Panasonic DP-UB820EB 4K Blu-Ray DVD Player for TV, Ultra HD, Dolby Vision, HCX Processor, Dolby Atmos, HDR10+, Hi Res Audio, 4K HDR Pro, 7.1ch analogue output, Wireless LAN Built in, Black

A simply brilliant device. Simple to operate, flexible on formats and sound output, very easy to set up, and smooth in operation. The picture quality is so so much better than from the highly compressed streaming services. Upscaling for older formats is also impressive.

While I was researching for the most capable (and affordable) Blu-Ray player that would enhance the performance of my LaserTV Projector and ALR screen, the Panasonic DP-UB20EB was the obvious choice. Its 4K high-precision Chroma Processor produces outstanding colours, bringing natural images to the screen. The images are vibrant with exceptional detail, creating a visually immersive experience! I was pleasantly surprised at the rich quality produced by the automatic upscaling of Blu-Ray (HD) content. Even some basic DVD discs resembled high-definition. The player made my projector’s Dolby Atmos sound richer and more captivating than ever before! I was particularly excited about the bass as it is now much clearer and well-defined. Furthermore, the ‘Dialog Enhancer’ feature makes it easier to hear speech without needing to raise the volume too high. Though the player’s Remote Control works well, I replaced it with the Panasonic DP-UB9000 Remote Control (bought separately) as I preferred its layout and it has a backlight for use in a dark room. Admittedly, the Panasonic DP-UB20EB is a considered purchase, if you are on a budget. But after assessing its overall amazing picture and sound quality, upscaling capabilities, HDR processing, and its smooth, uninterrupted playback, I can only conclude that this award-winning product delivers as promised. This beast offers sensational performance and I can confidently recommend it. UPDATE: June 2026 After a year of regular use, I can report that this Blu-ray player is performing exactly as when purchased. For the past six months, I have been watching my collection of nostalgic British detective TV series. Though these were only produced on standard DVDs, the player's processor is able to accurately upscale the colour and sharpness of the on-screen images. The quality is exceptional.

Upgraded to this from the UB150, the difference is quite staggering. Interface is better and more intuitive sound and picture quality is excellent. Am fed up with robbing streaming services, and i quite enjoy watching movies again and again, so its 4K blu rays from now on. On added bonues is the quality of CDs being played tnrough my samsung soundbar....surprisingly quite good. Not a match for my seperates set up, but more than adequate for casual listening. Overall very impressed.

Dolby Vision is not enabled by default. Out of the box, this works fine for TVs that do not support Dolby Vision. However, if you have a Dolby Vision–capable OLED (or similar), the default settings are wrong. They can be changed, but it took me longer than it should have to realise what was going on. You need to enable Dolby Vision manually in the HDMI settings, then go into the advanced picture options and set the TV type to OLED. Once that is done, the image snaps into place. After that, you still have the usual TV-side settings to sort out. In short, whatever TV you own, this is not really a plug-and-play device. You do need to spend time setting up both the player and the television properly. There is also the HDR Optimiser for standard HDR10 discs, which is extremely useful, but oddly hidden. You can only access it by long-pressing the HDR button on the remote while a standard HDR movie is actively playing. It does not appear in the normal menu system. Once you know it is there, it is powerful and effective, but discovering it feels more like learning a cheat code than using a consumer product. Where it genuinely loses a point is the locked standby timer. If you pause playback for more than about fifteen minutes, the player powers itself off and this behaviour cannot be disabled. That would be annoying but tolerable if all UHD discs resumed properly. Some do not. When that happens, you are forced to hunt manually for your place again. That is poor design, full stop. I do not mind the menu system at all. The remote is classic Panasonic, very similar to their older TVs and players. The menus are archaic and slightly odd, but in a way I quite like. It feels like proper equipment rather than a smart device, which suits the role perfectly.

I have owned this player since December 2020 and have had no issues with disc playback at all unlike my previous Sony UDP-X800 4K UHD Blu-ray player which I had to return twice due to disc freezing. Picture and audio quality are outstanding and disc playback has been 100% reliable which are the most important features of a disc player obviously. The player starts and loads discs quickly, it is relatively quiet in operation and I like that it has a front panel LED display unlike almost every other Blu-ray player I've seen. The only negatives are the cheap plasticky build quality (the Sony X800 definitely trumps it in that department as that thing is metal and built like a tank!), the tacky poorly laid out remote (I replaced mine with the far superior one for the Panasonic UB9000 player, also available from Amazon) and the incredibly poor built in apps (which should not be a concern for anyone with a modern smart TV as its apps are far superior and updated more frequently). A good solid player and second only to the Panasonic UB9000 with its much better build quality and the one I would have bought if it did not cost almost £1,000!

