Panasonic DP-UB420/UB150 - need advice

[mar3o]

I need some advice. I've just about had enough of my Sony X700. It freezes or stutters on just about every UHD I throw at it, and the ones that don't freeze fall out of sync and I have to pause and then unpause for the film to go back into sync. I don't have any of these issues with my Panasonic blu-ray players.

So I'm looking at a Panasonic player but I have a limited budget. I see the Panasonic DP-UB420 for around $200 currently, which is about the max I can spend. I don't need Dolby Vision because my 2016 LG TV handles Dolby Vision horribly so I never use it anyways. I also see Best Buy lists the DP-UB150 on sale for half price. But, I came across this review and now I'm wondering if I can trust either of these Panasonic models:

https://www.trustedreviews.com/revie...sonic-dp-ub150

Use the sliders to see the comparison screenshots between the DP-UB150 and the Sony x700. In all cases the X700 looks far superior, to the point I think the DP-UB150 screenshots look awful. Are those really representative of what the DP-UB150 offers? What about the DP-UB420? I'd imagine they offer similar image quality, no? I don't want to go with Panasonic if the image quality would look this poor compared to the X700.

Not sure what to do. I don't want LG sets or other brands because as I said my TV handles Dolby Vision horribly, and with many players they force Dolby Vision if the disc has it and you can't disable it, so that's a no-go for me. I can turn it off with my X700. I'd love my X700 if it wasn't for all the stuttering/freezing/sync issues, but I can't take it anymore.