UHD Player required - must do everything, but nothing more

[Pecker]

I'm in the market for a UHD player.

It'll need 2 x HDMI outs (old amp), and play all the various HDR formats.

That aside, I don't need anything more - nothing fancy on the audio outs, or anything.

What's best? By which I mean cheapest, obviously.

 

[Fred Smith]

Do you actually want HDR10+?

If so the Panasonic UB450, it's the only player covering all three current HDR formats and one digital audio output and twin HDMI.

 

[Pecker]

Do you actually want HDR10+?

Well, obviously!

I mean, if I get a player that doesn't, we all know EXACTLY what will happen...

 

[Fred Smith]

Well, obviously!

I mean, if I get a player that doesn't, we all know EXACTLY what will happen...

Not obvious as no one is really supporting it. As you do the answer is above .

 

[two2midnight]

Do you actually want HDR10+?

If so the Panasonic UB450, it's the only player covering all three current HDR formats and one digital audio output and twin HDMI.

And the UB820 in almost the same price range. While price of the UB450 isn't firm yet, around £250 seems likely at first.

Cheapest UB820 on pricespy just now seems to be Currys at £289. Using the 15% ebay discount code which was available the other week that would have been £245. The codes which vary between 10% - 20% appear fairly frequently (every month or two) and can be used at Currys and Hughes Direct ebay stores. You have to be quick though as they are often only valid for around 12 hours.

If not in an hurry to buy I'd wait for the next ebay code and get a UB820 (especially as currently the UB450 specs are lacking info on things like the HDR Optimiser feature and online streaming).

Only other decentish alternative if you want DV (although doesn't have HDR10+) is the Sony X700. I've got both the X700 and UB820 and would pay the extra for the UB820, it's a better player overall imo.

 

[Pecker]

Not obvious as no one is really supporting it. As you do the answer is above .

The joke was, as soon as I decide to buy a player without it, it'll become the de facto standard for every disc (particularly my favourite films), with everyone saying they look fantastic, but only with HDR10+.

That aside, if that's not supported, what's the best (again, cheapest) without.

Cheers.

 

[Fred Smith]

UB820 available now on Ebay with 20% off, from Hughes £231.20 offer ends 4th, with all the fancy bits.

Sony X700 also available on the offer, less fancy bits and no HDR10+.

 

[two2midnight]

UB820 available on Ebay with 20% off, from Hughes £231.20 offer ends 4th.

Sony X700 also available on the offer.

Speak of the devil.
Maybe ebay codes are like Beetlejuice and appear when you mention them...

 

[two2midnight]

The joke was, as soon as I decide to buy a player without it, it'll become the de facto standard for every disc (particularly my favourite films), with everyone saying they look fantastic, but only with HDR10+.

That aside, if that's not supported, what's the best (again, cheapest) without.

Cheers.

Sony X700 also available on the offer, less fancy bits and no HDR10+.

The Sony X700 with the 20% ebay code bringing the price down to £147.20 delivered is the best deal you'll get at the moment if cheapest, decent enough, player is what you want.
Sony UBP-X700B 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player 4548736062764 | eBay

It nicely beats the LG UBK90 on price (£159.20 with ebay code at Crampton and Moore) and more crucially is a much better player.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

The upcoming Sony UBP-X800M2 (which is currently priced at £350.00) might fit your needs. It can also spin DVD-A and SACD's...

Cheers

 

[dante01]

The Sony X700 with the 20% ebay code bringing the price down to £147.20 delivered is the best deal you'll get at the moment if cheapest, decent enough, player is what you want.
Sony UBP-X700B 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player 4548736062764 | eBay

It nicely beats the LG UBK90 on price (£159.20 with ebay code at Crampton and Moore) and more crucially is a much better player.

There's no indication that Sony will be offering support for HDR10+ and LG are pulling out of the manufactur of UHD disc players altogether. The most surprising thing about Sony and HDR10+ is that some of their TVs launched in the USA are IMAX Enhanced certified, but lack any ability to portray HDR10+ HDR which IMAX claim is their de facto HDR format for IMAX Enhanced. Panasonic are currently the only manufacturer apart from Pioneer to be supporting HDR10, Dolby Vision and HDR10+. If wanting to portray all three then you'd also need a Panasonic TV. You'll get HDR10 and HDR10+ via Samsung, but will Samsung ever cave in and embrace Dolby Vision? If opting for Pioneer as opposed to Panasonic then you'd need to go get a bank loan. The Pioneer players are not exactly what you'd call cheap.


As a side note, the 4K release of Alien scheduled for 22 April will have HDR10+ HDR.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Panasonic are currently the only manufacturer to be supporting HDR10, Dolby Vision and HDR10+. If wanting to portray all three then you'd also need a Panasonic TV.

Indeed...

I'm so glad I bought an OPPO UDP-203 as it also supports HDR(10), HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.

I can't see myself buying a Panasonic TV though as they are too expensive and have limited USB and network playback capabilities...

