Great video, Frank! I finally used the hack earlier this week when I opened my Bruce Lee arrow Box Set. I was happy. Thanks for the heads-up on the International studios that work.
For what I have seen and I've seen a lot UA-camrs who know the hack, this also works on other 4K Blu Ray players from Pana like the UB9000, UB420 and 450. So maybe for those who own one of the other types and don't know this hack, it also works for them. For LG (who stoppen manufacturing) and Sony I don't have seen something about a likewise hack. But these you can hard/softmod to be regionfree. But this hack doesn't cost you extra money so this is awesome to know.
Sadly it doesn’t work for every title. I recently bought killers of the flower moon on 4k from italy and its region b locked and could not bypass it. I have other titles on bluray that worked though. It’s so sad to see titles having region locks.
Thanks for watching the video! Yeah, I don't know why some 4k's are region locked, especially when they're "advertised" as region-free disks. I don't know if it's done by accident, but it is rare for some 4k's to be region locked.
Italy went against 4k guidelines and rumor has it they might be doing a repress. ALL 4ks are region free but Italy wanted to be ahead of the curve with this release to force people to buy their disc
I have the same player (region B) with the most recent updates but when I hit the Stop button it gives an error message something like This Action is Not Allowed and that is it I can't continue with the hack
Here's a bit of extra information about the players features. I have several SACD's and they all play fine. I'm surprised as I think SACD's are no longer in productiona and the discs cost a small fortune on eBay. 😀
Tried this on my copy of Quantum of Solace from the UK version of the James Bond Collection 24-disc Blu-ray set that is notoriously the only b-region locked disc in the set, and it didn't work sadly. It won't allow you to stop the disc playback. It will only allow you to eject the disc. Ended up buying a standalone US version QoS 4k/Blu-ray copy. Bit of a bummer, but oh well!
Hi Frank. I have a similar set-up like yours. LG C2 with UB820 and a q990b. Can you tell me please how you connect them and if I need to apply any specific settings. Thank you.
Hey Frank. Thanks for sharing this hack. I was wondering have you tried this hack with other region DVDs? I wonder if it would work the same way as with the Blu-rays? There are some films that haven't yet made to Blu-Ray and 4K and are only available on DVD from the UK or Europe. Just wondering if the Top Menu hack would work.
I reside in the UK and I have both an 820 that I constantly update, and an old Panasonic 4K player from 2017 that I have not updated since 2018 since I hacked the firmware. I use this hack to play imported Region A Criterion BD’s on my 820. Mind you it only works for Criterion BD’s that were released post mid 2010s (imported the Criterion edition of Repulsion many years ago and seeing as this was released in 2009, it didn’t work with that hack so I decided to just get the Region B edition which Criterion released in the intervening years) All other Region A titles like Shout Factory I need to rely on my firmware hacked player.
Second sight doesnt work on all titles. I just got the ginger snaps blurays and none of them work. Dog soldiers and it follows also dont work but high tension does
Good question. I don't know. I don't want to misinform you, and give you the wrong information. I can just confirm what my Region A Panasonic UB820 can do, but I assume so.
@@jacobneumann5021 thanks for watching, and replying. It seems like this hack only works for Region A Panasonic ub820 players. Hope you check out some of my other videos.
Depends on the distributor releasing the title. I’m also Region B and the majority of my imported Region A titles are Criterion BD’s and they work on the 820 with the hack (mind you only for titles that were released post mid 2010) Any other Region A titles from other distributors I find the hack doesn’t work so I have to use my other, older, and hacked 4K player.
I want to buy a panasonic streaming 4k blu ray player with dolby vision and hdr10+ ultra hd premium video playback, hi-res audio, voice assist - dp-ub820-k (black) now the question is. I have some DVD-R AND DVD+R that have mp4 movies burned on to them disc and that's why I'm asking if this unit will play them?
