THE HI–FI HEADLINES

NEWSLETTER No.227

Panasonic’s eagerly awaited 4K UHD Blu-ray player, known as the DMP-UB900, has now launched in Australia. Recently we were lucky to have Panasonic’s own Japanese based Chief Engineer, Kazuhiko Kouno, in the Showroom for a technical briefing and to take us through the considerable technical achievements they’ve packaged into their flagship player.

From what we’ve seen of its specs and fron witnessing its operation first hand, it is clearly a cut above the rest. This is a 4K Blu-ray disc player that has been built with high-end user tastes in mind, especially for fans of high-end audio formatting.

It certainly looks the premium item. The glass-cut finish and mirrored front panel is designed to match expensive flat panel TVs. The remote comes with classy backlighting – very handy when you’ve got all the lights off for Movie night.

Of course appearances are one thing, but it’s what’s under the hood that really counts. Here the ‘Ultra HD Premium’-certified DMP-UB900 really shines. There are a host of new imaging technologies, including 4K high-precision Chroma processing and high-gradation processing. The idea being that the viewer will experience more natural images with lifelike depth and vivid colours.

The player supports High Dynamic Range (HDR), which offers improved brightness while enhancing detail in the blacks, higher contrast capabilities and a wider, lifelike colour palette. It supports 60p frame rates and the BT.2020 wide colour gamut.

The audio component side of the player has also come in for substantial attention, sporting a large-capacity power supply unit with high-quality components in its audio circuits.

The take from this is that Panasonic has got serious about sound, and with features such as twin HDMI outputs for separating audio and video signals, it’s easy to see how useful this could be.

Indeed to take advantage of all these features, your home entertainment system should include a decent audio set-up, able to make the most of the DMP-UB900’s outstanding visuals and compelling audio performance.

The DMP-UB900 comes packaged with two UHD Blu-ray discs and is selling for $999 ($1,099 rrp).