Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Samsung Stop Making Bluray Players

See here.

Disappointing news for those of us who still like to own our media. On top of Oppo last year, this is a pretty big blow.

Very!

I fired up my old Sony player a couple of days ago for the first time in ~three years in order to test my HD621.

I had forgotten about how good the picture from Bluray is compared to satellite and HD streaming.

The DTS Master sound quality was pretty amazing too, far more immersive and coherent than lossy DD.

Yes, that’s the thing - streaming video/satellite looks OK until you put the equivalent Blu-ray on (let alone UHD).

And yes, it’s also a huge step up in sound quality.

We’re not talking about audio here, and there is no MQA equivalent to allow master quality video/multichannel audio to stream over most broadband connections in real time...

Plus, I just like having my collection on my shelf to browse and look at, and we have all the usual caveats about internet outages and titles suddenly going NLA due to rights on streaming services - the disc is yours for life...

I'm with you on all of that & despite having Sky Movies, I still buy Blu Rays (& the odd DVD even; it's the only way to see some films). We've a decent collection by now (~ 700 blu rays & quite a few DVDs) and I enjoy browsing through them & picking one for the evening's viewing. Picture & sound quality can be wonderful & it's ALWAYS delivered seamlessly; watching on Sky almost invariably gives some picture breakup or similar annoyance.

I hadn't heard about LG stopping their BD production but thankfully Pioneer & Panasonic have started to produce some serious UHD decks that should give good service. In fact, if one wants to buy a BD deck (i.e. non-UHD), then options are shrinking pretty fast.

Despite swearing I would never buy another silver disc player, I have been looking at the Sony UHD players because nowadays they seem to be able to play DVD-A and SACD in multichannel, delivering PCM over HDMI.

For example, the Sony UBP-X800 at around £230 claims these capabilities. And I believe it can play multi-channel files via the USB port.

This seems a bargain compared with the over-inflated prices being asked for used Oppo 203/5s in various forums.

Has anyone here any experience of using these "lesser" machines for multi-channel music audio. What was your experience?

Thumbs up for the Sony UBP-X800, I found it gave the Oppo 203 a serious run for the money. Indeed I have one of each in two systems and never feel short changed when I use the Sony.

Thanks Colin.

Have you used the Sony UBP-X800 with DVD-A, SACD and/or multichannel PCM from USB?

I also use the Sony and it works very well for me. My only gripe about it is tha some of the apps such as Hulu do not display the same content as a Roku running Hulu. Software is up to date.

Just looked up the Sony UBP-X800 connectivity. Since it has a dedicated HDMI for audio, and another one for video, could I theoretically send the audio only to my "old" HD-HD621, and separately send a 4K video signal directly to - say - a 4 K projector, without the need to upgrade to the new UHD722?

Yes you can do that.

+1 I have so many cherished films which would be very hard to find on streaming services - plus I’d have to susbscibe to three or more services at once to have the breadth of choice I have in my own catalogue.