Best Blu-Ray player for 4K UHD Redbox and Samsung 4K UHD 3840 x 2160 40 JU7100 (1 Viewer)

[dylanmitchell]

Looking at Blu-Ray player options for playing 4K UHD Redbox movies on my Samsung 4K UHD 3840 x 2160 40 JU7100. Want something that's great for 4K and 1080 Blu-Ray and audio. Just needs to do that well since I have a Roku 4 for streaming movies and TV and a Chromecast Audio for streaming music. It should handle legacy DVD's and Blu-Ray so 720p and 1080p plus the 4K UHD. Know 4k Blu-Ray players will be reverse compatible but not all handle older media well. Also not worried about upscaling as I prefer the original format to bad upscaling but if it does upscaling well I'm open to that and just need HMDI 2.0 out no analog, audio, or second HDMI out. Looking at"

LG UBK80 which appears to be the same as last year's UP870 and just does Blu-ray no streaming and no wi-fi. I can hardwire it for updates but most of the time it wouldn't be connected to the internet.
https://www.lg.com/us/home-video/lg-UBK80-blu-ray-player

LG UBK90 adds wi-fi to UBK80 anything I'm giving up with the UBK90 vs UBk80? Some reviews point to LG UBK80 as a better model but I don't have ethernet in the by the TV so UBK80 would have to be hard wired occasionally in a different room for updates.
https://www.lg.com/us/home-video/lg-UBK90-blu-ray-player

Samsung BD J5700 not completely sold on 4k as necessary on 40 inch TV but don't want to get stuck with a 4k Blu-ray I can't play
https://www.samsung.com/us/televisi...ayers/bd-j5700-za-blu-ray-player-bd-j5700-za/


The TV is a 40JU7100 Samsung 4K UHD (3840 x 2160 RESOLUTION) HDMI 2.0

 

[Sam Posten]

UHD boxes are pretty much commodities now unless you go ultra high end. My recommendation to most folks is to get whatever Costco has for around $100 or splurge and buy an xbox 1x if you have any interest at all in gaming. Others here at HTF disagree with this advice, YMMV =)

 

[dylanmitchell]

Thanks. The UBK80 is on sale at Best Buy for that price does 2 channel PCM and plays DVD, Blu ray, and 4k UHD or whatever they're calling 3840 × 2160 these days. My TV doesn't support Dolby Vision and I use a Roku so paying more for a UBK90 and Sony X700 would only give me wi fi for updates and Dobly Vision for a future TV. Rental Blu-ray isn't always the best source quality and I'm mainly replacing my old 1080HD Blu ray so I can play the odd 4k UHD Blu ray a friend brings over or rent the odd 4k UHD Blu ray when Redbox has them.

 

[Mark-P]

Are you under the impression that there are 4K UHD Blu-ray players that won’t handle regular Blu-Ray and DVDs? Because there aren’t. They all will play pretty much all forms of media including CD, DVD-R, and DVD+R. The only types not required in the UHD spec are 3D, SACD, DVD-Audio and defunct formats such as Video-CD.

And what are these “legacy DVDs” you refer to?

 

[dylanmitchell]

To clarify I was trying to say:

My old Blu ray circa 2010 won't play 4k UHD Blu ray so I want a UHD player.

LG UBK80 or any Ultra HD player I get will do 4k/ Ultra HD, 1080 Blu ray, 720 DVD, etc. Legacy isn't the right word I meant a new player will handle the 720 DVD's and 1080 Blu ray plus the new format.

 

[DaveF]

The Sony X700 is well reviewed.
https://hometheaterreview.com/sony-ubp-x700-ultra-hd-blu-ray-player-reviewed/

The LG, from what I've read, requires you to manually set 24p or 60p frame rate for each and every disc. That's madness. I'd stay away if that's the case.

 

[Angelo Colombus]

Have the Sony UBP-X800 for a few months now and no problems and a nice picture too.

 

[dylanmitchell]

Thanks I've heard both the X700 and X800 are great with the X800 being a little more solid. Do either support direct source?

I saw that the UBK80 has you manually set 24p or 60p and has other manual settings or lack of setting. Is thahat true for the UBK90 too and does it have direct source options?

