Sony UBP-X700 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[kevin87]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyGnome

What were those previous? I can look in my collection for any of them. I'm getting it today, but probably Thursday I will be checking things out due to work.

I had a few stall up but I can only remember Across the Spider-Verse for sure

Originally Posted by kevin87

I finally watched this tonight, no scratches or anything but right after Gwen questions Miguel about the canon event before he sends her home (the frame where he basically dwarfs her standing right in front of her), it just freezes. Doesn't let me RW or FF but it lets me skip back a chapter. I took the disc out and wiped it off and it didn't mess up at the same point. Looked a little like Miguel stalled in that frame but I can't tell if it's just how the movie's competing styles make it seem or if it still had a slight delay... I just didn't want to go all the way back to Best Buy and exchange it and rewatch 2 hours again lol

Also the new High Society release has froze up at 17:48 on two different discs but I'm thinking I might just be getting them from a bad batch since it's MOD.

[WhiskeyGnome]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

I don't think there's any chance this runs new parts, it's the exact same player with the apps stripped imo, if anything it might run cheaper parts. It should still choke on 100gb discs without cooling just like the old one. If it doesn't at all and more people can confirm it then they likely did fix the flaw.

Not sure on the new parts idea here. We've went over it, and it's just too hard to confirm unless somebody wants to do a tear down. Regardless, they would not change it too much, BUT they could shrink it and that alone on a smaller nm process would do wonders if it had to do with cooling.

It's a lot of time to not make a new chip honestly. They probably stopped producing these a couple years ago.

Usually companies are not going to dip into old chips unless they have to. But yeah I would be wary too of Sony lol. I mean in my experience here they definitely didn't hire anybody to make their fonts and what not 4K ready, so that already says cheapness to me.

Anyway, we'll be watching more than a few. And in reality having no apps and background BS can do a lot just by itself.

But from what I gather a lot of people switched off 4K upscaling and fixed their older players. Some it didn't work but ya never what is going on.

[LanceL]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyGnome

Ahh screw it I just got the player one last purchase before I clear the Amazon card out. I'll hassle CS if it goes lower during Prime Day. It's been 7 months without a 4K player. I can wait no longer.

Are you saying that they are doing refunds after you order? I don't think they have been doing that for a long time now.

[D00mM4r1n3]

Two titles that experience the 3rd layer switch freeze on the older Sony X700 are:
-The Ten Commandments (IIRC around Chapter 35, mud stomping scene)
-Beastmaster (VinegarSyndrome, climbing the steps.)

[cgpublic]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyGnome

It's a lot of time to not make a new chip honestly.

Actually, it's not enough of a market to design a new chip. AFAIK it's the same SOC as the previous X700, the MT8581 partnered with the MT8577A from MediaTek. If there was a new SOC, one would expect a major new model number, e.g., X750.

What is potentially different is the firmware or other hardware changes. What's known is Sony has stripped the streaming capabilities from the player's firmware because the agreements with companies such as Netflix have expired and or are no longer viable.

What's unknown is if there are any other fixes or updates other than cosmetic changes.

[LanceL]

Originally Posted by LanceL

Are you saying that they are doing refunds after you order? I don't think they have been doing that for a long time now.

I meant partial refunds. Oops.

[bhampton]

The Sony X700 has been the biggest challenge UHD BD will ever face.

For generations people will tell tales around the camp fire of which disc froze at what timestamp and disabling what feature cured the player for a while.

A large number of people think the format is unreliable because they bought a defective player.

[WhiskeyGnome]

Originally Posted by cgpublic

Actually, it's not enough of a market to design a new chip. AFAIK it's the same SOC as the previous X700, the MT8581 partnered with the MT8577A from MediaTek. If there was a new SOC, one would expect a major new model number, e.g., X750.

What is potentially different is the firmware or other hardware changes. What's known is Sony has stripped the streaming capabilities from the player's firmware because the agreements with companies such as Netflix have expired and or are no longer viable.

What's unknown is if there are any other fixes or updates other than cosmetic changes.

AFAIK nobody has taken apart the device to determine the chipset. But the lack of updated fonts is just LOL. FFS the Sony logo itself is clearly from 1080p days.

I got 60 off on this from Amazon CS, so I will probably keep it. Stripping the apps may have helped I should know pretty soon here.

For me I have no idea what is in store, but I really don't care too much. All of these players are either ridiculously marked up or they have flaws. All we can hope for is that they fixed the major flaw making 100GBs unreliable.

For me if it does start skipping I would tolerate a slight freeze I guess on layer change, as I have had that before. But if it was worse IDK would be hard to accept yet I don't have any more options for 4K players 400 is not in my budget, and I really don't want an old Panny either. Basically, this would hold me over until Panny updates their stuff.

Also, just because they would use a "new" chip means nothing. They could literally just put in a new order for the same chip minus a few things, make it cheaper to produce, and use a slightly better process for cooling, if that was ever a problem before. Just because it would be a new chip doesn't mean they spent much designing it. Again, I have no idea nobody has opened it up to my knowledge. I'm tempted lol.

[cgpublic]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyGnome

AFAIK nobody has taken apart the device to determine the chipset… I'm tempted lol.

