expired Posted by Meowssi | Staff • Feb 10, 2025
Feb 10, 2025 8:55 PM
Item 1 of 5
Item 1 of 5
expired Posted by Meowssi | Staff • Feb 10, 2025
Feb 10, 2025 8:55 PM
Sony UBP-X700M HDR 4K UHD Network Blu-ray Disc Player w/ Hi-Res Audio
+ Free S/H$158
$260
39% offeBay
Visit eBayGood Deal
Bad Deal
Save
Share
Leave a Comment
Top Comments
I think most people interested in a 4k UHD Blu Ray player find the included streaming apps useless!
70 Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Marginal PS5 upgrade at best, and if serious about 4K Blu-ray, UB820.
Marginal PS5 upgrade at best, and if serious about 4K Blu-ray, UB820.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank EngineerDude
I have three 65" 4K TV's in my house, all from different Black Fridays and all costing $228 - $250. In 2021, I bought *this* player from Best Buy, and even around then it was around $150. As others have said on this forum, some of them will choke on the break between the second and third layer of 4K Blu-ray movies. As others have also mentioned, you have to manually toggle Dolby Vision on and off. I bought this one because it had Dolby Vision to go along with my TV having Dolby Vision, and because for being cheaper than the TV, its upscaling of DVD's and legacy Blu-rays wasn't *too bad*.
If you want to consider other players, there's really only three others, all made by Panasonic. None of them have any issues with freezing during playback or needing to toggle anything on or off:
DP-UB420 (~$240 new) - Does HDR10+. Has an optimizer that will do a good job of upconverting DVD and legacy Blu-ray discs as well as making any disc, whether 4K or not, look good on your screen. It can't do Dolby Vision, but some people think the optimizer does a good enough job to overcome this shortcoming.
DP-UB450 (~$185 new) - Does HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, but no optimizer
DP-UB820 (~$395 new)- Does HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and has the optimizer. If you are willing to spend the money to get the best player, THIS IS IT. I can't imagine trying to convince my wife that we should spend $395 on a player for a $250 TV, especially since I can't even convince myself of that.
If they had cheaper 4K players, I'd be expanding beyond just our main of three TV's. I actually think that making 4K an optical format was a bad choice, and was doomed with technical problems from the start. You can play a CD with plenty of scratches on it. A DVD is harder but still doable. Legacy Blu-ray can be finicky. But with 4K Blu-ray, you're trying to cram so much data into one disc that any player that isn't the three Panasonics listed above is at risk of freezing on discs THAT DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY VISIBLE DEFECTS! Much like zip disks in 2001, 4K discs are prone to failing because you're trying to cram too much data into too small of a space using old technology. You need a revolutionary, newer technology to be consistently successful in doing it.
The difference in this player and a $400 plus player will buy you a step up in TV in many cases
That is much better use of funds than a better 4K player, IMO
This coming from a person that owns a Panasonic UB900, UB420, UB820 as well as a refurbed LG UBK90 I bought for $99( shipped)
That refurbed LG player is the best looking 4K movie experience I have connected to my Sony A95L OLED
A better panel is going to " trump" a better player in daily ownership and use, to my eyes
if you are buying all top of the line options...then sure, pay extra for what I would say is a nuance, at best
Also, if your TV supports only HDR10+ then you would probably want a player that supports that rather than this one.
Very interesting about the LG player.
Very interesting about the LG player.
Panasonic UB900, UB820) to another one of my televisions and the Sony A95L/LG UBK90 combo is still the best picture
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
I always say the better panel wins
I did an in home experiment of a Samsung QN90a with HDR10 and a Hisense U8H with Dolby Vision a couple of years ago with some Tv's I own
In no way did Dolby Vision correct the picture processing challenges on the Hisense U8 and there was a clear difference between it and the Samsung QN90a playing HDR with the same video from the same player
People seemed to have raved about the Hisense U8 then and still do.and frankly its a good deal
But Dolby Vision doesnt help its picture processing challenges
I have three 65" 4K TV's in my house, all from different Black Fridays and all costing $228 - $250. In 2021, I bought *this* player from Best Buy, and even around then it was around $150. As others have said on this forum, some of them will choke on the break between the second and third layer of 4K Blu-ray movies. As others have also mentioned, you have to manually toggle Dolby Vision on and off. I bought this one because it had Dolby Vision to go along with my TV having Dolby Vision, and because for being cheaper than the TV, its upscaling of DVD's and legacy Blu-rays wasn't *too bad*.
If you want to consider other players, there's really only three others, all made by Panasonic. None of them have any issues with freezing during playback or needing to toggle anything on or off:
DP-UB420 (~$240 new) - Does HDR10+. Has an optimizer that will do a good job of upconverting DVD and legacy Blu-ray discs as well as making any disc, whether 4K or not, look good on your screen. It can't do Dolby Vision, but some people think the optimizer does a good enough job to overcome this shortcoming.
DP-UB450 (~$185 new) - Does HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, but no optimizer
DP-UB820 (~$395 new)- Does HDR10+, Dolby Vision, and has the optimizer. If you are willing to spend the money to get the best player, THIS IS IT. I can't imagine trying to convince my wife that we should spend $395 on a player for a $250 TV, especially since I can't even convince myself of that.
If they had cheaper 4K players, I'd be expanding beyond just our main of three TV's. I actually think that making 4K an optical format was a bad choice, and was doomed with technical problems from the start. You can play a CD with plenty of scratches on it. A DVD is harder but still doable. Legacy Blu-ray can be finicky. But with 4K Blu-ray, you're trying to cram so much data into one disc that any player that isn't the three Panasonics listed above is at risk of freezing on discs THAT DON'T EVEN HAVE ANY VISIBLE DEFECTS! Much like zip disks in 2001, 4K discs are prone to failing because you're trying to cram too much data into too small of a space using old technology. You need a revolutionary, newer technology to be consistently successful in doing it.
IF you're lucky enough to get one of these players without the known issues like the one you just pointed out, you're set!
The manual switching isn't a performance issue and DV difference varies widely and TBH current displays can't even take full advantage of static HDR let alone dynamic HDR!
Just look at the popularity of Samsung on how little DV matters.
The chain goes:
content>process device>display.
Until displays can take full advantage, not much to upgrade.
Having compared all the Panasonic players(9000,820,420) including an OPPO(203).
In general the PQ difference isn't that big from the 420 vs 203 especially for the price difference.
TBH the bigger difference was on the AQ side, the DACs in the 203/9000 are much better.
The caveat with this is you wouldn't be able to tell with the popular soundbars people are going to nowadays.
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Still new 4k players being sold. So even if the US market goes away, that's another source.
Used market - for anyone fishing for cheaper.
8K - Japan broadcasts and streaming. No 8k discs yet, so that gives a preview of where the market might head.
https://www.kaleidescap
4K streaming done right.
If you're not the avid AVS Forum reader, don't calibrate your A/V system, never touch the custom TV video settings, a game console will be fine. You won't notice or mind the minor difference between a reference Bluray player and a console.
Leave a Comment