What is the best 4k player outside of the Oppo? (1 Viewer)

[Robert Crawford]

I've haven't played a video game in over 25 years. I rather watch movies.

 

[Bryan^H]

Months ago, I received a notice from OPPO to be on their waiting list; were they to crank out a few final more of their players.
Doesn't seem like that's going to happen. Not a peep since.

Same here. I thought it was very odd I never got a notification from their waiting list, as I did intend to purchase an Oppo player from their final batch. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

 

[Bryan^H]

Just bought my first 4k display. It's a 65" LG OLED (2018 C8)

Arriving in the next day or so.

I am officially into 4k, though I won't be watching much of it as it's just a replacement for the living room television. The Home Theater is where I have the more elaborate sound and screen setup.

This was a simple replacement for my current LG display that finally died.

Anyway...

Trying to get my hands on a second Oppo 4k player. Waiting to hear back from the owner but I may be too late.

What is the next best 4k player to that Oppo?

Thanks in advance!

I'm dying to hear your thoughts of UHD on a TV vs. Projection. I have a very difficult time deciding how to watch a new release: Sacrifice size for a perfect picture, or go with the fantastic immersion of projection. As much as I love UHD, it is probably 60/40 split in favor of projection. I just really like the cinematic feel of the big screen.

 

[PMF]

I'm dying to hear your thoughts of UHD on a TV vs. Projection. I have a very difficult time deciding how to watch a new release: Sacrifice size for a perfect picture, or go with the fantastic immersion of projection. As much as I love UHD, it is probably 60/40 split in favor of projection. I just really like the cinematic feel of the big screen.

Blessed are those with such dilemmas.
Posts such as these keeps me going and inspired.
One day...one day.

 

[Matt Hough]

I think for most folks who want a 4K UHD player AND region-free capability, the best option is to buy an inexpensive region-free Blu-ray player (of which there are many) to handle that duty and a 4K machine for everything else.

That's certainly what I've done and I couldn't be happier.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Months ago, I received a notice from OPPO to be on their waiting list; were they to crank out a few final more of their players.
Doesn't seem like that's going to happen. Not a peep since.
So, in moving forward with future planning, are any of the available or upcoming models region-free?
And have any models now or on the horizon yet been deemed as OPPO's equal?

I reached out to the owner of Oppo via email two days ago. Usually, he gets back to me immediately.

There has been no reply. My guess is that there are no units to be had anymore.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

I'm dying to hear your thoughts of UHD on a TV vs. Projection. I have a very difficult time deciding how to watch a new release: Sacrifice size for a perfect picture, or go with the fantastic immersion of projection. As much as I love UHD, it is probably 60/40 split in favor of projection. I just really like the cinematic feel of the big screen.

I just wish it was a projector I was buying instead of a panel.

The room with a panel has no sound system other than a Sonos playbase. No surround.

The room was never set up for home theater viewing. The only reason I am even into 4k, partially at this point, is because my LG plasma finally died.

At least I can say I have 4k capability at this point. Just wish it was a projector. Still waiting for those prices to drop. In the meantime I am hearing more about 8k on the horizon.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I just wish it was a projector I was buying instead of a panel.

The room with a panel has no sound system other than a Sonos playbase. No surround.

The room was never set up for home theater viewing. The only reason I am even into 4k, partially at this point, is because my LG plasma finally died.

At least I can say I have 4k capability at this point. Just wish it was a projector. Still waiting for those prices to drop. In the meantime I am hearing more about 8k on the horizon.

Well we can keep hearing about it as far as I'm concern as 4K is probably the end of the road for me. I'm not saying I won't buy a 8K display years from now, but I'm done chasing technologies as that 8K display will be replacing a display that stopped working.

 

[Kyrsten Brad]

Good Day Ronald. As you may know, I went with the Sony X700 for my first UHD Blu-ray player. Fair to say the jury is still out on how well it stacks up against the Oppos and Panasonics but I can say for my first 4K experience (teamed with the new Vizio P75), I was duly impressed. Grease (1978) 4K was about the best I’d ever seen it but when I screened Mamma Mia (2008) and Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017) 4K Blu-rays, I really got blown away. And that was with a slightly defective TV (just replaced but has to wait till I get home to install).

