Panasonic DP-UB820EB, DP-UB420EB and DP-UB320EB Owners Thread

Thanks for all the info - yes I can confirm I have the TV Netflix set to Rec 709 and the 420 set to 2020. I finally got close and possibly better than the Netflix picture by adjusting my 420 picture mode to the "Light Environment" mode using the HDR mode (I tried also the SDR mode but obviously did not stick with it). This finally showed the intensity of the blacks and details within the shadows.
Ah, I see now that the lack of detail you've been talking about is due to shadow detail. I was thinking in terms of resolution/sharpness before. Unfortunately some HDR titles can be darker than others and end up crushing detail in the darker regions, this is where the environment settings can be useful but the majority of discs should require no manipulation once you've got it set up correctly.
The Gamma setting is accessible via my OLED (set at 2.3) in Pro 1 HDR mode as normal via the advanced settings.
I'm surprised at this as HDR doesn't use gamma like SDR does. You'd best post in this thread Panasonic FZ series (802 & 952) OLED Owners Thread and ask owners what the correct settings are for HDR content. I believe your issues are related to your TVs settings rather than the 420, and not having any experience with Panasonic TVs i cant help you there.
Any idea on the Netflix Atmos point?
The Panasonic players do not officially support Atmos via Netflix and unfortunately you wont know if it's going to work until you connect it to an Atmos capable receiver.
 
Got to ask do you have "HDMI UHD COLOR" set to on for that input.
Check if HDR bt2020(auto) is set in the player setup.
Can confirm all inputs are set to HDMI UHD COLOUR (on tv) and HDR Colour Gamut output is set to HDR/BT.2020(Auto). Like I said before, 4k Discs play back fine, hdr on the pj kicks in but no hdr on Netflix.
 
Can confirm all inputs are set to HDMI UHD COLOUR (on tv) and HDR Colour Gamut output is set to HDR/BT.2020(Auto). Like I said before, 4k Discs play back fine, hdr on the pj kicks in but no hdr on Netflix.
I checked mine and I believe that you no longer get the "HDR is playing" message come up but if you press the HDR optomizer button and it works then it is outputting correctly.
 
Thanks for checking that but i think I'm being misunderstood. If i use the Netflix app on my samsung tv and choose a hdr series, say Mindhunter, it shows on the summary screen that it's a HDR series(HDR symbol is displayed after the year of the season, rating, etc....) but when I do the same on the UB420 on my JVC x7900 or the same tv, it shows it as 4K ULTRAHD, not HDR. I hope I'm making sense:thumbsdow
 
What audio formats can be played on these players on a mkv file via USB?
Yet to find a player that plays lossless audio via USB
 
Ah, I see now that the lack of detail you've been talking about is due to shadow detail. I was thinking in terms of resolution/sharpness before. Unfortunately some HDR titles can be darker than others and end up crushing detail in the darker regions, this is where the environment settings can be useful but the majority of discs should require no manipulation once you've got it set up correctly.

I'm surprised at this as HDR doesn't use gamma like SDR does. You'd best post in this thread Panasonic FZ series (802 & 952) OLED Owners Thread and ask owners what the correct settings are for HDR content. I believe your issues are related to your TVs settings rather than the 420, and not having any experience with Panasonic TVs i cant help you there.

The Panasonic players do not officially support Atmos via Netflix and unfortunately you wont know if it's going to work until you connect it to an Atmos capable receiver.


Thanks. Actually no actually to be clear, the detail was more than that, the improvement from the Xbox to 420 was more about depth, clarity and punchiness. And that was a similar issue I found challenging when getting the 420 close to the Netflix image.

Moreover, I did find the 420 Standard and Natural setting not sufficient for detail compared to the Light Environment. Also, I had to adjust the "Dynamic Range Adjustment" on "Light Environment" from the default 8 to 9/10, useful to know Mode/Setting you or others use?

Overall, I suppose my point is that while the player can be adjusted to the same immersive picture as Netflix, it is strange that even with the same settings I mentioned using my TV's standard locked settings, it takes some effort to recreate. Using Pro 1 while being similar, the difference was the HDR was on but Netflix isn't broadcasting SDR so how that quality is obtained must be due to may be the broadcast quality. Given not all 4K discs are much superior to Bluray, it does seem that at times it is far less hassle streaming from a good TV service like Netflix than playing the disc (even if you own one).

From what you have helpfully noted, your TV does not allow the gamma settings to be adjusted when displaying a HDR image. Interesting...
 
