The Best 4k Blu-Ray Players (1 Viewer)

[Brian Dobbs]

The 800 is pretty much the equivalent of the Oppo 203. The 900 takes the analog audio up another notch, as I recall. I would run a cleaning disc on your 203.

My Oppo UDP-203 seems to be skipping and locking-up on a number of discs lately, so much so that we have to shift over to the PlayStation 5.

Maybe I'm missing something or just a plain cheapskate but why pay 10x for a Magnetar when a Panasonic UB450 is perfectly adequate?

Please let us know if it's as good as it's rumored to be.

YIKES. Update on the Magnetar.

My Magnetar UHD Universal player (purchased just a few months ago) has been freezing or locking up, on average, with every third or fourth disc I watch. Brand new UHDs or older blu-ray releases...doesn't matter.

I sent an e-mail to Magnetar about this just simply asking for suggestions as to what I should do. Here's the e-mail chain starting with their response. I tried being polite.

MAGNETAR - "Hi Brian. We recommend insuring the firmware is up to date and hard resetting the player through the menu in Settings>Options>Load Defaults. Thank You."

ME - "Hi there. I'm sorry to bother you with this strange issue. I've updated the firmware and did the hard reset as you've suggested. Today, while watching the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles blu-ray disc with my kids, it stalled again for about 15 seconds this time. I thought it was just a UHD issue, but apparently not. Would it be possible to swap the player for a new one?"

MAGNETAR - "Hi Brian. While we understand this is frustrating, occasional disc issues are the nature of the beast. Every manufacturer sees this issue occasionally. Please see our FAQ "Player Issues" suggestion for information regarding this issue. Were the player/drive an issue, you would see it with every disc you play. Link to FAQ here: https://www.magnetarusa.com/pages/faq Thanks."

ME - "Well, I tried taking the polite approach! Can you put me in touch with an engineer there please?

Look, I spent $1600 on a top-of-the-line, yet mostly unheard-of brand, which most home theater enthusiasts don't even buy, because I understood the value it would bring to my set up. I've been a member of the Home Theater Forum since 2001 and my thread on building a home theater has received over 109K views since I originally posted in 2014. I've been to Dolby headquarters in NY to cover their release of Atmos. I'm also a professional filmmaker with my next film coming to Amazon this summer.

In other words, I know enough about home theater and its related equipment to know that what I'm looking at here is 100% a player issue.

I have $40 blu-ray players that have never exhibited this issue. I have over 1000 blu-rays, DVDs, and UHDs. This is more than "occasional." I've been watching blu-rays since they came out over 15 years ago and aside from a scratched disc skipping, I've never experienced anything like this.

Every 3-4 movies I watch on the Magnetar, old or brand new, this player (that I've only had for a few months) is just freezing the movie anywhere from 10 seconds to indefinitely.

If you can't swap the player, then I'd like to return the player for a full refund."

 

[JohnRice]

YIKES. Update on the Magnetar.

My Magnetar UHD Universal player (purchased just a few months ago) has been freezing or locking up, on average, with every third or fourth disc I watch. Brand new UHDs or older blu-ray releases...doesn't matter.

I sent an e-mail to Magnetar about this just simply asking for suggestions as to what I should do. Here's the e-mail chain starting with their response. I tried being polite.

Well Brian, that sucks. What really sucks is that this seems to be the standard in "customer service" these days, even from some of the biggest companies around. So as much as I'd like to claim it's a Magnetar thing, it simply is not. What really burns my toast is that they always try to play on emotions, by saying something about how frustrating it must be. Pure, BS manipulation and evasion.

Playing UHD discs is definitely problematic. It seems to have very tight tolerances. I have found that it's common to need to clean the lens. I use THIS, and it has solved the problem. In fact, I even ran it on my Magnetar as soon as I got it. My player has not had any problems. I also clean every new disc with a micro fiber cloth, which is the one decent piece of advice they gave you. BTW, after I'd had my Panasonic 820 for a couple years, it started having problems playing UHD discs. I ran that cleaner and it's been flawless ever since.

 

[Clinton McClure]

Brian - What are the odds that a pet hair floated up and into the chassis while the disc tray was opened?

 

[compson]

Well Brian, that sucks. What really sucks is that this seems to be the standard in "customer service" these days, even from some of the biggest companies around. So as much as I'd like to claim it's a Magnetar thing, it simply is not. What really burns my toast is that they always try to play on emotions, by saying something about how frustrating it must be. Pure, BS manipulation and evasion.

Playing UHD discs is definitely problematic. It seems to have very tight tolerances. I have found that it's common to need to clean the lens. I use THIS, and it has solved the problem. In fact, I even ran it on my Magnetar as soon as I got it. My player has not had any problems. I also clean every new disc with a micro fiber cloth, which is the one decent piece of advice they gave you. BTW, after I'd had my Panasonic 820 for a couple years, it started having problems playing UHD discs. I ran that cleaner and it's been flawless ever since.

