Hi Paris,
So sorry for the delay in getting back to you; I didn't expect anyone to actually respond to my post...
Let me say, right off the bat, thank you so much for taking the time to reply. I truly appreciate it.
Hi,
Yes I do. I have it paired with an A9G. I previously had the older UB900 as well.
Awesome; indeed, I know the 900 was their first UHD player on the market, but at the time we weren't ready to jump into 4K (I believe the UB900 debuted in 2016, correct?) and I ideally wanted to hold out until Oppo released a player, being that I was so pleased with the previous Blu-ray deck we had in our system for over a decade, the BDP-83. Unfortunately, by the time the UDP-203 was released, we still weren't prepared to get a UHD disc player, and we lost the opportunity to snag one when Oppo closed down...I also wasn't prepared to pay somewhere near $2K for a used 203 on eBay, which I believe they still go for.
Interesting about Panasonic first generation players: I still own the company's DMP-BD10A BD player, the first generation unit with the flip-down plastic panel on the front (like the cheap UB820, which I bought and returned for a Cambridge Audio CXUHD, which itself turned out to exhibit a DVD noise problem during playback that the repair center couldn't fix....a story for another time), and it's still in use in our bedroom. Funny how I've kind of come full circle with Panasonic, being that my very first non-progressive scan DVD player was from the brand (and I STILL own that, as well, being used as a CD player in our gym!) and then getting the BD10A in the high definition era and now owning the UB9000....
Looking back at your original post, couple quick notes. I apologize if you have since gotten answers..
I've gotten kind of elusive answers on all this elsewhere, so I appreciate your feedback!
For your display, the best starting choice is the Middle/High Luminance. Your TV can hit about 700-800 nits, so what this setting does if you Enable the HDR Optimizer, it does the heavy lifting tonemapping of HDR content and brings it down to 1,000 nits (if the content is mastered at max 1,000 nits then it doesn't do anything). From there, your TV tone maps the rest. I have faith that Panny's tone mapping is superior to Samsung. You can also try flicking between Optimizer On vs Off to see the effect. Do not use the Basic Luminance setting, as that will bring it down to 500 nits and you will not be using your TV's full capability.
Thank you very much for explaining this to me as simply as possible -- I will keep the HDR TV Type on Middle/High.
I really can't explain it, but with the previous UHD disc player we owned -- the Cambridge Audio CXUHD, which is basically a copy of the Oppo 203 -- even well-mastered demo discs like
Aquaman didn't look as good or as punchy as when running through the UB9000 with the Optimizer on. It was like watching it for the first time, and all I did was flick the Optimizer on; didn't mess with any of the sub-menu settings...
To our eyes, it just seems like the Panny gives a better, brighter, yet well-controlled HDR image with 4K discs compared to the Cambridge (which didn't have any kind of onboard tonemapping save for the HDR-to-SDR conversion algorithm) -- as a matter of fact, we recently received
Bad Boys for Life in 4K in the mail, and that disc looked MIND BLOWING on the NU8000 using the 9000's Optimizer; I mean, almost
Aquaman level in terms of highlights and richness of color saturation.
Just one question for you about something you said above: You mentioned that the Panasonic's Optimizer will "bring the image down to 1,000 nits" -- but what do you mean "bring it down"? Do you mean if a disc is mastered at OVER 1,000 nits it will bring it down to 1,000 and then the Samsung will do the rest?
The remaining HDR settings within the player do not need to be touched unless you have specific reason to. My advice for now is to leave it alone and leave at 0. These are usually more important for projectors.
Thank you for confirming this; again -- much appreciated.
Another question relating to the above: Is there ANYTHING in that HDR sub-menu in the player that can be adjusted to try and mitigate the nasty, horrendous light bleed/blooming I get when viewing HDR in a dark room when the content exhibits letterboxing? This bleed/bloom is due to the edge-lighting nature of my Samsung, and I hate it, but until I can save up for a better display (either FALD or OLED), is there anything in the Panasonic's menus that may help tame the extreme light bleed I get when a dark scene in a film is punctuated by a bright object near the black bars? This always causes the light to spill into the letterbox areas, and the blacks become an off-putting gray...
I realize that this is mainly because the HDR default settings of my display are pushing the backlight to max and contrast to max (plus putting the local dimming on high) and that the edge-lighting system simply can't handle it, so to speak, but would anything in this HDR menu help this? Maybe the Tone Curve (Black) slider?
Your TV settings when watchign HDR content should have max backlight and contrast, and local dimming on High. That's correct.
Thank you, again, for the confirmation; while we're on the topic, I'll present something to you that's related to what I was asking above...
Do you think I can perhaps lower the local dimming setting to perhaps medium (Samsung calls this position "Standard") to mitigate the HDR blooming I'm experiencing with letterboxed films? Or can I try something else in the DISPLAY'S settings, maybe the brightness (black level) or gamma (lowering either or both)? I don't really want to lower the backlight level, as a max backlight is necessary with HDR, but is there anything you can suggest that may help with the blooming?
The other note, discs contain 4:2:0 8-bit for regular blu-ray. The weird thing is, HDMI spec does not allow that to be transmitted, so at minimum the player will send it as 4:2:2 8-bit and the TV will convert to 4:4:4 and then to RGB. The panny Auto settings do the full 4:4:4 conversion and also use their bit mapping to take 8-bit content and upscale it. So the TV has easier job to decode it with less chances of banding. Auto is fine to leave as is.
Thank you; are you referring to the "chroma upsampling" feature of the UB9000 here?
I have some questions about some other settings in the player's setup menu, such as the "4K/60P" adjustement; would you be able to help me with those?
Thank you, again, Paris for all your help!