Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Persona]

I've gone through 3 UB820 units since March, and I think I might call it a day and look at a different player. Bought from Multiregionmagic in March and the first few months were great, until I noticed the drive became loud and started refusing to play a lot of 4K discs, sent it back and got a replacement drive to experience the same issue, then got a new unit last week and low and behold halfway through a film last night it turned itself off and now refuses to power up. After unplugging the power cable for several hours and plugging back in, it doesn't get past 'Please Wai' on the front panel before going dead, so I can't even try a factory reset with the remote.

[Deadend45]

Originally Posted by Persona

I've gone through 3 UB820 units since March, and I think I might call it a day and look at a different player. Bought from Multiregionmagic

Lol! A modding problem not a panasonic problem. Voided warranty is fun huh?

[mdhaus]

Originally Posted by Persona

I've gone through 3 UB820 units since March, and I think I might call it a day and look at a different player. Bought from Multiregionmagic in March and the first few months were great, until I noticed the drive became loud and started refusing to play a lot of 4K discs, sent it back and got a replacement drive to experience the same issue, then got a new unit last week and low and behold halfway through a film last night it turned itself off and now refuses to power up. After unplugging the power cable for several hours and plugging back in, it doesn't get past 'Please Wai' on the front panel before going dead, so I can't even try a factory reset with the remote.

It’s not Panasonic’s fault that your mods are messing up the player.

[Persona]

Originally Posted by mdhaus

It’s not Panasonic’s fault that your mods are messing up the player.

These are not 'my mods', it was purchased like this from Multiregionmagic, are you a Panasonic rep?

[bl4ck]

Tell this guy about mods
https://www.avsforum.com/posts/63596246/
https://www.avsforum.com/posts/63596716/
new player dead...

and another:
https://www.avsforum.com/posts/63597398/

...mods don't affect the player in any way, that's an idiotic opinion.

[Persona]

Originally Posted by bl4ck

Tell this guy about mods
https://www.avsforum.com/posts/63596246/
...mods don't affect the player in any way, that's an idiotic opinion.

Thank you for posting this, it's the exact issue I have, I wonder if this is a faulty batch, mine was manufactured in June 2024. Going to reach out to the user to see if their player has the same date of manufacture.

[Deadend45]

Originally Posted by bl4ck

...mods don't affect the player in any way, that's an idiotic opinion.

You are quite correct, It is an idiotic opinion to think mods don't affect the player in any way. Not to mention most of the posts of those complaining about faulty hardware and discs are coming from mod player owners. lol

Originally Posted by Persona

These are not 'my mods', it was purchased like this from Multiregionmagic

Nice evasive parsing of words there. But enjoy buying busted players from that modder who no doubt have already sold your returned players as 'new' just like to you. hahaha

[johnny-torrance]

Saw this thread bumped and I'd just like to say my UB820 from Value Electronics is holding up incredibly, it's still rather new but I've not had one single issue. On the other hand I got the same player from Amazon back in November last year and by spring/early summer nearly every disc I played froze at some point during playback.

[I5o]

Originally Posted by Persona

These are not 'my mods', it was purchased like this from Multiregionmagic, are you a Panasonic rep?

Gidday Persona,

Did you get the "new" machine from Multiregionmagic with their warranty?

If so they should give you a full refund or else replace it for the last time and if that replacement goes wrong then only accept a full refund and not any repair/replacement.

Your machine symptoms are serious as it's not fully booting up but at least it is getting some power to active the front screen. Could be a faulty main pcb and only Panasonic repair service could replace it while in warranty period otherwise you can sell it for parts only on ebay. Anyhow good luck with your decision! cheers

[Rottweiler30]

Is the automatic setting for output resolution reliable on the 820? If your using it for both UHDs and BDs you dont have to keep changing resolution settings do you?

[rroeder]

I briefly used it but just switched to 4K cause the TV will upscale anyway, the player does a good job of upscaling. There was a box that popped up every time it switched resolutions that you had to hit OK or something along those lines, if I remember correctly

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by Rottweiler30

Is the automatic setting for output resolution reliable on the 820? If your using it for both UHDs and BDs you dont have to keep changing resolution settings do you?

The "Auto" essentially is the same as "On". It *always* upscales to the resolution of your TV display (i.e. 4K). There's no source direct. The Auto setting simply means if you switch TV, say a 1080p display, it will detect it and either downscale a 4K disc or send the 1080p as is. But if your TV is 4K, it will always upscale to 4K when set to Auto.

[teddyballgame]

Originally Posted by pbz06

The "Auto" essentially is the same as "On". It *always* upscales to the resolution of your TV display (i.e. 4K). There's no source direct. The Auto setting simply means if you switch TV, say a 1080p display, it will detect it and either downscale a 4K disc or send the 1080p as is. But if your TV is 4K, it will always upscale to 4K when set to Auto.

