PANASONIC UB820-K 4K BLU RAY PLAYER REVIEW - Settings walkthrough and Tips 

The ps5 isn’t bad either but a designated 4k player does make a huge difference! I’m glad your happy with it as well,it’s great!

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMediaone thing I don’t care for with this player as opposed to my Sony is with my Sony as soon as I put my DVD in it would switch the tv to the Blu-ray player. With this Panasonic I have to use another remote to switch the HDMI to the Blu-ray in order to view it

@reality1958 That’s actually a feature on the Sony I love as well!

I heard of a few people doing this, might do it myself! Thanks!

No problem, enjoy!

Thanks for watching the video!

I used to collect CDs myself actually and Matt I think only stopped recently lol. My cds got stolen about 12 years ago and just went full digital then sadly. -John

Same here. I still buy CD's and have a couple of thousand at home.

I wish I still collected CDs. I used to love going every Friday and picking up a few for the collection.

It is a great player! I do hope they update it at some point. I was thinking it might be worth it to grab a back up just in case they don’t.

I love your review! Couldn’t have said it better myself. The. results speak for themselves on this 4k player.

No problem! It’s our pleasure.

I’m not entirely sure what you’re asking us here? The 9000 I believe has more audio options. And we have not tried watching a movie via the usb port.

I have not tried that myself as I run my sound bar through the ARC port on tv. But In theory that should work. Depending on sound bar and what features it has, could be worth it.

That’s what we recommend. Matt did that and he’s been telling me to also. I have that Sony and the only issue i’ve had is with Kill Bill 1 and 2 bricking the player and it had a freezing problem with one new film. That’s still to much for a players that’s not the cheapest. This player seems to have no issues so is the better bang for your buck.

I agree! It’s a fantastic player. I use the Sony X800 a lot and that’s a good player too but the Panasonic gives you so many different options and settings that even if the X800 has great playback, the Panasonic just has more!

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia Thanks very much for your reply and output ❤

@phillambrose3496 No problem at all!

Yeah as I mentioned in video, for the price we should have gotten back lit buttons bevy I find myself trying to angle the remote in the light to read the buttons lol other then that this things absolutely incredible, I still get blown away with how well it upscales blu rays! -Matt

Wouldn’t your tv remote control the Panasonic over CEC?

On my lg yes it does but it doesn’t have anywhere near as many options as the dedicated remote

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia thank you. As long as you can play pause and do volume. I’ll prob rarely use remote then as the Sony I just got has a nice backlit remote. Thanks again for the info😄

No problem at all! any time

Thank you! QLED is probably most comparable to OLED. So I would recommend using those settings.

Yea unfortunately they don’t really make brand new 4k players that often like they do with TV’s. I think Samsung completely bowed out of making 4k players. That’s actually why I might grab a back up soon just in case they stop all together way down the line. That’s our biggest complaint about this player is you have to turn off the Dolby vision of the disk doesn’t support it because it will force it but overall it’s a good player. I actually use this one as my day to day. -John.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia Plus I heard about the skipping issues on the Sony as well. The player that I really want right now is the OPPO 203 but I can't mess with that kinda money just for a 4K player right now. hehe. I just kinda wish I would've gotten it back then but then again my 4K collections wasn't as large as it is now. I will be buying a lot more 4K discs next year for sure though. Physical media will always come first for me.

Me too! And having a 4k player makes it feel even better when your collecting. I had one issue with this player and it never happened again. I don’t know what caused it maybe it was the size of the disk but that’s been my only issue with it. Other then that no bugs or anything

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia yeah I'm looking forward to collecting a lot more next year since I now have a player. I'm just hoping some studios will finally be releasing 4K versions of their movies. I just picked up Coraline 4K, for the kids of course. 😁 I'm waiting for a full studio ghibli 4K release. I will be all over it regardless of the price. As for the skipping issue with the Sony players, I believe it's from triple layer discs. Hopefully Sony will fix this with a firmware update but I wouldn't hold my breath tho.

No i’m not holding me breath either. That player hasn’t has an update in a while. I think we are going to get a lot of big name 4ks in 2023! Coraline is beautiful to look at in 4k you and the kids are going to love it.

I honestly don’t know the answer to this. It should auto adjust like all the video settings.

Thank you we appreciate it and yea I understand that, I also don’t like things to brighten because of my eyes so I totally get that

Thank You we appreciate that!

Unfortunately no you can’t add apps to it. There’s only the pre installed streaming apps and that’s the only ones you can use. It has prime video witch I believe have tubi has a hub

I don’t think there is a certain setting that needs to be turned on. There are a ton of different settings to help tune the player around your TV and sound system

Yea we tested out the Sony also but this one is the leader of the pack for sure!

