Samsung 4K UHD Blu-ray Player UBD-K8500

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by Dubstar

you would have thought the dude would have flipped those discs to include the back cover specs and all ... [ugh --- face palm]

They include the same extras on the Blu-ray disc, but only DTS HD-MA audio.

[Agent_DVD]

Originally Posted by Cliff

Alright... quick first thoughts.

Again, I can't mention the specific titles as they're not out yet, but this player is a winner. At my normal viewing distance (About 11' away from a Samsung 78"), it's difficult to spot immediate differences, but they're there. Fine film grain is so much more clearly resolved and very fine detail along with it. Things that look slightly filtered (especially close up) on the BD are really sharp and natural looking in UHD. My television doesn't have HDR, but color saturation and contrast is slightly improved as well even in SDR. MORE surprisingly, when compared to my Oppo 103, the 8500 even does a slightly better job upconverting 1080p to UHD. When I compared the BD (on the Oppo) and the UHD (on the Samsung) the differences were noticeable (especially up close). There was a shot that contained writing in the background and the BD (on the Oppo) wasn't really legible while the UHD was. The BD viewed on the Samsung was somewhere in between.

The player is also surprisingly fast. I often use the original Spider-Man 2 BD because the JAVA used to choke players (old Pioneers and Sonys took nearly 2 minutes to load it). On the Oppo 103 (one of the fastest players around) it loaded from tray closed to Sony splash screen in 23 seconds. The Samsung did it in 17 seconds. Not a huge difference, but faster is faster.

The UI is also pretty smooth. Navigating through YouTube or Netflix was pretty comparable to my Roku 4, which is saying something for a disc player. Usually those streaming interfaces are clunky and slow. I do agree that the remote is terrible. Too small and easy to hit enter when you think you're hitting up. I added it to my Harmony (as the 7500) and it helped immensely.

Also, the player has adjustment settings when you're playing a disc so that you can adjust color, contrast, brightness, sharpness, tint, audio sync, etc. You won't need these often, but they're sometimes nice to have when discs are less than perfect. There's also no display and just two simple (unobtrusive) lights. It's a good player that doesn't distract on the rack.

This is a far cry from the horrible players Samsung released when Blu-ray launched in 2006. I've been eager for the Panasonic and the Oppo and almost sat out the Samsung based on their history. I'm glad I didn't and this player will make the wait for other players so much easier.

Thank you....Thank You.....Thank You

Reading this post has been one of the highlights of my day.

[Falaskan]

Poo was delivery was put off till Friday. Oh well I couldn't have used it Thursday anyway!

[docmike]

Can someone post some links to some good dolby atmos systems? I prob won't invest in one until I put the 78 inch in a larger room, but it can't hurt to have some fun and look.

[K i r a]

Originally Posted by ray0414

oh theyll get those sales still dont worry lol


the "real geniuses", are the clowns at panasonic/philips/sony who are going to be VERY late to the 4k BD party while samsung cleans house on the early adopters. like seriously, this thing is selling like hotcakes.

I want to see CNET, Rtings and a few other sites review this, but I am still leaning towards waiting out for Sony, as I don't like the curved player and hope if Sony does 4K, it will be same size, if not a tad bigger than their BDP S6500-- Small, compact and sleek. I don't see a reason for the buttons to be so spaced out like on this Samsung.

I've got a Sony X850C, will be buying all new releases I want to own in 4K combo packs (double dip on Sicario and Kingsman) from here on out, and wait and see. If they're going to release it literally 2017, I might feel the urge and jump on best reviewed 4K player at that time.

ray, how good are you about HDR and DCIP3? I ask because I see you post a lot here and on AVS, and I'm just a bit confused I guess on the HDR's of 2015, and the UHDA's requirements. Example: They say over 90% of the DCIP3 (I'm guessing that BT.2020??), and 1,000 nits peak luminance, and for Sony, only the X930C meets that requirement. But when I look here, it shows that the X930C reaches 89.13% DCIP3, while the X850C here reaches 89.35%. I guess a bigger difference is that the X930C peaks out at like 630 nits, and the X850C 282 nits, but for color reproduction, it's not much off. LMK if you can. Thanks!

