Panasonic, "Ultimate 4K Recorder" "DMR-ZR1" pursuing image quality and sound quality [reviewed]

Panasonic will release the 4K DIGA high-end model "DMR-ZR1" in pursuit of high image quality and high sound quality on January 28, 2022. The price is open, but it is expected to sell for around 360,000 yen including tax.

"DMR-ZR1" As a premium model of the company's recorder, we pursued the "ultimate recorder" with "the highest grade high-quality sound and high-quality design in the history of DIGA". In addition to using the same high-rigidity, low center of gravity housing as the top player "DP-UB9000", it also uses a newly developed power supply and digital circuit. In the latter half of the article, we will also deliver an impression of the actual machine of AV critic Kenzo Konoike. As a past premium model, there is "DMR-UBZ1" released in 2015, but although it supports Ultra HD Blu-ray, it does not support 4K broadcasting as a recorder, and it was up to high definition image quality. In addition, the UHD BD playback image quality of the UBZ1 is also higher than that of the UB9000 released after that, so it is said that this new premium model has been developed. Also, in recent years, the expressive power of the display has improved at 4K, and the acoustic environment has also improved with Dolby Atmos, which is also the background of the development. ZR1 is at the center of the system in such an era, aiming to be a recording & playback machine that handles all kinds of content. In addition, he said that he had a desire to "exceed UB9000" during development. As a result of the development aim, the company explained that this unit has realized "the ultimate 4K recording / playback machine with playback performance that greatly exceeds the UB9000". In addition to the key device technology such as LSI developed in-house, which has been accumulated for 15 years since the Blu-ray DIGA "DMR-BW200" released in 2006, it has been cultivated through the company's high-end player / UniPhier / Hollywood collaboration / Technics collaboration. Utilizing DNA. As a recorder, it supports simultaneous recording of 3 programs of 4K broadcasting by 3 terrestrial / BS / CS combined tuners. With a HDD capacity of 6TB, it is possible to record about 390 hours with 4KDR and about 4,680 hours with 4K 8-12 times. The maximum number of recorded programs is 10,000 titles. Although it does not support YouTube and Disney +, it also covers major Internet services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, hulu, and U-NEXT. In addition, it is equipped with various new functions adopted in the 4K DIGA in the fall of 2021. Equipped with 90-day "recording" of drama and animation, "recording list by genre" with increased display area and amount of information, and 1.3 / 1.6x speed playback. It also supports 4K resolution room jump links and 4K moving dubbing. HDR also supports HDR10 + and Dolby Vision. ■ Basic image quality and sound quality that exceeds the UB9000 As for the housing, the same as the UB9000, a two-layer structure top panel, a three-layer structure drive base with a center drive configuration, a 7mm thick front panel, and a four-layer structure base chassis are adopted. The same applies to the external dimensions, 430W x 87H x 300Dmm. The mass is 13.6kg, which is heavier than the UB9000. The ZR1 on the left and the UB9000 on the right have undergone major changes. ZR1 adopts the same 4-block independent configuration as UB9000, but removes the analog dedicated power supply and analog audio board. By abolishing the analog output, the part necessary for that is concentrated on the digital / drive system. Specifically, the UB9000 had a digital / drive combined power supply and an analog dedicated power supply, but the ZR1 has a digital / drive dedicated power supply and a drive dedicated power supply. By separating the power supply that drives the optical disk and the HDD, noise generated by rotation is prevented from sneaking into the digital circuit. Moreover, since the power capacity of the digital unit is the same as the conventional one, it also has the effect of reducing the circuit load. By increasing the power supply margin, the SN ratio will be improved, which will contribute to the image quality and sound quality with a margin. The power supply part uses a digital / drive independent power supply that is separated for digital circuits / drives. In development, the video technician will check if the image is better as the technician drives the sound. That is, he said that he went on an unprecedented way. When the digital / drive power supply was first separated based on the UB9000, he said, "I was convinced that this would surpass the UB9000" because of the generous sound. With the elimination of the analog part, many improvements have been made to the digital part, such as strengthening the coaxial circuit and drive system power supply, and strengthening the power supply around the ground. Configuration comparison with ZR1 disk tray UB9000 The improvement of clock accuracy was made by strengthening the digital circuit. In the system clock, an ultra-low phase noise crystal oscillator has improved the UB9000 by about 15 dB. It is said that it has export restrictions