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

[Mark Booth]

FedEx just informed me that my UB9000 is now scheduled to be delivered on Thursday, not Friday. Sweet!

Mark

 

[Robert_Zohn]

Oops, sorry your order shipped via Fed Ex and we should have used USPO. Glad it worked out for delivery this Thursday.

 

[Mark Booth]

No worries, Robert. You shipped before Wednesday so using FedEx is not a problem (unless they screw it up somehow).

Speaking of which... FedEx has changed its mind. Five hours after the email that said the UB9000 would be delivered on Thursday I received another updated email that said it's coming on Friday.

As long as I don't get one that says it won't be coming until NEXT Wednesday, I'm sure it will be fine.

Mark

 

[Matt Hough]

Looking forward to reading your impressions of the machine after set-up and initial use, Mark.

 

[Mark Booth]

Drat, FedEx sent me (yet another) delivery update which now shows my UB9000 being delivered on Saturday.

We have plans on Saturday and the FedEx delivery requires a signature. Drat!

Give me USPS Priority Mail any day of the week. UPS and FedEx Home seem to care little about being accurate and timely.

Grrrr....

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

Unbelievable, but true... This morning (Friday, January 18), I awoke to find an email in my inbox from FedEx. The subject line said it was a scheduled delivery update for the tracking number that matches my UB9000. Opening the email I see this (tracking number and my address have been redacted):

The email is dated Jan 18, 2018 at 4:58am.

So, I just received an email that my player is going to be delivered yesterday. Damn, this UB9000 is better than I thought, in addition to its myriad of magical silver disc playing features, it can also travel backwards through time.

Clicking the tracking number over to FedEx's site reveals the package is on a FedEx truck for delivery BUT, at the top, it says:

Yeah, I know, it's likely to get delivered today. Not too early, I hope, because we need to be away from the house for a little while this morning.

Mark

 

[dpippel]

Mark, for future reference when dealing with Fedex "Signature Required" deliveries, we always have ours redirected to a local Fedex shipping center. Most of our area Walgreens stores are designated as such, and we have one right on our work commute route, so we can stop on the way home and pick up packages. You can set up the redirected delivery right from the packages tracking page if you're signed in to your Fedex web account. Doing it this way means you never have to worry about being home to sign.

 

[Mark Booth]

We're back home and, thankfully, no delivery attempt was made while we were gone. I called FedEx customer service because their web page still says the delivery is "pending". The CS rep was just as confused as I am. He transferred me to the local station that handles FedEx Home. That person looked at the tracking number and said, "Hmm, that is weird" but then assured me that the package is on a truck for delivery and will be delivered today no later than about 8pm.

We'll see.

Mark

 

[dpippel]

Good luck Mark!

 

[Mark Booth]

Good luck Mark!

Thanks. It's sad that I feel the need for luck when it comes to FedEx Home (and, all too frequently, UPS) deliveries. The best thing Amazon ever did was create its own network of delivery drivers and also using USPS.

My concern is the FedEx tracking shows the package "On FedEx vehicle for delivery" at 4:54am this morning. I've tracked a lot of packages in my day and I've never seen one get loaded on the delivery vehicle that early in the morning.

It's also a concern that the tracking continues to show "Delivery Pending" and also the "No scheduled delivery date available at this time".

I know I'm being a worrywart but I've just had too many issues with FedEx Home. Regular FedEx is fantastic. Their ground service sucks.

Mark

 

[dpippel]

Fedex Home drivers are contract employees AFAIK, which might explain the difference. As for Amazon, I've had a lot of delivery issues with their own drivers in the past, but they've become more reliable over the past year. Amazon drivers are also contract employees, AFAIK. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

At any rate, I hope your player shows up in time for a weekend full of movies!

 

[Mark Booth]

My worrywarting has stopped. The UB9000 was delivered right after I posted my last message. YAY!!!

Robert, I expected to find a invoice in the box. I know you email me a PayPal one but it is dated December 31. I'd prefer to retain the extra few weeks of warranty coverage. Is it possible to get a PDF copy of an invoice dated for date of delivery?