The product you linked to says it’s for CD players and is not compatible with Blu-ray players. The company does make a disc for Blu-ray players. I don’t know why there are two products for Blu-ray; maybe just a revised label.

Amazon.com

CleanDr for Blu-ray Laser Lens Cleaner

Safely clean your Blu-ray player with CleanDr® . Combining an exclusive Zero-Clearance™ and 10-brush Cyclone Clean™ Process, CleanDr® is the #1 laser lens cleaner solution in the US. The Digital Innovations CleanDr cleaner features Zero-Clearance technology and a 10-brush Cyclone Clean process...

digitalinnovations.com

 

[JohnRice]

The product you linked to says it’s for CD players and is not compatible with Blu-ray players. The company does make a disc for Blu-ray players. I don’t know why there are two products for Blu-ray; maybe just a revised label.

Amazon.com

CleanDr for Blu-ray Laser Lens Cleaner

Safely clean your Blu-ray player with CleanDr® . Combining an exclusive Zero-Clearance™ and 10-brush Cyclone Clean™ Process, CleanDr® is the #1 laser lens cleaner solution in the US. The Digital Innovations CleanDr cleaner features Zero-Clearance technology and a 10-brush Cyclone Clean process...

digitalinnovations.com

Nothing on the actual packaging says it can't be used on BR players, even though the online product listing claims that. I have used it on multiple 4K players with complete success.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

UPDATE

--------------

MAGNETAR - "Hi Brian. Congrats on your filmmaking and internet achievements, sound exciting! With that, you are speaking with an engineer. Unfortunately, discs freeze, skip, etc. a simple Google search would reveal that issue isn't specific to Magnetar players , but across the board for a myriad of reasons. We can certainly have you send the player in for a bench test as your 30 day return window is passed. Let us know if you'd like to take that approach.

We show your original support request a few days ago (5/26) reflected a “handful” of discs. Generally, we take this as to mean a few out of the many that have been played. This is not out of bounds for disc playback experiences, and the root cause can be a laundry list of things we address in our FAQ.

You can learn more about the unfortunate nature of this issue here: https://www.google.com/search?q=4K+BLU+RAY+DISC+SKIPS+FREEZES. Regardless of whether it’s a 50 dollar player or a 3000.00 player, this issue does exist and it’s unfortunately, not horrifically uncommon. Admittedly, the performance output requirements our product have is astronomically higher than the 50 dollar player you refer to and as a result, we would certainly be more intolerant to lesser disc issues/aberrations than your general swap meet level player.

We see these reports occasionally of a few discs of the hundreds in the library not cooperating and it’s with that report we replied. It seems to have grown to every 3rd or 4th disc in just a few days vs. the original report from 5/26. We do not see any prior reports in your history around this issue since delivery.

One thought is that it’s quite possible you simply have some debris on the lens. Thus, again the reference to the FAQ where issues like this are addressed.

Our products are in pretty much every major studio production suites for both audio and video reference playback, as well as many of the factories which the studios use to manufacture the studio releases. We get it. We work with them not only in identifying poorly authored titles, but identifying factory issues with disc manufacturer themselves.

While you may not be familiar with the brand which launched in 2022, the parent OEM has been manufacturing physical media players for nearly 3 decades and the products bear the name of some of the largest household player brands in the market past, and present. Magnetar is simply a premium brand specifically for an audience that is currently grossly underserved and fortunately enjoys a global presence and superior reputation.

Happy to take a look at your player if you wish, just let us know. Warm Regards."

-----------------

ME - "Responding line by line below...

We show your original support request a few days ago (5/26) reflected a “handful” of discs. Generally, we take this as to mean a few out of the many that have been played.
I got the player a few months ago and it sat around in the shipping box for at least a month while I got my new HT set up. Out of the dozen or so movies that had been watched up until that point, a handful is a relatively high percentage. That's anywhere between a 25-45% failure rate. This thing has been operational for less than 3 months.

One thought is that it’s quite possible you simply have some debris on the lens.
On a brand new player? I have literally 6-7 old, cheap blu-ray players that have been through 2 moves across the country in the past 5 years, handled by my kids in less than ideal conditions and none of them have ever had this issue come up. The exception being when there are horrible and quite visible scratches on the disc. My current house I just moved into has no pets, hardwood floors and six (yes SIX), HEPA air filters in the house, including one 5 feet away from the Magnetar.

this issue does exist and it’s unfortunately, not horrifically uncommon.
In my 25 years of experience with home theater, I've never seen this before. My first job out of college was a home theater installer. I've seen enough to know.

