Blu-Ray Players - Do they really perform differently?

[drumace]

Hey folks,
Up until now I’ve been using a basic Panasonic blu-ray player from 2015.
Given the fact upscaling is now a factor, would I see any visual difference if for instance I swap it with an Oppo 103 or something else at the same level? Or they all send the same data through the HDMI port?

[geebo]

Dec 25, 2022 21:01:05 GMT -5 drumace said:

Hey folks,
Up until now I’ve been using a basic Panasonic blu-ray player from 2015.
Given the fact upscaling is now a factor, would I see any visual difference if for instance I swap it with an Oppo 103 or something else at the same level? Or they all send the same data through the HDMI port?

I usually let my TV do any upscaling but if you want the device to do it then it's hard to beat the newer Panasonics like the UB420, UB820 & UB9000.

[drumace]

Dec 25, 2022 22:43:02 GMT -5 geebo said:

Dec 25, 2022 21:01:05 GMT -5 drumace said:

Hey folks,
Up until now I’ve been using a basic Panasonic blu-ray player from 2015.
Given the fact upscaling is now a factor, would I see any visual difference if for instance I swap it with an Oppo 103 or something else at the same level? Or they all send the same data through the HDMI port?

I usually let my TV do any upscaling but if you want the device to do it then it's hard to beat the newer Panasonics like the UB420, UB820 & UB9000.

I don’t care much for upscaling as I try to get my content on FHD blu-ray that matches my projector’s native resolution.
I just want to know if the same data is transmitted if no upscaling is done so I know if it’s worth the investment of buying for example the 103.

[405x5]

Dec 25, 2022 21:01:05 GMT -5 drumace said:

Hey folks,
Up until now I’ve been using a basic Panasonic blu-ray player from 2015.
Given the fact upscaling is now a factor, would I see any visual difference if for instance I swap it with an Oppo 103 or something else at the same level? Or they all send the same data through the HDMI port?

I’ve never seen a true notable difference in the picture quality and I’ve had quite a few of these Blu-ray players, including 3-D. The only problem I really had was with one Samsung player in particular that failed to play my police live in Buenos Aires Blu-ray disc it was like stumped the band I got on the horn with technical support at Samsung, who intern got themselves a copy of that disk and ended up with the same problem I did that got me a brand new player from Samsung that model was discontinued in favor of a new model. Pretty funny.

[millst]

The chipset in the Oppo is pretty ancient. Unless you know otherwise, I'd assume a more modern display device has better upscaling built in.

Blu-ray is mature so I doubt there is a huge difference between any recent players when used as a transport. Early on, there were large differences in load time, seek responsiveness, upscaling, etc.

[rbk123]

For Bluray - no. For 4k - "yes, if" - yes if you're using HDR and the player is doing the tone mapping.

[KeithL]

I'm inclined to agree.

Another thing is that, for a given display device, the internal upscaling and processing can be optimized for the particular panel and resolution it uses.
(Upscaling always involves a combination of upsampling, sharpening, and smoothing... so "the best upscaling parameters" are going to vary from panel to panel.)

Dec 27, 2022 22:46:39 GMT -5 millst said:

The chipset in the Oppo is pretty ancient. Unless you know otherwise, I'd assume a more modern display device has better upscaling built in.

Blu-ray is mature so I doubt there is a huge difference between any recent players when used as a transport. Early on, there were large differences in load time, seek responsiveness, upscaling, etc.