Can Anyone Tell Me If My UB9000 Is On Its Way Out, Or If This Is Faulty Software (Discs)? (1 Viewer)

[Kaskade1309]

Honestly, I'm not that surprised at all anymore at a Panasonic player failing prematurely, even one that costs $1K and would otherwise seemed built like a tank (as far as such goes). Stuff like that does happen

Why though? Why should stuff like this happen with FLAGSHIP products? Isn't that WHY we pay extra for these kinds of units? At least partly why we do (outside of getting audiophile touches some look for such as SACD/DVD-A support, XLR outputs, etc.)?

Are you saying that it doesn't surprise you that a PANASONIC product in particular would fail, regardless of price?

... although the tray noise thing starting/happening several months into ownership does seem unusual, especially for a $1K player.

Thank you for acknowledging this (which I couldn't get anyone to up until now); from what my research into this indicated, many owners were experiencing a "scratchy" sound when the drawer moved in and out, and I too experienced this from the beginning (the tray was never silky smooth in movement, save for when it opened most of the time, which surprised me the most out of a unit of this caliber).

I simply don't understand why the marketing mechanicals for the UB9000 suggest the disc drive is "cradled" in some kind of contraption that virtually guarantees no vibrations or noise from the area, yet I have experienced nothing but noise when discs go into the machine and/or load.

Anyhoo, you probably just need to let that go by this point, if nothing else... and just move on... so you can get back to enjoying this "hobby" and not become/stay needlessly obsessed about this apparently overly long-running, negative experience and disappointment...

I understand what you're saying, but I was merely responding to the individual who replied before you who accused me of something that wasn't true; initially, I started this thread out of sheer frustration over having to send back two copies of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre because they wouldn't play in my unit (and Poltergeist before that, during last Halloween season), which got me wondering whether this is a player or disc issue. The other issues continue to plague my unit (noisy 4K disc loading sessions, the cogging/vibration noise when the drawer closes, et al), but to address your statement above directly, I was responding to something that was said to me in a previous post.

IF I were you, I'd just get a fairly inexpensive, easily replaceable, but otherwise excellent-at-actual-playback, player just for the HT/video side and use your old Cambridge Audio for whatever higher quality audio playback (and/or maybe other region BDs if it's actually capable just like the Oppos?)... or just use that for everything, if there are no issues w/ that at all...

I'm not going to go to an all-plastic deck because of these issues; I refuse to believe that the $199 players would behave in a more premium fashion than the aluminum-coated ones, but I do understand the penchant for wanting to suggest this to me.

As for the Cambridge, it too actually has an issue that I had trouble dealing with, which is how I ended up with the Panasonic -- after a few months of ownership, the Cambridge began to exhibit a noise near the disc drive area only when playing DVD media, nothing else (I describe it as a "ticking" sound that was quite audible from 12 feet away). The player was still under warranty, so it was sent back three times to the repair center, which couldn't duplicate the problem nor fix it, even after installing a new loader.

It's getting to the point, though, that I'd rather just deal with the noise from the CXUHD (Cambridge) than what the Panny is putting me through.

As they do say, "no use crying over spilled milk" over and over again afterall...




_Man_

Look at everything I've gone through with these players, the UB9000 in particular -- if anyone has a justification for crying over spilled milk, it's me, wouldn't you reckon? Further, I'm in a dilemma because I don't know if I want to get this unit serviced or if I want to get rid of it and start over with another UB9000 (so I'd have features like the HDR Optimizer and the external build element) to see what would happen -- or, if I just want to put this thing back in its box and use the Cambridge for all service.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Dude, you're probably missing the real, most salient point... Just let it go... really, for your own sake and sanity... It's not worth rehashing over and over (and yet, over) again... as it's probably aggravating, embittering, etc... making you no fun at parties, LOL...