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Has anyone tried connecting one of these to an Arcam AVR550 and had any success?

If I plug the device direct into my projector (picture only) or a TV (picture and sound) everything works fine, connect via the ARCam and I get nothing, no picture no sound. I've tried several ports on the Arcam and its the same story.

All new 18Gbps HDMI cables, latest firmware, done the factory reset, tried video by the HDMI video port and audio by the audio hdmi port no joy, secondary BD thingy turned off

Info never shows any audio on the HDMI channel, and I've only ever seen PCM stereo being reporting on the HDMI video port.

Really only looking to output 1080p to my PJ (soon be time for an upgrade) and Atmos to the Arcam. Anyone out there got any thoughts on this that don't involve a huge hammer? :mad:


*** Update ***

not sure what I did but its working and "Ready Player One" sounds sweet :thumbsup:
 
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I have just picked up the 820.Not sure if this has been asked before,please forgive if so.Do I choose 10 or 12bit output for my oled tv?
Cheers.
 
I have just picked up the 820.Not sure if this has been asked before,please forgive if so.Do I choose 10 or 12bit output for my oled tv?
Cheers.
Let the player and TV choose for themselves i.e. use auto. Only bother changing that if you see anything iffy in the picture you get. For my LG Oled TV they choose 12 bit @4:4:4 and the picture is fine.
 
Bought this off eBay as an unwanted gift for a silly price. It’s works seamlessly and beautifully with my Epson 9400 Projector. Ordered the SM calibration disc off amazon and looking forward to calibrating the setup.
Also note that my player is completely silent. Notice it takes a lot longer to boot up than my UB400.
 
I have my 420 connected to a Denon 4400, can anyone tell me whether I can get Atmos on Netflix and if so, how?
TIA
 
I have my 420 connected to a Denon 4400, can anyone tell me whether I can get Atmos on Netflix and if so, how?
TIA
I'm getting Atmos from Netflix with my Marantz 7010 which is basically the same AVR as your Denon.
 
I have my 420 connected to a Denon 4400, can anyone tell me whether I can get Atmos on Netflix and if so, how?
TIA

I use a 4500h with my 420 and get atmos via Netflix fine. No special settings just have the 4k package in Netflix and ensure that the amp is configured correctly for atmos.
 
Thinking of retiring my Oppo BDP83 , which as served me well for over 10 years , The UB820 will be my first port of call for a replacement , As I'm an expat in Canada I have a ton of UK DVD's and Blue Rays , The Oppo 83 played every one of them with ease , will the 820 play all of my back catalogue ? If not I could just keep the Oppo and use the 820 for UHD stuff , But I'd really like a one box solution , plus I'm running out of HDMI ports on my sound bar.
 
Thinking of retiring my Oppo BDP83 , which as served me well for over 10 years , The UB820 will be my first port of call for a replacement , As I'm an expat in Canada I have a ton of UK DVD's and Blue Rays , The Oppo 83 played every one of them with ease , will the 820 play all of my back catalogue ? If not I could just keep the Oppo and use the 820 for UHD stuff , But I'd really like a one box solution , plus I'm running out of HDMI ports on my sound bar.
UB820 can be easily made multi region for DVD via a remote hack. It cannot be made multi region for blu-ray (except via a firmware hack which can be hard to get.). Obviously not a problem if you get a UK/Euro UB820 but would be a problem if buying a US/Canadian UB820.
 
UB820 can be easily made multi region for DVD via a remote hack. It cannot be made multi region for blu-ray (except via a firmware hack which can be hard to get.). Obviously not a problem if you get a UK/Euro UB820 but would be a problem if buying a US/Canadian UB820.


Thanks !
Trouble is I have variety of Blu Ray discs , some bought in the UK and some bought here in Canada , Might have to keep the Oppo , But it's going to be a pain choosing which player I play a specific disc on ?
Should I consider another player ? Maybe one that's more flexible which discs it wants to play .
 
Thanks !
Trouble is I have variety of Blu Ray discs , some bought in the UK and some bought here in Canada , Might have to keep the Oppo , But it's going to be a pain choosing which player I play a specific disc on ?
Should I consider another player ? Maybe one that's more flexible which discs it wants to play .
You can buy multiregion Sony UHD players in the UK. May be the same situation in Canada.
If lack of ports is the main issue just get a HDMI switch box.
 
