Panasonic DP-UB9000 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player Preview

Read the full review for the Panasonic DP-UB9000 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player

Just when you thought Blu-ray players had gone the way of the dinosaur, Panasonic surprises with the DP-UB9000 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player. This premium source component plays every disc-based video format and delivers the very best in video and audio quality. I’ve just received one for review.

Opening the carton reveals a solid chassis that feels hewn from a solid billet of aluminum. In fact, the plates that make up this simply-styled box are very thick which means any vibration from the disc transport will be absorbed before it can affect the high-end electronics. Discrete circuitry is used for audio and video signals. The latter is run through an HCX (Hollywood Cinema Experience) processor for the best possible scaling and chroma upsampling.

The DP-UB9000 is a videophile tweaker’s dream with fine control available for both SDR and HDR content. You can adjust the luminance (EOTF) curve of HDR titles to best suite the connected display and the room environment. This means HDR will always look its best regardless of other factors. I haven’t seen this level of control in any player before. I also found a nice streaming interface with apps for popular carriers like Amazon and Netflix that I’ll trying out during my review.

I can’t wait to watch some movies and a few episodes of The Grand Tour during my review of the Panasonic DP-UB9000. Watch this space for my complete thoughts and observations coming soon! Chris Eberle

The Panasonic DP-UB9000’s audio performance is terrific! It will handle high resolution audio files through streaming but not with DVD-A discs. The sound is what you would expect from a high-end Panasonic player. Bench tests, an example shown below, indicates very low distortion.

More to come soon as Chris and I wrap up the complete review of the Panasonic DP-UB9000 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player with benchmark analytics of both the video and audio performance. Thank you to Value Electronics for making this player available for review. John Johnson

Read the full review for the Panasonic DP-UB9000 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player