Samsung 4K UHD Blu-ray Player UBD-K8500

[K i r a]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

The Samsung 8500 (which I have) and 9500 TV's already have very good 4k upscalers built-in, so you're not going to see a difference in the Samsung player that probably has the same scaling quality as their TV's. UHD Blu-ray's will give you a better idea of the quality.

You really ought to look into a Dolby Atmos theater system with real overhead speakers (not the enabled modules). Fantastic!! Wow!! Transformative!!

I see what you did...

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by K i r a

I see what you did...

It's just odd that T4 actually has a pretty ho hum Dolby Atmos mix... Goosebumps, of all films, is actually quite aggressive and three-dimensional.

[Rich H]

Originally Posted by docmike

I guess I am alone so far with not being overly impressed with the player. I am not crazy impressed based on my first experience with 78" Samsung JS9500 with the player and a regular BD (used transformers age of extinction). I did not see a crazy diff between my PS4 bluray player and the k8500. It looks great, but so did the ps4 and i am having a hard time seeing glaring differences. I will post again tmrw because my fox connect exodus says it will be here then as per usps tracking... the player is fairly light IMO. not built with heavy metal.

I will reassess with a 4k bluray. I am a big fan of watching 3d blurays on my 78js9500 at 10 feet away.. feel like I'm sitting at my personal imax theatre... so the 4k discs would have to be a noticeable difference for me to keep the player. Maybe my TV upscales so well already that the player does not make a difference for me? in summary, the tv is amazing, but the player isn't making a large difference in the picture. player doesn't add anything new besides an easier way to control with my harmony remote than having to use the ps4 controller which is a pain in the ass... as said before, this was with watching a regular blurry. As far as song, i have a sony HTST9 sound bar which does hd and it simulates 7.1 surround quite nicely but i don't think i can get dolby atmos on it. i tried switching to bitstream and it wasn't listed in the audio options (TrueHD was though like with my ps4)... if i keep the player it might be time to upgrade to a real surround system...

I'm not sure why you would have been expecting otherwise. Blu-Ray players long ago pretty much reached parity for playing Blu-Rays. I wouldn't be expecting, or betting on any difference at all for Blu-Ray playback, which is why I'm buying it strictly for UHD Blu-Ray (and 4K streaming) playback.

(That some think the upscaling is better is a bonus if true, but I sure wouldn't buy a player based on hopes for better looking 1080p Blu-Ray performance).

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by Rich H

I'm not sure why you would have been expecting otherwise. Blu-Ray players long ago pretty much reached parity for playing Blu-Rays. I wouldn't be expecting, or betting on any difference at all for Blu-Ray playback, which is why I'm buying it strictly for UHD Blu-Ray (and 4K streaming) playback.

(That some think the upscaling is better is a bonus if true, but I sure wouldn't buy a player based on hopes for better looking 1080p Blu-Ray performance).

if you want better looking blu ray performance, i think the new OPPO 4k player will give you that.

[docmike]

i had the resolution on auto and it wouldn't let me change to 2160p. got me thinking something must be up... i had all my hdmis running through my sound bar and then one running from sound bar to tv... that was the way best buy set it all up on installation but when i just connected an hdmi from my bluray player directly to one connect box it looked much better.... might have to reconfigure the way i have everything set up and put all the cords through the one connect and then one cord from one connect to sound bar... looks like i can't get real 4k other way around... picture def looks a little bit improved too at a glance...

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by docmike

i had the resolution on auto and it wouldn't let me change to 2160p. got me thinking something must be up... i had all my hdmis running through my sound bar and then one running from sound bar to tv... that was the way best buy set it all up on installation but when i just connected an hdmi from my bluray player directly to one connect box it looked much better.... might have to reconfigure the way i have everything set up and put all the cords through the one connect and then one cord from one connect to sound bar... looks like i can't get real 4k other way around... picture def looks a little bit improved too at a glance...

ah yes, your soundbar cant pass 4k, thats actually not surprising!

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by docmike

i had the resolution on auto and it wouldn't let me change to 2160p. got me thinking something must be up... i had all my hdmis running through my sound bar and then one running from sound bar to tv... that was the way best buy set it all up on installation but when i just connected an hdmi from my bluray player directly to one connect box it looked much better.... might have to reconfigure the way i have everything set up and put all the cords through the one connect and then one cord from one connect to sound bar... looks like i can't get real 4k other way around... picture def looks a little bit improved too at a glance...