I wonder if I could ask the learned contributors to this thread for some advice/suggestions regarding the playback of Dolby Vision encoded blu-ray discs on my UB820 player please? I’m not sure if I’m missing something fundamental, or have my set-up incorrect somewhere, but my initial experiences watching a 4K blu-ray with Dolby Vision encoding has left me decidedly underwhelmed. I apologise for the length of this post in advance.

My UB820 player is connected to my Panasonic TX-50GX800B TV via an 18Gbit Amazon Basics cable to port HDMI3 on the TV. HDMI audio from the player is connected to my Yamaha YSP4100 sounder. When I installed the player it went through an auto-setup routine and detected my TV using VieraLink, and post-setup, all I had to do was to change the TV System Type from NTSC to PAL. Firmware is version 1.60, and I have applied the multi region DVD hack using a remote that I bought on eBay.

The current relevant 820 settings are as follows:

Video Format: Automatic
4K (50p/60p) Output: 4K (50p/60p) 4:4:4
24p Output: Automatic
HDMI (Video) Output Mode: Automatic
HDMI (Audio) Output Mode: Audio only
Dolby Vision Setting: On
HDR10+ Setting: On
Colour Mode: YcbCr (Automatic)
Deep Colour Output: Auto (12bit priority)
HDR/Colour Gamut Output: HDR/BT.2020 (Auto)
SDR/HDR Cons. (Network Service): On
HLG/PQ Conversion: Off
HDR TV Type: Middle or High Luminance …
HDCP Output Setting: Automatic
Contents Type Flag: Automatic
Audio Output: On
7.1 Auto Reformatting: Automatic
System TV Settings —> TV System: PAL

Not having any 4K BRs I bought a copy of the the film The Hitman’s Bodyguard (very entertaining, BTW), which has both HD and 4K BR discs. When my wife and I watched the film a couple of weeks ago we noted that Dolby Vision was detected, and using the TV’s default Dolby Vision Bright settings watched the film. Picture quality was appalling, with colours simply wrong. London buses looked crimson, rather than red, and Ryan Reynold’s face often looked orange in colour, rather than flesh-toned. As we were both new to the TV and the player, I decided to get more familiar with the kit before revisiting the issue. Having done so, I’m still none the wiser and remain totally unimpressed with what I’m seeing from media (accepting that I only have one 4K DV disc at present!).

Before checking out the 4K disc again, I watched the first 10 minutes or so of the HD disc in order to see how that looked by way of reference. The TV automatically selected the Cinema Viewing Mode, and overall, it was quite acceptable. I did turn-off picture processing options like Noise Reduction, Resolution Remaster, etc., but in any event they were all set to Min, as I recall. Then, using the 4K version of the disc I was confronted with the same over-saturated image as I saw the first time that I watched it. Switching to Dolby Vision Dark tamed things slightly, as did changing the Colour Temperature from Warm2 to Normal, but whatever I did the picture remained pretty much unwatchable and artificial. Then, as an experiment, I disabled Dolby Vision in the player and watched again. This time, much more acceptable, although the picture still didn’t look 100% right in certain scenes, such as the London skyline, using the TV’s HDR Cinema setting, things like flesh tones and the colour of the London buses looked pretty near normal. That result makes no sense to me. I thought that Dolby Vision was a superior solution to HDR. Now, it could be the disc, of course. Both the HD and 4K versions seem to have a bit of a blue tint when watched, at least to my eye.

What I find more confusing is that a couple of days ago we watched Breaking Bad: El Camino on Netflix, which is presented in Dolby Vision. Using the same Dolby Vision Bright settings as I’d used above, the picture looked pretty good, perhaps just a little oversaturated perhaps in places, but nothing to complain about. Now, I do appreciate that 4K streamed content suffers limitations compared to media, but had I got the same picture quality from watching the 4K disc as I had watching El Camino I would have been quite happy.

On the HDR front, we recently watched the third series of Goliath on Amazon Video, which is presented in 4K HDR. That looked absolutely fine. I can’t make out why media-based Dolby Vision, admittedly based on just one disc, looks rubbish. Am I expecting too much from the TV and player? Is it just this disc? Are there settings that I can adjust to improve things? Am I expecting too much from Dolby Vision enabled media? Is my TV just not really up to the job? Any thoughts or suggestions really would be appreciated. I don’t think that I have a faulty player. It’s a possibility of course, but it’s an odd fault if that is the case. Right now, HDR-based viewing for media seems to be a better bet.