Do you know if the 820 or your TV does a better job upscaling? If I recall you're on the A95L now, might be splitting hairs

[captainsolo]

As usual the stupid disc tray on the 820 keeps dying at random. Sometimes it gets stuck open, sometimes it’s stuck closed or with a disc inside. Every time this happens, I have to disassemble the whole player to then remove the tray housing, disassemble the tray to then remove a disc and turn the little cog wheel. And then it will work fine until it craps out again. It’s gotten to where I have to do this several times a week.
The Panasonic parts store now redirects to a new model number of the tray, which seems to be for 2023 and 2024 players. But of course they won’t admit if this actually was done to address the problem. So I’ve either got to drop nearly $230 or wait for players to go on sale and play roulette with a whole new 820.

Absolutely freaking ridiculous. It’s infuriating that every disc runs the risk of becoming stuck.

[pbz06]

Originally Posted by teddyballgame

Do you know if the 820 or your TV does a better job upscaling? If I recall you're on the A95L now, might be splitting hairs

It's splitting hairs and academic. Technically, both show some ringing around edges. The difference is if you use the 820, you can eliminate it using the "edge correction" setting to +1. However, it's only with a scaling test pattern that I can notice it, and not with any content especially when not paused and not standing inches from the screen.

So with that said, I wouldn't worry about it. Just let the 820 upscale to 4K and keep it simple. I know we all have this desire to let the TV do upscaling, but you wouldn't be able to tell the difference with any of the devices that are quality brands.

One thing I would advise though, is to force the 820 to 4:2:2 output. Sony TV's seem to downsample and do extra conversion when they receive 4:4:4 unless you're in Game/PC mode. For the movie picture modes, you're better sending 4:2:2. Using the Spears & Munsil test patterns, it's cleaner with 4:2:2. Of course, again, this is only seen with test patterns and in the grand scheme of things I wouldn't worry about it either

[BXR 1138]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

As usual the stupid disc tray on the 820 keeps dying at random. Sometimes it gets stuck open, sometimes it’s stuck closed or with a disc inside. Every time this happens, I have to disassemble the whole player to then remove the tray housing, disassemble the tray to then remove a disc and turn the little cog wheel.

I thought you were already aware of the manual disc tray release slider on the bottom of the player. You don't have to disassemble it to remove a stuck disc.

[captainsolo]

Originally Posted by BXR 1138

I thought you were already aware of the manual disc tray release slider on the bottom of the player. You don't have to disassemble it to remove a stuck disc.

That works for getting a stuck disc out, but then you still have to disassemble everything to be able to turn the cogs and get the tray working again. The slider also has a locking mechanism so you have to make sure it is reset all the way or the unit won’t work.

[BXR 1138]

Originally Posted by captainsolo

That works for getting a stuck disc out, but then you still have to disassemble everything to be able to turn the cogs and get the tray working again. The slider also has a locking mechanism so you have to make sure it is reset all the way or the unit won’t work.

Yeah I don't doubt any of that, I was only referring to a recovering a stuck disc. At least that part is relatively painless, especially when you just want to get it out and continue watching the disc on a backup player or something.

You might as well buy a new player at this point, even if it's just to tide you over until the UB820 is majorly discounted again. If you can live without the HDR optimizer the Panasonic UB450 is a good alternative. It's not full featured like the UB820/9000 but at $200 MSRP with Dolby Vision it's a better value than dropping $230+ on just a single part for your faulty 820.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by pbz06

It's splitting hairs and academic. Technically, both show some ringing around edges. The difference is if you use the 820, you can eliminate it using the "edge correction" setting to +1. However, it's only with a scaling test pattern that I can notice it, and not with any content especially when not paused and not standing inches from the screen.

So with that said, I wouldn't worry about it. Just let the 820 upscale to 4K and keep it simple. I know we all have this desire to let the TV do upscaling, but you wouldn't be able to tell the difference with any of the devices that are quality brands.

One thing I would advise though, is to force the 820 to 4:2:2 output. Sony TV's seem to downsample and do extra conversion when they receive 4:4:4 unless you're in Game/PC mode. For the movie picture modes, you're better sending 4:2:2. Using the Spears & Munsil test patterns, it's cleaner with 4:2:2. Of course, again, this is only seen with test patterns and in the grand scheme of things I wouldn't worry about it either

Edge correction fixes the ringing but it causes moiré on tightly packed high frequency detail when upscaling, so it needs turning off.

[rickardl]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Edge correction fixes the ringing but it causes moiré on tightly packed high frequency detail when upscaling, so it needs turning off.

Do you now have any settings changed from default for HDR?