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Panasonic DP-UB820 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player $449 + Delivery ($0 C&C/ in-Store) @ The Good Guys

460

Couldn't resist at this price (I believe almost an all time low?).

Supports HDR10, HDR10+ dynamic metadata and Dolby Vision HDR.

$453 at JB Hi Fi so they'd more than likely match.

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  • +4

    Got it for $463 on eBay after discounts a month ago. Exceptional player! Dated UI but great playback and options.

  • +1

    How does this compare to an Xbox Series S or even a One X? I'd think a console has a better value makeup, but not sure if they miss out on feature compatibility.

    • +4

      I thought Series S does not have a drive to play disks. SERIES X is not available šŸ˜Œ

    • +8

      I've had a dedicated player in the past and the one x for light gaming. I personally prefer each device to do what they're made for.

      With this particular player, you have dolby vision for discs, it does tone mapping much better, has a HDR Optimiser for HDR titles (which from memory, the one x didn't have), and the processing is far better, I've also read it upscales content quite well but I'm keen to test that out.

      IMO, this is the cream of the crop for the price point and for what it's designed for.

    • +3

      Xbox doesn't play dolby vision. That might not matter to some people though.

      $440 at videopro with free shipping. JB will match that. Good time to use 15% off Coles GC if you have any.

    • Iā€™m not a movie buff nor have a huge collection of BRs. But I have been using an Xbox One S from 2017 as a dedicated BR player. It was considerably cheaper at ~$250 than any of the players which supported HDR 10 and 3D back then (yeah, I still have a 3D TV , anyone remember those?? ). I used it quite a lot few years ago when there was a physical movie rental shop nearby, but not anymore. But it still gets the job done for the occasional viewing, and if you can pair it with a harmony remote (another obsolete product I know) the experience is as good as a normal player.

  • Xbox Series plays movies just fine, although I have nothing to compare to. However I would pay $449 in a heart beat despite already owning an XB One and Series X if the player was quiet. Both xbox models are LOUD!

    • +1

      if xbox series x is loud, ps5 is like a space x ship taking off to the moon.

  • Will it support playing a BDMV folder on a NAS @ 24hz with Dolby Vision / TrueHD / Atmos?

    • +1

      It should, as it has the same Dolby Vision trigger thats digitally transferred onto the disc. Audio is no isuue with pass through. It supports basically every codec you can throw at it. If you have any issues with it, download the Just Player app. That will play all the remuxes and files with DV, as long as it as been through MakeMKV to attach the secondary layer.

      • Oh this just got interesting. So it supports the FEL? Hmmmmmm.

        • From memory, it won't stream Atmos or DTSX over a local network, though the video should work.
          Plus better check the ethernet port specs on the player as it may be just fast ethernet?

    • -4

      Get Apple TV & Infuse for half the price?

    • No. Only the Oppo 203/205 can do this.

      • +1

        I think you're right. Panasonic might not have that one needed codec. He'll have to mux the file with mkvtoolnix then run it through makemkv for Dolby Vision. I wouldn't rely on my internet to watch anything, no matter the connection, speed or provider, they all have micro dropouts and sometimes can limit the bandwidth. If you got the best quality why run it through a streaming option from a NAS

        • It also refuses to pass through lossless audio as some kind of anti piracy measure.

          The Sony UBP-X700 plays dual layer files if you mux them into an m2ts but that player has other issues.

  • -1

    People still use BluRay?

    • +5

      Well you can download the full remuxes but you still need a device like shield or a bluray player to get the full Atmos / DTS-X sound and Dolby Vision. Streaming DV is quite poor to the full bluray. Sound quality is a huge improvement, picture quality can be too but sometimes minimal depending on the content

    • +6

      If you're into macroblocking, I guess not.

    • +20

      @stirlo Netflix 4K bitrate is 15Mbps. UHD Bluray bitrate is 80-100Mbps.

      Netflix is good enough for some people, others want the best quality available.

      • +1

        Oh yes, these other people are a special crowd indeed. Lol as if you can notice the difference. 4k x265 rips are incredible.

        • Depends on the movie or TV show. Also on how its encoded, whether its a slow preset and lower CRF range. Otherwise you will see macroblocking, bleeding colours, ghosting and many other things. Bitrate is very important with action movies and panning scenes. If you know what to look for it can be extremely noticeable. Sometimes movies with lots of grain can look so much better with a DNR encode, other times it takes away too much detail for it. Its a per movie basis / encode for each one.

        • +1

          Well, streaming audio is pretty bad compared to BR. The atmos encoding on streaming is different from the ones on BR disc. I believe the streaming uses ac3 + height channels, whereas br discs have true object based audio. Also the dynamic range is very different. Pretty noticeable if you have a 7+ channel discrete audio setup in your media room.
          As for visuals, similar story with fast paced hdr content. Streaming versions are not mastered to Same dynamic range as BR ( for example mad max fury road on iTunes vs BR is pretty noticeable). But we are now talking about moderately expensive and dedicated setups. For 90% of use cases you are unlikely to notice.