One observation regarding the 820 settings. During my testing, I disabled the Dolby Vision setting without putting the player into standby afterwards. When I then tried to watch the 4K disc I got menus and audio, but no picture. My guess, and it’s only a guess, is that the settings are static and only loaded when the player is powered-up from standby.

TIA, Cheers, Clem
 
I wonder if I could ask the learned contributors to this thread for some advice/suggestions regarding the playback of Dolby Vision encoded blu-ray discs on my UB820 player please? I’m not sure if I’m missing something fundamental, or have my set-up incorrect somewhere, but my initial experiences watching a 4K blu-ray with Dolby Vision encoding has left me decidedly underwhelmed. I apologise for the length of this post in advance.

My UB820 player is connected to my Panasonic TX-50GX800B TV via an 18Gbit Amazon Basics cable to port HDMI3 on the TV. HDMI audio from the player is connected to my Yamaha YSP4100 sounder. When I installed the player it went through an auto-setup routine and detected my TV using VieraLink, and post-setup, all I had to do was to change the TV System Type from NTSC to PAL. Firmware is version 1.60, and I have applied the multi region DVD hack using a remote that I bought on eBay.

The current relevant 820 settings are as follows:

Video Format: Automatic
4K (50p/60p) Output: 4K (50p/60p) 4:4:4
24p Output: Automatic
HDMI (Video) Output Mode: Automatic
HDMI (Audio) Output Mode: Audio only
Dolby Vision Setting: On
HDR10+ Setting: On
Colour Mode: YcbCr (Automatic)
Deep Colour Output: Auto (12bit priority)
HDR/Colour Gamut Output: HDR/BT.2020 (Auto)
SDR/HDR Cons. (Network Service): On
HLG/PQ Conversion: Off
HDR TV Type: Middle or High Luminance …
HDCP Output Setting: Automatic
Contents Type Flag: Automatic
Audio Output: On
7.1 Auto Reformatting: Automatic
System TV Settings —> TV System: PAL

Not having any 4K BRs I bought a copy of the the film The Hitman’s Bodyguard (very entertaining, BTW), which has both HD and 4K BR discs. When my wife and I watched the film a couple of weeks ago we noted that Dolby Vision was detected, and using the TV’s default Dolby Vision Bright settings watched the film. Picture quality was appalling, with colours simply wrong. London buses looked crimson, rather than red, and Ryan Reynold’s face often looked orange in colour, rather than flesh-toned. As we were both new to the TV and the player, I decided to get more familiar with the kit before revisiting the issue. Having done so, I’m still none the wiser and remain totally unimpressed with what I’m seeing from media (accepting that I only have one 4K DV disc at present!).

Before checking out the 4K disc again, I watched the first 10 minutes or so of the HD disc in order to see how that looked by way of reference. The TV automatically selected the Cinema Viewing Mode, and overall, it was quite acceptable. I did turn-off picture processing options like Noise Reduction, Resolution Remaster, etc., but in any event they were all set to Min, as I recall. Then, using the 4K version of the disc I was confronted with the same over-saturated image as I saw the first time that I watched it. Switching to Dolby Vision Dark tamed things slightly, as did changing the Colour Temperature from Warm2 to Normal, but whatever I did the picture remained pretty much unwatchable and artificial. Then, as an experiment, I disabled Dolby Vision in the player and watched again. This time, much more acceptable, although the picture still didn’t look 100% right in certain scenes, such as the London skyline, using the TV’s HDR Cinema setting, things like flesh tones and the colour of the London buses looked pretty near normal. That result makes no sense to me. I thought that Dolby Vision was a superior solution to HDR. Now, it could be the disc, of course. Both the HD and 4K versions seem to have a bit of a blue tint when watched, at least to my eye.

What I find more confusing is that a couple of days ago we watched Breaking Bad: El Camino on Netflix, which is presented in Dolby Vision. Using the same Dolby Vision Bright settings as I’d used above, the picture looked pretty good, perhaps just a little oversaturated perhaps in places, but nothing to complain about. Now, I do appreciate that 4K streamed content suffers limitations compared to media, but had I got the same picture quality from watching the 4K disc as I had watching El Camino I would have been quite happy.

On the HDR front, we recently watched the third series of Goliath on Amazon Video, which is presented in 4K HDR. That looked absolutely fine. I can’t make out why media-based Dolby Vision, admittedly based on just one disc, looks rubbish. Am I expecting too much from the TV and player? Is it just this disc? Are there settings that I can adjust to improve things? Am I expecting too much from Dolby Vision enabled media? Is my TV just not really up to the job? Any thoughts or suggestions really would be appreciated. I don’t think that I have a faulty player. It’s a possibility of course, but it’s an odd fault if that is the case. Right now, HDR-based viewing for media seems to be a better bet.