This is what I've found. "Any DVD-R/RW/R DL, +R/+RW/+R DL and CD-R/RW that are recorded by a recorder need to be finalized by the recorder to play on this unit." It should play burned dvd's
I tried two studio canal UK blu-rays on my Panasonic UB820 . Both loaded up using this hack, but only one actually loaded the full menu. One was the Fog (it's full menu loaded fine) and the other King Kong 1976. The King Kong one loaded, but when it got to the menu none of the features were present. Just the menu screen running clips of the movie in the background. I couldn't select anything. I found that rather strange.
Dang, so you couldn't even watch King Kong due to no play button on the screen? Also, thanks for watching the video! Feel free to check out some of my other videos.
@@Franksmediaandreviews No it's ok. The other disc is 4K, so I can watch the movie. The bluray has the extras. No biggie. I already have a Shout Factory KK 1976 blu-ray with all the same features.
I'm sorry to hear about that, Megan. Since I've posted this video, I did hear from those who live in the UK that for some reason this trick doesn't work over there. Thanks for watching the video!
Depends on the distributor releasing the title. I’m also Region B and the majority of my imported Region A titles are Criterion BD’s and they work on the 820 with the hack (mind you only for titles that were released post mid 2010) Any other Region A titles from other distributors I find the hack doesn’t work so I have to use my other, older, and hacked 4K player.
It didn’t work for me ?? I tried playing LEON THE PROFESSIONAL from a regular over seas dvd and it won’t work I’m thinking of selling my 820 on market place instead I have an older 4k Samsung player that works even better in-k8500
I've luckily have never experienced that before. The most recent disk that I had trouble with was Top Gun Maverick, but I was able to replace the disk and it worked fine afterwards.
That happened with my UB-9000. I had it for about 4 years and 2 months before I started noticing the issue and it got worse and worse. I bought the 820 shortly after.
@@adamsultana8380 Well, I'm glad there hasn't been any issues. If you check out some of my other videos, let me know what you think. I just started the channel a couple months ago, and I love connecting with physical media people like myself. Have a great day!
You're leaving out a little more information on the 820 v 9000 comparison.. The 9000 has a better build, noise level is little to none compared to the 820 and the internal DAC for audio makes blows the audio away. Last would be the HDR optimizer it had a mode for projectors which the 820 doesn't have. Being an owner of both the 820 and 9000 i would say it's 100% worth it. I noticed the difference right away
I don’t own a projector so no qualms for me, but you are right about the build. The noise of the loading mechanism is muffled om the 9000, especially when playing some Universal 4K’s. Mind you the noise dulls significantly on the 820 after fifteen or so minutes. The 9000 is a better player no question about it but not enough to justify the £600 difference that was the price back in 2018 when I bought these players.
Eden lake was produced by Pathé. Have you checked to see if the discs that don't work are German? Leonine are a distributor based in Munich. Maybe if you got the UK distribution discs they would work?
@@moneyzonetrader a 4k disc is mostly region free. A 4k player like the UB820 doesn't necessarily mean it will play blurays from every region. I have some blurays that are from Region B that won't play on my UB820. There are Region Free bluray players that can play blurays from all Regions. Those are $100+ here in the States.
When I put a docs in and hit stop it won’t it says cannot play stop don’t even work this is the movie Leon from Korea !! It does not say any region at all
It will Not work on Region B UB820 Players , I live in Australia with region B , tried Zone two DVD , Pushed Stop when I got the Message then Pushed Top Menu Twice , Zip Nudda ?
@@Franksmediaandreviews I tried an Australian Movie regular DVD (Region B). I just wanted to try and see if it worked which is sort of related to your video buy not specifically to Bluray's which you tried. Not a lot of info for this stuff, so I wanted to add what I tried in case anyone reads the comments.
What label are you trying to use this method with? Was it any of the ones that I shown on the video? Looking at other YT content creators, they have used the same method too. Again, once you get the Region B locked screen. Hit stop, and hit top menu once or a couple times. The only label that I've had trouble with is Leonine.
Press the stop button once and the top menu 5 to 7 times. Sometimes it takes multiple times. I pressed 7 and it worked for me . Hopefully this works for you
Dude! I had to hit the top menu button twice but it totally worked! Much appreciated.
Glad it worked, and thanks for watching the video! Be sure to check out some of my other videos too.