If you still did, I would be impressed lol.

Hello, This is John, So I have the Sony Player as my personal player while smart has the Panasonic. I would still prefer the panasonic if I could swing the money. Overall it’s better and the Auto HDR is very helpful. Also it’s better at upscaling and gives you more options in the menus. sits a little more money though and the Sony is still really solid. I don’t think the visuals are better per se but The upscaling is definitely better.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia hi thanks you so much for your answer its hard to choice lol specialy sony have more metal construction panasonic moe plastic i hope is not to cheap for the price here in canada is around $ 598.00 dollars but many good review for panasonic UB820-K 4K

The Panosonic Is going to give you more choices but if your going just for video and audio their very similar and I don’t think you would be wrong either way.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia ok i read is really better for upscale movie not the sony is maybe good choice for this....

I’m very happy with My Sony! What ever route you choose to go you’ll be happy I think.

So I use a Samsung 950 series from a few years ago but Matt uses a Sonos System and that’s what we would both recommend. They have different size sound bars and you can add the other elements later like the Woofer and rear speakers which also have different sizes and prices.

I don’t have a proper receiver set up so I was unable to test duel ports but I’m almost certain the duel ports is strictly for audio. I have a Sonos sound bar system so it doesn’t work with that. I’d refer to the manual or perhaps a youtube video specifically talking about that feature! -Matt

HDMI control needs to be turned off on the receiver.

Yeah it’s a great unit, now does the ub9000 remote have backlit buttons?

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia yes and some glow as well

Plus the app buttons are farther from the action buttons. I had a tendency to hit the Netflix button because I couldn’t see the buttons in the dark.

Great information! Thank you I’m going to look into one!

This is the worst player. Half the time I didn’t even get a picture on 4k Blu ray discs. Incompatible with Sony tvs. Total junk. Keeps losing its signal. Went back to Sony x700 with no issues. Plays discs perfectly except as you mentioned the freezing with 100 GB discs. This player is completely out of sync when playing Dolby Digital video. And honestly, I didn’t see any significant difference in picture quality over the Sony.

At the end of the day the ps5 really isn’t a terrible player but the fact that the consoles don’t allow Dolby vision with discs is insane and this Panasonic really does amazing work with upscaling and playing 4K discs to there full potential! -Matt

I haven’t tried with going directly into the one HDMI port. I have mine plugged into the arc HDMI port and that gives sound to all of the inputs. I’m going to ask Matt if he knows more.

Ok so he said that there should be multiple ports on the back of that. Maybe try switching to a different port on the back and see if that helps. I don’t have the 90000 so O can say for certain

Thanks! Do I see i difference? Absolutely Dolby vision in most cases always puts out better picture and it’s just nice to not have to select which one with this player, coming from the Sony 800m2 that would force Dolby vision on even Blu-ray’s that didn’t have it I see a world of a difference. This player also by far has the best picture quality in my opinion-Matt

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia Yeah I had the Sony x700 and did not like how DV was not automatic so I returned it. I don't really see the point with the UB820 HDR optimizer when most discs are in DV. You may as well just use DV then how it was intended.

Well occasionally there is disc with regular hdr or hdr10 but for me the fact that it didn’t put regular blu rays in hdr is what sold it for me, the Sony out hdr on regular dvds and the lack of options on the Sony also was a big negative for me, I absolutely love my Panasonic and in my opinion it’s easily the best player around-Matt

Glad to be of help, that’s a solid setup!

That’s awesome! The C2 is a great tv. Jaws is also a 4k, Glad we can help and great choice of film!

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia I'm going down the rabbit hole buying 4 k uhd discs now though 📀📀📀📀 VHS dvd Blu-ray, now 4 k Blu-ray 📀😄

you got a lot of options to choose from with the amount of 4ks coming out!

It will auto correct to HDR as long as the disk doesn’t prevent it. It’s a similar thing for TVs that Block Dolby audio.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia OK, so dolby vision feature on a blueray player won't play DV on a TV that doesn't have dolby vision also. So it will switch to HDR10+ on mine then... thanks for the tip !

Yea this player as auto HDR. The player I have in my house now you would have to turn witch HDR the disk supports on manually. But this player will match up to what the disk and TV support.

It doesn’t convert to Dolby but it does covert it to an as close to possible track. If you were to compare it side by side it’s identical to a Dts 5.1.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia What type of signal does your Sonos app display?

@siriuset It converts into a comparable PCM track. Even if it is a DTS X track.

