Panasonic Flagship 4K Blu-ray Player Coming to US? (1 Viewer)

[Robert_Zohn]

Panasonic's UB9000 BD player does an excellent job of converting 4K HDR to FHD so you would enjoy this new BD player on your FHD TV and be ready for your next TV upgrade.

 

[Britton]

Panasonic's UB9000 BD player does an excellent job of converting 4K HDR to FHD so you would enjoy this new BD player on your FHD TV and be ready for your next TV upgrade.

Awesome! Thanks for the response. Would the 820 suffice? I guess I’d have to weigh the extra cost of a 9000 vs being able to apply that $500 towards a future display upgrade (only a matter of time!).

 

[dpippel]

As far as I know, the video sections of the 820 and 9000 are identical.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Maybe I should finally start paying attention here if Panny's upping their game to be a worthwhile successor to Oppo...

Not really ready to jump to 4K yet, but who knows? Just ordered 4K version of Incredibles 2 just because it was like a couple bucks diff (and I have no real use for DVD vs the extra BD disc, especially since it comes w/ UV code) -- did similarly for the Black Panther release, especially since that one seems like it should benefit a lot from 4K HDR... but too bad most Marvel and animated flicks are only upscaled to 4K... Maybe this BF/holiday shopping season might push me to buy enough 4K HDR titles...

Then again, I still never did get 3D glasses despite owning a few 3D BDs (and a 3D-capable display for so long), so...

_Man_

 

[Robert_Zohn]

Let the really big games begin!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Panasonic engineers have confirmed to me personally the UB820 and UB9000 will support Dolby Vision Profile 5 w/low latency protocol. You will love the HDR Optimizer feature, which BTW, is only active with HDR10 content.

Hmmm... so does the UB820 come w/ DV Profile 5 low latency protocol built-in yet?

Also, given that HDR Optimizer restriction for DV encoded content(?), does that mean downconversion of such content to 1080p/SDR will be lower quality than for HDR10 content?

And is the player still fairly sluggish in UI responsiveness? What about startup time? FWIW, I currently use an Oppo 103 -- the startup time is tolerable, not great, and responsiveness is generally adequate. Previous lower end Panny BD players I've owned were generally quite sluggish for streaming apps, but fine for disc playback (though their lasers/optics(?) didn't seem very durable). Hmmm... wonder if the UB820 downconverts better than a Roku Premiere+ for 4K HDR streaming...

And oh, there are no bugs/issues running the downconverted 1080p/SDR signal over regular legacy HDMI cable thru a legacy prepro, right? I use an emotiva UMC200 for my prepro and ask mainly because HDMI doesn't exactly have a stellar history for "easy" compatibility.

I may consider getting one before New Year's if it does all that well, but don't plan on upgrading my very modest BenQ 1080p projector to 4K HDR one for another couple years or more -- and have no desire to downsize to smaller flat panel. I'll also need to continue using my Oppo 103 as 2ndary player in same system since I have a small collection of region-locked BD and DVD imports and SACDs...

Finally, will Value Electronics have plenty of new stock before Christmas?

Thanks for any help on this...

_Man_

 

[Robert_Zohn]

Just got an update from Panasonic with some good news... We're now likely to receive UB820s and possibly even our UB9000s sooner and.... for both series and starting with the Feb. shipment all of our future monthly allocations have been increased. So we can continue to accept reservations for near sold out February delivery and sustain a stable supply to avoid the frustrations we all experienced for the past two months with the shortage of UB820s.

I must tell you among all of my numerous advanced technology bleeding edge Beta testing and product development support that I've been honored to participate in, my relationship with Panasonic is one of the best business experiences I've enjoyed in my career.

 

[Mark Booth]

I'm still in the dark whether I have a chance for a December unit or will have to wait until January. The uncertainty has made me consider ordering a UB820 instead but those are currently like hen's teeth too.

What the hell is wrong with Panasonic? Don't they want to sell these things?

Mark

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

What the hell is wrong with Panasonic? Don't they want to sell these things?

I think they greatly underestimated the demand in the North American market for high-end UHD players.

I've got an UB820 waiting under the Christmas tree for me, and it wasn't easy to get that. The greater Albany area used to have a number of independent consumer electronics retailers that aspired to the kind of service and expertise Value Electronics offers to the lower Hudson Valley. But there are only two left; one has moved heavily toward ultra high end full package custom home theater design, and the other has moved away from targeting the higher end market. The local Best Buy was the only place I could find that would quote me a price for the UB820, and it sold out there before I could buy one. I had the UB820 page on the Best Buy website bookmarked, and checked it 2-3 times daily until they had it back in stock for site-to-store delivery. I think two days after I placed my order, it was sold out again.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

I get Panasonic emails once a week and all they do is to promote rice cookers, shavers, and small appliances. I went to their website and all the blu-ray players were sold out only having a DVD player available to buy.