Great video, Frank! I finally used the hack earlier this week when I opened my Bruce Lee arrow Box Set. I was happy. Thanks for the heads-up on the International studios that work.
No problem! I tried to be thorough with the various international labels.
For what I have seen and I've seen a lot UA-camrs who know the hack, this also works on other 4K Blu Ray players from Pana like the UB9000, UB420 and 450. So maybe for those who own one of the other types and don't know this hack, it also works for them. For LG (who stoppen manufacturing) and Sony I don't have seen something about a likewise hack. But these you can hard/softmod to be regionfree. But this hack doesn't cost you extra money so this is awesome to know.
I appreciate all the info and thanks for watching too
Sadly it doesn’t work for every title. I recently bought killers of the flower moon on 4k from italy and its region b locked and could not bypass it. I have other titles on bluray that worked though. It’s so sad to see titles having region locks.
Thanks for watching the video!
Yeah, I don't know why some 4k's are region locked, especially when they're "advertised" as region-free disks. I don't know if it's done by accident, but it is rare for some 4k's to be region locked.
Italy went against 4k guidelines and rumor has it they might be doing a repress. ALL 4ks are region free but Italy wanted to be ahead of the curve with this release to force people to buy their disc
@@TheLastSamurai813False German Media Books are Region B locked and People Under The Stairs from Shout Factory is Region A locked
I have the same player (region B) with the most recent updates but when I hit the Stop button it gives an error message something like This Action is Not Allowed and that is it I can't continue with the hack
Sorry the hack doesn't work for your Region B player.
I love my Panasonic UB 9000!👍
It works! Thank You! 🙏🏿
Thank you for this information. Very good hack.
No problem!
Here's a bit of extra information about the players features. I have several SACD's and they all play fine. I'm surprised as I think SACD's are no longer in productiona and the discs cost a small fortune on eBay. 😀
I'm not gonna pretend, what does SA mean in SACD?
@@Franksmediaandreviews Super Audio = Super Audio Compact Disc. It is a format of high res audio.
Tried this on my copy of Quantum of Solace from the UK version of the James Bond Collection 24-disc Blu-ray set that is notoriously the only b-region locked disc in the set, and it didn't work sadly. It won't allow you to stop the disc playback. It will only allow you to eject the disc. Ended up buying a standalone US version QoS 4k/Blu-ray copy. Bit of a bummer, but oh well!
Sorry if didn't work. I appreciate you watching the video!
I bought this player as a backup for my Oppo 203 4K player
Just bought this Panasonic UB820 for 378.00 black Friday! 😅
Where at?
Also works for UB420 player!
Thanks for the info!
Hi Frank. I have a similar set-up like yours. LG C2 with UB820 and a q990b. Can you tell me please how you connect them and if I need to apply any specific settings. Thank you.
The UB820 is on HDMI 2 (LG TV). The HDMI is plugged to Video Out and is connected to Q990B. The 2nd HDMI cord is connected to the TV.
Hey Frank. Thanks for sharing this hack. I was wondering have you tried this hack with other region DVDs? I wonder if it would work the same way as with the Blu-rays? There are some films that haven't yet made to Blu-Ray and 4K and are only available on DVD from the UK or Europe. Just wondering if the Top Menu hack would work.
Thanks for watching the video, Shaynes! Unfortunately, no I haven't.
My Oppo 103D is all region, so I use it for region B. My Panny is the 420 since my projector doesn’t do Dolby vision.
I reside in the UK and I have both an 820 that I constantly update, and an old Panasonic 4K player from 2017 that I have not updated since 2018 since I hacked the firmware. I use this hack to play imported Region A Criterion BD’s on my 820. Mind you it only works for Criterion BD’s that were released post mid 2010s (imported the Criterion edition of Repulsion many years ago and seeing as this was released in 2009, it didn’t work with that hack so I decided to just get the Region B edition which Criterion released in the intervening years) All other Region A titles like Shout Factory I need to rely on my firmware hacked player.
This hack is hit and miss. I own over twenty discs from Region B and this hack works about half of the time. Oh, well. Thank you for posting.
