Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[b_scott]

I use my Panny for 3D, and 4K discs. Everything else gets ripped to MKV for Plex. So I would never need those features. But I'm glad the Oppo does those for you. Never had a loading issue on the Panny.

[Tok]

Originally Posted by Ruined

I think the bottom line is people like streaming, but they don't like purchasing copies of digital movies.

So if they kill off physical media, they may end up killing off most purchases. I know I wouldn't buy anymore if digital was only option, or at least I wouldn't spend more than $5 on a release. And as you said, the streaming money sucks compared to purchases.

What they really wanted was people who were purchasing to drop physical purchase and move to digital purchases (not change from purchasing to streaming), because then it eliminates all the replication, packaging, art, etc, making the profit margin higher. But that effort hasn't been very successful. I think the reason why is that unlike music, there is minimal functionality advantage to a digital vs physical movie. With music , having to switch CDs if you want to listen to a track or two from 5 different artists is a big pain; plus its a big pain to store a bunch of CDs in the car; and, digital music files like hires FLAC are actually higher quality than CD. With movies, they last 2 hours so you aren't going to be switching every 3-5min like music, and you also can't watch them when you drive so portability doesn't matter much; and even if you did have a portability use case like the train, movies take up too much space on the phone and you may not have internet to stream them during parts of the trip; plus digital is lower quality than physical due to bandwidth. All of that makes a digital movie purchase a tough sell.

I’d never trust digital purchases not to disappear someday. I might purchase them for under $10 only if they were the same as disc quality meaning high bitrate video and lossless audio. Until then digital purchases are near worthless and they’ll never have any intrinsic value since you really don’t own anything physical.

[b_scott]

Originally Posted by Tok

I’d never trust digital purchases not to disappear someday. I might purchase them for under $10 only if they were the same as disc quality meaning high bitrate video and lossless audio. Until then digital purchases are near worthless and they’ll never have any intrinsic value since you really don’t own anything physical.

companies can't just take away access to purchased items without reimbursement. So, you'd just get your money back.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by Ruined

Also, for the odd Blu-ray that is transferred in the wrong aspect ratio or misframed, and also for ancient non anamorphic DVDs that never received a Blu-ray, the Oppo's zoom feature is missed on the Panasonic. This is becoming less of an issue over time but I still have a few discs that benefit from it.

My old Sony BD player auto zooms non-anamorphic DVDs especially with big black bars say 2.35:1 in a 4:3 frame. It doesn't look great on a 50" screen though

[ronand]

Any half decent TV should provide a custom zoom mode if needed

[Tok]

Originally Posted by b_scott

companies can't just take away access to purchased items without reimbursement. So, you'd just get your money back.

LOL… they’ve done it before and they will do it again. Read EUA on any of these digital sell through platforms. If a contract expires say good bye to some of ‘your’ titles. All you buy into is a licensing agreement… you don’t have perpetual rights to anything. At least with discs they can’t march into your home and take your discs.

[danny24]

Originally Posted by Ruined

There are still a couple of things the Oppo does better

In terms of functionality, the Panasonic is slower loading and less responsive than the Oppo.

Also, for the odd Blu-ray that is transferred in the wrong aspect ratio or misframed, and also for ancient non anamorphic DVDs that never received a Blu-ray, the Oppo's zoom feature is missed on the Panasonic. This is becoming less of an issue over time but I still have a few discs that benefit from it.

For my setup I actually have the 203 on top of the UB9000. I just love being able to have the best of both worlds but if you already own a UB9000 and don't own an Oppo 203/205 your good. I would not call the UB9000 an Oppo killer because for me I am still using the Oppo. The UB9000 and 203 together is actually a nice setup for the disc playing enthusiast except it takes up two HDMI channels. It seems silly but I recommend it if you like both players and own them already. It takes up about the same space as the 205 does.

[Matt89]

I was watching Shout's BD of Sorry, Wrong Number last night and now I cannot get the disc to eject. I've tried the instructions on Panasonic's site and it does absolutely nothing. I've unplugged the machine 7 bloody times. What the actual F is going on? You press the eject button and it says EJECT, makes a bunch of sounds and then says READING and the main menu loads.