All right so I use the Sony as my main 4K player, That and The 820 have very similar 4K playback weather it be in audio and Video. Where the panasonic is better is with upscaling on blu ray and DVD. It’s very noticeable in that area. Also the Panasonic gives you way more options and settings while the Sony is bare bones there. But the Panasonic also costs more. If you just want the best 4k playback and don’t care about anything else, Save the money and get the Sony but if you want the most bang for your buck get the panasonic.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia Thanks man, that helps, I went with the Panny in the end. Howoever, I want the Sony as well due to the compact design in contrast to the large Panny, which has thrown me. Would be great to see a year on review between the two :) Thanks for the content. :)

@JONACAN No problem thanks for checking us out. We debate all the time which is the better player. I just have to give the edge to the Panasonic. It gives you so many more options and settings.

I believe that’s just the latest model letter to differentiate it. It’s like how a TV every years model goes up a letter

From what I understand it’s just a much better put together product and might be slightly better then this one. But this one has no issues, It upscale a great and functions exactly as advertised. I think you really get your moneys worth. Now I can’t speak on the other one but I haven’t heard a bad thing about that one either other then the price. So it’s really if you can afford the more expensive one then that might be worth it but this one has no issues in my opinion and is the best bang for your buck.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia I think this one is the best route to go. The 9000 looks beautiful, but the 820 will do the trick as you say. Appreciate the response!

No problem at all! I’m not going to lie the 9000 is beautiful but this one plays the disk perfect and it’s simple and the upscaling is perfect.

I haven’t experienced this , I pause mine for 10-20 minutes at times and after a long time it will power down but I’d imagine this is a power saving setting in the options

The OLED has its own upscale technology but this player in comparison to the Sony x800 that we had before does a much better job of upscaling. The combination of the two work together but the player it self does most of the work. We have done 4k comparisons with blu rays and the upscaling works so well it can be hard to tell sometimes.

Thank you! And I do believe I did mention the non backlit remote in my review but that’s the worst in my opinion and the Sony also has a non backlit remote if I’m not mistaken. As far as build quality it’s not to far off from the Sony and it really just sits on shelf so it really doesn’t need to be a tank. I had the Sony and returned it for this and I’m glad I did because I love this thing. The Sony is great as well but having the hdr optimizer was the selling point for me! Yes the price is definitely high, I got it on sale for $425 but that’s still not much better. -Matt

You need to research what the HDR optimizer does. It reigns in highlights that are mastered at 4000 nits, which no TV today can handle and will blow out all bright scenes with no definition.

Hey Jay this is John, Matt isn’t with the channel anymore but I actually have the Sony x800 and am still very happy with it, The Panasonic is better because the HDR is automatically changed to Dolby Vision, where on the sony you have to turn that ion manually. There’s not a huge difference in Dolby vision and HDR10 and most disks will have HDR10 so even if you don’t have something that supports Dolby vision it’s not a big deal because your still getting HDR. Dolby Vision is the best but it’s not the biggest gap to where I would say you need to bend over backwards to get it but if you have that Sony player and your p series TV I think you can watch it in Dolby Vision you would just have to turn it on in the settings and turn it off after the movie because it forces it over anything even if it doesn’t have it. The Panasonic just does all of that automatically. Picture quality from both of these is identical but the Panasonic has less bugs but it is more expensive. In my opinion you don’t need to swap 4k players unless you just want to cut down on set up time for each disk you watch because the difference in performance isn’t huge but Matt would say the Panasonic has better upscaling.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia my Sony is the x800, not the x700 m2 (DV). The Panasonic supports HDR Tone Mapping, HDR 10+ & Dolby Vision, no switching in settings.

Yepe! you don’t have to touch anything it’s all automatic where the Sony you have to adjust the settings. I usually check everything in there before I watch a movie. I think the Panasonic has better ease of use.

I just moved from X800 to UB450 which has the same video HDR modes but is a less costly model below UB820. Panasonic is better than Sony. I loathe the buggy Sony X800 because it would occasionally lock up requiring unplug to hard power cycle. Sony stopped firmware updates. I'll never buy Sony again.

That’s very strange. I asked my cousin who has this player and he hasn’t had any issues. Maybe a hard reset could fix that.

I'm having issues with my UB9000, but I've had it for a little over 4 years now and it only gave me issues about 2 weeks ago. It barely loads discs now, namely 4K Blu-rays and Blu-rays

It could be worn out form use and just standard as time goes by some of the parts start to get worn out. It shouldn’t happen this fast but it does happen.

@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia Yes, my thoughts exactly. I asked about getting it repaired but I think I'm just going to buy the 820 now

@adamsultana8380 I don’t think you’ll be disappointed if you do.

The 900 is better but for the price you can get most of the same stuff in the 820 but your just going to get a much nicer exterior and it will look better on your shelf. i would say go 820.