Second sight doesnt work on all titles. I just got the ginger snaps blurays and none of them work. Dog soldiers and it follows also dont work but high tension does
do a review for juon the the grudge collection
How about DVD's? Does this hack let you play DVD's region free?
I can't confirm, as I don't have a Region B DVD.
I have just bought this player, but I haven't installed it yet. My player is region B. Will this trick work the other way, so I can watch region A?
Good question. I don't know. I don't want to misinform you, and give you the wrong information. I can just confirm what my Region A Panasonic UB820 can do, but I assume so.
No it doesn't. I have the 9000 model and the hack doesn't work.
@@jacobneumann5021 thanks for watching, and replying. It seems like this hack only works for Region A Panasonic ub820 players.
Hope you check out some of my other videos.
Depends on the distributor releasing the title. I’m also Region B and the majority of my imported Region A titles are Criterion BD’s and they work on the 820 with the hack (mind you only for titles that were released post mid 2010) Any other Region A titles from other distributors I find the hack doesn’t work so I have to use my other, older, and hacked 4K player.
When I hit stop it won’t do anything but if I hit center button then it stops then it says this operation not avail
Did you try hitting the Top Menu button. For me, i hit stop and the Top Menu button. Sometimes even hitting the TM button first by passes it as well.
I want to buy a panasonic streaming 4k blu ray player with dolby vision and hdr10+ ultra hd premium video playback, hi-res audio, voice assist - dp-ub820-k (black) now the question is. I have some DVD-R AND DVD+R that have mp4 movies burned on to them disc and that's why I'm asking if this unit will play them?
This is what I've found. "Any DVD-R/RW/R DL, +R/+RW/+R DL and CD-R/RW that are recorded by a recorder need to be finalized by the recorder to play on this unit."
It should play burned dvd's
I tried two studio canal UK blu-rays on my Panasonic UB820 . Both loaded up using this hack, but only one actually loaded the full menu. One was the Fog (it's full menu loaded fine) and the other King Kong 1976. The King Kong one loaded, but when it got to the menu none of the features were present. Just the menu screen running clips of the movie in the background. I couldn't select anything. I found that rather strange.
Dang, so you couldn't even watch King Kong due to no play button on the screen?
Also, thanks for watching the video! Feel free to check out some of my other videos.
@@Franksmediaandreviews No it's ok. The other disc is 4K, so I can watch the movie. The bluray has the extras. No biggie. I already have a Shout Factory KK 1976 blu-ray with all the same features.
Great hack , thanks for sharing 👌👌
No problem!
I'm in the uk and ive tried this on screen factory blu-ray disc's and it didn't work
I'm sorry to hear about that, Megan. Since I've posted this video, I did hear from those who live in the UK that for some reason this trick doesn't work over there.
Thanks for watching the video!
I have Dawn of the Dead by Synapse and this hack won’t work. Any ideas?
Will it work with DVDs or just Blu Ray and 4K’s.
Good question. I don't know, as I don't have Region B DVD's.
Tried to unlock region A on a region B player ..doesn't work unfortunately
Sorry to hear that. Another person stated the same. It must work for Region A Panasonic ub820 players on Region B discs.
Depends on the distributor releasing the title. I’m also Region B and the majority of my imported Region A titles are Criterion BD’s and they work on the 820 with the hack (mind you only for titles that were released post mid 2010) Any other Region A titles from other distributors I find the hack doesn’t work so I have to use my other, older, and hacked 4K player.
It didn’t work for me ?? I tried playing LEON THE PROFESSIONAL from a regular over seas dvd and it won’t work I’m thinking of selling my 820 on market place instead I have an older 4k Samsung player that works even better in-k8500
What happens when your player stops reading your disks?
I've luckily have never experienced that before. The most recent disk that I had trouble with was Top Gun Maverick, but I was able to replace the disk and it worked fine afterwards.
That happened with my UB-9000. I had it for about 4 years and 2 months before I started noticing the issue and it got worse and worse. I bought the 820 shortly after.
@@adamsultana8380 Thanks for watching the video! Have you had any issues with the UB820?