Thanks!

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

This thing is built like a tank! Oh my, this is easily the highest quality disc player I've ever owned. SOLID!

And fast, too. It is quite noticeably faster at loading discs and all functions compared to my Panasonic UB900. Sweet!

So far, I've tried a couple of discs with the player's luminescence set for a middle to high LCD (my Sony TV is about 1250 nits). I watched a bit of Gladiator 4K in both HDR10 and Dolby Vision. The Dolby Vision looked noticeably brighter but in HDR10 with the proper luminescence output set, I could see more detail in bright objects. One example was the candle and torch flames in the camp after the opening scene. In Dolby Vision they are noticeably blown out. I recall them looking a bit blown out with my older UB900 too (which is HDR10 only). But with HDR10 on the UB9000 the flames looked perfect and natural, not excessively bright. But also not too dim or flat either.

I then loaded up Passengers 4K, which is HDR10 only. This is one of the best looking 4K HDR titles I own. It looked great with the UB900 but if I was able to instantly A/B them, I suspect the UB9000 would present an even better image. Stunning!

I very briefly played with the HDR optimizer features. There's a lot of adjustment available there. There are presets but you can also create a custom setting. I need to learn more about these settings and better understand how to adjust them for optimal image quality.

This is likely to be the last disc player I ever buy. I'm debating between selling my UB900 or keeping it as a backup, just in case.

One thing is for sure, the UB9000 just oozes with quality. Expensive, but well worth it, IMHO.

Mark

 

[DaveF]

Are there any reviews or comparos between the flagship UB9000 and upper midrange UB820? I’m thinking about future upgrades and wondering what the features are worth getting in super high end versus high end players.

 

[Mark Booth]

Well, I've got one significant gripe with the UB9000.... If I put a disc in, load it up to the start of the movie, and then put the player in pause, after only 15-20 minutes the player shuts itself off. It won't hold in pause mode. I can't find a setting that allows me to change that behavior. That's VERY disappointing.

My UB900 will hold most discs in pause (right at the start of the movie) for hours.

When we entertain in the Booth Bijou Garage Theater, I queue up the movie on Blu-ray 30 minutes to an hour before our guests arrive. Then I switch over to my HTPC and play some pre-movie slideshows and entrance music. After we are seated for the film I'll switch back to Blu-ray and play the film. For both movies we showed today, the UB9000 went completely into shutdown mode. When I switched to the player it had to load the disc all over again, forcing our guests to see all the menus stuff, film rating, FBI warning, whatever.

If this can't be fixed with a setting change, I'll have to consider keeping the UB900 in the gear stack specifically for the Garage Theater. Boo!

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

I'm very pleased with the performance of the UB9000 and the general feeling of superior quality of construction that it imbues. It is, without a doubt, worth every penny of its sales price.

Except.... for the god awful automatic shut-off after only 20 minutes on pause.

Fortunately (in another forum), Robert has promised to try to convince his contacts at Panasonic that a setting for the automatic shut-off needs to be added to a future firmware update. The ability to set the automatic shut-off to NEVER.

If that happens, it will be as close to perfect as it can be. Fingers crossed.

Mark

 

[Mark Booth]

Yesterday, JVC & Panasonic announced a cooperation to bring custom color profiles to JVC's latest 4K projectors in conjunction with the Panasonic UB9000. The press release:

http://pro.jvc.com/pro/pr/2019/consumer/jvc_panasonic.html

Now I want a JVC NX5 projector for the Booth Bijou Garage Theater.

Mark

 

[YANG]

Are there any reviews or comparos between the flagship UB9000 and upper midrange UB820? ...

The only review I come across so far was a head to head picture review with Oppo205.

 

[Dave Moritz]

Am planning on picking up the Panasonic UB9000 from Value Electronics hopefully this Friday! How does everyone like there UB9000 so far? Just waiting for a grand total with tax and shipping!

Upgrading my Samsung 8500 4K Blu-ray to the Panasonic UB9000!

 

[Tino]

Just waiting for a grand total with tax and shipping!

There is zero tax and shipping if you live outside of NY.