Panasonic UB820/UB9000 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by Bill Crosby

Bought an UB820 earlier this year but new to rattlebytes firmware

I'm less interested in any region-free functionality, but am I understanding this chart correctly when it indicates you can enable 350 nit HDR tonemapping on the UB820?

Is this true? And does it actually "work" ?

In other words, is the difference in tonemapping capabilities (500 nit minimum for the 820 and 350 nit minimum for the 9000) purely just a software thing? Or does the ub9000 have some sort of better image processing chip that makes it more capable

Thanks in advance

The update is suppose to add that function to the 820.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by chip75

I looked at my pictures again, for some reason I was checking the vertical information assuming the image was zoomed in, but there's a bit of information on the sides that's cropped.

I'll see if there's anything the boffins can find in the firmware that can be altered to remove it.

There you go, that’s another reason why I avoid playing DVDs on these if at all possible.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

There you go, that’s another reason why I avoid playing DVDs on these if at all possible.

I put two markers on my TV to see if there was any difference, then watched a few episodes on my other player and the pillars moved around a bit on the content I watched. I'm going to check them on my PC to see what's what, but with those markers it was driving me potty. Ironically the Panasonic would remain consistent as it would lose the slightly wider image.

[Hedrox]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

That one does have the -10 second button, but it doesn't say Panasonic on it. I'm not saying it doesn't work, I'm just pointing out the differences.

Yeah, because it's a third party replacement, not an official one. If you want to spend $50-100 on an original one it's up to you, but at the end of the day it's just a remote and all it needs to do is function when I press the buttons, so whatever.

[Naiera]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

There you go, that’s another reason why I avoid playing DVDs on these if at all possible.

I just avoid playing DVDs entirely

[Darbo]

Originally Posted by kevers7290

Add me to list of those whose (UB9000) remote decided to randomly stop working. I was looking at a replacement but Panasonic wants $130?! Can anyone vouch for the cheap, non-OEM replacements? I really don't want to spend $100 for a freakin' remote.

I can vouch for the cheap remote, bought one about a year ago for my 820 and it's been flawless, backlight works great, feels legit in the hand, no problems whatsoever.

[EddieLarkin]

Re Panasonic players cropping 4x3 DVDs, I came across that 10 years ago:

https://criterionforum.org/forum/vie...=450&start=975

David M theorised as to the reason:

It's difficult to say for sure without checking this out for myself, but it could be the case that the players are actually correctly implementing the active picture area as specified in Rec.601 (the ITU spec for digital SD video).

I'll need to read it again and actually research this when I have time, but the DVD resolution of 720x480 / 576 is wider than D1 resolution of 704 pixels across. Some downconverting hardware adds 8 black pixels to the left and right of the 720x480 frame for that reason. Strictly speaking, these are designed not to be shown; some masters have the black pixels "baked in" and some players (perhaps like your Panasonic) do not count these small side-bars as part of the picture. Other players will show this though. But this rule hasn't been strictly enforced which is maybe part of the reason why we're seeing this mismatch. I'd imagine that overscan in the CRT days meant that manufacturers took a "who cares" approach to how to deal with the width of the video.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by EddieLarkin

Re Panasonic players cropping 4x3 DVDs...

Thanks. I noticed the 704 pixels wide on my Panasonic straightaway, but hadn't noticed that the content I was watching was flipping between 720 and 704 pixels wide.

I know I've got some DVDs with junk on the sides, generally a colourful line, I guess with the Panasonic it would be cropped. But like you said in the other forum it's kind of funky that 1.33:1 content gets cropped.

[thebarnman]

This cropping of pixels on the Panasonic, is that with the Panasonic menu setting of 480P or 4K or both?

[chip75]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

This cropping of pixels on the Panasonic, is that with the Panasonic menu setting of 480P or 4K or both?

I will double-check, but I don't think it matters.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

This cropping of pixels on the Panasonic, is that with the Panasonic menu setting of 480P or 4K or both?

Originally Posted by chip75

I will double-check, but I don't think it matters.

I did check. When outputting SD it displays at 720 wide, but as you can't always 1:1 with SD content you only have 16:9 or 4:3 options so overscan comes into play and you lose some height. But that's with my display. Even upscaling at higher resolutions which loses the 8 pixels, the Panasonic says 720x567 BT.601 as its source content.

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by chip75

I did check. When outputting SD it displays at 720 wide, but as you can't always 1:1 with SD content you only have 16:9 or 4:3 options so overscan comes into play and you lose some height. But that's with my display. Even upscaling at higher resolutions which loses the 8 pixels, the Panasonic says 720x567 BT.601 as its source content.

I have the Sony A90J, Vincent the reviewer mentions the upscaling of SD content (assumingly from a DVD) has no overscan.

I wonder if it would be different with my display? If there's an easy way for me to check (I don't have any fancy testing equipment) please let me know.

Actually I think my TV shows what the player is outputting when I hit the info button...I'll have to check that.

According to the internet "HD DVD AND Blu-ray, the standard DVD's resolution is 720x480 pixels for NTSC DVD and 720x576 pixels for PAL DVD in either 4:3 or 16:90 aspect ratio."