@@Franksmediaandreviews nothing yet, but I've only had it since October 2023.
@@adamsultana8380 Well, I'm glad there hasn't been any issues. If you check out some of my other videos, let me know what you think. I just started the channel a couple months ago, and I love connecting with physical media people like myself.
Have a great day!
You're leaving out a little more information on the 820 v 9000 comparison.. The 9000 has a better build, noise level is little to none compared to the 820 and the internal DAC for audio makes blows the audio away. Last would be the HDR optimizer it had a mode for projectors which the 820 doesn't have. Being an owner of both the 820 and 9000 i would say it's 100% worth it. I noticed the difference right away
Thanks for watching and for the info!
the 820 does have the hdr optimizer..the 9000 is built better and has more audio options..that and a 500 dollar price difference
I don’t own a projector so no qualms for me, but you are right about the build. The noise of the loading mechanism is muffled om the 9000, especially when playing some Universal 4K’s. Mind you the noise dulls significantly on the 820 after fifteen or so minutes. The 9000 is a better player no question about it but not enough to justify the £600 difference that was the price back in 2018 when I bought these players.
@@nunyabidness7547 I never said it didn’t have the optimizer I said it doesn’t have the projector mode
Cool!
Just Buy a All region player , Got it half right my Cheap Laser Player Plays DVD and Blu Ray but Not 4k ?
Eden lake was produced by Pathé. Have you checked to see if the discs that don't work are German? Leonine are a distributor based in Munich. Maybe if you got the UK distribution discs they would work?
Well, this work on 4K😊
4k is always region free?
99% of the time it is. There's only a few when it will be Region locked.
@@Franksmediaandreviews so i am abt to buy panasonic ub820 from usa. will it play my indian 1080p disks?
@@moneyzonetrader a 4k disc is mostly region free. A 4k player like the UB820 doesn't necessarily mean it will play blurays from every region. I have some blurays that are from Region B that won't play on my UB820.
There are Region Free bluray players that can play blurays from all Regions. Those are $100+ here in the States.
@@Franksmediaandreviews I CAN BUY REGION FREE FROM EBAY. BUT DONT THESE SELLERS OPEN THE PACKAGE AND DO SOME TWEAK THEMSELVES TO MAKE IT REGION FREE?
This works on my UB820 but does not work on the UB154 if anyone was curious
When I put a docs in and hit stop it won’t it says cannot play stop don’t even work this is the movie Leon from Korea !! It does not say any region at all
It will Not work on Region B UB820 Players , I live in Australia with region B , tried Zone two DVD , Pushed Stop when I got the Message then Pushed Top Menu Twice , Zip Nudda ?
Well, this work on the past like 420
Any THX addons so I won't have to get the 9000
To my knowledge, no.
I can confirm that this does not work on my UB9000(Region A). I tried a Region B Disc and it did not work.
Which label is the Region B disc from? In the video I did mention and show some labels don't work with the hack.
@@Franksmediaandreviews I tried an Australian Movie regular DVD (Region B). I just wanted to try and see if it worked which is sort of related to your video buy not specifically to Bluray's which you tried. Not a lot of info for this stuff, so I wanted to add what I tried in case anyone reads the comments.
@@ForAFewDollarsMore9 Thanks! I appreciate it. Nothing wrong with getting more info for everyone.
Well, let’s play in English once you do the hack
It doesn’t work for me:(
What label are you trying to use this method with? Was it any of the ones that I shown on the video? Looking at other YT content creators, they have used the same method too.
Again, once you get the Region B locked screen. Hit stop, and hit top menu once or a couple times. The only label that I've had trouble with is Leonine.
Press the stop button once and the top menu 5 to 7 times. Sometimes it takes multiple times. I pressed 7 and it worked for me . Hopefully this works for you
Just rip the disc and play a mkv. Saves the laser too.
Fix your sound.
Noted and already did a couple months ago.
Not trying to be mean but your tv is the size of a pc monitor. What’s the point of 4k? A dvd would look good on that.
A 65 inch LG CX is the size of a pc monitor?? That's a new one.