Anything video in the chain must have HDCP 2.2 copy protection on the HDMI ports for UHD support, besides 4k pass through capability. There are a number of hurdles you have to jump for UHD media.

[ray0414]

add another person to the list of those who recieved foxconnect movies over at AVS!!

[docmike]

how come when i go to my amazon app on my TV i see the HDR logo on HDR episodes of mozart in jungle but not when i go through app on my samsung player? is the HDR not working yet on it?

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by docmike

how come when i go to my amazon app on my TV i see the HDR logo on HDR episodes of mozart in jungle but not when i go through app on my samsung player? is the HDR not working yet on it?

HDR is not yet activated through the apps on the player.

[docmike]

these guys are geniuses. millions of dollars of missed sales by not having a single ultrahd disc on the shelves today and without HDR activated...

[docmike]

the amount of detail on transformers went up 2-4 fold by connecting the cords a different way to bypass the soundbar. to think all this time i have been missing out on increased upscaling by having it go through my soundbar. stupid geek squad!!!

[XJF]

Originally Posted by docmike

the amount of detail on transformers went up 2-4 fold by connecting the cords a different way to bypass the soundbar. to think all this time i have been missing out on increased upscaling by having it go through my soundbar. stupid geek squad!!!

No doubt, I'm watching Battle of the Five Armies EE now and it's flat out jaw-dropping. I'm baffled that it didn't review as reference PQ.

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by docmike

these guys are geniuses. millions of dollars of missed sales by not having a single ultrahd disc on the shelves today and without HDR activated...

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.

[Adam_ME]

A few thoughts after testing out the player for a couple hours:

It loads very quickly. Faster than any other Blu-ray player I own(Oppo 103, PS4, PS3).

It upscales Blu-rays very nicely. It's on par with my Oppo. I tested out Furious 7 and was impressed.

It also handles 3D Blu-rays well. I actually thought Avatar looked just a tiny bit more impressive on the Samsung than on the Oppo.

The apps are a work in progress. VUDU doesn't work. M-Go would only stream my 2 UHD titles in HD. YouTube for some reason would only play 4K clips in HD. Not sure if that was the fault of the app or my internet connection(it's 100 Mbps, so bandwidth shouldn't be an issue). My Roku 4 was inconsistent, but was usually able to stream in 4K. Amazon doesn't appear to offer HDR right now, although to be honest I don't even know how I'm supposed to be able to tell when it's playing HDR.

There's an annoying glitch with the player when I turn it off where it seems to switch my Samsung UN65JS9500 over to TV mode instead of HDMI 4 where it's normally set. I have to use the remote to switch it back.

And speaking of remotes, I freaking hate the one that comes with the player. It's way too small. The "OK" button is so tiny, I accidentally hit the arrow keys sometimes. And the lack of fast forward and rewind buttons is annoying. These are remote controls, not cell phones. There's no reason to keep trying to make them smaller. I would've preferred a larger remote with more buttons(like the awesome one for the Oppo 103) than this piece of crap.

Overall, I like the player. I assume it'll improve over time with firmware updates. But it's fast and upscales well. Now all that's left is getting my hands on a UHD disc and testing that out.

[item9]

sorry noob question here:

whats this HDR talk? Is this the same as having a 4k television? Ive got an HU8500

[hazzad]

Originally Posted by item9

sorry noob question here:

whats this HDR talk? Is this the same as having a 4k television? Ive got an HU8500

http://www.cnet.com/au/news/what-is-...ould-you-care/

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by item9

sorry noob question here:

whats this HDR talk? Is this the same as having a 4k television? Ive got an HU8500

the HU8500 was not designed for HDR. but, if you buy the upgrade box called the sek-3500 one connect box, you'll get HDR decoding, though it will be limited based on the limitations of the panel from 2014.

[trevrox]

Well, I'd say I'm really regretting my decision to go with Amazon now.

[Dubstar]

Originally Posted by ray0414

add another person to the list of those who recieved foxconnect movies over at AVS!!

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