 

[simon194]

The joke was, as soon as I decide to buy a player without it, it'll become the de facto standard for every disc (particularly my favourite films), with everyone saying they look fantastic, but only with HDR10+.

That aside, if that's not supported, what's the best (again, cheapest) without.

Cheers.

I don't think HDR10+ would ever become the standard for disks, although Samsung would like it to be the standard. Amazon, on the other hand, has adopted it and a lot of Prime content is available with HDR10+.

 

[iainl7]

I wouldn't worry too much about getting a player that supports formats your TV doesn't, to be honest. But I'm edging toward the Panasonic 820, I think.

 

[Pecker]

OKay, zombie thread revival.

I'm now ready to drop c.£200 on a player at Amazon.

The Sony 700, 800 and the Panny 450 are all just a few bob either side of that budget.

Any reason not to go with the Panny?

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

Any reason not to go with the Panny?

If all you want to do is spin discs (DVD-A and SACD excepted) the Panasonic is fine.

All media players have limitations of one form or another (even the OPPO's). Ultimately it depends on what features you require....

 

[Pecker]

If all you want to do is spin discs (DVD-A and SACD excepted) the Panasonic is fine.

All media players have limitations of one form or another (even the OPPO's). Ultimately it depends on what features you require....

Yup.

I have an Oppo multi region Blu-ray Disc Player for the other stuff.

 

[Pecker]

Ordered from AO at £179.

It'd be rude not to.

 

[Stridsvognen]

OKay, zombie thread revival.

I'm now ready to drop c.£200 on a player at Amazon.

The Sony 700, 800 and the Panny 450 are all just a few bob either side of that budget.

Any reason not to go with the Panny?

If you want a reference player that dont mess up your source material, just passing a unmolested chroma and luma signal without backdoor processing the Panasonic UHD players is a no go, if that dont bother you, it will do fine.
Panasonic is about features, not image quality.

 

[SeeMoreDigital]

...Panasonic is about features, not image quality.

According to Panasonic's mantra... This should be the other-way round

 

[Pecker]

If you want a reference player that dont mess up your source material, just passing a unmolested chroma and luma signal without backdoor processing the Panasonic UHD players is a no go, if that dont bother you, it will do fine.
Panasonic is about features, not image quality.

Really?

First I've heard of that.

There's no review here for this model, but there is for other Panny UHD players, as well as owners threads, and I don't remember reading anything.

 

[Stridsvognen]

Its a chipset limitation in the Panasonic players that has been ther since the UB900, HDTV test mentioned it brifley in the UB9000 test, anyway its easy to test if you have a few basic testpatterns.
The only thing Panasonic can do is tonemapping, they are the best at that, every other parameter is medium to poor. No matter wich Panasonic UHD player you pick.

Most people dont notice it, just be aware if your going for reference image the Panasonic is not it in terms of unmolested disc playback.

 

[simonblue]

Really?

First I've heard of that.

There's no review here for this model, but there is for other Panny UHD players, as well as owners threads, and I don't remember reading anything.

I had three panasonic 900,820.and now 9000,i've had no problems,imo their great players,also had for testing the Oppo 203 & 205.
And on my setup they all looked great in real world playback.

 

[miggyboys]

Its a chipset limitation in the Panasonic players that has been ther since the UB900, HDTV test mentioned it brifley in the UB9000 test, anyway its easy to test if you have a few basic testpatterns.
The only thing Panasonic can do is tonemapping, they are the best at that, every other parameter is medium to poor. No matter wich Panasonic UHD player you pick.

Most people dont notice it, just be aware if your going for reference image the Panasonic is not it in terms of unmolested disc playback.

Vincent Teoh of HDTVTest also mentioned in one of his videos that Panasonic players output image perfect pictures, with no changes from what is on the disk. Conversley, I did read a Which.co.uk review that said the Panasonic DP-UB450 wasn't very good. So which UHD players do you think do things well?

 

[Stridsvognen]

Vincent Teoh of HDTVTest also mentioned in one of his videos that Panasonic players output image perfect pictures, with no changes from what is on the disk. Conversley, I did read a Which.co.uk review that said the Panasonic DP-UB450 wasn't very good. So which UHD players do you think do things well?

Vincent said a lot of stuff about Panasonic UHD players, funny is he mention the chroma issu in the UB9000 review, but the issue has been presented on all Panasonic UHD players.

If you like to test its quite simple if you understand the basic parameters of image reproduction, and you will not need to count on anybody elses interpretation of the objective facts.

The Xbox One S will do a significantly better job regarding passing the UHD content to the display, also having chroma multitap processing like the Panasonic, but without all the Panasonic bandwidth limitations and distortion.
The OPPO 203, or Cambridge CXUHD will pass the UHD signal at a reference level, however dont have multitap processing, the Pioneer LX500 and LX 800 the same, as they uses the same Mediatek chipset, im fairly sure the Panasonic UHD players are the worse on the marked in regards to passing the disc content to display, they have 1 feature making them interesting, and thats the HDR tonemapping capability.