You Said I Was a Fool - Panasonic 4K Blu-ray Player

Several years ago a lot of you weren't happy about us using an Xbox to compare Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray so we ponied up for a $500 standalone player. It offers some advantages but is it worth spending that much more money on your setup if you already own a game console?

Purchases made through some store links may provide some compensation to Linus Media Group.

FOLLOW US
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MUSIC CREDIT
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Intro: Laszlo - Supernova

Outro: Approaching Nirvana - Sugar High

CHAPTERS
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0:00 Intro
1:15 You Were Right
2:35 YCbCr
6:55 Dolby Vision
9:37 Other Issues
10:20 Conclusion
12:06 Outro

[LinusTechTips]

Just to make things clear, those in the video who got it right COULD tell, but they're all either graphic designers, trained TV calibrators, editors, or writers at LMG.

[THIS-STUPID-HANDLE]

"They couldn't tell"
"They could tell"
Real star of this episode.

[alwaysfallingshort]

One of the best parts about LTT videos is they're like wikipedia deep dives. I've wondered about this for a while but didn't even know where to start, and got way more info than I even expected. Great video.

[KyngShadow]

Is it just me or is the videography/editing really really good in this episode? Like the switch between the content and the sponsor block is very evident in quality. I didn't notice this previously on my phone.

[Zonker]

Audiophiles are the same. I remember in the 80s, a friend paid a fortune for a CD setup and fridge-sized sub woofer. He'd explain the 'smooth' bell curve compared to the digital bell curve of bits. He'd then play a bit of music and say "Can you hear it?"... to which I would stare at him for a while and say "Ten grand? Really??".

[thetalesofdaneandco]

This "problem" was small enough that it definitely didn't warrant an apology. That said, the video is good for extra information on the subject.

[FireRisinWithin]

One added feature of a standalone Panasonic is the dual hdmi outs, allowing hdr video to be passed to a display, and uncompressed audio to be sent to older avrs. That feature alone sold it for me.

[iamamish]

I wanted to let you guys know, this is why I really love LTT. You guys take a fairly complicated technical problem (or set of problems) and dissect them into easy to understand smaller problems. Does it teach me everything I want to know? No, but now I know what sorts of questions I should be asking, and how to look for more information. Nice job as always.

[shinaikouka]

One big thing that I'd like to add about Dolby Vision... even though cheaper Blu-ray players may support Dolby Vision, a good number of them *do not* support automatic switching. In other words, if you're going to watch a movie, you'd need to check to see if it supports Dolby Vision, and if so, turn it on in the player's settings. Also, you'd want to make sure to turn it off when you're done. That's one of the reasons why I went with the Panasonic model after I sold my Oppo as it was pretty much the only model that supported automatic switching. I think there's a cheaper LG model that supports it now too, but I can't recall off the top of my head.

Oh, and as a quick side note, one reason why I never even considered the Series X as a UHD player is that I was fairly disappointed by the Xbox One S back in the day. (That was before I had Dolby Vision anyway.) The biggest problem with the One S is that the disc noise was just so loud that it was easily audible in low volume situations. Good Blu-ray players are actually built to help isolate that noise.

[MrSatyre]

All of this really highlights how far ahead of the curve Pioneer was. They implemented 72Hz 3:3 pull down, and 12-bit processing 15 years ago in DVD and BD

[ULTRAWIDE.]

The UB820 is a great player. It’s a shame a lot of manufacturers have pulled out of making 4K players now. Panasonic, Sony and LG are the only ones that seem to be in it still. Panasonic do the best ones. Some of the players have a show stopping issue of not being able to go to the third layer of a 4K disc without freezing or glitching out.

[drewpweiner]

Have an xbox one x, bought a 4k blu-ray player purely for Dolby vision/atmos, looks amazing, but what blew me away was how good the sound quality is, its insane how high-quality is it. Audio is definitely a huge upgrade over streaming services.

[KingLarbear]

The editors that you have are amazing, because they really took what you said and adjusted the screen in real life so we could understand what you were saying and what it actually meant

[ilajoie]

"You are technically correct, which is the best kind of correct" good to see Linus has an inner bureaucrat

[dontpokethebear]

I have a Panasonic ub820 and haven’t regretted it for over a year now. Between Dolby vision support, chroma upsampling, and other features not mentioned here like dvd/1080p Blu Ray upscaling, hdr tone mapping for a 1000nit cap, and very flexible audio options, it’s been really nice to have a dedicated player. I’d say that if you primarily watch movies on disc it’s worth getting one.

[capkingy]

This video was fun. The main reason to go with the 4K Panasonic Blu-ray player is for the superior audio experience you get with the 4K physical disk over the 4K digital streaming services. One of my favorite movies is the first Top Gun 4K Blu-ray. It’s expanded Dolby Atmos surround is amazing. Apollo 13 in DTS X is also great. The Hunt for Red October is also fun .My bedroom can only handle a 5.1 surround system but it still is a fun to hear. Hopefully your team will do a follow up to this video and compare 4K streaming audio to the 4K Blu-ray. You will be pleasantly surprised on the difference in quality from the disk to streaming formats. I have the lg 65 c2 oled tv. Once I got that I had to upgrade my receiver to Dolby vision and Atmos along with the Panasonic 4K Blu-ray you mentioned. Thank you for your great content.

[a-]

"They couldn't tell"
"They could tell"
Those cracked me up

[SebastianFWL]

We need more home theater, blue ray, 4k, Imax, Dolby Vision/Audio content from you. Do the whole thing. There's a lot of confusion out there.

[MrZekToR]

Well, I can confirm that there is a marked difference between my Xbox Series X and my Panasonic UB820 when playing 4K discs. I'm using an 85" Samsung 4K Mini-LED display and a Dolby Atmos capable sound system. One big bonus with the UB820 is the HDR Optimiser. That makes a considerable difference all on its own. Generally, I find that the output of the UB820 is better in every respect over the XSX. Of course, they both look good - and to the average consumer, both are pleasing to the eye. In my case, when comparing both players, the UB820 is an obvious step up in quality compared to the XSX, especially when the HDR Optimiser is properly configured for your display and enabled. But, it doesn't stop there. The audio is better too. They both can process and output Dolby Atmos. But, the UB820 does a far better job of it. What's especially noticeable with the XSX is the centre channel dialogue sounding muddled in very noisy scenes. The UB820 seems to have better separation / resolution as regards the centre channel / dialogue. I can actually hear voices clearly over the action. Something that is a struggle with the XSX. Not only that, but in very noisy films - like Top Gun Maverick, when it gets really loud - there's a kind of 'shrill' with some scenes that is uncomfortable to listen to. On the UB820 there is none of that uncomfortable shrill and it can be played at the same loud volumes. So, in my case then - yes, there is a considerable difference in quality between the two devices. The UB820 is definitely the player to use if I want the best out of my 4K collection.

[MithosDagon]

I bought a Panasonic U820 a couple years ago, but ended up using my consoles for 4K Blu-rays and put the U820 in the living room with a basic 4K TV. Now that I just upgraded to a 4K OLED, I told my wife that I will be taking back the U820 for movies :)