Samsung 4K UHD Blu-ray Player UBD-K8500

[elwaylite]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Is there a WCG and/or HDR setting though? I keep asking those questions and no-one seems to be able to give me any answers?

Not sure on WCG but Ray did say there was an HDR setting on the player, not sure if the UHD disc needs to be in. I have not seen anyone confirm.

And of course you have to choose wide or normal on your display too. Will be confusing at first which is why I think two different calibrated modes will be better.

[Geoff D]

Forget the display, I wanna know about the player, dammit!! It's like getting blood out of a stone.

[Adam_ME]

Ok, I had a chance to test out the 4 UHD titles(Kingsman, The Martian, Exodus, Scorch Trials) I picked up and A-B each one with the Blu-ray. First, a few observations about the Samsung player:

This sucker loads these discs fast! And not just Blu-rays, but the UHD ones as well. Within about 5 seconds(if that), it had the Fox Home Entertainment logo up. And just a few seconds after that, the main menu loaded.

A few times I tried to play a disc, I got an error telling me to check the disc and player to make sure they were clean. I knew some of the discs were fine(I'd played them before), so that was clearly a glitch with the player. Powering it off and back on seemed to get rid of the error, but it cropped up a few times which has me a little concerned.

Also, when I was A-B'ing the titles, I'd pause the UHD copy on the Samsung and switch over to the Oppo 103 to compare it to the Blu-ray. When I'd switch the receiver input back to the Samsung, the movie would start playing automatically without me unpausing it. I don't know if that's the player programmed to do that or if it's because I have a Samsung 4KTV(someone with a non-Samsung TV will have to test this out), but it was a minor annoyance.

Ok, now on to the movies. As I said, I have a Samsung TV. It's a UN65JS9500. I was seated roughly 10 feet away from it. Keep in mind, I only watched a few scenes of the Blu-ray and UHD copies, not the entire films.

Kingsman: The Secret Service - The picture is sharper, no doubt about it. A noticeable difference, but not a major upgrade though over the upconverted Blu-ray.

The Martian - Again, sharper, but not a huge difference. You can see the increased resolution in scenes like where right after Mindy discovers Mark is alive and they're gathered around her workstation in the control room. The letters on the giant display screen in the background are sharper and better defined.

Exodus: Gods and Kings - This one was more noticeable of an upgrade. Especially those wide shots of Egypt. You can see a lot more detail. I did notice the picture was darker than the Blu-ray, but that was an issue with the M-Go digital copy as well, so I'm thinking that's just the source material.

Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials - Another more noticeable upgrade, at least in those outdoor scenes. Maybe it's just something about deserts and sand benefiting from the higher resolution since this and Exodus were the best-looking titles(which bodes well for Lawrence of Arabia).

So far, I have to say that in terms of sharpness and clarity, these are all improvements, but it is not the kind of difference we saw back when we went from DVD to Blu-ray. That could be in part due to some of these transfers not being genuine 4K. It should be interesting to A-B the upcoming Sony titles since those are.

Now before I get piled on for being a Debbie Downer, I left out one key detail that IS a massive improvement on the UHD copies: the colors. Holy crap, the richness of the colors is incredible! I don't know if it's from the increased resolution or that's where the HDR kicks in and makes a huge difference, but this is where UHD has me excited. Even when the picture doesn't look all that sharper than its Blu-ray counterpart, the superior colors still blow away the 1080p version. Again, Exodus and Scorch Trials benefited the most from the scenes I sampled.

Amazing Spider-Man 2 may have been a piece of crap movie, but I can't wait to check out the UHD version. A true 4K transfer with HDR and all those rich colors? That'll be a great demo disc for the format.

[Geoff D]

Any options for HDR/WCG on/off in the player's set up menus, Adam? (Might as well ask again for the umpteenth time, don't just look under Picture but try the System menu too)

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Any options for HDR/WCG on/off in the player's set up menus, Adam? (Might as well ask again for the umpteenth time, don't just look under Picture but try the System menu too)

I have yet to find one. I'm assuming HDR plays automatically if you have an HDR set. The reason I'm assuming that is because when I tested the UHD discs, the picture settings on the Samsung TV changed automatically. Brightness and Contrast went from the 10 and 95 I have them normally set to up to 20 and 100. This would always happen when I'd play an HDR 4K TV show or movie on Amazon Instant Video and M-Go, but not on a regular 4K clip on YouTube or VUDU. That can't be a coincidence.

[Pieter V]

Sounds good, Adam. On the jump from Blu-ray to 4K UHD Blu-ray, yes let's wait for native content, like Sicario.

I already find 4K mastered Blu-rays look very good.

