Blu Ray Player Recommendation?

ZLTFUL

dpowell wrote: »

Right now B&H has the Panasonic 420 for $150 and the 820 for $350. Looks like the only difference between the 2 is Dolby Vision Is there a reaon to pay an extra $200 more to get the Dolby Vision capability if i use a projector and dont habe that capability?

Currently, no display devices are even capable of displaying the 10,000 nits required for Dolby Vision.
On 4K HDR capable displays, the difference between Dolby Vision and HDR10 are marginal at best. Since they are essentially different sides of the same penny (both HDR technologies)

French_guy wrote: »

How does the Xbox S compare to the players listed above? Will I see an improvement with a Panasonic 420, or a Sony X700? Or it will be kind of the same, and I would need to invest much more than $150?

The 420 will generally be a better experience for strictly disc spinning. Streaming would definitely go the way of the xBox.

The x700 is good too but Panasonic's HDR optimizer is truly a game changer if you don't have a display capable of frame by frame tonemapping.

dpowell

After much debate, I settled on the Panasonic 420. Figured I'd save the rest of the coin for other upgrades. It's on order but must promptly be placed in wrapping paper upon arrival for official unveiling on Christmas day.

dpowell

I figured i would post a quick review in case anyone else is in the market for a player. I unwrapped the Panasonic UB420 on Christmas and got it hooked up that afternoon. It is a very small unit and was easy to fit in the rack. I wish it was 19" for consistency with other components but thats not the end of the world. Setup was fast and easy. It let me know right off the bat it was not connected to a 4K or UHD display.

First test was Star Trek in Ultra HD Blu Ray. This was my first UHD Blu Ray purchase. The player is whisper quiet and the disc loaded reasonably fast. Picture and sound quality was great. I wont truly be able to rate UHD performance until i upgrade the projector in a few years. The remote is fine. Does what is needed.

I like that this player has the ability to download streaming apps. The Amazon Prime app setup was a breeze and it works well.

dpowell

skrol

My Marantz UD5005 has been serving me well and does SACD and DVD-audio. The Denon DBP-1611UD is the same exact player internally but says Denon when you power it up. I have both but use the Marantz because it matches my Marantz SR7010.

dpowell

After 4 months of use, i wanted to post an update. The player has a good image and generally works fine. There are a few annoyances that i want to relay. The eject button is on the top so in my case, i can only use the remote for that function. The remote signal strength is weak and requires battery changes frequently. The streaming apps menu and features are way outdated and very slow. The biggest annoyance is that the player simply cannot handle anything but perfect discs. Trying to play discs that have been through 3 kids is a consistent challenge. Even simple imperfections cause issues. The player has no playback memory. Take the disc out to clean and put it back in and it doesnt remember where you left off.

Bottom line is I wish i had gone with the Sony. At least im only out $150.

Rich502

Dpowell, thabks for following up on your impressions. That’s a good point, didn’t think of playback memory, currently using a PS3 and it does it since it has a hard drive. Wondering if there are any other standalone players that have this capability?