Magnetar is simply a premium brand
So shouldn't the performance of the player and the company's customer service reflect that? It's not doing the most basic thing it's designed for.

Happy to take a look at your player if you wish, just let us know.
I get the impression that even if you swapped mine out for a new player, your basic position is that this playback anomaly is unavoidable with Magnetar, which renders the player unusable for me, leaving me no other choice but to purchase a different brand player and tell everyone I know online not to buy Magnetar. This is such a shame, as I fell in love with the player as soon as I started using it.

-------------

MAGNETAR - "Hi Brian. Let us know if you would like to have your player sent in for a bench test to confirm if there are any issues."

 

[Brian Dobbs]

Well Brian, that sucks. What really sucks is that this seems to be the standard in "customer service" these days, even from some of the biggest companies around. So as much as I'd like to claim it's a Magnetar thing, it simply is not. What really burns my toast is that they always try to play on emotions, by saying something about how frustrating it must be. Pure, BS manipulation and evasion.

Playing UHD discs is definitely problematic. It seems to have very tight tolerances. I have found that it's common to need to clean the lens. I use THIS, and it has solved the problem. In fact, I even ran it on my Magnetar as soon as I got it. My player has not had any problems. I also clean every new disc with a micro fiber cloth, which is the one decent piece of advice they gave you. BTW, after I'd had my Panasonic 820 for a couple years, it started having problems playing UHD discs. I ran that cleaner and it's been flawless ever since.

LOL, I know. I can't believe their position is, "Sorry, you're SOL."

But wow, I have to admit the idea of cleaning the lens of a DVD player routinely is shocking. Sure, every now and then, but right outta the box?

I'll buy that disc cleaner and see what it yields. Thanks for the tip John.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

Brian - What are the odds that a pet hair floated up and into the chassis while the disc tray was opened?

Unlikely. Moved into this house a few months ago, which had been thoroughly cleaned. No pets, hardwood floors, and six HEPA air filters running 24/7.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

The product you linked to says it’s for CD players and is not compatible with Blu-ray players. The company does make a disc for Blu-ray players. I don’t know why there are two products for Blu-ray; maybe just a revised label.

Thank you.

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

Their response re: "skips just happen" is nonsense. I've had Blu-ray since 2009 and can count on one hand discs that have skipped - and those clearly had issues (scratches, etc.) - either on my original Panasonic or Oppo players. Last December I added a Panasonic 420 4K player and have been using it as my primary machine for both UHD and Blu-ray and it hasn't skipped once. It's probably had at least 90-100 different Blu and 4k discs run through it.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

Their response re: "skips just happen" is nonsense. I've had Blu-ray since 2009 and can count on one hand discs that have skipped - and those clearly had issues (scratches, etc.) - either on my original Panasonic or Oppo players. Last December I added a Panasonic 420 4K player and have been using it as my primary machine for both UHD and Blu-ray and it hasn't skipped once. It's probably had at least 90-100 different Blu and 4k discs run through it.

Exactly.

 

[JohnRice]

LOL, I know. I can't believe their position is, "Sorry, you're SOL."

But wow, I have to admit the idea of cleaning the lens of a DVD player routinely is shocking. Sure, every now and then, but right outta the box?

I'll buy that disc cleaner and see what it yields. Thanks for the tip John.

FWIW, when I first got a 4K player however many years ago, which was a cheap Philips, I immediately had problems playing new 4K discs. Cleaning them with a microfiber cloth as soon as I got them (yep, brand new discs) virtually eliminated that problem. I haven't needed to clean any of them again. Then the Panasonic started having problems after a couple years, and the cleaning disc fixed it. So, I've gotten proactive on the issue, which is why I just went ahead and cleaned the brand new Magnetar player first thing. It doesn't seem to be needed frequently, from my experience.

 

[Jeff Brooks]

I'll dive back in here, and try to make a long story short.
We have had an Oppo UDP-203 since they first came out, and it only starting having discs freeze up in the last year or so.
When taking the disc out, and noticing smears or marks, we would shine them up and then they would replay OK in the Oppo. When they would not, we would put them in the PlayStation4, and they would play through fine, (although I still have trouble with learning the PS4 remote functions).
We have begun to notice a trend in that the ones that freeze-up being brand-new 4k's and most from Warner, I think.
So, we took a dive, (against my Wife's better wishes), and got a good free financing deal on the Magnetar UDP-800, before the prices went up, (and put the 203 in another room temporarily not in use).
We thought we had everything all happy. Guess what? The Magnetar locked up on some discs, too. Taking the disc out, and polishing it did seem to help enough, so that we did not switch over to the PS4 again; but, I started feeling buyer's remorse for having invested in a player 4x the cost of the Oppo.
I did purchase the disc cleaner with a brush, to use on the Oppo; but, I have not yet taken it out of the package.
I can only conclude at this time that it is the discs. However, note, I have not had anything freeze on the PS4.
Here are the discs we had lock up on the Magnetar, (all new 4k, except the first Pirates of the Caribbean 4k, imported from the UK):
Legends of the Fall
The Talk of the Town
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Pale Rider
Kiss The Girls
The Last of Us
The Mandalorian - all seasons
One may wonder - aren't all discs coming from just one plant now for the United States? If so, I sense a quality trend there.
Note nearly all discs eventually played back after wiping them down. I was amazed at how many were smudged new in the case.
We did have our first season of House of the Dragon replaced by the manufacturer.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