Is the disc-drive silent in operation? No annoying buzzing? Especially if you have dialogue driven movies, it is annoying.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Adam_ME

I have yet to find one. I'm assuming HDR plays automatically if you have an HDR set. The reason I'm assuming that is because when I tested the UHD discs, the picture settings on the Samsung TV changed automatically. Brightness and Contrast went from the 10 and 95 I have them normally set to up to 20 and 100. This would always happen when I'd play an HDR 4K TV show or movie on Amazon Instant Video and M-Go, but not on a regular 4K clip on YouTube or VUDU. That can't be a coincidence.

Thanks man.

[SCEIPS]

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/149-bl...l#post41488449

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by Pieter V

Sounds good, Adam. On the jump from Blu-ray to 4K UHD Blu-ray, yes let's wait for native content, like Sicario.

I already find 4K mastered Blu-rays look very good.

Is the disc-drive silent in operation? No annoying buzzing? Especially if you have dialogue driven movies, it is annoying.

The player does that loud whirring sound when you first load the disc, but after that I honestly didn't hear much noise. And I had the volume turned way down since it was late and I didn't wanna wake the wife and kid, so I would've heard the player.

I think as we get more genuine 4K transfers, we'll be able to see the real benefits of the UHD Blu-ray format. And if you're in the market for a 4KTV, make damn sure it includes HDR. Even on the marginally better 2K(or 2.8K) upconversions, the improved colors from HDR make a huge difference.

[katiehlvr2]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Any options for HDR/WCG on/off in the player's set up menus, Adam? (Might as well ask again for the umpteenth time, don't just look under Picture but try the System menu too)

I have,a 4k tv and no uhd discs.
There is no hdr feature when I insert a blu ray.

[SCEIPS]

I read it works on a TV 1080P HDMI with HDCP 1.4, but it works in a 1080P TV with HDMI 1.3 or 1.2 version?

[JJ]

Question for those guys with Samsung TVs like me -

I know when HDR content is played, the settings automatically jump to 20 backlight and 100 contrast.

Can those be adjusted? Or are they locked for HDR content? Will it remember my settings, if adjusted, for the next HDR disc I load?

I'd love to test it myself, but alas, I'm at work.

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by JJ

Question for those guys with Samsung TVs like me -

I know when HDR content is played, the settings automatically jump to 20 backlight and 100 contrast.

Can those be adjusted? Or are they locked for HDR content? Will it remember my settings, if adjusted, for the next HDR disc I load?

I'd love to test it myself, but alas, I'm at work.

I've been messing around with the picture settings since I bought the TV. Basically unless there's a firmware update from Samsung, every single time you play HDR content, those settings will revert to 20 and 100. Hell, even after adjusting them, I had them revert back again during an episode of one of the Amazon TV shows when the internet connection briefly sputtered.

Last night I decided to hell with it and just set the TV to 20 and 100(from 10 and 95) for everything. I already had it at 20 for 3D Blu-rays to compensate for the darker picture and I hate the look of HDR content at 10 and 95 since it's too dark and loses a lot of detail. 20 and 100 are a little too bright and overblown for regular 1080p content, but not to the point where it really bugs me all that much.

All I do know is that when I played the UHD Blu-ray discs and adjusted the settings down to 10 and 95, they looked way too dark. I much prefer the look of the automatic 20 and 100 settings.

[MisterXDTV]

So reading the first impressions:

1) The main selling point of these discs is HDR/colors and not the higher resolution (that is fake most of the time as upscaling is used)

2) Unless you have a massive screen there is little difference in detail compared to 1080p Blu-ray (also when upscaled to 4K screens)

=

If you don't have a 4K HDR TV, don't bother....

As HDR has been used on like 10 movies so far (with Dolby Cinema/Vision) and i have medium/small sized screens, this format doesn't seem to be geared towards me at all...

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

Not sure on WCG but Ray did say there was an HDR setting on the player, not sure if the UHD disc needs to be in. I have not seen anyone confirm.

And of course you have to choose wide or normal on your display too. Will be confusing at first which is why I think two different calibrated modes will be better.

Can't find it. No on/off settings I can find.

Originally Posted by Adam_ME

The player does that loud whirring sound when you first load the disc, but after that I honestly didn't hear much noise. And I had the volume turned way down since it was late and I didn't wanna wake the wife and kid, so I would've heard the player.

I think as we get more genuine 4K transfers, we'll be able to see the real benefits of the UHD Blu-ray format. And if you're in the market for a 4KTV, make damn sure it includes HDR. Even on the marginally better 2K(or 2.8K) upconversions, the improved colors from HDR make a huge difference.

Are you using dynamic contrast? Bump it up to medium if you haven't already.

Also make sure uhd color is turned off on both devices, it kills the contrast and colors.

[bbwiscfan]

I plugged my player and set everything up; so far I have only watched half of 2 regular blu rays in an attempt to adjust settings, set it up how I want it, the whole nine yards.

