As long as you don’t need SACD
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Panasonic DP-UB820 UHD Player Review
- Thread starter amirm
- Start date
Agreed. Though a cheap Sony Blu-Ray player is a good option for SACD playback through HDMI.
Help please. Not sure if I am getting 4K. Doesn't seem like it. On screen shows Blue ray and when the DVD starts it shows Dolby vision at the top by its self. I have set the player to 4K and also to auto. I have hooke the DVD direct to the TV and through the AVR same result. I have also used different HDMI cables.
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sailor2005
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You ARE getting 4k and Dolby Vision. What is reported on the status bar is what is being displayed. If it was not 4k it would show something else. Check your TV settings if what you see does not look like 4k even when it is. It also depends on the contents you are trying to watch.
It shows Blue Ray, this is a 4k disc. I have put other 4K discs and it still shows Blue ray not 4K
sailor2005
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The screenshot you posted clearly shows 3 important things: Dolby Vision, Ultra HD Blu ray and 4k. So, what else do you expect the player to do to tell you it is playing 4k content? There is a button on the remote called Playback Info, it will tell you what it is getting from the disc and what is being passed to the TV. Other than that, read the instructions.
This image is with a blue ray in. It still shows 4k but it is not highlighted. Don't believe a Blue Ray will send a 4K image. This is why I was confused. I thought 4K needs to be highlighted.
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sailor2005
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Ok, this is what is supposed to show when it is playing a regular blu ray WITH the upscaling option. The former screenshot was a proper status for a 4k UHD disc with Dolby Vision. Use the Playback Info button, it will give WAY more information and clarify things for you, But as I said earlier, please check the instructions. From the little info shown on your screenshots it looks like it is working as it should. May I ask brand/model of your TV?
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83" LG OLED C2 I have looked at the Manual that I down loaded but was confused. Also trying to get all setting working on the new Denon 4800H. The 820 manual claims a better sound running the sound HDMI to the AVR and then running the other HDMI direct to the TV. Think I will try this and see if I get better sound. I am running 7.2.4.
sailor2005
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If you find the manual confusing (it is for the important stuff), check videos on Youtube. There are LOTS related to the 820/9000 and many of them explain the setup process and what the settings are for.
I bought this player in 2019.
Although I haven't heavily used the disc section (I don't have a Blu-ray library lol), at certain points in time it's been my primary playback device for network audio, Netflix, and Prime. It's probably been powered on for 3000-4000 hours, working for 60-70% of them, with disc spinning time somewhere between 100 and 200 hours.
Initially, I bought the thing because I wanted something that could tone-map HDR for my OLED which I got the same month. HDR was pretty new then, and I was unfamiliar with it. It took me a few months to become as familiar as I needed to be, to be comfortable with it - and, knowing what I know now, I would've told myself not to buy the thing, just an Apple TV 4k. Not because it doesn't do an excellent job of things (it does), but because my TV (Sony A8G)'s tone mapping was already so perfect for the panel. In 2019, it wasn't really known how a lot of HDR content was going to be mastered, and I was fearful I'd be seeing a bunch of blown-out stuff >700 nits on my $3k TV, or that stuff in the 200-400 nit range would be scaled down too much for my taste to accommodate the one scene in a movie that peaks at 1700 nits. The 820 definitely allows customization of tone mapping, but, with time, I've noticed I haven't needed it
Most TV and movies seem to be mastered to 1000 nits, and when it's not, the amount of detail missing from my display is small and never for long. My A8G maps 1000 nits down to the panel's maximum brightness of ~750 nits, and largely leaves stuff under 250 nits alone (and 250 nits is a good way into HDR highlights (ie. 99.994% of what's displayed is exactly as bright as a TV able to display all 1000 nits properly, or 4000, or whatever the show/movie is)). HDR content is actually too dim to be watched during the day - WAY too dim! Normal TV, SDR, which is mastered to 100 nits, can be viewed during the day, but typically, when you see it in a room lit by daylight, if it's bright enough to see comfortably, you're not viewing that TV with white at 100 nits - it's more like 300! You can't really do that (increase brightness across the whole range) with HDR content... Well, you can, but you need to do some image processing too - basically, you take everything under 120-150 nits or so and brighten it, leaving the rest alone. My TV (Sony A8G) has a great setting I forget the name of, which allows you to do this, which I use to watch HDR during the day. The UB-820 gives you more control than just the "low" "med" and "high" of the TV, but often times (94 times out of 100), it's just more work to do.
In conclusion, it's a pretty great player. The UI is a little clunky and could be a touch more responsive. I never freezes, but it's like everything takes 50-100ms longer than it should. It's probably something dumb like the IR receiver circuit delay being long. Why do I think this? Because the delay is always the same, no matter if the action is something you'd think takes more processing power, the delay is the same. Oh, another thing it could do better is boot up - it takes a while to boot up. It's not a huge problem, but it's more than 30 seconds. I haven't timed it, but if you told me it took over a minute I'd believe you.
