4K BluRay Player Advice

[Gary Cook]

I have a lot of SACD's, so obviously Sony is the go for me. A lot of people suggested Panasonics were superior so I did plenty of back to back companions of picture quality on a number of different panels and I really couldn't pick the difference. I don't use the apps, I have an Apple TV 4K for that, so the Sony clunkiness and slow updates is irrelevant. There is also the price versus usage factor already mentioned above, I use the cable box 500 times more often than the BD player, I uses the Apple TV 300 times more often, so spending $big on a BD player is far from good value for money.

Cheers
Gary

[doc1963]

Nov 26, 2020 13:11:56 GMT -5 klinemj said:

Thanks all for the advice. I do have a very dumb question...so if a TV is Dolby Vision capable, the source has to be able to "send" it. Correct? I assume that based on one of Doc1963's comments, but I want to confirm. It's not like the TV can just apply it or whatever. Or, am I thinking of this wrong? It just seems odd that the TV and the source each have processing capability, but the TV would need the player to do certain things.

Frankly, it's tough to think of shelling out a lot of $ (more than $200) for a device I will likely rarely use. We use streaming so often vs. discs.

Also, people keep making comments about certain ones being a 2018 model vs. newer. 2nd dumb question...if it's got the basic features I want - why should I care about the year? It doesn't sound like anyone is really making leaps and bounds changes in players anyway. And as LCSeminole points out - some makers are not even updating firmware for a long time.

Thanks,

Mark

Yes... Dolby Vision is encoded during mastering and is an “end to end” workflow. So, no, the display cannot simply “apply” it. Both the source and sink must support DV. If you purchase a disc that has a DV encode, but your player doesn’t support DV, you’ll fall back to the default HDR-10 encode (which is present per the UHD Alliance spec on every UHD Blu-ray Disc).

There are some devices, particularly the ATV4K, that can “force” DV (if you have the device set that way) which simply tone maps incoming SDR and HDR-10 and passes it within a DV container, but that’s not representative of what Dolby Vision is intended to do. If the source is a true DV encode, then it passes true Dolby Vision.

In all honesty, you will find that in many cases, HDR-10 versus Dolby Vision encodes of the same movie don’t necessarily result in a “night and day” difference between them. But on the other hand, there are those that do.

The bottom line is this... buy what you’re comfortable with. When it comes to basic HDR-10, you’d get exactly the same results with a Panasonic DP-UB420 that I would get with my UB9000. The only difference is that you’re giving up Dolby Vision support. If you’re okay with that, then problem solved... 😉

[klinemj]

doc1963 - thank you for the comment about HDR-10 vs. DV. Very helpful. In my case, I am coming from a 1080p projector to a very good TV, and I am also 20/600 vision in 1 eye and 20/400 in the others - even when corrected w/glasses - my vision varies every day (and hourly) from OK to I can't focus (even with my glasses on). So, I likely don't need to worry about HDR-10 vs. DV.

Mark

[klinemj]

Thanks everyone for the advice. I decided that with as little actual disk viewing as I do, I can live without DV. So, I bought the Panasonic UB-420 while it's on sale for $149.

Mark

[doc1963]

Nov 30, 2020 11:36:52 GMT -5 klinemj said:

Thanks everyone for the advice. I decided that with as little actual disk viewing as I do, I can live without DV. So, I bought the Panasonic UB-420 while it's on sale for $149.

Mark

I think you made a very wise choice. Do be sure to pick up some "certified" (18 Gbps) cables. If you need a recommendation, I use THESE exclusively for cable runs shorter than 5 feet between my source and RMC-1L and THESE for runs of 6 feet or more.

Don't be afraid of those "ultra thin" cables. Once I saw that they do actually work (quite well, in fact), they're all that I use between my sources and AVP. Since the cable run between my AVP and display is ~20 feet, I do Ruipro hybrid FO for that run. No problems whatsoever using thais combination...

[klinemj]

Nov 30, 2020 12:22:33 GMT -5 doc1963 said:

Nov 30, 2020 11:36:52 GMT -5 klinemj said:

Thanks everyone for the advice. I decided that with as little actual disk viewing as I do, I can live without DV. So, I bought the Panasonic UB-420 while it's on sale for $149.

Mark

I think you made a very wise choice. Do be sure to pick up some "certified" (18 Gbps) cables. If you need a recommendation, I use THESE exclusively for cable runs shorter than 5 feet between my source and RMC-1L and THESE for runs of 6 feet or more.

Don't be afraid of those "ultra thin" cables. Once I saw that they do actually work (quite well, in fact), they're all that I use between my sources and AVP. Since the cable run between my AVP and display is ~20 feet, I do Ruipro hybrid FO for that run. No problems whatsoever using thais combination...

Thanks - I got a monoprice 8K on order from Amazon. -->THIS ONE<--

Mark

[klinemj]

The Panny and the cables have all arrived. I now have the Panny hooked up directly to the TV while I await the XMC-2 arrival. But, I could not resist a quick test.

The Panny setup went quickly, and my LG TV's "Magic Remote" quickly programmed itself automatically to control the Panny. Very nice! I dropped in Bohemian Rhapsody to test how it worked, and I was impressed that the disk loaded quickly. The image looked excellent.

I'll save more comments until later when the XMC-2 arrives.

Mark

[redogfizbal]

Nov 26, 2020 13:11:56 GMT -5 klinemj said:

Thanks all for the advice. I do have a very dumb question...so if a TV is Dolby Vision capable, the source has to be able to "send" it. Correct? I assume that based on one of Doc1963's comments, but I want to confirm. It's not like the TV can just apply it or whatever. Or, am I thinking of this wrong? It just seems odd that the TV and the source each have processing capability, but the TV would need the player to do certain things.

Frankly, it's tough to think of shelling out a lot of $ (more than $200) for a device I will likely rarely use. We use streaming so often vs. discs.

Also, people keep making comments about certain ones being a 2018 model vs. newer. 2nd dumb question...if it's got the basic features I want - why should I care about the year? It doesn't sound like anyone is really making leaps and bounds changes in players anyway. And as LCSeminole points out - some makers are not even updating firmware for a long time.

Thanks,

Mark


if your tv streams apps, then those will play in Dolby vision or HDR/HDR10. If you want to introduce an external player it will also need those capabilities, along with your tv. Also make sure you have a high speed hdmi cable capable of 4K 60hz. One other thing, make sure in your tv settings that you select the hdmi output that you are using and turn on 4K ultra hdmi deep color. 

[klinemj]

Dec 2, 2020 19:24:15 GMT -5 redogfizbal said:

if your tv streams apps, then those will play in Dolby vision or HDR/HDR10. If you want to introduce an external player it will also need those capabilities, along with your tv. Also make sure you have a high speed hdmi cable capable of 4K 60hz. One other thing, make sure in your tv settings that you select the hdmi output that you are using and turn on 4K ultra hdmi deep color.

Thanks - I have the cables I need, and I will continue to use the external player I have (Roku Ultra) run through an XMC-2. From what I can see, Netflix offers some content in 4K UHD but not all. Not sure about the other apps.

I'll take what I can get for now and hope for even more.

Mark

[Gary Cook]

Dec 2, 2020 20:44:55 GMT -5 klinemj said:

From what I can see, Netflix offers some content in 4K UHD but not all. Not sure about the other apps.
I'll take what I can get for now and hope for even more.
Mark

Hi Mark, in Australia Netflix, Prime, Disney (Marvel), Apple+, YouTube and Stan (our equivalent of ABC, Viacom, CBS etc) all offer 4k programming via my Apple TV4K.

Cheers
Gary