Panasonic DP-UB9000 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player Preview

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

Video

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

Audio

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

John E. Johnson, Jr.

Editor-in-Chief Emeritus. John E. Johnson, Jr. founded Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity in 1994, shortly after publishing a hardcopy book of the same title. He served as Editor-in-Chief of Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity until 2022. John has been involved in audio and video for more than 50 years, having built radio transmitters, amplifiers, turntables, and speakers from scratch. He was also one of the founders of the Northern California Audio Video Association, now The Bay Area Audio Society. John holds four university degrees, including a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, and has published numerous scientific books, along with dozens of scientific articles on biomedical research topics as well as imaging technology. He was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of two medical/scientific journals for 20 years. John holds several patents, including one on high resolution image analysis and one on a surgical instrument. He has been affiliated with NASA, The National Institutes of Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Stanford Research Institute, and The University of California at Berkeley. He is President of the consulting firm Scientific Design and Information, Inc., which is based in Redwood City, California. John resides in the San Francisco Bay area with his wife and multiple kitties! His daughter, Cynthia, who was an integral part of SECRETS for many years, resides in San Francisco.