One observation regarding the 820 settings. During my testing, I disabled the Dolby Vision setting without putting the player into standby afterwards. When I then tried to watch the 4K disc I got menus and audio, but no picture. My guess, and it’s only a guess, is that the settings are static and only loaded when the player is powered-up from standby.

TIA, Cheers, Clem
First off I'd suggest you get another DV disc. This one in fact as it is both cheap and should look very good in DV
Earth - One Amazing Day UHD [Blu-ray] [2018]: Amazon.co.uk: Richard Dale, Peter Webber, Fan Lixin, Robert Redford, Richard McDonogh: DVD & Blu-ray

Although I don't have it myself, it does use footage from Planet Earth II and Blue Planet II both of which are reference as regards PQ imo. If this one doesn't look good in DV you've got a problem
Earth: One Amazing Day 4K Blu-ray Release Date January 23, 2018

From what you've said I think it sounds more like a TV calibration issue than a player issue. I've got Hitman's Bodyguard UHD and although it's a while since I played it I don't recall it looking bad in Dolby Vision on my UB820 and LG Oled.
 
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@doug56hl: Thanks for the reply. I thought TV too, but that doesn't (or perhaps it does) explain why Netflix content in DV looks fine using exactly the same picture settings. Another disc is clearly needed, as you suggest. SWMBO isn't really into nature stuff though, so I need to find something that she can watch whilst I tweak, but I have added the disc to my Amazon wish list. The TV's HDR picture settings seem to share many of the settings from DV, but I suppose that it's possible that the TV is processing DV and HDR content differently. I'm a bit out of my comfort zone with this 4K stuff. Some of it I understand, I think, but all I really want to do is to actually watch something without having to reach for a remote to change a setting somewhere. Life's too short, especially at my age!

Clem
 
@doug56hl: Thanks for the reply. I thought TV too, but that doesn't (or perhaps it does) explain why Netflix content in DV looks fine using exactly the same picture settings. Another disc is clearly needed, as you suggest. SWMBO isn't really into nature stuff though, so I need to find something that she can watch whilst I tweak, but I have added the disc to my Amazon wish list. The TV's HDR picture settings seem to share many of the settings from DV, but I suppose that it's possible that the TV is processing DV and HDR content differently. I'm a bit out of my comfort zone with this 4K stuff. Some of it I understand, I think, but all I really want to do is to actually watch something without having to reach for a remote to change a setting somewhere. Life's too short, especially at my age!

Clem
If anything like my LG, your TV may store picture settings seperately for each HDMI port and internal apps. So there could be a difference between them. What does the Netflix DV content look like from the player? Not sure from what you said if you were using the player app or the TV app.

DV and HDR10 is processed differently as DV is source to display controlled by Dolby (hence why the player picture adjustment controls are locked out in DV). Both DV and HDR10 are calibrated seperately (as is SDR content). So there wil be 3 sets minimum of calibration settings in the TV.
 
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@doug56hl: I’m using Netflix via the TV’s app, rather than the player. As for settings, yes, I’m aware of potential differences between inputs/sources, but I checked Netflix DV settings and made a note of them before my testing, and the settings appear to be the same when playing a BR. Annoyingly, on the Panasonic TV it’s only possible to access settings for things like DV and HDR once it’s detected it, which is a bit of a PITA. Other Panasonic users have commented on the stupidly bright DV levels elsewhere on AVF. It’s not just brightness though, it’s saturation, at least, that what it seems to me to be. As you suggested above, another 4K disc is needed, but I’m convinced that I’ll see that much of a difference. I did try the HD version of Dredd, and the first time that I watched it it looked way too saturated, but this time, I used the default TV Cinema setting and it looked better. Again, not the best material to try. Given that the player has no colour controls per se, it can only be the TV I suppose. By comparison, an R2 and R3 DVD that I briefly tried seemed fine. All very confusing ...

Clem
 
I’m using Netflix via the TV’s app, rather than the player. As for settings, yes, I’m aware of potential differences between inputs/sources, but I checked Netflix DV settings and made a note of them before my testing, and the settings appear to be the same when playing a BR.
Try watching something in DV through the players Netflix app. That way the signal is following the exact same path (cable/port/processing) to your display as discs, how does that compare?
 

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