This is pissing me the hell off. This disc is just stuck in the player.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by ronand

Any half decent TV should provide a custom zoom mode if needed

The Oppo zoom has variable zoom ratios and also allows you to pan around the zoomed image (for instance, for House Blu-ray where it is misframed off-center). There ain't many TVs with that option.

[Ruined]

Originally Posted by danny24

For my setup I actually have the 203 on top of the UB9000. I just love being able to have the best of both worlds but if you already own a UB9000 and don't own an Oppo 203/205 your good. I would not call the UB9000 an Oppo killer because for me I am still using the Oppo. The UB9000 and 203 together is actually a nice setup for the disc playing enthusiast except it takes up two HDMI channels. It seems silly but I recommend it if you like both players and own them already. It takes up about the same space as the 205 does.

That is my setup also, but it would be nice to have one player that does it all.

[danny24]

Just a heads up for anyone with a bad optical drive on the UB820. I got a UB820 pretty cheap for parts that would not read a disc. I had a UB900 lying around I was not using anymore so I decided to see if a disc drive swap was possible. I swapped both optical drives and to my surprise it worked perfectly. The UB900 optical drive fit in the UB820 like a glove even though both drives look cosmetically different (the UB900 disc drive has less plastic). The ribbon cable on the UB900 optical drive matches up perfectly with the UB820 mainboard.

So if you own a UB820 that won't read discs and have an old UB900 lying around if you swap optical drives it will work.

Originally Posted by Ruined

That is my setup also, but it would be nice to have one player that does it all.

I agree.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by b_scott

companies can't just take away access to purchased items without reimbursement. So, you'd just get your money back.

Read the User agreement of any streaming service. Notice they all begin with your agreement not to enter into any Class Action lawsuits.

Apple states the ability to offer refunds diminishes with time and offers rental credit coupons for things you purchased and no longer have access to. I have experience with this.

- Purchased Content will generally remain available for you to download, redownload, or otherwise access from Apple. Though it is unlikely, subsequent to your purchase, Content may be removed from the Services (for instance, because the provider removed it) and become unavailable for further download or access from Apple. To ensure your ability to continue enjoying Content, we encourage you to download all purchased Content to a device in your possession and to back it up.


Download, store, backup, and enjoy the HD version of anything you buy from them. For me it's just not worth it. The HD isn't good enough to be worried about with all the UHD BDs released these days.

[spudeus]

I had a weird experience with my Panny 820 last night. Played the Erin Brockovich Blu ray (which happens to have a lot of those outdated Universal web-enabled doo-dads). The timer froze at 0:00:14 although the movie did play through. It would not eject afterward and even powering off/on that 14 second mark was still there!

Unplugging/replugging did work in this case and I was able to get Erin back into her case. But I am wondering if this is a freak incident or something to do with that particular disc (and am afraid to play it again).

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Ruined

There are still a couple of things the Oppo does better

In terms of functionality, the Panasonic is slower loading and less responsive than the Oppo.

Also, for the odd Blu-ray that is transferred in the wrong aspect ratio or misframed, and also for ancient non anamorphic DVDs that never received a Blu-ray, the Oppo's zoom feature is missed on the Panasonic. This is becoming less of an issue over time but I still have a few discs that benefit from it.

The way that Pannysonic removed any kind of aspect ratio control for the UHD generation (and the BDT700 which the UHD decks were based around) has always left a sour taste. I don't mean the kind of extensive zoom features that the OPPO has, not many rival players had that same kind of functionality anyway (unless they were OPPO clones, lol), but just a simple zoom for non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs. My older Panny players do it, and do it well. For that reason alone I can't have just the Panny 820, my OPPO 203 is going nowhere. But then DVD playback is visibly worse on the Panny anyway, so perhaps it's no great loss re: the lack of zoom.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Ruined

The Oppo zoom has variable zoom ratios and also allows you to pan around the zoomed image (for instance, for House Blu-ray where it is misframed off-center). There ain't many TVs with that option.