What it does a really great job at is image processing. Noise reduction - random and mosquito - it does an excellent job at, without creating any smearing. Really, it does a great job. After a couple years I stopped using it because I kind of like the film grain look. Cameras are so good today that producers actually add it in post production sometimes.. When it's excessive or starts annoying me I'll remove it, but now I don't see it like a problem to be fixed, until I start perceiving it like a problem to be fixed lol. There's one other type of noise reduction: "Block", sometimes known as "Digital" noise reduction. I've never had or seen a device start doing something when this setting was enabled. Never! And the 820 is no exception. Maybe I've never had content that was blocky in the right way that the filters became active... it's possible! I usually watch good stuff... Anyway, if it's a thing and not just something people put there because everyone else does, I'm sure that Panasonic's implementation of it here is good.
The unit has a fan inside, and most of the time it's off. When it comes on, it spins very slowly and doesn't make audible noise. Well, of course it does... all noise is audible, and all fans make noise - but, the position the unit is in, in the room it's in, relative to my position in the room, and all the stuff that deflects, reflects, and absorbs sound between and around me and it, plus the noise of whatever's being played back, I've never heard it!
When I bought the 820, this measurement wasn't up yet on ASR. I did some reading on Panasonic's website and online in forums and things, trying to glean what the stereo analog output would sound like. From Panasonic's website, I got the impression they had focused on making the sound good. Not as good as the DP-UB9000, but good... They were calling it "High Quality", like their video (which is great), talking about its 32 bit DAC, capable of up to 192kHz, "digital tube sound", "surround re-master" and all this other stuff. On forums, I didn't come across many who actually used the analog outputs, which makes sense - most people now, and even five years ago, used their receiver to connect all their sources to for routing to the TV, and with all the sources being HDMI which carries digital audio along with the video, there's often not much need for analog outs. I think Panasonic was counting on this fact, that 99.8% of people who buy the 820 will never hook an RCA cable to it, when they decided on the parts and design of the analog out path... There's nothing obviously wrong with the way its sounds - there's no hum, it's not clipped, it's not missing everything over 6kHz, the bass is present. But it's not good! It's flat, the stereo image is narrow, the top end seems to lack detail...
I may be being overly critical, though, because the speakers the UB820's analog outs ultimately end up driving are pretty special - and so is their amp... The gauge of the wire between them is NIEN! Probably not, though, because no speaker or amplifier sounds any better than their source... And starting with the UB820's analog out? I wouldn't do it... Not with anything that (collectively) costs more than $150.
Using an external DAC, though? Like Topping's D70 Pro Octo or Sabre? Yes, yes! Definitely do that!
What is the UB820 for? It's for people with projectors who want to have a good HDR experience. Primarily. And people who have Blu-ray collections (1080p and 4k), and want to ensure they can have the ultimate video quality during playback. And people who want to do video processing on Netflix and Prime. TVs these days have largely addressed tone mapping for HDR. Sony and Panasonic have done a good job on their TVs since 2017, and everyone else has since 2019, 2020 at the latest. But just because the job is good, good in the dark might be the only good it can do, and if you want more control, this player might be the best way to do that for under $1000USD
As a music player? If your library can fit on one USB hard drive, and you navigate your library through file folders (I do it), the 820 is good for that. Excellent, actually. Extremely quick, too - likely faster than most other options. But if your library is on Tidal or something.... Nope - not this one! It doesn't have a Tidal app - or any music service app... Yes, and remember, you have to use a DAC!
Just thought I'd add a few paragraphs of my experience here!
Although I haven't heavily used the disc section (I don't have a Blu-ray library lol), at certain points in time it's been my primary playback device for network audio, Netflix, and Prime. It's probably been powered on for 3000-4000 hours, working for 60-70% of them, with disc spinning time somewhere between 100 and 200 hours.
Initially, I bought the thing because I wanted something that could tone-map HDR for my OLED which I got the same month. HDR was pretty new then, and I was unfamiliar with it. It took me a few months to become as familiar as I needed to be, to be comfortable with it - and, knowing what I know now, I would've told myself not to buy the thing, just an Apple TV 4k. Not because it doesn't do an excellent job of things (it does), but because my TV (Sony A8G)'s tone mapping was already so perfect for the panel. In 2019, it wasn't really known how a lot of HDR content was going to be mastered, and I was fearful I'd be seeing a bunch of blown-out stuff >700 nits on my $3k TV, or that stuff in the 200-400 nit range would be scaled down too much for my taste to accommodate the one scene in a movie that peaks at 1700 nits. The 820 definitely allows customization of tone mapping, but, with time, I've noticed I haven't needed it
Most TV and movies seem to be mastered to 1000 nits, and when it's not, the amount of detail missing from my display is small and never for long. My A8G maps 1000 nits down to the panel's maximum brightness of ~750 nits, and largely leaves stuff under 250 nits alone (and 250 nits is a good way into HDR highlights (ie. 99.994% of what's displayed is exactly as bright as a TV able to display all 1000 nits properly, or 4000, or whatever the show/movie is)). HDR content is actually too dim to be watched during the day - WAY too dim! Normal TV, SDR, which is mastered to 100 nits, can be viewed during the day, but typically, when you see it in a room lit by daylight, if it's bright enough to see comfortably, you're not viewing that TV with white at 100 nits - it's more like 300! You can't really do that (increase brightness across the whole range) with HDR content... Well, you can, but you need to do some image processing too - basically, you take everything under 120-150 nits or so and brighten it, leaving the rest alone. My TV (Sony A8G) has a great setting I forget the name of, which allows you to do this, which I use to watch HDR during the day. The UB-820 gives you more control than just the "low" "med" and "high" of the TV, but often times (94 times out of 100), it's just more work to do.