Still have some tweaking to do but I’d say at this point, my Sony X700 has quite a bit of bang for the buck ($314 with the region free mods).

I’ll be considering a second UHD player for the bedroom TV (Vizio M50 4K circa 2015) and probably will be another X700.

Hope this proves useful.

 

[Sam Posten]

8k is a total waste of time. Better pixels not more pixels. The only reason for the vast majority of people to adopt 4k is HDR, not resolution.

 

[Matt Hough]

And broadcast TV hasn't really moved to 4K yet, so even thinking about 8K seems like manufacturers' overkill.

 

[DaveF]

The second best UHD player is unquestionably the Xbox 1 X.

What’s the UX?

I tried my PS4 as a Blu-ray player and it was a f’ing disaster: the “remote” is the game controller which is a terrible (complete guess what button will do what; pick it up and accidental press an analog button and the movie skips to the next chapter). And during the movie, I’m getting gamer notifications on screen about everyone playing Destiny!

It gave me the lesson to *never* use a game console for watching content.

How does the XB handle the UI, remote control, and external notifications?

 

[Bryan^H]

Blessed are those with such dilemmas.
Posts such as these keeps me going and inspired.
One day...one day.

You can get a really good HD 3D DLP from Optoma for less than $800. And if you have a good sized wall in you living room or somewhere else in your house you're off to the races, plug n Play out of the box. And for that price the entertainment value is immeasurable. Building a home theater with seats, screen, sound system from scratch is still expensive though, and I envy those with such a set up.

I still laugh when I think back to the late 90's trying to figure out how to afford an $8K projector that was SD(junk) and about a fraction of the contrast ratio of the projectors currently.

We have come a long way in a very short time

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I wasn't sarcastic, but I WAS being hyperbolic, as is my wont. =)
Video quality is identical. X1X supports DV streams and will be upgraded to support DV disks eventually. There is no reason to use tone mapping unless you are outputting to a projector (Ron is going to OLED with this one). Upconversion can be handled by the end device as good or better than most boxes.

Oh, and you get the best gaming console on the planet bundled in. For 2/3rds the price of Panasonic's box.

In my case, my Vizio 4K display doesn't do a great job upconverting 480i/p content, so I have my current Sony X-800 upconverting both DVD and BD content -- it's identical to the Vizio for BD content, but this way I can leave the player on 4K output for everything. Tone mapping may help with a lower light output panel like my Vizio, as well (not as big an issue for OLED). And the gaming aspect is a meaningless feature to many of us.

So, maybe your comment should have been "questionably the 2nd best UHD player".

 

[Josh Steinberg]

And broadcast TV hasn't really moved to 4K yet, so even thinking about 8K seems like manufacturers' overkill.

I don’t see 8K as being a standard format for content creation in the foreseeable future, if ever.

The overwhelming majority of theatrical releases are still completed in 2K resolution without HDR. Most theatrical projectors are either 2K or 4K without HDR.

It’s going to take a while for them to catch up to producing a majority of content in 4K with HDR.

I see 8K as being useful for specialized applications like theme park attractions and giant commercial billboards but less so for moviegoing.

 

[revgen]

In addition to the Panasonic models previously mentioned, another Universal player to consider is the Cambridge Audio CXUHD.

PRODUCT PAGE
AMAZON LINK

 

[Scott Merryfield]

Yeah, I agree that 8K in the home makes little sense. I don't see it being in my home unless it gets to a point where it's the only thing available to purchase... and we are a long way from that day.

 

[John Dirk]

Same here. I thought it was very odd I never got a notification from their waiting list, as I did intend to purchase an Oppo player from their final batch. I guess it just wasn't meant to be.

That's why I purchased mine as soon as I heard the announcement from Oppo. I honestly didn't know whether or not it would prove to be a wise decision but now I'm seeing the dearth and feel fully gratified.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

That's why I purchased mine as soon as I heard the announcement from Oppo. I honestly didn't know whether or not it would prove to be a wise decision but now I'm seeing the dearth and feel fully gratified.

You could also sell it for a healthy profit right now, if you so desired.

 

[Robert Crawford]

You could also sell it for a healthy profit right now, if you so desired.

I have two of the 203 models so I could really make out.