Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[rickardl]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

It's got Paramount's patented DNR that freezes the grain in place and makes it gloop and smear around moving objects. Horrible disc.

Do you have a snappy name for that DNR? Similar to Sony's HDR Light Cannon™ ?

[chip75]

Originally Posted by rickardl

Do you have a snappy name for that DNR? Similar to Sony's HDR Light Cannon™ ?

It's a B Movie monster "The Smudge™".

[mutateinsanely]

Originally Posted by RogerMathus

Have confirmed that a Region A Panasonic BD820 will play Region B Blu-Ray discs with certain button sequence.

1.0 Put Region B disc in drawer. Press PLAY.
2.0 When Sorry this Disc is wrong Region appears, press STOP
3.0 Press TOP MENU and wait for menu screen to appear, Press ENTER for PLAY on Menu
The movie now starts.

Note: If you get a not allowed error message when TOP MENU is first pressed, press TOP MENU
again after error message at top of screen goes off. There may be some wait time. Lions
Gate Region B works with second press of TOP MENU button.

This has worked smoothly on five out of five different labels from UK that are Region B locked.
(Arrow, BFI,Masters of Cinema, CURZON Artificial Eye and Universal)

Could not make this work on France or Germany Region B discs.managed to play one German disc by skipping STOP and going to TOP MENU first.

I came up with a remote hack that plays all those region b blu rays (not dvd) listed above plus powerhouse/indicator all german, french, italian, finnish, etc. region b that I have tried. Only had a couple titles it didn't work on. It is a variation on the above hack....with a few tweaks. This hack is effective using the original stock remote that came with the unit dp ub820. This hack has made this unit just about region free for me. I know a lot of people have this fine unit and I'd like to help everyone get the most out of it. I don't know if I should post it though. I'm no expert on whether Panasonic would or could make it ineffective with firmware update. If they could or did that would suck. I suppose I could disable firmware updates over wifi. But I would hate to miss out on any good updates. Probably overthinking it. I have other region free players but I prefer region free on the Panny. What do y'all think?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by rickardl

Do you have a snappy name for that DNR? Similar to Sony's HDR Light Cannon™ ?

Someone else came up with DigiSmear™️ for the Paramount DNR

[Steve]

Originally Posted by Panson

Sony UBP-X800M2 (metal build), currently $250, vs $425 for Panasonic UB820.

Excellent, thank you!

[Snikt]

Just curious guys, how often have you seen the F99 pop up on your UB820. It doesn’t happen all the time. I know what it means, but I can’t seem to pinpoint what causes it. It’s like it gets hung up if I have too many devices turned on before I turn on the player.

[dcx4610]

Watched my first movie on the UB-9000 coming from the 820. I was pretty surprised at how much quieter everything is. With the 820, the disc tray is pretty loud and you can hear the motor for a good 2 minutes before things quiet down. With the 9000, the eject is quiet and it stays quite from the get go.

Is it worth an additional $500+? Yeah, probably not but if you can afford it, so far so good.

[Snikt]

Originally Posted by Snikt

Just curious guys, how often have you seen the F99 pop up on your UB820. It doesn’t happen all the time. I know what it means, but I can’t seem to pinpoint what causes it. It’s like it gets hung up if I have too many devices turned on before I turn on the player.

Anybody?

[mutateinsanely]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Someone else came up with DigiSmear™️ for the Paramount DNR

I like that........I like it alot.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Snikt

Anybody?

Haven't seen it yet.

[MooneyRara]

My 820 stopped reading discs. It needs a new drive.

[Snikt]

Originally Posted by MooneyRara

My 820 stopped reading discs. It needs a new drive.

I’m sorry dude. That sucks. I just ordered a new ub820; want to see if I got a defective unit or if the F99 error is happening to both units due to the order in which I power on the player.

Did you guys turn it on by using the power button or the open/close button on the remote (something I’ve always done with all my players since the dvd days)?

[MooneyRara]

Originally Posted by Snikt

I’m sorry dude. That sucks. I just ordered a new ub820; want to see if I got a defective unit or if the F99 error is happening to both units due to the order in which I power on the player.

Did you guys turn it on by using the power button or the open/close button on the remote (something I’ve always done with all my players since the dvd days)?

Just the power. Never seen that F99 error. Hope that replacement unit works out for you. Good luck!

