Sony UBP-X800M2 UHD Blu-ray Player Review

Today, we’re looking at the Sony UBP-X800M2. My first UHD disc player was, unfortunately, the Samsung UBD-K8500, which had an odd shape with its curved front to match their curved displays, and was also the first player to market in February 2016. I was not a fan of that player due to its tiny remote with tiny buttons, most of the smart apps were incompatible with the player, and frequent HDMI handshake issues. One year later, Sony entered the market with the UBP-X800, and I exchanged the Samsung for the Sony. For the most part, it was a step up. The Sony featured a very solid metal chassis compared to the plastic shell of the Samsung plus it would play SACD discs. 

That is not to say that the Sony didn’t have issues; it would randomly lock up when watching either a disc or using one of the built-in streaming apps, and the only way to temporarily fix the lockup was to unplug the power cord. Calls to Sony tech support were almost comical when the agent would say something like “that is the first I am hearing of this lockup issue” or “that is not a documented known issue” despite the fact that the number one complaint about that model was its random lockups. To make a long story short, after nearly two years of contacting Sony tech support and having Sony actually send out two engineers to my home to investigate the issue (and admitting they were unable to replicate the issue in their lab despite a large number of customer complaints), in the Spring of 2019, Sony replaced my X800 with the newer UBP-X800M2.

Does the UBP-X800M2 do it’s job?

At first glance, the two players are identical. Sony has used the same sturdy metal chassis on the X800M2 as they did on its predecessor, as well as the same remote. Even the connections on the back are the same: two HDMI ports, one for 2160p video and audio plus a second HDMI strictly for audio (for those with older non-HDCP 2.2 compliant receivers); a digital coax output; and an ethernet port. In the front, is a lone USB 2.0 port for file playback and firmware updates. The tray door is the same as well, taking up nearly the entire width of the unit even though the disc tray is the standard width of five inches. The on-screen user interface for the UBP-X800M2 is also nearly identical as well, with four large icons at the top for Disc, USB, Media Server, and Setup plus three streaming service apps at the bottom (Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube).

Setup is fairly simple – just follow the on-screen prompts and download any firmware updates. Once that is all done, just insert a UHD, Blu-ray, DVD, CD, SACD, or DVD-Audio disc. Video content discs will automatically load the main menu screen while audio discs (CD and SACD) will load a relatively blank screen that requires the user to press play on the remote to start the disc. Picture quality is exceptional, with decent 4K upscaling on DVDs and even better upscaling on Blu-ray discs. The player does offer decent but not great HDR to SDR conversion.

While I have experienced the occasional random player lockup on UHD discs, they are much less frequent with the UBP-X800M2 than they were on the previous model. In fact, I can’t remember the last time my player locked up on a UHD disc, and I don’t think it ever locked up while streaming, although to be honest, I rarely if ever stream anything on this player.

A nice feature on the player is the ability to connect a pair of Bluetooth headphones for nighttime viewing.

While the Sony UBP-X800M2 is definitely the most solidly-built player in its price class, there are a few things to nitpick about.

First and foremost is the player’s inability to self-detect Dolby Vision content. Dolby Vision must be turned on from the setup menu (Setup/Screen Settings/Dolby Vision Output), and if left on, it will play any content on UHD or Blu-ray disc and assume it has been encoded with Dolby Vision. As for Dolby Atmos, that is not a problem for discs (just make sure the BD Secondary Audio is turned off in the Audio Settings), but if you do use the Netflix or Prime Video app, any content on those services that should have Dolby Atmos will only play in Dolby Digital 5.1.

Conclusion

I have had my Sony UBP-X800M2 UHD Blu-ray player for nearly five years now, and I have been mostly happy with it. It plays SACD’s and DVD-Audio discs with impressive sound quality (and if your receiver is capable of DSD playback over HDMI, you can let your receiver do the DSD decoding), picture and sound quality is also excellent on UHD discs with excellent 4K upscaling of 1080p Blu-ray content (DVD is acceptable), and overall it’s a pretty solid and reliable player.

See this and other top picks in our Best 4K Blu-Ray Players buyers guide.