In conclusion, it's a pretty great player. The UI is a little clunky and could be a touch more responsive. I never freezes, but it's like everything takes 50-100ms longer than it should. It's probably something dumb like the IR receiver circuit delay being long. Why do I think this? Because the delay is always the same, no matter if the action is something you'd think takes more processing power, the delay is the same. Oh, another thing it could do better is boot up - it takes a while to boot up. It's not a huge problem, but it's more than 30 seconds. I haven't timed it, but if you told me it took over a minute I'd believe you.
What it does a really great job at is image processing. Noise reduction - random and mosquito - it does an excellent job at, without creating any smearing. Really, it does a great job. After a couple years I stopped using it because I kind of like the film grain look. Cameras are so good today that producers actually add it in post production sometimes.. When it's excessive or starts annoying me I'll remove it, but now I don't see it like a problem to be fixed, until I start perceiving it like a problem to be fixed lol. There's one other type of noise reduction: "Block", sometimes known as "Digital" noise reduction. I've never had or seen a device start doing something when this setting was enabled. Never! And the 820 is no exception. Maybe I've never had content that was blocky in the right way that the filters became active... it's possible! I usually watch good stuff... Anyway, if it's a thing and not just something people put there because everyone else does, I'm sure that Panasonic's implementation of it here is good.
The unit has a fan inside, and most of the time it's off. When it comes on, it spins very slowly and doesn't make audible noise. Well, of course it does... all noise is audible, and all fans make noise - but, the position the unit is in, in the room it's in, relative to my position in the room, and all the stuff that deflects, reflects, and absorbs sound between and around me and it, plus the noise of whatever's being played back, I've never heard it!
When I bought the 820, this measurement wasn't up yet on ASR. I did some reading on Panasonic's website and online in forums and things, trying to glean what the stereo analog output would sound like. From Panasonic's website, I got the impression they had focused on making the sound good. Not as good as the DP-UB9000, but good... They were calling it "High Quality", like their video (which is great), talking about its 32 bit DAC, capable of up to 192kHz, "digital tube sound", "surround re-master" and all this other stuff. On forums, I didn't come across many who actually used the analog outputs, which makes sense - most people now, and even five years ago, used their receiver to connect all their sources to for routing to the TV, and with all the sources being HDMI which carries digital audio along with the video, there's often not much need for analog outs. I think Panasonic was counting on this fact, that 99.8% of people who buy the 820 will never hook an RCA cable to it, when they decided on the parts and design of the analog out path... There's nothing obviously wrong with the way its sounds - there's no hum, it's not clipped, it's not missing everything over 6kHz, the bass is present. But it's not good! It's flat, the stereo image is narrow, the top end seems to lack detail...
I may be being overly critical, though, because the speakers the UB820's analog outs ultimately end up driving are pretty special - and so is their amp... The gauge of the wire between them is NIEN! Probably not, though, because no speaker or amplifier sounds any better than their source... And starting with the UB820's analog out? I wouldn't do it... Not with anything that (collectively) costs more than $150.
Using an external DAC, though? Like Topping's D70 Pro Octo or Sabre? Yes, yes! Definitely do that!
What is the UB820 for? It's for people with projectors who want to have a good HDR experience. Primarily. And people who have Blu-ray collections (1080p and 4k), and want to ensure they can have the ultimate video quality during playback. And people who want to do video processing on Netflix and Prime. TVs these days have largely addressed tone mapping for HDR. Sony and Panasonic have done a good job on their TVs since 2017, and everyone else has since 2019, 2020 at the latest. But just because the job is good, good in the dark might be the only good it can do, and if you want more control, this player might be the best way to do that for under $1000USD
As a music player? If your library can fit on one USB hard drive, and you navigate your library through file folders (I do it), the 820 is good for that. Excellent, actually. Extremely quick, too - likely faster than most other options. But if your library is on Tidal or something.... Nope - not this one! It doesn't have a Tidal app - or any music service app... Yes, and remember, you have to use a DAC!
Just thought I'd add a few paragraphs of my experience here!
I have one as well with the big brother great players. If only they could play all regions!
It might!
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