.

try turning off dolby vision

[redrunner97]

Upgrading from Playstation to UB820 tomorrow. Very excited!

[Marsstudd]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

Upgrading from Playstation to UB820 tomorrow. Very excited!

You’ll love it!

[johnny-torrance]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

Upgrading from Playstation to UB820 tomorrow. Very excited!

I'm about to place an order for my second UB820 player. This time it's not from Amazon so I hope I get a player that isn't plagued with issues and can play discs front to back without freezing and glitching. I'm gonna get a new HDMI cable too, what do you guys recommend?

Thankfully Amazon allowed me to return the player I got from them even after the return window expired. I got the player when they had that sale late last year and it ended up being a lemon.

[redrunner97]

Originally Posted by johnny-torrance

I'm about to place an order for my second UB820 player. This time it's not from Amazon so I hope I get a player that isn't plagued with issues and can play discs front to back without freezing and glitching.

I ordered mine from Amazon and now I'm scared!

[johnny-torrance]

Originally Posted by redrunner97

I ordered mine from Amazon and now I'm scared!

I immediately put my favorite movie (Halloween obviously lol) in to test out the Dolby Vision capability and... it immediately started flashing like crazy. I ignored it and went on to the movie and as soon as the menu screen (play, chapters, setup) with the montage of scenes behind it started playing, I noticed the brightness and colors fluctuating like crazy, the "Play Film" highlight goes from bright yellow to dark orange/red depending on the brightness of the scene behind it. The whole image adjusts really. Super jarring. This can't be normal, can it? It stopped when I turned Dolby Vision off weirdly.

I updated the firmware and even followed some guides to optimize settings, and it's still doing it. I put in Halloween II and the same thing is happening. I tried different HDMI cords (one that came with my Nintendo Switch, two from Amazon Basics). I switched the cords to all three inputs and nothing has improved the flickering. It's not just the picture, it's the player itself's menus and on-screen info display... Maybe I need a better HDMI cord?

Really hoping I didn't get a bad machine. My TV is a Vizio V-Series from 2020, definitely Dolby Vision capable and I've had no problems watching stuff in DV on streaming. I even did so last night with A New Hope on Disney+. I've never had a flickering/brightness fluctuation issue.

I've exclusively used a PS4/5 for over a decade at the point, so this is my first foray into an actual 4K/BD player in a loooong time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! I'm very open to being called an idiot, MUCH better than having to deal with returning something to Amazon. lol

This thread is so long and my memory is only so good, but I believe someone insinuated that Amazon possibly had less than top quality players for some reason that were maybe the result of some poor manufacturing? I have no idea and this is all just unfounded speculation really so it may mean nothing at all. But I did buy my first UB820 late last year when they had that sale where players were like $300 and at first it was great then after a few months I was experiencing freezing and glitching on just about every other 4K disc I played and even some regular blu-rays. Had all the firmware updates and had the VIERA link thing turned off..

I was incredibly lucky and grateful that Amazon allowed me to return my player for refund after the return window had closed. Sending it off to Panasonic themselves to maybe fix the issue just seemed like too much of a headache and may have even been a costly endeavor. I did not have any kind of warranty or anything either though.

Despite the issues I had, this player still comes highly recommended and at it's price it's hard to beat and the next best player after the UB820 for me is just a little too costly so I decided to roll the dice and get another one from a different retailer and hope for the best. I was gonna order one from 220 Electronics, but someone here in this thread recommended Value Electronics and their price on the UB820 was more affordable for me at the moment so I got one from them.

EDIT -- but if you can't get help from someone here resolving the issues you're having, be quick about your decision on returning the player to Amazon and do it before the return window is closed. I was looking at their prices on them recently and I'm sure you paid over $400. I paid just about exactly $500 for mine from Value Electronics and the guy who recommended them said if I had any issues with the player the place I got it from is good about helping fix those issues. To me if it means spending an extra $80 to not get a lemon from Amazon, it's worth it. It wasn't a big deal returning the player I got from Amazon back to them as long as you still got the box it came in. Basically all I did was box it back up, go down to a UPS store, print off a label and slap it on the box and that's that. I'll report back on the player I got from Value Electronics once it arrives.

[sfmarine]

Probably already mentioned but I just updated my firmware to 1.82 and holy Toledo it was stuck on 5/5 for over 5 mins.

[Driver78]

Does the 820 tend to go to "sleep" with nothing on the readout to indicate it's still turned on? I think I've been mistaking that for a problem with my player. I would often press the power button to turn it on and all it would do is shut off - now I'm thinking the unit was just asleep. Typically, players have some kind of indication on the readout that the unit is still powered on. My Oppo always shows graphics on the screen when it's on pause or even stopped. Maybe there's a setting I need to adjust on the 820? I asked about this on another forum and people got back with "It's not getting enough power, that's why it's shutting off" which never made any sense to me.

[Geoff D]

It doesn't dim the display unless you dim the display. Bright/Dim/Off are the options I think? If it's left unattended for something like 15 or 20 minutes then it'll turn itself off.

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by johnny-torrance

I'm about to place an order for my second UB820 player. This time it's not from Amazon so I hope I get a player that isn't plagued with issues and can play discs front to back without freezing and glitching. I'm gonna get a new HDMI cable too, what do you guys recommend?

Thankfully Amazon allowed me to return the player I got from them even after the return window expired. I got the player when they had that sale late last year and it ended up being a lemon.

the Zeskit slim line cables are great.... every time I have a problematic cable type issue (handshakes, DV flickers etc) the Zeskit's cure it.

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

It doesn't dim the display unless you dim the display. Bright/Dim/Off are the options I think? If it's left unattended for something like 15 or 20 minutes then it'll turn itself off.

yup, it has a 15 minute auto shutoff. but it will stay completely active and visible to all that it's on until that auto shutoff activates.