Reavon UBR-X200 4K UHD Universal Disc Player (1 Viewer)

[DavidJ]

I'm not sure what percentage of BD discs the stock 9000 can play via the top Menu trick, but it is a pretty high percentage of Region Locked discs. I've never actually found the information (or forgotten if I did) if the Top Menu works for DVDs.

OTOH, I think for $400-500 I'd rather have a region free Bluray player instead of mucking around with teh 4K player.
So far I've not tested a Locked Bluray disc in my new 820 that it wouldn't play, but I haven't really used it much for those discs yet -- it's sitting on top of my Oppo 103D which I bought used for less than $350 so not really much reason to honestly

Top menu trick?

 

[Mark Booth]

The most important question (for me): Can you completely turn off the stinking auto shutoff feature? Can I let a paused disc sit in the player for hours without issue?

Mark

 

[Bryan^H]

Auto power off is optional. off, 15 minutes, 30 minutes.

 

[Kaskade1309]

The most important question (for me): Can you completely turn off the stinking auto shutoff feature? Can I let a paused disc sit in the player for hours without issue?

Mark

LOL -- I remember you voicing your opinion about the Panasonics' stupid auto-off feature, Mark, here and on other forums, which I totally agreed with. They STILL haven't made a firmware update available to fix this on the UB9000, at least.

You have explained why you need a feature like this to be off (because you leave a disc paused for hours), but I still don't understand why you'd keep a film paused that long -- it can't be good for the player in the long run, and you could probably press stop and then pick up where you left off by accessing the menu; I think this would be better than leaving the unit paused for HOURS.

That being said, it still doesn't address this dumb feature that Panasonic never revised, at least for their North American premium models, so I'm with you on that.

From what I have been told, the Reavons WILL allow you to shut off the energy saving feature(s), like the Oppos did.

 

[Martin Dew]

Yes, default on the Reavon players is no shut off unless 15 or 30 minutes is specified in the menu.

I also loathe the auto shut off on the Panasonics. Might seem trivial but when I have friends round for a movie night, I like to have the movie set up and paused just before the studio logo, and not subject my audience to disc loads, 16:9 menus and FBI warnings.

Another reason I bought a Reavon!

 

[Mark Booth]

I should have said, "Keep playback paused for AT LEAST 40 minutes." When we show movies in the Booth Bijou Garage Theater, we always take a comfort break about halfway through the film. It is VERY common that these breaks last longer than 20 minutes. 40 minutes would be enough.

But there shouldn't be ANY forced timer if I don't want the feature at all. Just let me turn the damn thing off, Panasonic.

I won't be buying a Reavon. For one, we haven't hosted a Booth Bijou event in more than 2 years. I don't foresee doing it again in the near future. Second, when I want to watch a film, I lazily choose one from apps on my Apple TV 4K vs. grabbing a disc and sticking it in the player. I've only purchased 7 films on Blu-ray in the last year and 5 of those were upgrades of existing titles to 4K. That's only 2 new films purchased on Blu-ray in a year. The rest I just watch via digital streaming.

Mark

 

[Kaskade1309]

Yes, default on the Reavon players is no shut off unless 15 or 30 minutes is specified in the menu.

I also loathe the auto shut off on the Panasonics. Might seem trivial but when I have friends round for a movie night, I like to have the movie set up and paused just before the studio logo, and not subject my audience to disc loads, 16:9 menus and FBI warnings.

Another reason I bought a Reavon!

From what I understand, the Panasonic auto power off feature was based upon an energy mandate for their sales in Europe; the UB9000, in particular, wasn't supposed to come to America initially, but when it finally did, Panasonic never issued an update for North American units, which was stupid. There should have been a firmware implementation so that a new menu selection could have turned this energy savings on or off manually.

SO many owners have complained about this since the model's launch (and when the 820 came out, as well -- perhaps even with the original UB900, too) in forums like this, and petitions have even been sent to Panny, but they REFUSE to address it.