Anyhoo, either way, I'm out and ignoring any further rehashing of this -- and I'm just gonna go take a shower after leaving these threads of yours, LOL... J/K (about the "shower")... sorta (as I do actually want/need a shower before heading out for the evening), LOL...

_Man_

 

[Kaskade1309]

Dude, you're probably missing the real, most salient point... Just let it go... really, for your own sake and sanity... It's not worth rehashing over and over (and yet, over) again... as it's probably aggravating, embittering, etc... making you no fun at parties, LOL...

Anyhoo, either way, I'm out and ignoring any further rehashing of this -- and I'm just gonna go take a shower after leaving these threads of yours, LOL... J/K (about the "shower")... sorta (as I do actually want/need a shower before heading out for the evening), LOL...

_Man_

I JUST finished explaining how I was merely responding to the individual who posted before you, and went out of my way to better flesh out why I'm not sure if putting my CXUHD back into service is the best move, and this is the reply in return?

SMFH....

Okay.

 

[DaveF]

Thrown onto porch, not double-boxed. Your words, not mine.

Doesn't sound like a good start for a $1000 player to survive past warranty.

This is something I think we all struggle with in our excitement for a new toy: if a product is delivered in dubious condition, refuse it or return and replace it immediately. Too many stories here in the forum that have this fundamental "if only there was a do-over" they'd have not have accepted an expensive, delicate product as delivered.

 

[Kaskade1309]

Thrown onto porch, not double-boxed. Your words, not mine.

Right. But I never claimed that was the precise, 100-percent reason that it's not functioning. I can't be WHOLLY certain that it was thrown onto the porch; I'm assuming it wasn't placed gently, but I could be wrong.

Doesn't sound like a good start for a $1000 player to survive past warranty.

But the big coincidence here is that the issues began almost to the DAY the warranty ran out.

This is something I think we all struggle with in our excitement for a new toy: if a product is delivered in dubious condition, refuse it or return and replace it immediately. Too many stories here in the forum that have this fundamental "if only there was a do-over" they'd have not have accepted an expensive, delicate product as delivered.

Fair enough....but here's an update about the unit since we last spoke:

Threw in the 4K UHD disc of Evil Dead Rise over the weekend and made an interesting observation (my third copy of Texas Chain Saw Massacre hasn't gotten here from Second Sight in the UK yet, so I can't comment on whether that disc will play in the unit or not).

At some point about halfway through the film, the same thing happened as what occurred with the Dark Sky Texas Chain Saw release -- the image began to break up into pixelated color distortion before freezing/stuttering, followed by the Atmos (TrueHD on my system) audio track dropping out and eventually going out of sync. This was RIGHT AFTER I did a laser lens cleaning using my go-to Maxell brushless lens cleaning disc, so it was frustrating. This title (Evil Dead Rise) had NEVER done this in the past, so I knew this wasn't the disc. I stopped playback and ejected the tray, then re-loaded the disc and started playing it from where I had just left off; in a couple of minutes, the exact same thing happened with the picture. I stopped playback again, ejected the tray and re-loaded once more -- same thing after a couple of minutes.

I decided to re-load it yet another time, and in this instance, I detected that the sound of the tray closing was a bit different -- it exhibited that rough "cogging bump," as always, but it was almost as if the tray was "seated" differently. Lo and behold, when I went to play the disc again after that, it DID NOT break up/pixelate nor did it exhibit audio dropouts. This proved to me that there is DEFINITELY a connection between the drawer closing noise I've been hearing all this time and the way discs are being read once they're sucked into the player (however, this doesn't occur with DVD and only happened once, briefly, with a Blu-ray).

At any rate, I looked into sending it in for service because it seems like this is something related to the way the drawer is being shut and "seated" once in; something must be out of alignment. Not sure if they can fix this, but I'm starting the process of opening a ticket with Panasonic.

I'm also beginning to wonder if the laser lens cleaning disc I've been using is doing something to throw the balance of the loader or laser reader off, and if this is the case, I'll stop using it.