AT A GLANCE Plus
Fantastic build quality
Universal disc compatibility
Analog XLR audio output
Minus
No Wi-Fi or onboard streaming apps
Horrible remote
THE VERDICT
The player's build quality is top-notch, but there are a few quirks that need to be addressed.
Though the famous Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) quote, “The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated,” has been twisted over time from the original quote, “The report of my death was an exaggeration,” both very much apply to the state of physical media today.
Nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Directing, and Best Original Screenplay, as well as nods to each of the four leading actors, The Banshees of Inisherin tells a simple tale of a man living in a tiny island community off the coast of Ireland who is devastated on hearing that his lifelong friend no longer likes him and doesn’t want to waste any more time talking to him.
Reavon UBR-X100 Performance Features Ergonomics Value
Reavon UBR-X200 Performance Features Ergonomics Value
PRICE $799 (UBR-X100), $1699 (UBR-X200)
AT A GLANCE Plus
Reference-quality video
Universal disc playback (UBR-X200)
Pure Direct output
Minus
No DVD-Audio or SACD support (UBR-X100)
Build quality lags that of other flagship players
Interface needs polish
THE VERDICT
This pair of players from newcomer Reavon succeeds brilliantly in giving the Ultra HD Blu-ray format, along with other shiny discs, a new lease on life.
It's no secret that the Ultra HD Blu-ray disc player market has become a barren wasteland over the past few years. It seems like we've lost more players than we've gained, with little in the way of new models coming from manufacturers who used to debut several players a year during the heyday of shiny discs. And the situation is even worse for someone seeking a high- end player with advanced features, broad disc format support, and top-flight build quality.
AT A GLANCE Plus
Unique adjustability
Outstanding overall performance
Tank-like construction
Minus
Complex adjustments
Won't play SACDs
THE VERDICT
If you're in the market for an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc player that can do everything you want, and plenty of things you didn't know you wanted, Panasonic's flagship model leaves little on the table.
When Panasonic introduced its flagship DP-UB9000 Ultra HD Blu-ray player in early 2018, serious videophiles in the U.S. were set to drooling. Although a less expensive player, the DP-UDP820, had been widely available for some time, this new model clearly offered more. In late 2018, the New York A/V dealer Value Electronics ended up becoming the exclusive U.S. source for the DP-UB9000. That launch proved so successful that Panasonic's flagship player is now widely available, replacing the discontinued Oppo UDP-205 and UDP-203 players as the premium disc spinner du jour.
AT A GLANCE Plus
High-quality HDR to SDR conversion
SACD and DVD-Audio disc support
Detailed Info screen
Minus
No streaming apps or wireless connectivity
Somewhat tedious user interface
Occasional playback glitches
THE VERDICT
The UDP-LX500's universal disc support, high-quality onboard HDR tone mapping, and formidable build quality make it a welcome addition to the Ultra HD Blu-ray player scene.
It has now been a full year since Oppo Digital ceased production of its popular Ultra HD Blu-ray player lineup. Up until that point, Oppo was one of the few high- performance player options in a market concentrated on budget models packed with streaming features. We've since seen a few companies step up to fill the high-end player void, among them Pioneer, a company that produced numerous reference-level players back in the regular Blu-ray and DVD days. Pioneer's new offering, the UDP-LX500, is a universal disc player that supports playback of SACD and DVD-Audio discs. As you might expect, it sports both the Pioneer Elite logo and the high-end look and build associated with that iconic badge. At $1,099, it certainly has flagship pricing, so let's see if it measures up.
AT A GLANCE Plus
Reference-level video performance
In-player tone mapping for HDR and conversion to SDR
Multichannel analog output
Minus
Image enhancement options can be overwhelming
Setup not always intuitive
No 4K/HDR streaming support
THE VERDICT
Panasonic’s UHD Blu-ray player offers reference-level video performance and also sets a new bar for HDR playback with both HDR flat-panel TVs and projectors.
Today’s Ultra HD Blu-ray player market is drastically smaller than the one for the spinning-disc machines of old. In my early days reviewing DVD players, I could literally enter an electronics store, walk out with over a dozen players, and that would only represent a sampling of the available models. But with the massive rise in the popularity of streaming, we’ve seen the player market continue to slim down.
AT A GLANCE Plus
Dolby Vision compatible
High-quality Blu-ray video upconversion
Plays SACDs, DVD-Audio discs, and Blu-ray 3D discs
Minus
No analog audio outputs
Remote control not backlit
Pricey compared with
competition
THE VERDICT
Cambridge Audio’s CXUHD provides faultless video performance in a streamlined package.
Cambridge Audio is a British manufacturer known for their sleek, well-built, affordable audio components and speakers. They are also known for their universal disc players, which are based on Oppo Digital units but sold minus the built-in digital-to-analog converters and analog audio outputs. According to Cambridge, this is meant to “decrease interference to the signal, improving quality by reducing video noise.” Since the brand makes A/V receivers with built-in DACs designed to mate with their players, there’s some sound reasoning behind that strategy.
AT A GLANCE Plus
Plethora of streaming options
Outstanding picture quality
Dual HDMI outputs
Minus
No 3D support
Flimsy disc tray
No Dolby Vision support
THE VERDICT
This second-generation Ultra HD Blu-ray player delivers exceptional performance and value, especially for heavy Netflix or Amazon users.
I’m in my 13th year of reviewing consumer electronics, and I’m continually amazed at the industry’s pace of innovation. In the span of about 20 years, we’ve gone from bulky, backbreaking CRT displays to flat-panel TVs that hang on the wall, as well as projectors that are smaller than the base of a vacuum cleaner—all at prices that the middle class can easily afford.