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by K i r a

I want to see CNET, Rtings and a few other sites review this, but I am still leaning towards waiting out for Sony, as I don't like the curved player and hope if Sony does 4K, it will be same size, if not a tad bigger than their BDP S6500-- Small, compact and sleek. I don't see a reason for the buttons to be so spaced out like on this Samsung.

I've got a Sony X850C, will be buying all new releases I want to own in 4K combo packs (double dip on Sicario and Kingsman) from here on out, and wait and see. If they're going to release it literally 2017, I might feel the urge and jump on best reviewed 4K player at that time.

ray, how good are you about HDR and DCIP3? I ask because I see you post a lot here and on AVS, and I'm just a bit confused I guess on the HDR's of 2015, and the UHDA's requirements. Example: They say over 90% of the DCIP3 (I'm guessing that BT.2020??), and 1,000 nits peak luminance, and for Sony, only the X930C meets that requirement. But when I look here, it shows that the X930C reaches 89.13% DCIP3, while the X850C here reaches 89.35%. I guess a bigger difference is that the X930C peaks out at like 630 nits, and the X850C 282 nits, but for color reproduction, it's not much off. LMK if you can. Thanks!

the biggest diffference between the 850c and 930c is the dimming system and the type of LEDs used. With having the better setup and the better dimming and brighter picture, the 930c will be more vibrant and better at shadow details. the 930c also has "extended dynamic range" which when the tv is fed HDR, will automatically turn on and lock. this helps crank up the contrast and gives more depth to the picture. the colors on both tvs should be about the same, but more vibrant looking on the 930/940c.

FYI, the sony may not be out til between xmas and march 2017. sony is taking a very long "wait and see" approach.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by ray0414

oh theyll get those sales still dont worry lol


the "real geniuses", are the clowns at panasonic/philips/sony who are going to be VERY late to the 4k BD party while samsung cleans house on the early adopters. like seriously, this thing is selling like hotcakes.

Supposedly, the Dolby Vision decoding chipsets are not yet ready for Prime Time. This may be one major reason why the Panasonic will be a few months late and Sony's unit may end up being released by the holidays. It has been mentioned that Sony and a couple other studios are grading their UHD masters at Dolby Vision standards.

However, Sony is also waiting on MediaTek chipsets, which they use in their consumer electronics (as well as a few other manufacturers). MediaTek does not yet have an all in one decoder chip ready for UHD Blu-ray... not for a few more months. That means pushing the player towards the end of the year or early next.

Panasonic, Samsung, and Phillips use proprietary media chips and don't rely on MediaTek as a supplier.

[K i r a]

Originally Posted by ray0414

the biggest diffference between the 850c and 930c is the dimming system and the type of LEDs used. With having the better setup and the better dimming and brighter picture, the 930c will be more vibrant and better at shadow details. the 930c also has "extended dynamic range" which when the tv is fed HDR, will automatically turn on and lock. this helps crank up the contrast and gives more depth to the picture. the colors on both tvs should be about the same, but more vibrant looking on the 930/940c.

FYI, the sony may not be out til between xmas and march 2017. sony is taking a very long "wait and see" approach.

Guess I'm out of Thanks for today, so... Thanks! Haha.

I'm fine with my X850C, and verified it can play the Life of Pi HDR demo through USB, so even if it's not the brightest or darkest, it'll do until OLED in the 50-55" range drop to like $1300 or less from LG or any other manufacturer's who dip into the OLED world.

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by K i r a

Guess I'm out of Thanks for today, so... Thanks! Haha.

I'm fine with my X850C, and verified it can play the Life of Pi HDR demo through USB, so even if it's not the brightest or darkest, it'll do until OLED in the 50-55" range drop to like $1300 or less from LG or any other manufacturer's who dip into the OLED world.

Im reading that the 2016 oleds are much improved over 2015. I'll be checking them out when demos hit stores!

[vincentric]

Messed around with the player for a short while, nothing new to share so I'll try to keep it short.

The unit itself feels well-built, solid, and not flimsy. It was easy to setup, has a slick and easy to navigate UI, loads BDs quickly, quietly and upscales them nicely.

