Sony BDP S790 4K BD player

Sherardp

Just ordered the Sony BDP S790 from B&H photo. This is a 4k upconverting BD, which supposedly provides an awesome picture. It has a dual core processor which should handle anything you throw at it and speed things up a bit. It has many settings to tweak video and the reviews seem favorable. Video output is supposedly better than the Oppo, with excellent streaming capabilities to go along with that. These are selling like hotcakes, so I'm looking forward to getting mine and reviewing it. If the video is that outstanding then this will replace my Oppo BDP 83 in my dedicated HT. We shall see though. Looking at the manual it will play a good bit of formats to include SACD, if that is a requirement for some. Anyone looking for a good player should consider, especially for $248.00.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/846031-REG/Sony_BDPS790_BDP_S790_4K_and_3D.html

leroyjr1

Keep us posted.

cnh

Looks like a great price for that if that's true!

I don't understand why BDP manufacturers, many of whom, also make PCs and Laptops, just can't offer a high end player that has pretty much the same processing as the "fastest" laptop with gobs of video and processing memory and cache and just give us the player of 2020 right now instead of playing these "incremental" games when the technology is there for a huge leap forward. Let's face it, people in animation and graphics design are using machines that exceed our low end BDPs abilities?

I guess no one wants to take the LEAD and be responsible for making ALL BDPs completely "obsolete" overnight. Which I assure you is quite possible!

Oh well, I wouldn't pay for that in any case, I'm too cheap. But I might consider this Sony now that my griping is over!


cnh

Lietuvis91

Oh sweet! I've been waiting for sony to update the s780, and it's finally here! I knew I had been saving those sony rewards point for a good reason, this is as good a time to use them as any :cheesygrin:

I only wish it had analog audio out for each channel, but at this price point, that's clearly asking too much. The rest of the features look very impressive.

Thanks for the post!

polkfarmboy

Thanks for posting, I never even knew they had them and if its better than oppo then it will drive the price down on their bdp's unless the follow suit

Upstatemax

At the risk of looking like an idiot, what's the benefit of a 4k player on a 1080p TV?

Sherardp

Upstatemax wrote: »

At the risk of looking like an idiot, what's the benefit of a 4k player on a 1080p TV?

The upconversion should still be really good on a 1080p display. I will definitely compare this with my Oppo. The reviews are stellar on AVS, so we shall see. The processing is said to be the best out so far.

Lietuvis91

Upstatemax wrote: »

At the risk of looking like an idiot, what's the benefit of a 4k player on a 1080p TV?

Not a foolish question at all, I was actually wondering the same thing and found this forum discussion:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-1374554.html

Looks like currently only some projectors are available with 4k compatibility. Most TVs are 1080p and this year some 4k ones are going to be realeased. There is barely any media that is natively 4k. Sony is one of the companies that has been filming in 4k since 2006 apparently. Sony is also in talks with Blu-ray Association to finalize the 4k standard, so it doesn't surprise me that they are the first to market with a 4k br player. I'm sure they will bring 4k media to market soon too.

I learned all this today, and the short answer to your question is that it doesn't appear to benefit 1080p tvs. 4k will eventually replace 1080p, but it's still in it's infancy as far as HT goes. The new sony s790 does make you future proof for when the rest of your gear catches up. I'm glad this thing comes with 2 hdmi outs. One will feed a 4k video signal directly to my future 4k tv or projector. The other will feed audio to my, by then outdated HT system. lol!

Lietuvis91

I want the s790 for the superior 1080p/24 PQ. For now that is my one and only goal. I will worry about 4k when it's more mainstream.

Sherardp

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

I want the s790 for the superior 1080p/24 PQ. For now that is my one and only goal. I will worry about 4k when it's more mainstream.

I agree, should be awesome PQ. I would love to jump for a 4k projector though. For my small displays, I'm fine with 1080p.

polkfarmboy

I wonder how a new jvc model would do with a 4k upsampled bluray from the sony

smglbrth

Looks nice on the website. Not many specs though, at least not manufacturer stated.

Lietuvis91

polkfarmboy wrote: »

I wonder how a new jvc model would do with a 4k upsampled bluray from the sony

The material I poured through today seemed to say that there is not one standard yet! Some use quadro HD and sony is 4k2k, but they all call it 4k. I would confirm that whatever JVC uses works with what sony has. So just FYI.

EDIT: quick check on google jvc says their projectors are "Using e-Shift, 2D HD content is upconverted and scaled to a 4K signal (3840 x 2160) and the e-Shift technology displays it at full 4K precision" which is the quadro standard, which is different from sony. So i don't know how that would work. I guess the signal can be upconverted at the projector level, but a native sony standard 4k will most likely not work as 4k through that jvc projector.

This is still very convoluded. I'm staying away from this 4k thing for now.

