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Message
Anybody on here own the Panasonic UB820 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player?
Posted on 2/22/21 at 8:34 pm
Posted on 2/22/21 at 8:34 pm
If so, how do you like it? How long have you owned it? Any issues? I'm looking at grabbing this one maybe at the end of the week since it's on sale. Was looking at a Sony (X800M2), but reading customer reviews it seems to have random freezing issues.
I've been getting into buying more and more 4K blu-rays lately. I've been using the PS5 as a 4k player, but it's just so dang bare bones and doesn't have Dolby Vision (which the next tv I will be getting this year will have) and may never get it. I saw this Panasonic is loaded with everything you could ever want (HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, HLG) so I'm really close to pulling at the end of the week.
I've been getting into buying more and more 4K blu-rays lately. I've been using the PS5 as a 4k player, but it's just so dang bare bones and doesn't have Dolby Vision (which the next tv I will be getting this year will have) and may never get it. I saw this Panasonic is loaded with everything you could ever want (HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision, HLG) so I'm really close to pulling at the end of the week.
1
Posted on 2/22/21 at 11:33 pm to Contra
I don't own it but follow the AV forums and it is a solid machine. Since OPPO left the Blu Ray player market Panasonic has the best mid and upper-tier players. I have a UB 9000 but unless you need (want) better DACs, more HDR tone maps and/or balanced XLR stereo outputs the 820 is 90% of the player for less than 40% of the price.
As with all Blu Ray players keeping current with the firmware updates is essential. I have owned more than 10 Blu Ray players and have found them all to be finicky at one time or another but updates almost always cure the issue. Of the brands I have owned Panasonic has been the most stable even though I preferred OPPO for other reasons.
As with all Blu Ray players keeping current with the firmware updates is essential. I have owned more than 10 Blu Ray players and have found them all to be finicky at one time or another but updates almost always cure the issue. Of the brands I have owned Panasonic has been the most stable even though I preferred OPPO for other reasons.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 9:35 am to Obtuse1
OPPO was great.
I'm trying to figure out why even invest in players now? I don't mean that sarcastically. I am genuinely interested, because I've been thinking if it is worth it or not. Yes we can purchase 4K streams, which I have been doing, but I get concerned that the Amazons and iTunes of the world could just remove those movies that I bought when they deem them not worthy for consumption anymore.
Is there any technical benefit that the players offer over streaming? I don't mean netflix streams. I'm talking about buying 4K movies off of Amazon and such to own *forever.
I'm trying to figure out why even invest in players now? I don't mean that sarcastically. I am genuinely interested, because I've been thinking if it is worth it or not. Yes we can purchase 4K streams, which I have been doing, but I get concerned that the Amazons and iTunes of the world could just remove those movies that I bought when they deem them not worthy for consumption anymore.
Is there any technical benefit that the players offer over streaming? I don't mean netflix streams. I'm talking about buying 4K movies off of Amazon and such to own *forever.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 10:32 am to Obtuse1
I was looking at the 9000. Don't know if I could justify the extra price tag since they seem to be that close (I also got to get an HDMI 2.1 tv, hopefully within the next couple months if Sony decides to release their new sets). But dang, it does look impressive. I much prefer its shell than the plastic shell of the UB820. I am super interested in the tone mapping. I watched a vid (HDTVTest) of it last night on the 9000 and it looks legit. Much better than what his tv's (LG OLED) processing could offer. I've never owned a Panasonic player (only Sony) before so looking forward to it.
I was wanting a region free 4k player because I own several Region B only blu-rays, but man the UB820 fetches for like $750 on 220-electronics. Just too much of a difference between their region free player and the regular region locked player you can buy at Best Buy. So thinking I'll just run a two machine setup with the Panasonic for 4K's/non region locked blu-rays and then use my current Sony region free blu-ray player (that's served me well for a few years now) for my Region B/DVD PAL region locked collection.