Let me save you the effort as a quick check of the MediaTek site will confirm.

[Telemachus]

The x700 has never given me any problems except being unreliable on 100gb discs. It really is a great player but needs some type of external cooling imo. If their new model reduced the heat somehow it might be flawless.

[hoejunter]

My x700 has to be bullied into playing discs sometimes, I’m just waiting for it to completely die before I end up going with the Panasonic UB820.

[WhiskeyGnome]

Originally Posted by cgpublic

Let me save you the effort as a quick check of the MediaTek site will confirm.

Thanks for the link. It seems that those two chips are partnered together, so obviously I would expect that to be the same. That still doesn't quite tell us if they made a new board, or this is just literally existing stock. But with how Sony is you would think it's the same.

But the hope still remains that the firmware and any excess stuff is simply not messing with the system now. Sadly, I still have not gotten back to watch a couple full films on layer switch. Almost got to one on Seven. It had no other issues at all though played perfectly for the half and some I watched.

If it does start skipping it might piss me off enough to send it back. Amazon has been sending me absolute garbage lately. Then again this has SACD playback, which I really want, so yeah gotta keep the hope alive for a little bit at least.

[WhiskeyGnome]

Originally Posted by Telemachus

The x700 has never given me any problems except being unreliable on 100gb discs. It really is a great player but needs some type of external cooling imo. If their new model reduced the heat somehow it might be flawless.

The thing is these problems seem all over the place, which is why nobody can seemingly pin them down. Did you for example disable 4K upscaling, make sure apps were not on, and not connected to the internet?

All of this seems silly, but I have a modem with the infamous Intel 6 chips on it, and it just can't be a router and a modem, which it is, because it overheats or something to a point, or gives reduced performance after the patches, but as a modem in bridge mode it works perfectly.

That's why I was thinking without the overhead it might be able to work. They may have slightly improved cooling. A lot of things can happen in 5 years. And if not then I guess it comes down to how often the problems happen.

I intend to keep this player extremely clean, with discs getting a wipe down before play. I also live in a cool environment and it sits in an open rack. So if this iteration doesn't work out with all that stuff then it is truly F'd.

[Telemachus]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyGnome

The thing is these problems seem all over the place, which is why nobody can seemingly pin them down. Did you for example disable 4K upscaling, make sure apps were not on, and not connected to the internet?

I did try all those settings before, and it didn't cure the freezing from my memory of it. The funny thing is I only put the Sony back into the rotation because I recently found certain discs the Panny glitches out on, but they play on the Sony, so there really is no perfect player and having two units is a must. My Panny unit has also been nearly flawless, the number of UHDs I've played on this unit are well into the triple digits and I have like 5 that are flaky, that's pretty good, since I even have CD players that won't play certain discs right but another unit will. It's just a shame UHD players aren't that cheap, spending money on a unit and later realizing you need two isn't going to fly for most people.

[Homegrove]

I got tired of X700 freezing with every disc, and bought the UB820. So far three months later it's worked perfectly, yet I'm not selling the X700. It is indeed good to have a back up, but more importantly I don't want the buyer to come back to me *****ing about the player freezing.

[WhiskeyGnome]

Originally Posted by Homegrove

I got tired of X700 freezing with every disc, and bought the UB820. So far three months later it's worked perfectly, yet I'm not selling the X700. It is indeed good to have a back up, but more importantly I don't want the buyer to come back to me *****ing about the player freezing.

Yeah, I too would be pretty iffy on selling something like this on Ebay. You just never know what conditions will make it freeze, and if somebody puts it in a cabinet it might not even work lol.

[WhiskeyGnome]

Originally Posted by Homegrove

I got tired of X700 freezing with every disc, and bought the UB820. So far three months later it's worked perfectly, yet I'm not selling the X700. It is indeed good to have a back up, but more importantly I don't want the buyer to come back to me *****ing about the player freezing.

Well just got done watching Seven, and I did not have a single issue. So good so far. Dark City is up next.

[Homegrove]

Yeah, it didn't freeze with EVERY disc, just with every 100 gb. So once in awhile we got through a full movie.

[WhiskeyGnome]

Originally Posted by Homegrove

Yeah, it didn't freeze with EVERY disc, just with every 100 gb. So once in awhile we got through a full movie.

I have watched three 100GBs so far, and I have not had a single issue. Only thing I don't like is they haven't updated the fonts of the player for 4K. All that stuff is 1080p and looks a bit weird for the 4K age.

It's possible they have fixed the issue. I don't suddenly expect discs to stop working on this, so here is hoping they have across the board fixed the issues.

[red_5ive]

Originally Posted by WhiskeyGnome

I have watched three 100GBs so far, and I have not had a single issue. Only thing I don't like is they haven't updated the fonts of the player for 4K. All that stuff is 1080p and looks a bit weird for the 4K age.

It's possible they have fixed the issue. I don't suddenly expect discs to stop working on this, so here is hoping they have across the board fixed the issues.

Thanks for your input. With the current pricing, I'm thinking of trying one out as I'm still having random issues with both of my Pany 420s. They are very finicky over even the smallest blemish or dust, and almost exclusively with 4k UHD titles.