Help! 4K UHD player recommendation, please.

[dodgechargerfan]

So, short story: I have one 4K UHD disc that I want to view and the player that I have won’t read it.
I need to get a player. I don’t want to spend a fortune, but I’m a feature freak. So, bottom rung model likely won’t make me happy. Something middle road should be fine.
Anyone have a 4K UHD player they like?
Or just a current model they know enough about to say, “This one. You want this one.”
(Also, why the heel doesn’t Samsung sell video players anymore?)

Long story:
I bought the 4K UHD version of Stop Making Sense.
Before I ordered it, I went down to the basement and checked the box of the Blu-Ray player that I bought at a charity golf tournament silent auction about 7 years ago.
I looked through the pile of stuff that was on top of, in front of, levitated over the box.
I saw the 4K UHD logo peeking through the stuff and said to myself, “Cool. I’m good to go with this and the new TV.”
(Yes. This thing sat in the box for about 7 years. That’s a longer story, but the money went to charity.)

So, I ordered the fancy version of the film.

With the renovations done, and the holidays over, I can start mucking around with stuff.
Today, I dig everything out and hook it up.
“Incompatible disc.”

Read the manual. Gobbledygook. Acronyms. Just tell me why it’s not working.
Quick Google. Double check the disc format. Yeah. Yeah.

Look at the bad again…. “4K UHD Upscaling”
Oh. That’s different than being able to read 4K UHD content. Isn’t it? Damn.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Meanwhile, I grabbed the first concert Blu-Ray I could find.
Holy shit, the sound is amazing and this isn’t that great of a disc, audio quality wise.

The Main Monkey Business kicks ass.

 

[jp_nyc]

I’m happy with my Sony UBP-X700M with one problem. I made a mistake when I bought it—I didn’t pay extra for a region free model. The movie studios are trickling out 4K films so sometimes something I want is only available for a different region.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I’m happy with my Sony UBP-X700M with one problem. I made a mistake when I bought it—I didn’t pay extra for a region free model. The movie studios are trickling out 4K films so sometimes something I want is only available for a different region.

I was looking at that one.

I had to go out to pick up daughter DCF, so I popped into my local electronics super store and talked to the guy there.
I asked him his opinion of that Sony and the Panasonic DP-UB420K.

Base purely on his experience with dealing with issues, he recommended the Panasonic.
Seems the Sony locks up a lot. Especially if it’s left on the Home Screen for too long.
I could deal with that, but I may not be the only user. So, I went with the more (potentially and/or allegedly) user friendly,

It reads the disc fine. I will check out playback later.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Worth every penny.
If I never use this player for anything else, I’ll still be happy.

 

[jrockbridge]

I’m happy with my Sony UBP-X700M with one problem. I made a mistake when I bought it—I didn’t pay extra for a region free model. The movie studios are trickling out 4K films so sometimes something I want is only available for a different region.

Back in the day, we changed Windows on a Dell computer, so that it would play discs from other regions. My wife purchased a few video discs at the time that we could only play in that Dell. It was our home theater PC at the time, so it worked out fine. Of course, computers don’t seem to come equipped with video disc drives these days.

Worth every penny.
If I never use this player for anything else, I’ll still be happy.


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Congrats! I would have guessed Sony > Panasonic for 4K Blu-ray. My gut instinct would have been Samsung but they don’t even seem to be producing disc players at this point which shows how much I know. Lol!

I thought I’d get a 4K Blu-ray at one point. My son owns a Sony PS5 which can play 4K Blu-ray discs. But, we have not played any physical media in ages. Blu-ray, DVD and VHS all gather dust. We have streamed 4K and we watch video files via VLC Media Player. The difference between 4K and 1080p looks somewhat subtle on our Sony 4K 65” OLED HDR10+ and Sony 4K 75” Hybrid LED, HDR TV’s.

 

[Bob411]

HNUHDPD

 

[dodgechargerfan]

Congrats! I would have guessed Sony > Panasonic for 4K Blu-ray. My gut instinct would have been Samsung but they don’t even seem to be producing disc players at this point which shows how much I know. Lol!

I thought I’d get a 4K Blu-ray at one point. My son owns a Sony PS5 which can play 4K Blu-ray discs. But, we have not played any physical media in ages. Blu-ray, DVD and VHS all gather dust. We have streamed 4K and we watch video files via VLC Media Player. The difference between 4K and 1080p looks somewhat subtle on our Sony 4K 65” OLED HDR10+ and Sony 4K 75” Hybrid LED, HDR TV’s.

Yep. My first choice would have been Samsung as we have a bunch os Samsung stuff, including the TV and soundbar.
Seems they stopped developing new models in 2019 because they saw the market for physical media disappearing.

I was leaning towards the Sony, mainly for their claim that it will read just about any disc available. It would just work.
Except when it doesn’t, according to the guy at the store.
I guess, though, if you don’t leave it sitting at the Home Screen for too long, the main problem for his recommendation wouldn’t really apply.
But guess what I did with the first disc - put it in, checked that it could be read, flipped through the menu, and got called away for almost an hour….

 

[jrockbridge]

Yep. My first choice would have been Samsung as we have a bunch os Samsung stuff, including the TV and soundbar.
Seems they stopped developing new models in 2019 because they saw the market for physical media disappearing.

I was leaning towards the Sony, mainly for their claim that it will read just about any disc available. It would just work.
Except when it doesn’t, according to the guy at the store.
I guess, though, if you don’t leave it sitting at the Home Screen for too long, the main problem for his recommendation wouldn’t really apply.
But guess what I did with the first disc - put it in, checked that it could be read, flipped through the menu, and got called away for almost an hour….

I’ve had really good luck with my Samsung products over the years. Even the cheap Samsung items have held up.

Sony has been a mixed bag. My high end Sony products have been great. But, their budget gear is prone to break in my experience. And, their audio line is notoriously bad.

Panasonic has been a bit of a mixed bag as well for me. A lot of their household appliances, microwaves, phones, etc have been bulletproof. But, I have a high end Panasonic Elite combination SACD and DVD Audio machine that’s been unreliable. Since both those technologies became obsolete, it was an easy decision not to have it repaired. It intermittently works and then fails. It could be as simple as a laser realignment. I keep it around as a sort of museum piece along with other now defunct tech. Example: MiniDisc player/recorder.

 

[dodgechargerfan]

I’ve had really good luck with my Samsung products over the years. Even the cheap Samsung items have held up.

Sony has been a mixed bag. My high end Sony products have been great. But, their budget gear is prone to break in my experience. And, their audio line is notoriously bad.

Panasonic has been a bit of a mixed bag as well for me. A lot of their household appliances, microwaves, phones, etc have been bulletproof. But, I have a high end Panasonic Elite combination SACD and DVD Audio machine that’s been unreliable. Since both those technologies became obsolete, it was an easy decision not to have it repaired. It intermittently works and then fails. It could be as simple as a laser realignment. I keep it around as a sort of museum piece along with other now defunct tech. Example: MiniDisc player/recorder.

I was considering the 800-series player from Panasonic, but the key differences were the support for SACD and analog 7.1 outputs.
So, I saved almost 200 bucks not getting that one.

 

[jrockbridge]

I was considering the 800-series player from Panasonic, but the key differences were the support for SACD and analog 7.1 outputs.
So, I saved almost 200 bucks not getting that one.

I thought SACD was dead?

(edit) It’s still a niche audiophile product. Obviously, I’m not much of an audiophile since I did not know.