I was wanting a region free 4k player because I own several Region B only blu-rays, but man the UB820 fetches for like $750 on 220-electronics. Just too much of a difference between their region free player and the regular region locked player you can buy at Best Buy. So thinking I'll just run a two machine setup with the Panasonic for 4K's/non region locked blu-rays and then use my current Sony region free blu-ray player (that's served me well for a few years now) for my Region B/DVD PAL region locked collection.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 11:51 am to Midget Death Squad
quote:
OPPO was great.
I'm trying to figure out why even invest in players now? I don't mean that sarcastically. I am genuinely interested, because I've been thinking if it is worth it or not. Yes we can purchase 4K streams, which I have been doing, but I get concerned that the Amazons and iTunes of the world could just remove those movies that I bought when they deem them not worthy for consumption anymore.
Is there any technical benefit that the players offer over streaming? I don't mean netflix streams. I'm talking about buying 4K movies off of Amazon and such to own *forever.
A few things why I personally want to invest in one and continue to invest in physical collection in general. You covered one.
- I also don't trust these services to keep content up. Whether it be licensing issues. Or some purple haired, always offended, freak of nature getting offended at old content and then starting a campaign to get the content removed and these companies cave. We're already seeing dumb shite like warning labels on stuff like the freaking Muppets.
- Another is playing off a physical disc is still superior than streaming as far as video/audio quality goes. A 100GB 4k disc can process data up to 120+mbps while streaming 4k is something like 15mbps on Netflix. I think Apple tv can hit in 30's, but that's still only comparable to just regular 1080p blu-ray. Blu-ray can hit like 40+mbps.
- Ownership. As an owner, I don't ever have to worry about what I said in the first part. I don't trust my collection (that I bought) in the hands of people where it could be wiped out at any moment (different entertainment, but this actually happened with Nintendo when they shut down their Wii shop store; people lost all their purchases if you didn't download them before they shut down their servers). I can also buy, sell trade, etc.
- I just love having physical collection with their nice artworks and all that.
I'm the same way with video games. I love my physical collection and can never get behind the idea of all digital. There's just too many red flags.
I do use streaming along with physical. Streaming is definitely way more convenient, but it's not the best experience (or safest if you buy digital) available which is what I personally want.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 12:06 pm to Midget Death Squad
quote:
Is there any technical benefit that the players offer over streaming? I don't mean netflix streams. I'm talking about buying 4K movies off of Amazon and such to own *forever.
To this point physical media in this case "4K Ultra HD" Blu-ray discs still have an advantage in quality. A smaller amount in video but a lot in audio and it is stable the quality you get today is the same as you got last week. For some it is a minimal gain for others it is significant.
On the non-technical side since I am an early Gen X model human I still get a more complete ownership experience with a physical disc. Much like the process of placing an album on a turn table the act of putting in the disc and watching the trailers gives me much more of the theater experience for some reason outside of quality I still always have a "less than" experience when I stream a movie again likely to be due to being old enough to have had collections of movies on VHS, S-VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, Bluray and 4K Bluray.
I still enjoy the extras on physical discs which used to be a big selling point for them but in general extras have been becoming more rare.
When bandwidth becomes cheap enough for movie streamers to transmit uncompressed video and audio I will change over but it seems that is always a step behind the physical media but that will change at some point.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 12:16 pm to Obtuse1
Amen on the extras. I really enjoy those too. It does feel like a different experience having a physical collection vs. streaming.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 1:29 pm to Contra
quote:
A 100GB 4k disc can process data up to 120+mbps while streaming 4k is something like 15mbps on Netflix. I think Apple tv can hit in 30's, but that's still only comparable to just regular 1080p blu-ray. Blu-ray can hit like 40+mbps.