I only really dislike the remote so far. It's too small. My hands aren't even the largest but I just feel like am going to crush it every time I use it. Plus I'm still trying to get used to the small buttons where I end up pressing the wrong one unless I look down and make sure that I don't.

I also have a very subjective con - I dislike how the information HUD does not show the bitrates for the audio and video (unless am missing something).

Am not much of streamer so I haven't checked out any of the installed apps yet, plus am only using a soundbar for now so I don't have any in-depth audio feedback to share.

Overall happy with the k8500 so far. I have it connected to a Sony 55x810c which isn't capable of HDR but nonetheless, I am looking forward to getting my hands on some UHD discs and checking out how they look as soon as possible.

Edit:

Originally Posted by XJF

This was the first thing I checked for on mine as I love the feature on my PS3. Doesn't seem to, unless it's buried somewhere.

A belated thank you, I read your post too late.

[PeterTHX]

Can people pause/freeze-frame/step forward & back during UHD playback?

[vincentric]

I'd check that for you right now.... if only I had a UHD to check it with.

Snapped a quick pic of the in-movie HUD and settings options -

[JJ]

GAH

You guys have me so excited. Still have another 6 days to wait before Mr. Zohn gets his allocation, then probably another 5 days or so for shipping. Gonna be until the last week of February for me, I bet.



The fact that it does a better job upconverting BDs than an Oppo is encouraging. My Sony S790 upconverts to 4K too, but I'm sure it's not as good.

Now I'm even more excited.

Gonna go by BBs on Sunday to see if I can track down any discs before my Amazon preorder arrives March 1st.

[chuffster]

HDTVTest ‏@HDTVTest 2m2 minutes ago
Samsung's announced its K8500 @UltraHDBluray player will go on sale in Europe from March, bundled with The Martian.

[Viking61]

Originally Posted by chuffster

HDTVTest ‏@HDTVTest 2m2 minutes ago
Samsung's announced its K8500 @UltraHDBluray player will go on sale in Europe from March, bundled with The Martian.

Link?

[Adrian Wright]

Originally Posted by Viking61

Link?

https://www.avforums.com/news/samsun...-martian.12359

Further confirmation

[DualEdge]

I watched about half of the Fifth Element (the Supreme Series version with Atmos) last night due to a very late delivery of my player. I was able to quickly integrate it into my system and my Samsung 88" JS9500 picked it up right away via HDMI CEC. As others have pointed out, the UI is pretty good for what it is. I didn't dive into any apps, but I did find some of the settings to be pretty interesting, particularly those which were defaulted one way or the other (for example, Bitstreaming was not enabled by default on mine).
The load times on this unit are just fantastic though. I've primarily used game consoles as my primary players in the past, but this has to be about 2x as fast as even the current gen (PS4, XB1) offerings and those are 6x speed BD players.
I also have to agree with others about the remote though. Plain and simple, it's terrible. Entering text on it was an absolute chore. I don't know if it's just me but the arrow keys are not very responsive at all and I often found myself having to press the same key multiple times before I would see anything change on screen. Also, why does this thing use a watch battery versus a regular battery? That seems like a silly and strange move.
I plan to finish watching the movie tonight, but I can already say that I'm pretty impressed with it. I won't have 4K discs in hand until early next week (assuming BB doesn't delay anything), but I'm now more eager than ever to see what this player is truly capable of.

[Pieter V]

Hands On First Look: Samsung UBD-K8500 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player (clickable)

Have someone tried to hook the 4K UHD player on a 1080p TV and play the 4K disc? According to this website it works. How is the PQ experience?

http://www.uhdbdinnumbers.com/

[wesslan]

Originally Posted by Pieter V

Hands On First Look: Samsung UBD-K8500 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player (clickable)

Have someone tried to hook the 4K UHD player on a 1080p TV and play the 4K disc? According to this website it works. How is the PQ experience?

http://www.uhdbdinnumbers.com/

Also very interested in this

[NoUse4AName68]

Ok you guys helped me with my audio problems with this player. It was set to pcm. I changed it to bitstream undecoded and it sounds way better. One last question. Is there a menu option that will prevent it from having to reload the disc after you leave the movie and go into the setup menu? Probably only an issue while I'm toying with it but it's obnoxious to have to reload and start from the disc beginning with previews every time