because it has high performance enough to be used for military purposes. As for the clock power supply, in addition to the local regulator, the chip film capacitor used around the analog DAC is used to suppress high-frequency noise. Improved digital circuit clock accuracy Also, for the AV clock, an ultra-low jitter PLL of the fs order, which is more accurate than the normal ps order, is used. The power supply is also strengthened here, and a local regulator and a chip film capacitor are adopted. As an improvement of the SN ratio of the circuit, a USB power conditioner circuit with a ruby ​​mica capacitor and a carbon film resistor is built-in. It is the same circuit as the USB memory type that came with the previous model UBZ1. The UB9000 has increased from one to four, with one each for the front and rear of the USB, one for video / audio HDMI, and one for audio HDMI. Power conditioner circuit for rear USB / HDMI Power conditioner circuit for front USB Furthermore, noise countermeasures are thoroughly implemented in the HDMI terminal. There is a path that digital noise wraps around the sound through the video terminal and the sound becomes worse, and this is dealt with by reviewing the path of the power supply and reducing high frequency noise with chip beads / chip film capacitors. If the noise is dropped too much, the sound will be quiet, so he said that he aimed to achieve both strength and low noise while optimizing the parts and circuits. Enhanced HDMI output By strengthening the LAN terminal, we also considered the quality of network playback such as Netflix and room jump link. The UB9000 used the clock of the Ethernet IC, but this work uses an ultra-low jitter crystal oscillator as the external clock. A local regulator and a chip film capacitor are also used for the clock power supply. With the top panel of ZR1 removed, strengthening the LAN terminal Furthermore, for the coaxial output, the same output circuit as Technics' high-end network player "SU-R1" is adopted. By separating from the chassis GND with an output transformer, the effect of high frequency noise is reduced. The sound quality when combined with an external DAC has also been improved. In addition, as an initiative for the hardware part, we are also adopting high-quality HDDs. From those that meet the company's standards, we selected the ones with low rotation, less vibration, and good sound quality. By fixing this to the HDD-dedicated drive base, which is made by laminating 3.2 mm and 0.8 mm steel plates, at four points, the vibration is suppressed to "there is almost no telling that it is working even if you touch it." HDD is fixed to a dedicated drive base [Reference] This is a prototype. I also tried damper rubber, but in the end it was better to fix it firmly. Also, regarding the mounting method of the rear panel and top panel, the accuracy of fastening is improved by cutting a pilot hole and fixing it. The sound quality has been taken into consideration in every detail, such as optimizing the sound quality by lengthening the screws for fastening the drive base. Improved rear panel mounting method ■ Pursuing original digital AV signal processing and ease of use For the video function, "4K / 24p or 30p conversion output" that can be returned to the original frame and output is installed for the first time. In 4K broadcasting, the program is sent in 4K60p, but the user can select this as 24p for movies and 30p for dramas. Since it outputs at 4: 4: 4, it is possible to make full use of DIGA's chroma upsampling performance. Also, except for broadcasting, only Amazon Prime Video supports movie output at 24p. In addition, like the UB9000, it supports image quality and sound quality adjustment during VOD playback. You can select the number of frames you want to convert from the menu. The newly developed "Video subtitle brightness reduction function" is installed as a function to solve the problem of "dazzling subtitles" when watching a dark scene in a dark room. The package containing the subtitle data could be adjusted in the past, but it was not possible to adjust the subtitle integrated as a video like 4K broadcasting. This time, by analyzing the video in real time, the brightness can be adjusted even in 4K broadcasting. Video subtitle brightness reduction function The brightness reduction of subtitles can be adjusted from two stages. The brightness of the subtitles also takes into account the image, and is adjusted for each of the bright and dark scenes. The design is optimized for subtitles at the bottom of the screen, and it is said that this function does not reduce the brightness of subtitles that are displayed vertically on the right side. A setting has also been added that optimally adjusts the dynamic range / system gamma, which was previously an adjustment item. For example, by increasing the dynamic range and lowering the system gamma, a bright and high-contrast display can be achieved. In the past, it was necessary to adjust this manually, but it can be used more easily by turning on the interlocking setting. The system gamma is finer from ± 6 steps to ± 12 steps. "Dynamic range / system gamma" interlocking adjustment mode With the improvement of the hardware-like SN ratio, the