Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Blu-Ray players - 4K/HDR -> 1080p Down-res

Does anyone know what picture quality is like once 4K (possibly also HDR) is down-res’d to 1080p?

I still run a good Sony 1080p projector, but increasingly the new 4K disc releases are much better transfers. Up to recently, most 4K releases also included a blu-ray copy, but this seems to be being phased out. I’m increasingly unwilling to keep buying 1080 copies when I’m going to have to upgrade at some point, but don’t know how well current players down-res, not so much with resolution but with colour spaces and HDR…

Is it OK or a muddy mess?

Has anyone found a particular brand or player better in this regard?

I do exactly that. And it is awesome. Great 1080 is better than average 4k any day.

I was using a Meridian projector. I purchased a laser/LED projector which was great for bright scenes but fell down when it came to black levels. After about a 6 months I got rid!!

I then purchased an 86 inch TV. Chosen off the back of some incredible reviews.
Again great for bright scenes. Apart from the blooming. And I absolutely hated how it handled dark scenes. Sold that!!

Gone back to my Meridian projector with a new bulb. Plenty bright enough in my cinema room. With brilliant black levels.

I may take a look at one of those new Valerion projectors at some point but will wait for now.
I use a Panasonic BDP820 with output set to auto.

Nick

I assume this was QLED or equivalent technology… did you consider OLED?

Regards,
Carl

I didn't because of the sizes of OLED. To small. And for the money I could get a better projector.
I really don't like the picture on TVs.

Thank you, this is great to know!

Yes, I must admit, since we’ve had the projector, which is about 6-7 years, I don’t really enjoy TV images as much. Although a friend had a £6000 Sony 4K set a few years back, which I admit is rather nice image quality. Awful software though, and sloooow to respond - I was shocked at how poor this was in their top set back in the day.

I suspect your Meridian projector is still as good as it gets for 1080p! Would love to see one of these in action one day 😎

Am just having a look at the Panasonic 4K Bluray players - is the difference between the UB9000 and the UB820 basically in the XLR audio outputs and allegedly more robust mechanism/casework?

The 9000 is mechanically constructed with triple "chambers" to prevent interference on the analog out section which is also setup with a separate pcb and better parts but both are pretty useless when used only digital.
And perhaps the video section is a little better?

Thanks. I do occasionally use analogue outputs, so the XLRs would be nice… mind you, I could just run HDMI to HD621 and get some analogue output cards for the 861, which would still be cheaper than the extra on the 9000 and probably sound better still.

I have a 4K JVC NZ8 and a Panasonic 'Kuro' 65" 1080p Plasma, with an Oppo 203 & various 4K streaming boxes, with most 4K components gradually being added post-2021.
Full disclosure though - it's all connected via a Lumagen Radiance Pro, which may have an influence.

When I was working in the USA from 2018-2020 I started buying 4K Blu-Rays to future-proof myself, but always the versions with the additional 1080p disc. I still seek-out these double packs which are of course more expensive, but they're always available from somewhere - Blu-Ray.com seems to be the best source of information regarding versions of discs globally, and these days it's not difficult to get discs sent from e.g. the USA, or from the UK, or directly from the Studio's website, etc.
It's also worth remembering that sometimes some of these dual-format packs do have different versions of the films on the 4K or 1080p, plus it's the 1080p disc that usually holds all the extras.

When I watch 'anything' on my 1080p Plasma (apart from some crappy SD feed) it all looks really very very good - regardless of whether it's a 4K source or 1080p - and until April 2023 when I replaced my Sim2 1080p Projector with the JVC, the picture was still really good on the big screen.

My understanding is that if a Player detects a 1080p source, it should still apply any appropriate processing (HDR10 / WCG) but then down-sample the resolution, but I may be wrong.
On the Lumagen thread on AVSForums recently, some Studio Mastering Experts have recommended the Panasonic 820 / 9000, the Reavon & the Magnetar for the best performance.

Hope that helps!

Yes, I would assume the Lumagen Pro is making quite a difference, great bit of kit 😎

All good points, and very useful, thanks!

Yes, it’s only very recently (last few months) I’ve started to encounter 4K releases with no 1080 Blu-ray option available that I could find. One recently, I can get in a foreign language disc set.

The other issue once one starts purchasing disc sets from other regions/languages is that it’s not always the same mastering/remastering, which can make a huge difference in picture quality, and sometimes it’s very hard to tell which one is being sold.

So this is why I’m thinking of purchasing a decent 4K player so I’m not tied to having to buy more expensive discs of unknown master. It only takes a couple of tens of discs for the player to have paid itself back, as you say, the single disc sets are usually significantly cheaper.

Thanks again, will go and have a read of the comments re: Panasonics, etc., on the Lumagen forum.