          • @a b i: Yes I know that's why I was saying that encodes are usually worse. Read my comments above and you'll see how much I prefer Bluray over streaming by a huge margin. In fact I dont really stream for the last year or two id rather download the web rip than stream it so I dont rely on my internet for any dropouts or limiting bandwidth

    • +2

      Aside from picture quality like others mention, movies also come with extras. Streaming doesnt have those. And 'downloading' very rarely has them.

    • Traditionalists.

  • +3

    Thanks OP. I've been looking to get a decent blu-ray player and had been thinking of the Sony UBP-X700. Would this Panasonic be in a different league entirely?

    • +1

      I'd say you'd be fine with the Sony though based on some quick comparisons I've read, the the UB820 has a better build, HDR10+ support, it automatically switches between HDR10 and DV (where you need to manually adjust for the sony), better picture adjustment controls, and some people seem to report that the Sony can have some quality control issues (freezing, skipping/stuttering) though I'm not sure whether that's still a major issue.

      I've had the Panasonic on my radar for a while now and haven't had problems with their products in the past (TV, player, home theatre system).

      • +1

        I researched both Sony+Panasonic & ended up with the UB420… lots of lockup issues reported on the Sony models.

        • Thanks!

      • +1

        Thanks heaps for the detailed response! Really good to know the differences between the 2 players. I had also seen quite a number of reviews mention issues with the Sony.

  • I've got a ps5 with a 77C1 are people really going to notice a big difference between a dedicated player vs a console for home use ?

      • +4

        The PS5 does play 4K UHD discs. It's the PS4 that doesn't.

        • My badd, the PS5 does support 4K blurays but it doesn't support Dolby Vision or HDR10+ (it does support Dolby Atmos and regular HDR10 tho). I haven't bothered with the PS5 or Series X ever since going the dedicated Bluray player route. The other thing is that the consoles have a tendency to break 4k bluray playback in some way whenever a new major firmware update is released for the consoles (the Series X in particular has a bad habit of doing this) which again is why having a dedicated device is almost always preferred.

    • +1

      You're fine unless you want Dolby Vision Playback/HDR Tone mapping and a slightly quieter machine.

      • +1

        Oh thanks for the info mate šŸ‘

    • I think if you are willing to spend $6000 or so for a fantastic TV, spend a few extra hundred more and maximise the TV's capabilities. I bought the 820 to use with my Panasonic OLED ( only 65 inch :( ) and so happy that I did.

      • That's fine but spending more money on another player that they say is going to be a marginal improvement that I'm probably not going to notice is fine by me. I went from a 65" to a 77 so that's a good starting point for you ;)

    • As someone who owns both, PS5 is fine for most people who doesn't care about tweaking picture in blu-ray player's settings as PS5 is limited in that department, does not need latest HDR codecs/region free blu-ray/audio CD support.

      If you already have console that plays 4k blu-ray disks, might as well use it especially PS5's image upscaling from DVD/1080p blu-ray is pretty good unlike xbox

  • +2
  • Can it play local MKV 4K files? Can it support multi-language subtitles?

    • +1

      Yeah anything like that is fine. As with just about any other streaming or media device

  • Is this player much of an upgrade to streaming through an apple tv?

  • Can this be modded to be multi-region? Is that even a thing anymore? I want to import some Blu-Rays from the US (Critereon collection) which I understand won't play on Australian players.

    • Check out region freedom website. I have this player and I paid for the firmware mod from this site. Works likes a charm and offers more than just multiregion playback.

      • +1

        Tell me more

    • Yes, mods are available (but apparently not an easy process)

      • Firmware update via usb after paying $50 or so. Doesn't get much easier…

        There's a little bit of work involved with verifying model numbers etc via email. The whole process probably took me 20 minutes or so.

        • Thanks @Andeh Pandeh! They ask you to specify how much to contribute in EUR. Do you just lob a number in, or will they let you know how much if you leave it blank?

          • +1

            @misterchan: I'm fairly sure the webform let's you know the minimum amount automatically ;)

            Once you're done make sure to turn off automatic updates in the settings menu!

    • 4K blurays are all region free but older 1080p blurays are region locked (although Warner Brothers and a couple other studios from the US market were not locked)

  • +1

    Exceptional player. Got it at BF at JB for a slightly higher price!
    Has top notch 4k playback to my Sony 85 inch X9000. Playback of sound quality was another highlight. It does support Atmos though we are yet to add those speakers in our HT.

  • Don't get me wrong, this looks like a really nice player but I bought a Sony UBPX700 for $182 on eBay 2 years ago and it supports Dolby Vision and Atmos. I bought it for these additional features, as I already had an Xbox and an LG UBK90 that could already play regular 4k discs. It just seems that people might be spending a whole lot more on this than they really need to. Without getting ultra-technical, what major advantage could this device possibly have over other cheaper players that seem to do the same thing?

  • -1

    i wonder if a NVIDIA Shield TV Pro would be a better deal than this if all you're really after is UHD HDR features like dolby vision

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