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Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player with Dolby Vision and HDR10+ Support $518 @ JB Hi-Fi

150

Been waiting for these to pop back up on sale

Ultra HD Blu-ray Playback (4K/HDR)
7.1ch Analogue Audio Output
4K VOD Supported

Related Stores

JB Hi-Fi
JB Hi-Fi

closed Comments

  • +4

    Genuine question, not trolling. Why do people buy these over say a PS4 or Xbox One that's cheaper and more capable (i.e. Netflix etc.)

    • +3

      PS4 and Xbox One don't have 4k support. PS5 and Xbox One S and up do, but they don't have Dolby Vision support.

      • +1

        Correct me if I am wrong, but PS4 Pro has all those features according to a quick search I made and would be a cheaper option

        • Dolby Atmos
        • Dolby Vision
        • 4K
        • +9

          For digital content yes. The PS4 Pro doesn't support 4k Blu-ray discs - PS5 is the latest model to support them.

          • +2

            @tempus: Oh I didn't realise. Thanks for the correction

            • +4

              @cute as duck: No problem

              • +4

                @tempus: This is the most civil conversation I've ever seen on OzBargins, well done all, happy Friday.

          • @tempus: The PS5 doesn't support Dolby Vision via Blu-ray either.

            EDIT: Oh sorry can see you already pointed that out in earlier comment.

          • @tempus: Didn't realise this, I've been using an Xbox One X which seems to work fine

            • @apoptygma: The xbox one s and onwards supports 4k bluray, and are half the price

      • no xbox has dolby vision? is it worth the $300 extra from say an xbox one s?

    • +2

      It has an HDR adjusting feature (called "HDR Optimiser") which is almost mandatory for most projectors.
      Reduces or improves the HDR performance, as projectors can't get anywhere near as bright as TV's, so it preserves highlights/shadows when watching HDR movies.

      Beyond that I'm not really sure.

      • +5

        is it you Vincent?

        • If it was Vincent he would be sure ;)

    • I have a PS5, but I'm after a dedicated 4K player for the HT room. This does have Netflix, Prime & YouTube inbuilt as well.

    • +2

      A dedicated player will output a better picture quality than a console.

      Not to mention the dedicated player can support Dolby Vision 4K Blu-Rays (which no console can do).

      Neither a console or this unit should be used for things like Netflix. Consoles and these players usually output all of their content at a locked frame rate and with HDR always on even for SDR video.

      • Out of interest, how does a digital 4K remux compare to these players in terms of PQ?

        • The content itself is identical. The difference comes from the quality of the output over HDMI from the device doing the playback.

          There’s a lot of steps involved between the file on a disk and output over HDMI.

        • No difference as its just a complete rip from the disc. Whether it be a remux rip playing on usb, to a disc playing through a 4K player. Very minor differences if at all. Basically just depends on how good your specs are on the TV to bring out the best picture. Even DV content is being put on files (only mp4 so far)

    • The Panasonic has 2 HDMI outputs so you can send video to your TV and audio direct to your amp. I have a brand new Samsung TV and it won't pass the DTS, DTS-HD or Dolby TrueHD signal (amongst other surround formats) to my amp. The best it will output is Dolby Digital +

      Apparently Samsung no longer support DTS as they don't want to pay the licensing fees!
      The Panasonic has more setting adjustments for picture and audio which is relevant if you have a decent home theatre setup.

      TBH average Joe likely wouldn't notice the difference between watching a 4K disc on Xbox X and the Panasonic.

      • Shame Samsung doesn't support Dolby Vision. I was fortunate enough to buy one of the last Panasonic GZ1000's last year. It supports all HDR formats, but I cheaped out and bought the Panasonic 420 player instead of the 820. Just wondering if I would notice the difference of watching a 4K disc with DV on the 820 or just stick with my 420 ?

        • The difference is definitely there. Whether you'll notice it or not is another question.

          Even comparing DV being streamed (i.e. with lower bitrates) to standard HDR10 on a 4k Ultra HD disk (i.e. with much higher bitrates), overall quality of the DV stream is better: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbN00Sm0Bsg

    • +1

      Plays Blu-rays without having to connect to the internet and set up an account. Access to cloud services with their associated terms and policies is optional. For the PS4/Xbox, those things appear to be mandatory.

      • You'll be connecting to the internet eventually though, as they update their anti-piracy measurs on newer Blu-Rays. Unless you want to be locked out of playing those.

  • +5

    Got this for $480 from JB 12 months ago simply by asking
    Considering how old the model is, it should be $300 by now

    • Ditto. I bought it for $420 with ebay 20% discount from Videopro more than a year ago. I thought prices would have gone down by now.