I'll dive back in here, and try to make a long story short.
We have had an Oppo UDP-203 since they first came out, and it only starting having discs freeze up in the last year or so.
When taking the disc out, and noticing smears or marks, we would shine them up and then they would replay OK in the Oppo. When they would not, we would put them in the PlayStation4, and they would play through fine, (although I still have trouble with learning the PS4 remote functions).
We have begun to notice a trend in that the ones that freeze-up being brand-new 4k's and most from Warner, I think.
So, we took a dive, (against my Wife's better wishes), and got a good free financing deal on the Magnetar UDP-800, before the prices went up, (and put the 203 in another room temporarily not in use).
We thought we had everything all happy. Guess what? The Magnetar locked up on some discs, too. Taking the disc out, and polishing it did seem to help enough, so that we did not switch over to the PS4 again; but, I started feeling buyer's remorse for having invested in a player 4x the cost of the Oppo.
I did purchase the disc cleaner with a brush, to use on the Oppo; but, I have not yet taken it out of the package.
I can only conclude at this time that it is the discs. However, note, I have not had anything freeze on the PS4.
Here are the discs we had lock up on the Magnetar, (all new 4k, except the first Pirates of the Caribbean 4k, imported from the UK):
Legends of the Fall
The Talk of the Town
The Outlaw Josey Wales
Pale Rider
Kiss The Girls
The Last of Us
The Mandalorian - all seasons
One may wonder - aren't all discs coming from just one plant now for the United States? If so, I sense a quality trend there.
Note nearly all discs eventually played back after wiping them down. I was amazed at how many were smudged new in the case.
We did have our first season of House of the Dragon replaced by the manufacturer.

Thanks Jeff. Good insights and feedback here. Tenet 4K locked up multiple times for me on Magnetar. I'll adopt the cleaning method and hopefully I'll have better luck. This freezing up is simply unacceptable.

 

[JohnRice]

Thanks Jeff. Good insights and feedback here. Tenet 4K locked up multiple times for me on Magnetar. I'll adopt the cleaning method and hopefully I'll have better luck. This freezing up is simply unacceptable.

Yes. Seriously Brian. Clean the laser and discs. If that doesn’t solve the problem, it has to be the player.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

Hey @JohnRice and @compson. I just got my lens cleaner and microfiber cloths.

How often do you run the lens cleaner disc?

Do you reuse the cloths?

 

[compson]

Hey @JohnRice and @compson. I just got my lens cleaner and microfiber cloths.

How often do you run the lens cleaner disc?

Do you reuse the cloths?

I’ve never used a disc. Yes, I reuse cloths.

 

[JohnRice]

Hey @JohnRice and @compson. I just got my lens cleaner and microfiber cloths.

How often do you run the lens cleaner disc?

Do you reuse the cloths?

I run the disc 2-3 times with a new player. Then I only run it again if the player starts having problems, or maybe once a year.

I keep a cloth sitting there just for discs, and I reuse it until I feel like replacing it. They are washable, usually, but I find that when you wash them, they start leaving lint, which partially defeats the purpose. So I throw them out when I'm done with them. They last a long time.

 

[Brian Dobbs]

I run the disc 2-3 times with a new player. Then I only run it again if the player starts having problems, or maybe once a year.

I keep a cloth sitting there just for discs, and I reuse it until I feel like replacing it. They are washable, usually, but I find that when you wash them, they start leaving lint, which partially defeats the purpose. So I throw them out when I'm done with them. They last a long time.

Thank you!

 

[JohnRice]

BTW, I did get the "Blu Ray" cleaner disc, which is not a Blu Ray at all. It's a DVD. Still, there is a slight design difference between it and the "DVD" cleaner, which is actually a CD.

Regarding the "DVD" (CD) cleaner being "incompatible" with BR players, I can only guess that was ignorance regarding whether BR players can play CDs, which every single one can do. Even though the older DVD cleaner has worked fine for me on multiple players, it probably is a better idea to use the "Blu Ray" one, just in case.