Panasonic - 4K Ultra HD Dolby Atmos Audio DVD/CD/3D Blu-Ray Player, DP-UB154P-K - Black

Picture and audio quality is twice as good as a DVD player. Everything is great, except for the remote. I do like the smaller size, but they took it too far. The buttons controlling the play of disc: play, stop, fwd, rwd, are small and close together. Four buttons per row, it would have been so much easier to operate with three per row. These are the buttons used most often, and they are the most difficult to use. Would I buy again? Absolutely.

Panasonic 4k UHD Blu-ray player DP-UB154P-K In today’s modern world of streaming media services galore, some might argue why companies are still supporting plastic disc based media. I’ve had this complaint levied against me I’m fact, as old school CD, DVD, Blu-ray collector. My reasons are simple; while PQ picture quality might be comparable, the audio seldom is, with various services thinning down Dolby and DTS audio bandwidth on streaming services, compared to disc based media holding far more capacity at far higher depth bitrate sampling rates. In fact some services don’t even offer the Dolby Atmos track that we can get on 4k UHD Blu-ray Disc. Another reason for owning discs is you own your personal copy of the movie, to watch anytime, not sit behind a paywall hoping the streamer doesn’t pull it before you intend to watch again, or their license rights expire. I was surprised to find this Panasonic 4k UHD player after a seemingly long absence in the category. Previously I was concerned when Sony discontinued their previous high end 4k player (UBP-X800?) to retool it stripping some features I was compelled to purchase a backup. I can say this Panasonic is a fraction of the original price of the Sony players and outperforms it. If you maintain a disc based library and are looking to upgrade Blu-ray to 4k UHD you could spend much more, though imho you don’t really need to. Pros + compact + occupies little rack space + impeccable picture quality + high resolution audio support + picture quality calibration controls l Cons -no display screen -plastic construction feels sub par -power transformer instead of IEC cable Conclusion: The product could be better (front display screen, etc) but for the price of this you’re getting a high quality 4k image that even makes traditional non-4k images look outstanding.

The Panasonic DP-UB154 is Panasonic’s budget option for 4k UltraHD playback. The unit is small, simple and to the point. Unencumbered by the expectations of a smart player, this blu-ray player focuses on the mantra: “do one thing and do it right”. With this I find no fault. First I’ll skip any pretense and make a recommendation. If you’re an AV enthusiast and non-techy, non-gamer, or have a dedicated movie space, this is the player for you. Literally put the disk in and play like DVD players of old. The primary competition for any UHD player right now are game consoles. But since the death of the Xbox One S, there are really no budget options in that space right now, especially with digital only being pushed. While I’ve used an Xbox One S in the UHD player role it’s not ideal. With the fact that even starting my old Xbox One S, updating it, launching a movie, etc… is an exhausting process (for a UHD player only), the UB154 is a breath of fresh air. The UB154 is a small unit, under 13” wide. The left side is the disc tray, which is a traditional ejection tray (supporting standard and mini discs). There are only 2 buttons on the device: power and eject. On the back you also find simplified ports with an MVP of DC power, HDMI, and 10/100 ethernet. This player does not have WiFi, so keep that in mind for your setup. In my case, I wired my home theater a long time ago, so it’s a non-issue. That said, you shouldn’t need to do firmware updates too regularly (although mine did initially after powering on). The included remote is pretty basic. It’s not backlit or really comfortable in the hand. Buttons are small, but it’s effective for when you need all the controls. Ideally CEC is what you’d use on a day to day basis, but I had trouble initially with it. CEC will let you use your TV or receiver remote to control the playback of the blu-ray. I won’t blame my troubles on this device, but my rather finicky Marantz receiver. Software wise, this device does seem to support the basic ‘photo’, ‘video’, ‘audio’, ‘disc’ options. None of these are network enabled (unless you consider the BD Live functionality), but instead rely on either the disc drive or USB to read media. I’m not sure, in a world of connected services, and streaming devices you’d ever need this functionality but it’s there. Besides that, basic playback and information support is found. The settings menu lets you dive into a few deep settings, but overall keeps things simple. Setup correctly identified my projector as 4k and not-3d (which this device appears to support 3D, but I was unable to test) and HDR 10+. Of note, there is no Dolby Vision support to be found. My projector doesn’t support that anyways, but it’s worth mentioning. Playback was handled fairly well. Playback start time rivals almost any player I’ve owned, being much faster than some older non-UHD blu-ray players. The simplicity buys speed and that’s a welcome in this always connected checking for updates world. Pausing a movie and coming back to it could cause stuttering. Obviously the disc drive spun down in what is likely a power saving move, but likely unnecessary for anything but an EPA rating. Everything was drama free and it decoded my Bumble Bee movie gloriously. HDR 10+ worked flawlessly after a bit of a blank and display (which is a handshake that goes through my receiver to my projector that takes its time switching). Dolby Atmos bitstreamed perfectly from the disk. Detail was crisp and clear in both the audio and video side - reflecting their raw digital nature. Plugging in the normal BD, this also worked flawlessly in FullHD with Atmos streaming. Upscaling of the video looked good, but it’s hard to analyze what technology is in use. Overall the picture was definitely crisp, but only 1080p. The upscaling definitely made it look better than the raw blu-ray. So either UHD or FHD BD’s look excellent for a movie room. For my use case this is a god-send. A low maintenance, simple, fast UHD BD player is light years better than waiting for my Xbox One S to update and launch (and now I can relocate it and use it for more gaming). Overall this is a surgical device that correctly and precisely plays blu-ray disks. For that use case, it excels.