

It even takes the type of display you're using into account, reducing or intensifying the effect as needed. Panasonic's "HDR Optimizer" can make a noticeable difference when viewing HDR content, especially very bright scenes (or parts of scenes) that lose detail on most televisions. The Panasonic DP-UB820 is arguably the best of the lot, and if you've got a lot of older discs, you'll want to seriously consider it for that reason alone. While no DVD player can make older content look like it was recorded in 4K, some do a much better job of upscaling SD and HD video than others. You're not going to see all the benefits of that fancy new 4K television if all of the content you're playing on it is only in standard (SD) or high definition (HD) format. One of the problems with switching to 4K video technology is what to do with all your old movies and shows.

If you don't already have them via your television or a plug-in device, that's a useful extra. The player also supports a wide range of streaming services, including the usual suspects like Netflix and YouTube. That will be particularly important if most of your existing discs are in these older formats.īoth disc caddy and the remote control respond quickly, and the interface is refreshingly simple to use. The X700 also does a better job of upscaling SD or HD content than any of its lower-cost competitors, and many of the more expensive ones as well. Support for Dolby Vision, rare in this price range, makes for brighter, more-vibrant video and smoother color transitions on discs that support it. Physically, it's a fairly plain-looking black box, but it's what's inside that counts. Prices for 4K DVD players have fallen rapidly since they first came out, and you can now buy a feature-packed player from a major brand for under $200. While this machine will likely have competition from Samsung this year, at $109 US, it's a really good deal.View On Amazon View On Best Buy View On B&H Photo Video Without it, this performs similarly to other Blu-ray players at the price.īut can't hold a candle to a Roku player. The one feature it misses out on is dual-core processing, which in this predominantly streaming world, cuts the wait time on Netflix, for example, to mere seconds. While it's not technically the company's flagship, the S5500 is not the best the best player that Sony could possibly make. Picture quality is as excellent as you'd expect and even better than the Sony models from last year and the ability to transcode audio to DTS to Dolby is of a great help to people who own sambas. Instead of the old XMB and its really long list of apps, you now have access to everything you need from one page. You will need the remote control for this one.īut one of my favorite parts of the player is its redesigned interface. The F55 is pretty bare boned otherwise, with a nondescript design and only an eject button and power on the front. While it costs extra to rent games, it makes this player a pretty good option for a game or a holiday house. Now people balk at spending just 100 bucks for one, and are waiting for the next gig thing, 4k.Īs we count down to the release of 4k Blu-Ray at the end of 2015, We're in this weird holding patent that leads to blu ray players like the BDP-S5500 at $109 this still counts as a budge player.and offers a lot cool new features.Ĭonnect a Playstation 4 controller and you have access to Sony's game streaming service. They cost hundreds if not thousands of dollars, and promised the best image quality you would ever see. There was a time when a Blu-Ray player was a big deal.