If the Reavons would have been available when we were looking to replace our Cambridge CXUHD (because of an annoying noise the unit developed when only playing DVD media and which the repair center could never fix under warranty, even after having sent it out three times), I would have bought one (probably the more affordable 100 model) instead of the UB9000. Unfortunately, the 9000 was the only premium all-metal deck available at the time after Oppo closed shop and the Pioneers were no longer being offered.

 

[Kaskade1309]

I should have said, "Keep playback paused for AT LEAST 40 minutes." When we show movies in the Booth Bijou Garage Theater, we always take a comfort break about halfway through the film. It is VERY common that these breaks last longer than 20 minutes. 40 minutes would be enough.

But there shouldn't be ANY forced timer if I don't want the feature at all. Just let me turn the damn thing off, Panasonic.

I won't be buying a Reavon. For one, we haven't hosted a Booth Bijou event in more than 2 years. I don't foresee doing it again in the near future. Second, when I want to watch a film, I lazily choose one from apps on my Apple TV 4K vs. grabbing a disc and sticking it in the player. I've only purchased 7 films on Blu-ray in the last year and 5 of those were upgrades of existing titles to 4K. That's only 2 new films purchased on Blu-ray in a year. The rest I just watch via digital streaming.

Mark

To be honest, I wouldn't keep a player paused for 40 minutes, either -- it CAN'T be good for the laser...

 

[Mark Booth]

To be honest, I wouldn't keep a player paused for 40 minutes, either -- it CAN'T be good for the laser...

Hmmm, let's see.. When you play a 2 hour movie the laser is reflecting off of a shiny disc for 2 hours. When you pause the player for 40 minutes, the laser is reflecting off of a shiny disc for 40 minutes.

I fail to understand how one would be okay and the other is supposedly bad for the laser.

Mark

 

[Kaskade1309]

Hmmm, let's see.. When you play a 2 hour movie the laser is reflecting off of a shiny disc for 2 hours. When you pause the player for 40 minutes, the laser is reflecting off of a shiny disc for 40 minutes.

I fail to understand how one would be okay and the other is supposedly bad for the laser.

Mark

Well, someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think the playing and pausing are the same when it comes to the laser -- just seems to me that leaving it on a static pause for that long couldn't be good for the internals as opposed to just letting a disc spin.

I could be off here, but perhaps someone can confirm this -- I myself wouldn't leave a disc paused for that long, I'll tell you that.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Well, someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think the playing and pausing are the same when it comes to the laser -- just seems to me that leaving it on a static pause for that long couldn't be good for the internals as opposed to just letting a disc spin.

I could be off here, but perhaps someone can confirm this -- I myself wouldn't leave a disc paused for that long, I'll tell you that.

No idea about the mechanics side of such, but lasers do have limited lifespans AFAIK, so I wouldn't generally want to have the laser running on idle for very long on a regular basis as that could significantly shorten its lifespan me thinks...

Once in a while (like maybe once a week or month or so) should likely be fine, but it's something done almost everytime you use the player and done on an almost daily basis, I'd think accumulated shortening of lifespan would add up...

Then again, maybe the player actually (smartly) turns off the laser while in pause mode. In that case, probably no real issue w/ that...

_Man_

 

[Mark Booth]

When the Booth Bijou Garage Theater is operating (it's been on hiatus during the pandemic), we only host movie nights about twice a month. And that is the only time I need to pause the player longer than 20 minutes. So, I'm not worried about wearing out the player.

The bigger issue is this: CHOICE. Panasonic should give the customer a CHOICE. It is VERY poor customer service to not provide the choice to turn off the stupid auto shut-off.

Nobody is telling any of you that you have to use the feature. I just want the darn option to turn off the auto shut-off.

I am DONE with Panasonic. I will never purchase a Panasonic brand product again.

Mark

 

[Kaskade1309]

When the Booth Bijou Garage Theater is operating (it's been on hiatus during the pandemic), we only host movie nights about twice a month. And that is the only time I need to pause the player longer than 20 minutes. So, I'm not worried about wearing out the player.

The bigger issue is this: CHOICE. Panasonic should give the customer a CHOICE. It is VERY poor customer service to not provide the choice to turn off the stupid auto shut-off.

