@Blitz , Yes I know Best Buy will begin to have Panasonic's UB820 on or about August 26th. Our company was selected by Panasonic as the exclusive launch partner. We've been shipping the UB820 since July 30. (See post #49 a few up from here)
I've worked with Panasonic engineering on fixes and enhancements to make this the best BD player it can be and we're still working on more upgrades.
I have an engineering sample of the UB9000 and I'd love to see the UB9000 have an HDMI input, but sorry to say it does not. Here's a couple pictures of my UB9000.
Hope no one minds a plug for my company, but way wait when you can have the UB820 now, get it double boxed for safe travel to your home and deal with a passionate video engineer for support and technical help as needed on this new advanced HDR technology device.