Upstatemax

Lietuvis91 wrote: »

Not a foolish question at all, I was actually wondering the same thing and found this forum discussion:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archive/index.php/t-1374554.html

Looks like currently only some projectors are available with 4k compatibility. Most TVs are 1080p and this year some 4k ones are going to be realeased. There is barely any media that is natively 4k. Sony is one of the companies that has been filming in 4k since 2006 apparently. Sony is also in talks with Blu-ray Association to finalize the 4k standard, so it doesn't surprise me that they are the first to market with a 4k br player. I'm sure they will bring 4k media to market soon too.

I learned all this today, and the short answer to your question is that it doesn't appear to benefit 1080p tvs. 4k will eventually replace 1080p, but it's still in it's infancy as far as HT goes. The new sony s790 does make you future proof for when the rest of your gear catches up. I'm glad this thing comes with 2 hdmi outs. One will feed a 4k video signal directly to my future 4k tv or projector. The other will feed audio to my, by then outdated HT system. lol!

Thanks for the break down.

I think I'm with you, I'll wait and see where this goes and jump in when stuff gets sorted out.

[Deleted User]

Sherardp

Sorry, I do not mean to threadjack. But thanks for the link. I have been looking for a new player. I noticed an increase in marketing of 4K lately. I first encounter 4K 2 years ago and I believe Sony had the Red Camcorder or something like that. Anyhow. I was not able to play any 4K content on PC.

Fast forward today, newer PC, Processor.. etc.. I still could not play 4K

Could anyone play this video? Remember you must change the settings to 4K to really see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-GYrbecb88

Halen

Sherardp

halenhoang wrote: »

Sherardp

Sorry, I do not mean to threadjack. But thanks for the link. I have been looking for a new player. I noticed an increase in marketing of 4K lately. I first encounter 4K 2 years ago and I believe Sony had the Red Camcorder or something like that. Anyhow. I was not able to play any 4K content on PC.

Fast forward today, newer PC, Processor.. etc.. I still could not play 4K

Could anyone play this video? Remember you must change the settings to 4K to really see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-GYrbecb88

Halen

Video playsback fine for when I select 1080p and Original.

[Deleted User]

Hmm.. Maybe I am constrained by my video card and bandwidth. Did you notice any difference between 1080 and 4K? Of course it is youtube, but I believe they claim it is native.

Lietuvis91

halenhoang wrote: »

Hmm.. Maybe I am constrained by my video card and bandwidth. Did you notice any difference between 1080 and 4K? Of course it is youtube, but I believe they claim it is native.

Very interesting, the picture is a little better at "original" than 1080p from what I can tell, but the video begins to seriuously break up and gets choppy. So there must be more data there that my laptop just can't process fast enough.

Sherardp

halenhoang wrote: »

Hmm.. Maybe I am constrained by my video card and bandwidth. Did you notice any difference between 1080 and 4K? Of course it is youtube, but I believe they claim it is native.

My system uses a 4.0 ghz quad core chip, AMD 6950 modded, 27 inch led monitor. My internet speed is 1gig fiber optics directly into the home.

Sherardp

Just got this installed and doing some testing. It definitely gives an awesome image. BD looks really good on my 126" screen. It allows the ability to tweak the image until your heart's content. Under the options menu it allows even more image tweaking, etc. The player is very fast to boot up from turn on to loading a movie. I love the networking this player offers. Where the Oppo would hang, this unit simply charges full speed ahead. Amazon, Netflix look superb over streaming as well. Still more to come, but so far a heck of a player at this price point. More to come.

leroyjr1

So is the PQ better than the Oppo?

Sherardp

leroyjr1 wrote: »

So is the PQ better than the Oppo?

I hate to say but it does surpass the Oppo. I already moved the Oppo out of my theater room. The Sony is about half the size of the Oppo but video processing in this thing is awesome. The sound over HDMI is also really good. I will say it sounds right up there with my Oppo.

[Deleted User]

Just placed my order, cant wait...

Halen

EndersShadow

Sherardp wrote: »

I hate to say but it does surpass the Oppo. I already moved the Oppo out of my theater room. The Sony is about half the size of the Oppo but video processing in this thing is awesome. The sound over HDMI is also really good. I will say it sounds right up there with my Oppo.

Can you give any further details on how?

Sherardp

EndersShadow wrote: »

Can you give any further details on how?

I think the video processing in this unit is better than that of the Oppo. Also for those using Netflix, Amazon VOD, it is way faster than the Oppo. Also DLNA works very well with the Sony. The video playback of BD looks much more vibrant, sharper with the Sony. I did make some changes in the Sony options menu to test. For streaming purposes it is very fast as well. My Oppo would freeze up when looking for files, not so with the Sony. Menus are laid out very well, making it easy to navigate. Not sure what Sony is doing internally with the image, but it looks fantastic.

leroyjr1

Is that the Oppo 93 or 83? Cuz I feel the 93 is better than the 83.

Sherardp

leroyjr1 wrote: »

Is that the Oppo 93 or 83? Cuz I feel the 93 is better than the 83.

mine is the 83 . I have no experience with the 93.