I bought this primarily because I wanted Dolby Vision which my old Panasonic blu-ray player didn't support. It was basically plug-and-play (including not having to reprogramme my universal remote control). Picture quality is much improved and the HDR optimizer works well on HDR10 blu-rays like Apollo 13. It does take a little while to get all the settings dialled in as there are so many more tweaks that you can do on this player. For some reason I had to delay audio by 30ms with my particular setup to get lip sync right; no idea why. {Update] Really impressed with this player having watched a lot of different material. HDR and overall picture quality is way better than anything that I have seen before and sound quality over HDMI is excellent. I can rate it highly. I have an eight year-old LG OLED TV that really benefits from the HDR processing in this player.

Some reviewers had pretty minor quibbles about this unit which I will address here: 1. The buttons on the player's remote for turning the TV on/off and adjusting the volume only work with a Panasonic TV. A more considerate manufacturer would, indeed, design the remote to transmit codes appropriate to the TV brand used - it's not difficult to do - but the TV remote is usually nearby anyway so that's no great problem. 2. Ejecting a disc will cause the player to forget where the viewer had got to in that disc. Some players do remember several previous discs worth of positions but just remembering the one in the unit should suffice. 3. One reviewer complained that whilst using the navigation keys he often inadvertently hit the Netflix button which he considered poor positioning as it meant he had to go through the whole rigmarole of navigating back to where he was when he mis-keyed. I find I sometimes press the off key for my TV instead of the source key positioned next to it, but I don't consider that to be a problem with key positioning. 4. Another reviewer complained about the lack of supported formats. The list that is supported is very extensive and so without knowing the specific formats the reviewer was complaining about, it's hard to comment. One possible reason is that recordable and re-writeable DVDs and CDs need to be finalized before being used in this unit. Everything we have (which is quite varied) is covered. The documentation doesn't include 3D content in the supported formats table but elsewhere it states, "3D videos and 3D still pictures can be played back when this unit is connected to a 3D compatible TV using a High Speed HDMI Cable" (though I haven't actually checked this as the player is being used on a non-3D 4k TV). The only format I'm aware of that is missing is SACD. Given the scarcity of such discs (and now most surround sound tracks are released in DTS and other 'video based' formats anyway) and the fact that my parents (for whom I bought this player) don't have any, again not an issue. Someone (such as myself) who has numerous SACDs would need to look elsewhere. For myself (well, my parents), I have no complaints whatsoever. Connecting everything together was a doddle, as was connecting to the internet and checking for firmware updates, and after using the 'Easy Start' it all worked flawlessly. Recordable and re-writeable DVDs (which can be troublesome even when finalized) did just what they were supposed to do. One minor point, I don't think my parents will be availing themselves of the Network Services as many of the provided links are for subscription services, though some of the offers are, nevertheless, enticing - my mother, a classical violinist, was tempted by the 'Berliner Philharmonik' offer which made a surprise appearance. iPlayer is available via their Smart TV anyway, as is a browser. It seems everything connects to the web nowadays (I must be getting old if I use words like nowadays)!

This 4K Player has great picture quality on both Blu- ray and DVD, 4K Blu-ray is great as well sound is also very good, now for the negative the interface for the [Limited] apps is very old looking Panasonic has not changed this in years if you have a smart 4K TV the apps will be up to date most times, The 820 has Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video [Not Sure about Iplayer] The Netflix & Prime Video apps are not up to date for example Netflix is you subscribe does HD on the app but not 4K HDR the player supports 4K for 4K Discs and HDR if your TV has HDR but not the app reason I know this is because we subscribe to Netflix 4K package at the moment it works fine through the Virgin Media TV360 box Netflix app with HDR, but not on the Panasonic 820 Netflix app some might say it's not a problem but HDR makes a lot of difference to the picture quality on 4K more depth so you would think Panasonic would have updated the apps?? Something tell's me Panasonic won't. So all in all the player is very good so I can recommend this player if you just use it as a player and not the apps.

I like it all over. High quality sound and image (love the Dolby Video feature).

the player is awesome, it has everything you may need to have some quality reproduction of your blue rays but the interface is slow and cumbersome. I personally dont use it for media apps like netflix etc as i have a separate player(nvidia shield) but be aware if you buy and you have such needs. Unfortunately mine come with 1.70 firmware so i couldnt apply the multiregion mod as it's for 1.69 but a hardware mode is available as well in internet if you sre interested on multiregion blue rays and dvds. 4k are region free so no problem.

Best DVD player ever! only issue is that it didn't have HDMI cable so i have to buy one but other than that it was playing very well and region free

La calidad de imagen y de audio es fantástica, silencioso rápido y múltiples configuraciones para obtener la mejor calidad en todos los sentidos. Digno sucesor del ub700 con opciones de mejora para HDR. Se adapta al tipo de pantalla que tengas en función del brillo de la misma y optimizador de HDR para mejora de formato HDR10. Compatible con DV y HDR10+. Escalado blu ray sensacional para seguir "tirando" de colección de películas. Sin duda el mejor reproductor UHD de su rango. Recomendable 100%.