[Cherokee Jack]

Originally Posted by Snikt

I’m sorry dude. That sucks. I just ordered a new ub820; want to see if I got a defective unit or if the F99 error is happening to both units due to the order in which I power on the player.

Did you guys turn it on by using the power button or the open/close button on the remote (something I’ve always done with all my players since the dvd days)?

I often use the open/close button with the unit powered off and have never had an error message.

[stvn1974]

I just finished setting up the UB820, screw you Sony.

[mutateinsanely]

Nice avatar Bub.

[Snikt]

Originally Posted by Snikt

Just curious guys, how often have you seen the F99 pop up on your UB820. It doesn’t happen all the time. I know what it means, but I can’t seem to pinpoint what causes it. It’s like it gets hung up if I have too many devices turned on before I turn on the player.

So the new player does the same thing. It gets hung up, randomly, when I turn it on. Either with the power button, the play button or the open/close button. I have the player connected to my Samsung tv, and connected to my home theater system using the 2 different hdmi ports.

I decided to use the “quick start,” feature. That seems to have done the trick. No hang ups or stalling anymore. Anybody else ever have this issue?

[Geoff D]

Found another bug/quirk of the HDR Optimiser. I was watching Superman III on UHD and seeing if I could tame the brightest, smallest speculars which run well over 3000 nits, indeed, the MaxCLL metadata shows 3200+ nits. Toggled the Optimiser on and off (set to Medium/High a.k.a. 1000 nits as the tone mapping threshold) and it's not doing anything. Literally nothing. Huh.

The highlight detail isn't clipped in the source, as when I adjust the contrast I can bring out the speculars that are being clipped by my ZD9 TV (which tops out at 1800 nits calibrated and clips what's above that). So what gives? Well, while the disc's MaxCLL is 3200+ nits, the mastering display metadata is only at 1000 nits, so even though the Optimiser is supposed to look at MaxCLL first, mastering display second, whichever is greater, it seems to be verr confuse that the mastering display level is *lower* than the MaxCLL. That the former is set to 1000 nits would explain why the HDR Optimiser isn't doing anything when set to Medium/High (1000), as it doesn't think there's anything else there. When set to Basic (500 nits) then it does map it down a little, but only what's present between 500 and 1000 nits in the signal, as it still thinks it's only got 1000 nits as the maximum there, so the speculars are still clipped.

This is another reason why I could never, ever leave the Optimiser on all the time and be confident I was always seeing a properly mapped version, feels like I'm always having to second guess it whereas at least with my TV's limitations I know exactly where they are and what they do.

[Kirk Out]

I guess it’s best to leave the optimizer off and let my tv tone map

[djpalacios91]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Found another bug/quirk of the HDR Optimiser. I was watching Superman III on UHD and seeing if I could tame the brightest, smallest speculars which run well over 3000 nits, indeed, the MaxCLL metadata shows 3200+ nits. Toggled the Optimiser on and off (set to Medium/High a.k.a. 1000 nits as the tone mapping threshold) and it's not doing anything. Literally nothing. Huh.

The highlight detail isn't clipped in the source, as when I adjust the contrast I can bring out the speculars that are being clipped by my ZD9 TV (which tops out at 1800 nits calibrated and clips what's above that). So what gives? Well, while the disc's MaxCLL is 3200+ nits, the mastering display metadata is only at 1000 nits, so even though the Optimiser is supposed to look at MaxCLL first, mastering display second, whichever is greater, it seems to be verr confuse that the mastering display level is *lower* than the MaxCLL. That the former is set to 1000 nits would explain why the HDR Optimiser isn't doing anything when set to Medium/High (1000), as it doesn't think there's anything else there. When set to Basic (500 nits) then it does map it down a little, but only what's present between 500 and 1000 nits in the signal, as it still thinks it's only got 1000 nits as the maximum there, so the speculars are still clipped.

This is another reason why I could never, ever leave the Optimiser on all the time and be confident I was always seeing a properly mapped version, feels like I'm always having to second guess it whereas at least with my TV's limitations I know exactly where they are and what they do.

It's moments like this when one realizes one pays a hefty sum for features/functionality that never quite live up to the standard. It's honestly disappointing to hear this because it's one of the big reasons I shelled out the money for this device, and to read your experience makes me frustrated the device can't be trusted to work as advertised.

Along with the issue this thing won't mix DTS to PCM so my Sonos can function with DTS:MA UHDs, I have to have two devices where just one should suffice.