[chip75]

Originally Posted by thebarnman

I wonder if it would be different with my display? If there's an easy way for me to check (I don't have any fancy testing equipment) please let me know.

Check whether the player is displaying 704 pixels or that there's overscan if you display DVDs at 480? I'd assume the former is a certainty, and I'd go with Vincent with his review.

Test patterns/discs are the way to go to check. If you haven't got any, you might try one of those DVDs with the THX tests.

Failing that you could create a few patterns with Photoshop and output them in Da Vinci Resolve. I might give that a go this week.

[gardengirl1331]

So yesterday something weird started happening. When I hit pause and the timer goes out on me the screen is suddenly turning pink then going to the input "page" on the TV since the player is off. This doesn't happen every single time but I've noticed it 4-5 times in the last two days. Once it even freaked out and did this weird pixel screen that was the paused image and like a pink overlay of heavy pixels then the TV flashed from the player to the input screen back and forth then went black and to the input page. ?? It's working fine in all other aspects (aside from not upscaling well (will try to turn the SDR>HDR upscale off and see if it helps.) for now I'm just using the 800M2 for blurays and DVDs)

I did just remember we're using an old cable for it, we're ordering a new HDMI cable and I'll see if that helps. But if not, is there anything else it could be??

[chip75]

Originally Posted by gardengirl1331

I did just remember we're using an old cable for it, we're ordering a new HDMI cable and I'll see if that helps. But if not, is there anything else it could be??

Pink and green screens are signs of handshake issues or HDCP problems.

Unplug your player (HDMI and power off the TV and player)) and leave it for 10 minutes. Plug everything back in andpower on the TV then the player.

A cable should help.

[AKORIS]

Originally Posted by James Luckard

I tried to, a year ago. My first 820 player started pixelating on certain discs (misaligned laser) just over a year after I bought it, so it was out of warranty.

I found that Panasonic doesn't have a repair facility of their own in the US, they work through a licensed repair place in Florida. It seemed kinda shady and was difficult to get info out of. I seem to remember it mostly does cameras, and it was confusing to see if they would even repair a UHD player at all.

Since I was out of warranty, certified shipping to Florida for such a huge package and the flat fee to just get it in the door to be looked at would already cost like half of what a new one would cost, before the cost of any repairs, and it would still be a repaired old machine, so I gave up and bought a brand new one.

My memory is a bit fuzzy on this one, I might be slightly off on a few details, but the gist of it is that it seemed like a waste of time. These machines aren't really meant to be repaired, it seems, just replaced.

Again, though, I was 4-5 months beyond the 1-year warranty, maybe it's slightly different if you're still within it.

your experience applies to everything--- computers, appliances, TV's, blu ray players, etc etc. This is the way the world works these days....

I had a compressor go out on my expensive LG fridge a month or so back-- $1500 to repair it!!! (paid about $2200 for it around 5 years ago)
I bought a new Samsung fridge from Costco instead for $1000

[VanHiscers]

I have now found another disc that my UB820 is having problem with: this time it wouldn’t play at all, it just says the disc isn’t compatible… It’s the recent MOD release of Kiss the Girls. This is the first time I have a problem with a Paramount release, and I’ve tried 2 copies. Another person from the Kiss the Girls thread told me his UB820 played the movie fine though…

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by VanHiscers

I have now found another disc that my UB820 is having problem with: this time it wouldn’t play at all, it just says the disc isn’t compatible… It’s the recent MOD release of Kiss the Girls. This is the first time I have a problem with a Paramount release, and I’ve tried 2 copies. Another person from the Kiss the Girls thread told me his UB820 played the movie fine though…

I've had that happen before with a different regular Blu-ray. Ejected it and pressed play again...worked fine the 2nd time.

[thebarnman]

Originally Posted by chip75

Check whether the player is displaying 704 pixels or that there's overscan if you display DVDs at 480? I'd assume the former is a certainty, and I'd go with Vincent with his review.

Test patterns/discs are the way to go to check. If you haven't got any, you might try one of those DVDs with the THX tests.

Failing that you could create a few patterns with Photoshop and output them in Da Vinci Resolve. I might give that a go this week.

I'll see what I can discover hopefully tonight.

[gardengirl1331]

Originally Posted by chip75

Pink and green screens are signs of handshake issues or HDCP problems.

Unplug your player (HDMI and power off the TV and player)) and leave it for 10 minutes. Plug everything back in andpower on the TV then the player.

A cable should help.

On sunday turning off the power to everything seemed to help, but yesterday it did it again. I tried to get it to do it again to snap a photo of it, but it wouldn't haha. of course. So yes powering it down did help temporarily, I hope the new cable will help. Of course it's 10 days past the return/exchange on it, so I really hope the cable is the issue. It's old. We had it with the old bluray player, moved it to the new 4k when we upgraded in nov 21, saw it was making the grain go nuts and it looked like static/bugs. Switching the cable then helped that problem, and until I posted yesterday, right as I was posting, I remembered it's an old cable. So hearing this makes me feel a bit better! Thanks!