4k Blu-ray play to match with Sony A8

[bluenova]

Hi all,

Sorry it's another which one do you think post. I'm looking for a 4k Blu-ray player. It will be matched with a 55" Sony A8 and a Denon X2700h.

I'm looking at the Panasonic UB450 (£179), UB820 (£299) and Sony UBPX700 (£189)

I've been leaning towards the Panasonic's.

I understand the 450 lacks the HDR optimiser, better picture processor, internal apps, onboard sound processing, general build quality of player and remote over the 820.

I won't use the internal apps, the sound will be passed by HDMI to the Denon and the build quality and remote isn't an issue for me.

So that leaves me with HDR optimiser and picture processor. I understand the picture quality is slightly better on the 820 but is it £120 better? Also any reason I should be considering the Sony instead? Especially in regards to Dolby Vision and the fact the TV's DV is player led.

So difficult not being able to go see these things in person at the moment, any help would be appreciated.

EDIT to add:
Given my TV uses player led Dolby Vision, I understand the Panny 820 has an issue with brightness & clipping with DV that is not present on the 450, this is pushing me towards the 450 but would the 820 have much better upscaling of DVD & 1080p Blu-ray?

 

[two2midnight]

Hi all,

Sorry it's another which one do you think post. I'm looking for a 4k Blu-ray player. It will be matched with a 55" Sony A8 and a Denon X2700h.

I'm looking at the Panasonic UB450 (£179), UB820 (£299) and Sony UBPX700 (£189)

I've been leaning towards the Panasonic's.

I understand the 450 lacks the HDR optimiser, better picture processor, internal apps, onboard sound processing, general build quality of player and remote over the 820.

I won't use the internal apps, the sound will be passed by HDMI to the Denon and the build quality and remote isn't an issue for me.

So that leaves me with HDR optimiser and picture processor. I understand the picture quality is slightly better on the 820 but is it £120 better? Also any reason I should be considering the Sony instead? Especially in regards to Dolby Vision and the fact the TV's DV is player led.

So difficult not being able to go see these things in person at the moment, any help would be appreciated.

EDIT to add:
Given my TV uses player led Dolby Vision, I understand the Panny 820 has an issue with brightness & clipping with DV that is not present on the 450, this is pushing me towards the 450 but would the 820 have much better upscaling of DVD & 1080p Blu-ray?

I have the Sony X700, X800M2 and Panasonic UB820 plus UB9000 . All produce a similar PQ with DV (on my LG Oled at least). AFAIK all do player led DV.

I find it hard to believe that the UB450, the cheapest Dolby Vision player available, is the only one which produces a DV picture without brightness and clipping issues. That is not to say it's not the only one which gets it OK as it's also the newest DV player and thus may have a newer SOC and chipset.

AFAIK any issues with DV playback are down to Dolby Labs not getting Player Led (low latency) right and follows on from their previous elevated blacks/grey black bars fiasco. Only the now withdrawn OPPO players had the ability to choose between TV led and player led DV and the better results seen with the Oppo 203 vs Panasonic in regards to brightness clipping were perhaps due to it using TV led DV during the testing.

 

[bluenova]

Thanks for the reply. Two separate reviews I read noted not seeing the DV issues with the 450 and mentioned it could possibly be to do with a different chip set being used.

How would you compare the picture between your X700 and your UB820? Would you say it's worth the price jump for PQ alone?

 

[two2midnight]

Thanks for the reply. Two separate reviews I read noted not seeing the DV issues with the 450 and mentioned it could possibly be to do with a different chip set being used.

How would you compare the picture between your X700 and your UB820? Would you say it's worth the price jump for PQ alone?

Anout the same with DV.
For high nits HDR10 UHDs the HDR Optimiser of the UB820 produces a better overall picture without the white clipping you'd get with the X700

This drawback can be negated on the X700 by having DV set on with HDR10 UHDs (force Dolby Vision) or by using the TV's own dynamic tone mapping feature if available.

Although forced DV and TV DTM can also alter at the darker end of the picture (raise black levels to increase shadow detail) although what DTM does will vary by TV make and model. Again, HDR Optimiser only alters the brightness end of the picture.

The UB820 also has way better picture adjustment controls than the X700 which allow you to fine tune/tweak the picture with blu-rays/DVDs and HDR10 UHDs. Helping this is seperate stored adjustment settings for blu-ray and UHD with 3 tabs of settings for each (2 tabs user adjustable, one tab non adjustable default settings).

Neither the HDR Optimiser or picture adjustment controls work with Dolby Vision. AFAIK this also applies to HDR10+.