I also will say I have no UHD blu rays yet, hope to get some this weekend. I have a Samsung 65JU7100 I'm hooking the player up to. There is one issue I've come across and was wondering if anyone else on this forum who has the same TV had this issue. Basically, when I enable HDMI UHD COLOR to ON for the HDMI 1 input on the TV which my player is connected to, there is nothing on the screen, it goes black. I don't get a signal. When I turn off DEEP COLOR on the player, the signal returns. However, with UHD COLOR enabled to ON on the TV, I tried last night to play ULTRA 4K content on Netflix and my TV lost my player's signal again. When I switched the UHD COLOR off, the picture came back playing Netflix but wasn't full UHD quality.

Is anyone having issues with this? Playing a regular blu ray, upscaling to 4k looks fantastic and so far, I've had no issues with playing an actual disc. It is playing 4k content from the apps, such as Netflix, that I'm having trouble with only so far.

Also, should I have UHD color ON on the TV and Deep Color OFF on the player in order to get the best results when the player plays HDR content from an actual UHD blu ray disc? I've been reading on AVS that having UHD color ON is crucial along with having Deep Color Off and I wanted opinions on here. If anyone can help, greatly appreciated. Thanks.

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

So reading the first impressions:

1) The main selling point of these discs is HDR/colors and not the higher resolution (that is fake most of the time as upscaling is used)

2) Unless you have a massive screen there is little difference in detail compared to 1080p Blu-ray (also when upscaled to 4K screens)

=

If you don't have a 4K HDR TV, don't bother....

As HDR has been used on like 10 movies so far (with Dolby Cinema/Vision) and i have medium/small sized screens, this format doesn't seem to be geared towards me at all...

Ive got martian and hitman. The resolution is definitely better in both movies. Also the black levels are very very good.

They say contrast is king and that's why the oleds are so popular. So you do get much better contrast on top of the bump in resolution.

I too am interested to see the movies that have 4k DIs. Though to me it was obvious which scenes in the martian came from the 5k sources.

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by bbwiscfan

I plugged my player and set everything up; so far I have only watched half of 2 regular blu rays in an attempt to adjust settings, set it up how I want it, the whole nine yards.

I also will say I have no UHD blu rays yet, hope to get some this weekend. I have a Samsung 65JU7100 I'm hooking the player up to. There is one issue I've come across and was wondering if anyone else on this forum who has the same TV had this issue. Basically, when I enable HDMI UHD COLOR to ON for the HDMI 1 input on the TV which my player is connected to, there is nothing on the screen, it goes black. I don't get a signal. When I turn off DEEP COLOR on the player, the signal returns. However, with UHD COLOR enabled to ON on the TV, I tried last night to play ULTRA 4K content on Netflix and my TV lost my player's signal again. When I switched the UHD COLOR off, the picture came back playing Netflix but wasn't full UHD quality.

Is anyone having issues with this? Playing a regular blu ray, upscaling to 4k looks fantastic and so far, I've had no issues with playing an actual disc. It is playing 4k content from the apps, such as Netflix, that I'm having trouble with only so far.

Also, should I have UHD color ON on the TV and Deep Color OFF on the player in order to get the best results when the player plays HDR content from an actual UHD blu ray disc? I've been reading on AVS that having UHD color ON is crucial along with having Deep Color Off and I wanted opinions on here. If anyone can help, greatly appreciated. Thanks.

For right now keep uhd color OFF. It kills the uhd picture, other people reporting similar issues.

[katiehlvr2]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

So reading the first impressions:

1) The main selling point of these discs is HDR/colors and not the higher resolution (that is fake most of the time as upscaling is used)

2) Unless you have a massive screen there is little difference in detail compared to 1080p Blu-ray (also when upscaled to 4K screens)

=

If you don't have a 4K HDR TV, don't bother....

As HDR has been used on like 10 movies so far (with Dolby Cinema/Vision) and i have medium/small sized screens, this format doesn't seem to be geared towards me at all...

I dont have a HDR TV and I like it. Those are not the impressions that I am giving off.

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by ray0414

Are you using dynamic contrast? Bump it up to medium if you haven't already.

Also make sure uhd color is turned off on both devices, it kills the contrast and colors.

I'll check when I get home. I think I have Dynamic Contract turned off, and I could've sworn when I first got the TV that everyone was saying that was the best option for that setting.

I spent a long time calibrating the thing, so the picture quality is consistently solid on all sources. The only adjustment I made after hooking up the UHD player was to put Backlight and Contrast on 20 and 100 for everything since I'm sick and tired of switching it back to 10 and 95 every time I play anything with HDR. 20 and 100 don't really bug me that much on regular 1080p or non-HDR 4K programs. A little too bright, but not to the point where it's distracting or detrimental to the picture quality.