Interesting, I’m unfamiliar with that unit but I really love my Panasonic! I think it looks great.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia I wouldnt had known that till i saw my friends panasonic on his LG a few times and its looks a little red or warm compared to when I watch the same movie on my LG with my oppo 205

I never even heard of that brand. I’ll have to look it up

I actually noticed that recently, I have The Sony X800 in my living room and that player handled subtitles very well. I think the Panasonic has so many more options and adjustments you can make that it’s still the best but your absolutely right about it’s flaws.

Well one thing that you will be able to do is watch movies with Dolby Vision on the 820. But to be honest. I have a series X and I had a PS5 and the difference is noticeable going from console to 4k player. But is it worth it? I don’t think it’s the biggest jump to justify the price. I will still use my Xbox from time to to time just because it’s not the biggest difference. The Dolby Vision is big selling point though. Some films that have both Dolby Vision and HDR 10 yao will see a difference. I hope this helps you to make a decision. My opinion if you have the extra money go for it but don’t feel pressured.

Thank you. Then my main motivation would be 1080p Blu Rays. Since some of them are region locked and also it looks like that 820 does much better job at upscaling them.

@TestTest-he7nx The 820 is the best for upscaling by far. The only thing is it isn’t region free. It does and so does the Sony X800 play more region locked disks but I can’t figure out the science behind it lol. But yea for Upscaling this is the best. Even compared to the Sony Player I have that I love also.

If I’m being honest I’ve only watched one dvd in this player, I’ve only watched blu ray and 4K. And to think of it I’m not sure it remembers spots on those either if you don’t watch in one sitting, can be frustrating to some

I have my q90 plugged into my arc port so I don’t have the pass through.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia Im afraid I don’t understand

I’m not sure what tv you have but a lot of them will have an arc port Usually like HDMI 3 and that will work with what ever is plugged into the tv. That’s what you plug your sound bar into. The. you plug the 4k player into what ever port you want and they should both work.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia I plug the Panasonic 4K player to the soundbar ? Or the tv ? btw thanks for helping

No problem at all! Yea they both get plugged into deprecate HDMI ports as long as your tv supports arc. The arc is the one you want the sound bar plugged into.

There must be a disk issue. there should have no problem reading the Blu ray unless you have a different region blu ray then the player because only the 4k disk is region free

LG is a good brand, We haven’t tested their players but the products from them that we have used have all been well made. We have only tested Sony and Panasonic and have one of each of those brands. Matt Prefers this 4K player over them all though. -John

Thanks I appreciate it! This is actually an older video, Matt isn’t with the channel any more and I can promise you the video and audio quality has gotten a lot better lol. We were still very green here but i’m glad you still checked out the video and hope it wasn’t to distracting.

Yes it does!

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia Thank you very much! Im upgrading it from my Sony UBP X700 as it keeps freezing and skipping in selected scenes from both Blu ray and 4K Blu ray

@ANUBIS209 I understand that, I have a Sony X800 as well and I have had to do a hard reset on that a couple times, That usually fixes the problem but it’s frustrating.

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia Yeah I've done the same with the X700 and I just got tired of it. I was hoping a firmware would fix it but nothing was fixed after having it for 2 years.

@ANUBIS209 I totally get that. This is probably the best player you can get, Haven’t had an issue yet.

That’s a great price for this 4K Player!

@Lets Talk Entertainment & Media I got mine for $425 awhile back.

I think that’s around the price we got it for also and I think that was a sale price at the time.

Right but that’s like saying my car doesn’t work right with 4 flat tires lol they are damaged of course they don’t work. A 4K disc is far superior to vhs is a quality standpoint

Everything proven people don't want people having nothing now days always updated this and that now days everything proven that causes problem's on people's thinking now days

I think your having an issue with the durability of items? That is an issue with everything in modern tech I understand what your saying.

Everything proven vhs tapes don't have picture quality problem's at all everything proven tvs causes problem's on people's thinking now days everything proven not every tv has good picture quality everything proven the bad tvs don't have good picture quality it continues to take quality out of your vhs tapes now on to the good tvs have good picture quality it continues to put more greater quality in your VHS tapes and also people don't set nothing up right at all on tv settings

We have VHS tapes also and old CRT TV’s that we watch them on and still enjoy doing it. It’s good to preserve the old quality of film but we like to review the same films with the new updated quality. It’s always your choice what you want to watch your movies in.

Yeah this player just adds a lot of options most players and TVs don’t have so that’s why we love it. Plus it upscales like a beast! -Matt

@@LetsTalkEntertainmentMedia I have the UB450...and samsung s95b... do not need the 820 with all the extra jazz, tonemapping etc..unless I am missing something

Totally get that. If your happy with what you have that’s understandable.

The replacement remote is recommended but the player it self is great. We can’t say enough good about it.