 

[dpippel]

Looks like Robert is getting some 820s in next week, due to ship in 12/17:

https://www.valueelectronics.com/Panasonic_UB820.php

 

[Mark Booth]

Yippee! I received an email from Robert confirming that I made it into the first allocation of the UB9000. They are going to ship on December 31. It will be a very happy New Year!

Mark

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Just finished setting up my UB820. It was an easy swap from my previous Panasonic Blu-Ray player; just switched out the HDMI cable for a 18Gbps-rated replacement.

As someone who has yet to upgrade to a 4K-capable display, I'm really pleased so far with how the UB820 handles the downconversion. I've seen a lot of discs with HDR appear too bright with HDR turned off. Once I told the player to keep both Dolby Vision and HDR10 turned off, it did a nice job on its own of re-calibrating the color so that the outputted 1080p image is neither too bright nor too dark, and there isn't any obvious black crush or white crush.

The main reason I wanted to upgrade to a UHD player now even though I'm not ready to upgrade to a 4K display is to take advantage of the new transfers being produced for catalog titles on UHD. If every release were like Grease, and the included Blu-Ray copy was produced from the same restoration, it would have been a non-issue. But too often they just throw in a copy of the crappy old Blu-Ray instead of taking the time to do it right.

Paused Hook to post this, and the downscaled UHD transfer is a significant improvement over the old Blu-ray transfer.

 

[Mark Booth]

Just finished setting up my UB820. It was an easy swap from my previous Panasonic Blu-Ray player; just switched out the HDMI cable for a 18Gbps-rated replacement.

As someone who has yet to upgrade to a 4K-capable display, I'm really pleased so far with how the UB820 handles the downconversion. I've seen a lot of discs with HDR appear too bright with HDR turned off. Once I told the player to keep both Dolby Vision and HDR10 turned off, it did a nice job on its own of re-calibrating the color so that the outputted 1080p image is neither too bright nor too dark, and there isn't any obvious black crush or white crush.

The main reason I wanted to upgrade to a UHD player now even though I'm not ready to upgrade to a 4K display is to take advantage of the new transfers being produced for catalog titles on UHD. If every release were like Grease, and the included Blu-Ray copy was produced from the same restoration, it would have been a non-issue. But too often they just throw in a copy of the crappy old Blu-Ray instead of taking the time to do it right.

Paused Hook to post this, and the downscaled UHD transfer is a significant improvement over the old Blu-ray transfer.

We have 4K HDR in our living room. But the projector in the Booth Bijou Garage Theater is still 1080p. I'm looking forward to doing the same thing (with the UB9000), setting the player for non HDR 1080p output but still playing the better quality 4K discs.

I'm waiting to see what CES brings, 2019 might be the year of the 4K HDR projector upgrade in the Booth Bijou.

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

Just paid for my UB9000 from Value Electronics! Robert says it's not expected to ship until January 10 or so (bummer) but at least I made it into the first allocation.

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

The UB9000s should start shipping this week!



I have multiple 4K titles that I've held off watching until the UB9000 arrives. I still haven't seen 'Justice League' or 'Skyscraper' (at all) and I haven't watched my 4K Blu-ray copies of 'The Big Lebowski', 'A Simple Favor', 'Crazy Rich Asians', or 'Predator'.

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

Received an email from Robert today. The UB9000 players are delayed a little bit more. Robert says they are expecting them to arrive on Wednesday (January 16) and they plan to ship them to customers the same day.

I'm sure it will be worth the wait but now I'm concerned the player may arrive when we are gone for several days. Robert says they are being shipped FedEx, I hope it's not FedEx ground. I've not had good luck with FedEx ground.

Mark

 

[Robert_Zohn]

We're shipping all of our 1st allocation Wednesday, January 16th.

@Mark Booth , I'll look after your shipment so let me know your favorite shipping method. We typically ship via Fed Ex home delivery. Double boxed of course!

 

[Mark Booth]

We're shipping all of our 1st allocation Wednesday, January 16th.

@Mark Booth , I'll look after your shipment so let me know your favorite shipping method. We typically ship via Fed Ex home delivery. Double boxed of course!

Robert, Thanks! According to FedEx, their Home delivery service will take up to 7 business days to arrive. If shipped on the 16th that could be a problem for us.

I'd prefer USPS Priority Mail. I'm willing to pay the difference between FedEx Home and USPS Priority Mail. I'll shoot you an email.

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

Yippee! I just received the shipping notice from Value Electronics, my Panasonic UB9000 is scheduled to be delivered on Friday!

I guess they received the players a couple of days earlier than expected! Excellent!

Mark