Samsung's TVs have decent zoom and position options, but you're always at the mercy of what you're cutting out (menus, subtitles) when using the display* versus the player.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The way that Pannysonic removed any kind of aspect ratio control for the UHD generation (and the BDT700 which the UHD decks were based around) has always left a sour taste.

I remember one of the older Samsung players had an option to remove those annoying black bars for a more cinematic look! It was very much part of their USP for those models, my oldest player has the option. Something fun to play around with.

*The other issue is if you're using an App you're generally out of luck if Amazon have cocked the ratio up, so you can squeeze things back into shape. Can't quite remember, but my LG allowed changing ratios with App content.

[Matthew.H]

New arrival from CEX. Box is bashed up but player seems to be brand new. The power lead is still factory wrapped, the remote has it’s protective films still on and the batteries are still sealed. The player itself doesn’t have a mark on it. Can’t be that old as it’s the EB1 model.
Thank to vouchers only paid just under £300.



Have set it up and it went through the initial set up, Only watched one disc but it works perfectly so far. Will be selling on my current UB820.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by b_scott

companies can't just take away access to purchased items without reimbursement. So, you'd just get your money back.

Somebody didn't read their user license agreement. A digital "purchase" is a lease. It can disappear at any time with no reimbursement because you never agreed to owning anything.

[b_scott]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

Somebody didn't read their user license agreement. A digital "purchase" is a lease. It can disappear at any time with no reimbursement because you never agreed to owning anything.

No major company is going to do that to you. If they did, there would be hell to pay from the public. If you buy something on a platform that is backed by a major player (Apple, Sony, etc) they're not going to screw people out of purchases without refunds, or they will get reamed. For instance, Google technically didn't have to refund Stadia games, but they did.

Stadia Refunds
Starting November 9, 2022, Stadia will attempt to automatically process refunds for all purchases of games, add-on content and subscriptions fees other than Stadia Pro made through the Stadia Store. We ask for your patience as we work through each transaction and ask that you refrain from contacting Customer Support as they will not be able to expedite your refund during this time. We still expect the majority of refunds to be processed by January 18th, 2023.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by b_scott

No major company is going to do that to you. If they did, there would be hell to pay from the public. If you buy something on a platform that is backed by a major player (Apple, Sony, etc) they're not going to screw people out of purchases without refunds, or they will get reamed. For instance, Google technically didn't have to refund Stadia games, but they did.

Stadia Refunds
Starting November 9, 2022, Stadia will attempt to automatically process refunds for all purchases of games, add-on content and subscriptions fees other than Stadia Pro made through the Stadia Store. We ask for your patience as we work through each transaction and ask that you refrain from contacting Customer Support as they will not be able to expedite your refund during this time. We still expect the majority of refunds to be processed by January 18th, 2023.

You give these massive companies far too much credit. That's only if there was a lot of customer blowback and the company feels they must save face or risk further financial loss. Media collectors are a very small slice of a conglomerate's pie compared to gamers. We are no more than a squeak to their roar.

You agreed to their terms when you "bought" a digital movie or TV show. Those terms state that you can lose access to the item in question at any time for any reason. You clicked OKAY and so you get to live with those consequences. Even an iTunes download is vulnerable as there is a form of variable phone-home DRM embedded in their ecosystem. No server license key when required, means no access.


This is one reason discs are fading in the eyes of many studios... the untethered nature of the DRM. They have little control of the product after you have purchased said disc.



John Deere, as an example, has been trying to redefine ownership in the courts over many years, suggesting that because of the proprietary nature of the equipment and software contained therein, the customer doesn't really own the John Deere product they thought they bought. This has massive ramifications going forward.

[bhampton]

Originally Posted by b_scott

No major company is going to do that to you.

ha, good one.

For a while you could buy clothes and houses in PSHome .... when they flipped the switch no refunds were given. Such is normal whenever a game is ended.