Nobody is telling any of you that you have to use the feature. I just want the darn option to turn off the auto shut-off.

I am DONE with Panasonic. I will never purchase a Panasonic brand product again.

Mark

Mark,

I think you have some undue frustration here, or at least with regard to who you're directing it towards -- I was only trying to help by suggesting you may not want to leave the player paused for so long.

I am, otherwise, in COMPLETE AND UTTER agreement with you about this stupid feature -- if you have seen any of my posts here and on other forums, I have been one of the loudest voices behind attempting to get Panasonic to address this in a firmware update.

When you say "nobody is telling any of you that you have to use the feature," I'm not quite sure what you mean -- we kind of have no choice but to use it, as after 20 minutes the unit will shut itself off...

 

[Vegas 1]

For those interested in the Reavon X200, Secrets of Home Theater has a comprehensive review of the player just posted today.

 

[Kaskade1309]

Deleted

 

[YANG]

Well, someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think the playing and pausing are the same when it comes to the laser -- just seems to me that leaving it on a static pause for that long couldn't be good for the internals as opposed to just letting a disc spin.

I could be off here, but perhaps someone can confirm this -- I myself wouldn't leave a disc paused for that long, I'll tell you that.

in some cases... leaving a disc to keep spinning in a drive after the movie ends and falls back into the animated menu... the machine could kill a disc.
this happened some years ago when i forgotten to remove a hard to obtain movie disc from a LG DVD recorder after playing the movie...

 

[Kaskade1309]

in some cases... leaving a disc to keep spinning in a drive after the movie ends and falls back into the animated menu... the machine could kill a disc.
this happened some years ago when i forgotten to remove a hard to obtain movie disc from a LG DVD recorder after playing the movie...

 

[YANG]

yeah...
that's why i appreciate gears that have some kind of protection mechanism that protects any discs that i put into the drive. the only thing that i would be turned off by Panasonic players is that when i put the machine into standby after i finished half of the show... there isn't any “memory recall” on where i stopped and continue to play after i came back from any breaks.
my PHILIPS, they do wonderful “continual play” job!

 

[Kaskade1309]

yeah...
that's why i appreciate gears that have some kind of protection mechanism that protects any discs that i put into the drive. the only thing that i would be turned off by Panasonic players is that when i put the machine into standby after i finished half of the show... there isn't any “memory recall” on where i stopped and continue to play after i came back from any breaks.
my PHILIPS, they do wonderful “continual play” job!

Indeed, the Panasonics have no "resume playback" functionality -- one of the MYRIAD of things I LOATHE about my UB9000 -- unless a Blu-ray or UHD Blu-ray has been authored with the "RESUME: YES/NO" prompt which appears the next time you insert the disc...

That is something SO missed in the Oppo and Cambridge units -- the resume playback for all DVDs and some Blu-rays (depending on how they were authored).

 

[Carlo_M]

I really wanted to wait and buy the X110. But for a grand...I just couldn't really justify it for what Oppo used to do well for about half the price.

Meanwhile my Sony X800M2 was really driving me insane...the picture and audio quality are fine, but having to remember to manually turn on Dolby Vision for discs that had it...that was making me bonkers.

So I just purchased (and am putting through its paces) a Panasonic DP-UB820P-K from Best Buy for $499. So far I'm thrilled with the picture and audio quality, it supports not just HDR and DV but also HDR+ and HLG. Additionally it has some HDR setting tweaks that at some point I'll have to do some research on, but out of the box A/V quality leaves nothing to be desired.

So what does the Reavon (and Oppo) have that this doesn't? SACD and DVD-A support, of which I have quite a few. Fortunately, this player literally sits on top of my Oppo BDP-103D which plays BD, SACD and DVD-A. So to me, that $500 in savings is worth having to use a different player for those formats.

But having to remember (or sometimes just plain forgetting) to turn on/off Dolby Vision on the Sony 4K player was worth the purchase of the Panasonic. No more wondering if I'm getting the best possible HDR format on my discs. Sony's implementation of DV on the 800M2 is quite frankly bonkers.