This is quite significant. And as the other poster points out, that increase of audio quality is important. I've invested too much into my theater setup to shortchange it on this end. I want to maximize my audio. Yeah I will definitely be getting one of these soon.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 3:00 pm to Midget Death Squad
quote:
Is there any technical benefit that the players offer over streaming? I don't mean netflix streams. I'm talking about buying 4K movies off of Amazon and such to own *forever.
Dolby Atmos when streaming uses Dolby Digital+ which is a lossy format. On a UHD disc, Dolby Atmos uses Dolby TrueHD which is a lossless format.
If you just have tv speakers or a soundbar then probably not a big deal.
I love my Oppo 203.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 7:17 pm to Midget Death Squad
quote:
This is quite significant. And as the other poster points out, that increase of audio quality is important. I've invested too much into my theater setup to shortchange it on this end. I want to maximize my audio. Yeah I will definitely be getting one of these soon.
Yeah, if you've invested in some high quality audio/video equipment, you might as well go for all the best and get your money's worth.
Streaming is good for most folks, but it's not the best. I guess people that still like to buy physical is more of a niche market now (especially 4k), but I'll die buying physical as it's no doubt the best
This post was edited on 2/23/21 at 7:24 pm
Posted on 2/23/21 at 8:20 pm to Contra
Airheads (Brendan Fraser, Adam Sandler, Steve Buscemi, Chris Farley) is an example of a movie that was removed from streaming/digital services. It's not on anything when you search for it on the Roku.
I was wanting to watch it last year and found out. You can get it on dvd (which I've had for a long while) and blu-ray, but the US blu-ray version has sky rocketed in price ($100+ used). But at least you can still get both. I recently imported the Spanish blu-ray version. It has English audio. It was a lot cheaper too. Around $13. It's also region free.
I was wanting to watch it last year and found out. You can get it on dvd (which I've had for a long while) and blu-ray, but the US blu-ray version has sky rocketed in price ($100+ used). But at least you can still get both. I recently imported the Spanish blu-ray version. It has English audio. It was a lot cheaper too. Around $13. It's also region free.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 9:51 pm to Contra
quote:
high quality audio/video equipment
I am a sound nut and spend more on audio than video. I am just starting a new theater build with eighteen 18" Stereo Integrity subs in SLLT alignment boxes and 4 21" 18 Sound subs for nearfield use. I have the 18" subs figured out but bought two 21s to decide whether I like ferrous magnets or neo magnets better in the box I will be building.
Pics of the two 21" variants and a pic showing a DVD is smaller than the dust cover.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 10:34 pm to Obtuse1
This is some wild shite. 22 massive subs? Never heard of such a thing.
Posted on 2/23/21 at 11:51 pm to LEASTBAY
quote:
This is some wild shite. 22 massive subs? Never heard of such a thing.
It won't be the lowest nor the loudest theater on the AVS forums. There is a group of lunatics like myself that feel like anything smaller than an 18" sub driver is a waste of time and 10 of them are a decent start. Power is measured in kilowatts.
My 18s will each be in 20 cu ft boxes tuned to 10hz with 1,000 "real" watts each and the 21s will be in 12 cu ft boxes tuned to 20hz with 3,000 watts each. The goal is flat to 5hz with 16-80hz having 145+ dB ceiling for effortless headroom or causing intestinal discomfort for visitors who want to know what 11 actually feels like.
It is a lot like building a 2000hp street car, you don't need it and can't really even use it you just do it because you can in this case egged on by other similar lunatics.
Posted on 2/24/21 at 7:55 pm to Obtuse1
Man you gotta post pics when you get finished with that project. That sounds funny and awesome
I'm not as much into the audio side of things, but video quality I do want something that is very satisfying. I finally dove into OLED last year (after holding out for several years)........... for a few days, but I'm puss when it comes to burn in given my gaming habits of playing older consoles (NES, SNES, Genesis, etc) that are 4:3 (well, really 5x scaled) with black bars and have lots static elements so I took it back. Guess I'll just be sticking to LCD tech until Micro-LED becomes a real thing.
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