      Personal experience: Remote control is crap. I keep pressing Netflix button all the time mistakenly. App menu to load Prime/Youtube is very time consuming.

      I am thinking to add latest Apple TV 4k to the home theatre now. Not sure if it will be worth to spend another $250 on ATV?

    • Same here,, Yes understand that we can go back.. but ,bought the same unit on Boxing day from JBHI for $380

  • +1

    How does this compare to the Panasonic DP-UB420 for $249
    Just DolbyVision?

    • +1

      The 420 lacks DV and has a slightly slower UI.

      Awesome player for the money though, currently $245 on Amazon.

      • The real deal here?

    • The 820 is a larger player, and has a display at the front. Besides the DV picture quality is identical. Very few 4K players with DV. Only Sony, which you need to ser up each time you want DV play as it reverts to normal HDR each time; and LG which I know very little about.

  • +1

    I've had this for a while and it's a great player but has compatibility issues with a few discs that other players handle fine.

  • Surprise people still buy them :)

    • +1

      Because it's the best 4k disc player

  • Does my Xbox One S do the same as this player? Am I missing something?

    • +1

      Yes you are missing the previous comments that answer your question.

  • Be careful OP, this has issues with Dolby Vision.

    I have the Sony X700 and originally set up an alert on this to replace the X700. However, changed my mind after discovering the issues with DV.

    See https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-4k-blu-ray-p…. Unfortunately, Wirecutter doesn't load comments automatically, so this link to the comment won't actually take you to the comment and you have to scroll down.

    In short: the Panasonic DP-UB820 has a Dolby Vision brightness clipping issue. see e.g.:

    • Review of the cheaper UB450 at https://www.trustedreviews.com/reviews/panasonic-dp-ub450 which notes: "However, the UB450 does manage one surprising picture advantage over both the UB820 and Sony’s recent, more expensive X800Mk2 and X1100ES 4K Blu-ray players: playback of Dolby Vision sources at their “correct” brightness levels. There’s none of the elevated brightness and clipping (loss of subtle shading and detail) in the brightest parts of HDR pictures that those other more expensive players exhibit."
    • HDTVtest's review of the UB9000 (same goes for the UB820): https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=701&v=yvWEK0novkY (DV part starts from the time linked)
    • Wirecutter reviewer's comments: "Looking at Spiderman: Homecoming on a Sony X950H, with Dolby Vision enabled there is clipping in the windows of the school near the end (1:54:38 for reference) but not with HDR10."

    I very much wanted to buy this. Having to manually toggle DV (the flaw of the Sony X700), is driving me to insanity. :( However, I prefer accuracy/performance over convenience

    • +1

      A low latency Dolby Vision TV like the Sony you and Vincent are using probably isn’t the best way to test however there definitely is something not quite right about the Dolby Vision output on a lot of these players.

      I find in practice however there’s no obvious issues when used with my TV led Dolby Vision Panasonic GZ1000.

      • +1

        Yep, no clipping issues with Dolby Vision discs on my LG CX and UB820 either. Sony's X950H is known to have issues due to it being player led and not TV led for DV

      • I don't have a Sony TV. I have an LG C9 which is full TV led DV…

        Also, Vincent isn't using a Sony either… From the looks of it it's also a C9… (You might have been confused as he's using a Sony when he's just talking. However when he's doing the actual comparison you can see both TVs are LG OLEDs)

        Plenty of reviewers have noticed this issue.

        The point is that it isn't obvious. You'd need to do a side by side comparison, as has been done in the links provided

  • Other than the price, being 230ish more, what about this

    https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/panasonic-dmr-ubt1gl-4k-u…

    • You can only record FTA onto the hard drive…. and given the streaming availability from some free to air stations..you might question why use this.. a Fetch TV would be better.

  • Anyone know just ordered bluray from overseas as I couldn't get here, and turns out it's region a and can't play in xbox one x, any chance of region unlocking?

    • Not sure if there are hacks for Xbox.. but..

      For this model, as with the other Panas and Sonys, it would need a modification

      Use Gattiweb for that

    • Aren't all 4K bluray discs region free?

      • Correct, 4K UHD bluray discs are currently region free however Amanda89 is likely talking about a regular bluray which are still region locked.

    • Try YouTube or Google…region free panasonic Blu-Ray player.

  • anyone know why Analogue Audio Output is rare on blu-ray players and consoles, surely anyone that cares about sound knows that the quality of tv audio is poor even if you are bypassing it from tv analog output

    • because the standard way of connecting the player would be to connect it to your receiver with HDMI

  • When playing movies is this noticeably quiet than say a PS5 or the latest Xbox? I have a PS4 for Blu Ray and it's noisy

  • +1

    Ah, missed it, back to $648 now

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