 

[Todd Erwin]

What do you mean by "direct source" and "720 DVD"?

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Thanks I've heard both the X700 and X800 are great with the X800 being a little more solid. Do either support direct source?

I saw that the UBK80 has you manually set 24p or 60p and has other manual settings or lack of setting. Is thahat true for the UBK90 too and does it have direct source options?

I own the Sony X800. It can be setup to either perform the upconversion of all discs (BD & DVD) to 4K within the player, or to play the disc in its native resolution -- which then forces the display to upconvert the BD and DVD material to 4K. Personally, I just let the Sony upconvert everything, as I cannot tell the difference on BD material, but the Sony does a better job with DVD upconversion than my Vizio M-series 4K display.

If you don't need Dolby Vision support, the Sony X800 is a solid player and can probably be found pretty inexpensively since it is an older model. It also supports the SACD and DVD-Audio formats, if that is important to you. While I have been tempted to upgrade to the Panasonic 820 for Dolby Vision support, I have not done so yet, as it's difficult to justify spending $500 just to play the handful of UHD discs I own that are encoded with DV -- especially since the Sony is such a good player otherwise, and HDR10 looks fine to me.

 

[dylanmitchell]

Thanks.

Source Direct lets you set it to the original source like 1080p for Blu ray and lets an external scaler or tv handle the upscaling. You output video discs at their native resolution and let a tv or other device with a better internal scaler than the one in your Blu-ray player handle upscaling.

I think DVD's are 720 x 480 so a 4k UHD player will handle standard 1080p Blu-ray discs and 720 x 480 DVD's.

Interestingly films shot on 35mm and 65 mm film are likely better than even 4k UHD. 35mm film can resolve about 4K or more and remastered 35mm film can have astonishingly good transfers to 4k UHD vs movies filmed in 2k digital that can only be upscaled. 65mm like Lawrence of Arabia can yield and impressive 8k to 12k.

 

[Sam Posten]

Thanks.

Source Direct lets you set it to the original source like 1080p for Blu ray and lets an external scaler or tv handle the upscaling. You output video discs at their native resolution and let a tv or other device with a better internal scaler than the one in your Blu-ray player handle upscaling.

I think DVD's are 720 x 480 so a 4k UHD player will handle standard 1080p Blu-ray discs and 720 x 480 DVD's.

Interestingly films shot on 35mm and 65 mm film are likely better than even 4k UHD. 35mm film can resolve about 4K or more and remastered 35mm film can have astonishingly good transfers to 4k UHD vs movies filmed in 2k digital that can only be upscaled. 65mm like Lawrence of Arabia can yield and impressive 8k to 12k.

I don't think it works the way you think it works.

Anyway, unless you have an ultra high end deck or TV, any source or TV these days upscales as well as any other.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

Just go for the Sony X700... unless you can find the X800 for less or really need to keep the price closer to $100.

The X700 sometimes drops down under $150, but is usually closer to $170. I picked mine up for just under $150 on Amazon's marketplace a couple weeks back.

I would never trust a Samsung player... and not sure I'd wanna trust LG either. Actually, I was even reluctant about Sony, but decided to finally give them another shot (after disappointments in early DVD and BD days) since Panny's not offering anything remotely in same ballpark pricewise -- not that Panny didn't also have their issues in terms of player durability... at least for their lower end players of the past.

One thing though. IF you're TV doesn't fully support HDR10 and find a need to downconvert to SDR, you might find the Sony a tad annoying when switching between SDR and HDR content. I have to downconvert (actually down to 1080p/SDR for my projector) and find a need to switch basic picture settings (at start of playback) between SDR and HDR content -- the HDR->SDR downconversion seems to require substantial boost in the basic picture settings (doable via saved custom settings). I suppose it's possible the player simply requires very substantially diff calibration for 4K UHD BDs vs regular BD/DVDs, especially when downconverting to 1080p, but I don't see why that should be so...

Anyway, it's probably not an issue if you don't need to downconvert at all. But if you do need, that issue could be worse or more annoying on the cheaper players...

_Man_