AT A GLANCE Plus
High-quality video upconversion of standard Blu-rays
Plays SACDs, DVD-Audio discs, and native DSD files
Inexpensive
Minus
No announced Dolby Vision support
No analog audio outputs
THE VERDICT
Sony’s ultra-affordable Ultra HD Blu-ray player offers solid video performance, and it also plays SACDs and DVD-Audio discs.
Call it nostalgia, but the launch of an audio or video format strikes me as an opportunity to reflect on what came before it—especially now, with the sun threatening to set on physical media. When the Blu-ray Disc first appeared a little more than a decade ago, Sony was among its main flagwavers. Not only that, but the company’s PlayStation 3 console was considered by many to be the top-performing player in the Blu-ray format’s primitive days. Samsung and Panasonic were quick to push out standalone Blu-ray players, but the folks at Sony took their sweet time bringing their own model to market. When the BDP-S1 did arrive, it was well received for its picture quality—though it had design quirks, including an inability to play CDs.
AT A GLANCE Plus
Outstanding overall performance
Detailed info screen
Plays virtually everything
Minus
No headphone output
No support for HDCD
THE VERDICT
Oppo’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray player has been eagerly anticipated by UHD enthusiasts everywhere. The wait was worth it.
We’re now into the second year of the Ultra HD Blu-ray era, but up to this past January, Samsung, Philips, and Panasonic pretty much had the UHD player market all to themselves. That month’s Consumer Electronics Show, however, saw the introduction of models from LG and Sony, together with new ones from Samsung and Panasonic.
AT A GLANCE Plus
High-quality upconversion of Blu-rays and DVDs
Effective detail enhancement and noise reduction
Full-featured remote
control
Minus
Doesn’t support YouTube 4K video streaming
No Vudu app
No Dolby Vision disc
support
Pricey next to competition
THE VERDICT
Panasonic’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray player’s excellent performance and solid build quality make it an easy choice for enthusiasts.
Looking back at format launches over the past two decades, it becomes clear that most first-gen players were clunkers, and pricey ones at that. Dig deep through the Sound & Vision archives (on the web, or in your personal print library—you have one of those, right?), and you’ll unearth reviews of the first Blu-ray player, Samsung’s BDP-1000. Priced at $1,000, this ungainly machine took about one minute to load a disc, did quirky stuff (like first converting progressive-scan signals to an interlaced format before outputting them as 1080p), and delivered pictures that looked soft in comparison with those delivered by the HD-DVD format Blu-ray was aggressively warring with at the time.
AT A GLANCE Plus
Excellent UHD performance
Solid build quality
Good value
Minus
Limited streaming apps
Less-than-perfect 4K upconversion
THE VERDICT
It’s not without minor flaws, but the second UHD Blu-ray player on the U.S. market delivers a stellar picture from UHD discs at an attractive price.
The launch of Ultra HD Blu-ray players has now progressed from a slow drip to a trickle. Samsung was first with the UBD-K8500 (reviewed in our June issue and also available at soundandvision.com). At CEDIA, Sony showed its upscale UBP-X1000ES but won’t have it out till next spring and hasn’t announced pricing. Oppo’s new player is expected sometime this fall. And Panasonic’s own high-end DMP-UB900, at $700, became available in late September as we were going to press (watch for a future review).
No format launch would be complete without movies to play, and UHD Blu-ray Disc boosters got more than they could have hoped for, with more than two-dozen titles from Sony, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, and Lionsgate available concurrent with the debut of the Samsung UBD-K8500 player and all mastered with HDR10 high dynamic range. We asked our movie reviewers Tom Norton and David Vaughn for their top-line observations on 14 titles in the first batch to help you separate the demo-worthy from the duds.
AT A GLANCE Plus
World’s first UHD Blu-ray player
Outstanding overall
performance
Reasonable price (for a “first”)
Minus
No auto picture adjustments for HDR, non-HDR, and 1080p discs with current UHDTVs
Small, frustrating remote
THE VERDICT
As the first Ultra HD Blu-ray player, the Samsung UBD-K8500 provides exceptional performance with the right display and disc. But as with any new format, there are growing pains to be sorted out before we can toast to its complete success.
The video world, or at least the segment that still values packaged media, has been waiting impatiently for Ultra HD discs. Many of us still prefer to pay for our movies once and have them on the shelf. More important, we want their video and audio quality uncompromised by Internet bandwidth limitations.
Editor's note: For our reviewers' impressions of some the first UHD Blu-ray movie titles, see "Eye on UHD: 14 Ultra HD Blu-ray Movies Reviewed."
AT A GLANCE Plus
High-quality 4K video upconversion
Superb detail enhancement and noise reduction
Excellent digital-to-analog audio conversion
Minus
As pricey as it is heavy
Slim feature set compared with competition
THE VERDICT
Pioneer’s flagship 4K-upconverting universal disc player is something special, even if it’s late to the party.
What’s new in the world of Blu-ray? 4K, that’s what. Expected to arrive sometime in late 2015, the UHD Blu-ray format should offer not just UHD-resolution video but also high dynamic range (HDR) capabilities, an extended color gamut, and up to 16-bit color encoding, among other advanced features. Something to get excited about, right?
Now that I’ve dropped that tidbit, let me tell you about the Pioneer Elite BDP-88FD, a universal player that can handle Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, SACD, DVD-Audio, regular DVDs, and CDs—just about everything except UHD Blu-ray. And it lists for $2,000. Excited? No? Well, let’s see if we can work you up.