digital signal processing of broadcasting / VOD system is also optimized. By applying noise reduction and 4K super-resolution weaker than the UB9000, tuning is being performed in the direction of making the most of the original. Also, for the 4K long-time mode, the image quality algorithm has been improved. Optimized so that the bit rate does not drop too much even for images with little movement, and pursue image quality with good resolution and clearness. In addition to the previous 1.5 times (22 Mbps), a 1.3 times (25.4 Mbps) mode that can be dubbed for exactly 2 hours on the BD-R 1 layer (25 GB) has also been added. On the audio side of the rear terminal, it supports MPEG-4 AAC stream output (2 / 5.1 / 22.2ch). In addition, it will be the first in the industry to adopt a function to convert 22.2ch of 4K broadcasting to Dolby Atmos. There are few AV amplifiers that support 22.2ch, but by converting to Dolby Atmos with this function, it will be possible to play immersive sound on many devices. It was confirmed that the technology jointly developed by Dolby and Panasonic can reproduce a sound field that is comparable to that after conversion. In addition, the company's recorders, including past models, record 22.2ch streams in 4KDR mode, so you can enjoy Dolby Atmos playback even during dubbing. Converting 22.2ch to Dolby Atmos The mechanism is to decode 22.2ch data into 22.2ch linear PCM and send it to the AV amplifier together with the metadata. The data sent to the AV amplifier is rendered according to the speaker configuration using metadata, so there is no re-encoding and the quality does not deteriorate. For this, Dolby MAT, which is a standard of Dolby Atmos, is used, and PCM is embedded in the Dolby MAT container for transmission. In terms of ease of use, unlike ordinary DIGA, we have made improvements from a maniac perspective. The menu display has been changed from white base to black base to give consideration to glare. Also, by designing the screen center so that it can be seen, it is easy to make adjustments while checking the image. The menu has been changed to a black base. The menu screen information display function of the UB9000 has also been enhanced, making it possible to check not only package discs but also broadcasts, dubbing discs, and VODs. By simply pressing the i button on the remote controller, simple display / detailed display / detailed display / metadata can be switched and displayed in a toggle manner. The information display function has also been enhanced. For the remote controller that can be selected from three types of display, a newly designed "self-illuminating remote controller" will be adopted. The button layout has also been changed, and the button that calls the function that ends playback when pressed has been moved from near the operation button related to playback. If you do not pause during playback / editing, you will not be able to press the home and program guide, and measures against erroneous operations are also taken. The left is the UB9000 remote control, and the right is the ZR1 self-illuminating remote control. It emits light by pressing the light bulb mark button at the bottom left. ■ "DMR-ZR1" haste impression by Kenzo Konoike This time, at the DIGA development base in Osaka, I got the opportunity to experience ZR1. The equipment is a soundproof and sound-tuned viewing room used for product studies, with a 65-inch organic EL "HZ2000" display and 7.1.4ch speakers. In addition, I was able to compare and watch it with the UB9000 under the same conditions, so I could clearly see the difference. First of all, this unit does not have a built-in audio DAC, and it is clean, and I am attracted to the configuration that should be called "4K pure digital transporter". Play the CD for a check and check the coaxial digital output. The UB9000 is attractive for analog output, but the ZR1 is the overwhelming winner for coaxial digital. The analog output of ZR1 has an order of magnitude more information, especially the high density of low frequencies, and the dense air created from it is in the high-end audio domain. It has the impression that the power and individuality of the WADIA CD player connected as a DAC can be fully demonstrated. The HDMI audio output also has a remarkable improvement in quality, but the coaxial digital output makes the difference easier to understand, and anyone can experience the true value of the ZR1. The S / N of the "DMR-ZR1" video has also improved, the number of colors has increased, and the texture expression has become more precise. As a whole, the feeling of air and depth increases. The UB9000 was also a model with a high degree of perfection, but it is deeply emotional that the recorder surpassed the playback-only machine. In addition, in terms of functionality, the Dolby Atmos conversion of 22.2ch audio is new, and the NHK broadcast program is epoch-making with an experience that can be called super-realistic. Unlike UHD BD, I was impressed by the sound field feeling as if I was in the world of video, as well as the clarity of overhead localization and movement. I would like to affirm that the immersive sound produced by ZR1 is the highest quality that can be experienced at home.