All right everyone. Today we’re going to be talking about the Panasonic UB820. Now the actual model number is the DP-UBA820 but I’ll just call it the UB820. It’s a 4k Blu-ray player that you can get for $499. I purchased mine from value electronics and I want to give a big thank you and shout out to Robert for setting up this pre-order and sending me my 820, lickety-split. Thank you, Robert. As of this time the writing of this article, Robert from value electronics is the only place you can get that UB820 but it does say that you can get it on Best Buy or on B&H. However, they don’t have anything in stock. So, I’m going to leave a link to the buy page over at Value Electronics down in the description. If you guys want to pick up this player, go ahead and pick it up from them.
Now I also want to thank one of my viewers that also pre-ordered from Value Electronics. Thanks buddy. So why am I thanking him? It’s because he actually informed me that Dolby vision update had occurred on the machine. And it’s very interesting, the update happened last week but nobody’s talking about it. There’s no publication saying “Dolby vision added to Panasonic” the player does support both Dolby Vision and HDR 10+. Now the HDR 10+ update occurred back in June of this year. It added HDR 10+ to the entire range of 2018 Panasonic 4k players. And it didn’t matter which area of the world or region of the world in, everybody got the update.
Unboxing & Front Panel
All right, in the box we get literature, a full function remote, batteries for the remote and a power plug. There’s even a card that has its main features attached to the top of the unit. The UB820 looks very sleek with the high-gloss black top and front. Both pieces though however are plastic. Now on the top of the unit in the right front corner we have the open close button and we have a power button. When the front flap is down in the center, it reveals the LED display and the front USB port. And to the left of that is the disc tray.
Rear Panel
On the far left we have the power port. The UB820 has two HDMI outputs one for Audio & Video and the other for Audio only. Next, we have a USB port that specifies an external hard drive can be plugged in to this port here. This is where you’re going to want to plug in your media drive. Below that we have an Ethernet port for a wired internet connection. Next, we have a 7.1 analog audio output section. And on the far right rounding out all the connections on the back, we have an optical digital audio output
Update Procedures – Dolby Vision Update
To update the UB820 we need to go to Setup > System > Firmware Update > Update Now. The unit will display the new firmware if one is available. So, this new firmware version 1.21 is the update that contains Dolby Vision. It took about 17 minutes to download and install the update. Now to turn on Dolby Vision we need to go into the HDMI section of the setup menu. Scroll down to Dolby Vision and turn it On. Now if you notice here HDR 10+ is already there and it’s already turned on. Let’s go ahead and toss in ready player one. Loved the movie, everybody loves it!! When we press the info button on the remote, we get some great detailed information about the content we are watching. So, we’ve got 4k, 24 frames per second, Dolby Vision and they also give you a bit rate as well. Next, I went in to check out the streaming apps. And I was met with this really, really bad looking interface. I’m not sure what’s up with this but I think Panasonic needs to change this out. The marketplace doesn’t have too many apps I would use like Vudu or Hulu. It does have Netflix. So, let’s go into Netflix. And here we have the first problem. This does not look right, not at all. Immediately I had a feeling this had to do with Dolby Vision. So, I went back into setup and turn Dolby Vision off and went back into Netflix app. And here we go. Netflix is now looking normal. So, I went back into setup into the HDMI menu, turn Dolby Vision back on and then jumped back into Netflix and this is what I get. This is not right. So, I went into the master bedroom and plugged the UB820 into the TCL R617, I turned on Netflix on the UB820 and everything looks correct.
So out of these three TVs, I have in the house the TCLR617, the Vizio M-series and the LG E6 OLED, this issue only occurs on the Vizio. I’m not really sure what the issue is but I guess if you have a Vizio M-series, the Netflix app may be all messed up with Dolby Vision turned On. It’s really not that big of a deal especially when there’s so many other places to use Netflix. TV, Apple TV 4k, Xbox one X. I really just don’t understand why these manufacturers want to put streaming apps when it’s super redundant and they know it’s redundant. Anyway, let’s go ahead and talk about picture quality. It looks great!! I’m just going to say that it looks great. I didn’t get extended amount of watch time on my OLED. So, with the HDMI optimizer I was switching back and forth between two of them. The basic luminance and the middle to high. I felt the middle to high looked better on the TCLR617 but on the Vizio M-series basic luminance looks better than the middle to high setting. My OLED is still not back in the living room and I can’t wait to get it back in its rightful place. Then I’ll be able to look more at picture quality as it pertains to the Panasonic UB820 on the OLED. As for these budget TVs the Panasonic UB820 does look great but still can’t wait to get it on my OLED.