Sony UBP-X800 4K UHD Blu-ray player

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by cochon

I have on the AUS but on the US player I haven't, it has M36.R0175, Judging by your question I presume that will add the capability. I was planning to do it over the weekend but i"ll try tomorrow. If it doesn't fix it is not a big deal, I don't generally watch many DVD's or extras and I still have other native pal players.

Apparently 50hz capability was added, yeah. It's worth a try when you get a sec.

Originally Posted by cochon

True but on top of DVDs some of the extras for people who import multi region BD discs from Europe come in low definition PAL and if the player can't access that you only get to watch the main feature. That's the reason you often see the question pop up, it also happens with some TVs that can't play 50hz.

That is the way of slimdude. Our world does not work in the same way as his.

[Member-167298]

I switched my x800 from HDMI 2 on my LG OLED to HDMI 1 to see if it would make a difference. I watched the UHD of Kong: Skull Island last night and did not notice any white lines flashing at the top of the screen. I will have to test another movie tonight to see if this holds true.

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Apparently 50hz capability was added, yeah. It's worth a try when you get a sec.

Are you referring to the US x800? If so, I will test the extras on my Australian RAW Blu-ray to see if they work (and yes, my LG OLED can display 50hz content).

[Geoff D]

Yes. I'm just relaying what dobyblue said earlier in the thread, he was pissed that it didn't do 50Hz out of the box. Bolded the firmware part.

Originally Posted by dobyblue

I have to update this, for the 1080i50 playback I must have initially tried a region locked disc, I swear it didn't give a region message but just said disc not compatible.

Anyway, don't know what spurred me to retry, but I threw in an F1 season review that I know doesn't have region coding on it, and it says it's outputting at 1080p50. My Onkyo also says 1080p50 and is doing pass through of 1080p50 and my Viera plasma (VT60, North American model) is playing it fine.

I've since got the 2013 Wimbledon disc (Djokovich vs. Murray) and it's 1080i50 and also the Sony plays it fine outputting 1080p50.

Wonder if they updated it with the 178 update to include playback of 50Hz material because I believe it's not a hardware change on the inside.

So great news, I'm not even more likely to just keep this player.

[Cortiz]

Originally Posted by cochon

And that is a US player, right?

Its not a great deal for me as I want it mainly for BD and UHD. I thought there woudn't be any problem but there is as I've tried a lot of Pal DVD including at least one marked as multiregion but still is a no go.

Yes, US player. They must have added the capability recently because it didn't play PAL when I first bought the player.

[JimDiGriz]

Originally Posted by slimdude

Generally people who buys 4K blu-ray players, buy them to play UHD blu-rays with HDR and Dolby Vision.

I bought my multi-region one to play everything. Go on with your bad self Gloria!

[Frank@Chicago]

Anyone know of any Region Mod kits for X800?

I'd like to make my USA X800 region free for BD playback.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by cochon

I have on the AUS but on the US player I haven't, it has M36.R0175, Judging by your question I presume that will add the capability. I was planning to do it over the weekend but i"ll try tomorrow. If it doesn't fix it is not a big deal, I don't generally watch many DVD's or extras and I still have other native pal players.

There's a difference between playing PAL and converting it to a signal the TV can display.

From what I've heard previously (somebody can correct me if I'm wrong), they've added the ability to play PAL on the x800 US model, but not convert to NTSC/60Hz, so your TV would need to be able to display a PAL signal. It's a step in the right direction, but if it's going to play PAL, it should also be able to output it as 60Hz too, like the European models can. It's so frustrating that European models play and output both formats generally, while most US players and TVs only support 60Hz.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by mar3o

There's a difference between playing PAL and converting it to a signal the TV can display.

From what I've heard previously (somebody can correct me if I'm wrong), they've added the ability to play PAL on the x800 US model, but not convert to NTSC/60Hz, so your TV would need to be able to display a PAL signal. It's a step in the right direction, but if it's going to play PAL, it should also be able to output it as 60Hz too, like the European models can. It's so frustrating that European models play and output both formats generally, while most US players and TVs only support 60Hz.

No, it shouldn't. But we've had that convo already.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

No, it shouldn't. But we've had that convo already.

Yes, imo the US player should. Clearly some people in the US have interest in playing PAL material. Some TVs do.

[cochon]

Ok, I can now confirm that after the update it does play my PAL DVD's as long as they are not region locked. Thank you!

One weird secondary effect, I used the update downloaded from AU, I have little reason to think is any different to the US one.

Now on the Main screen and the settings, pictures and particularly letters appear a lot bigger than what they used to be and also compared to the size they look on my Australian player having exactly the same update

[Member-167298]

I tried playing the 50hz special features on the RAW Blu-ray and they played without issue on my LG OLED.

Good update, Sony!

I wonder if my region free PAL Russ Meyer DVDs will play on the Sony? Oh wow...wowza...

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by cochon

Ok, I can now confirm that after the update it does play my PAL DVD's as long as they are not region locked. Thank you!

Originally Posted by PrestonXI

I tried playing the 50hz special features on the RAW Blu-ray and they played without issue on my LG OLED.

Good update, Sony!

So are your players converting the PAL to 60Hz, or are your TVs able to display PAL? What are your sets receiving for a signal when playing PAL? My LG LCD UHD TV doesn't display PAL. Does your LG OLED display PAL?

[cochon]

My TV plays pal and NTSC, 60, 50 and 24 so I have no problem but at first glance according to what my receiver is displaying as the signal coming out of the player it doesn't get converted to 60.

I haven't done much testing but I saw while playing one DVD 60Hz out but on another 50Hz.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by cochon

My TV plays pal and NTSC, 60, 50 and 24 so I have no problem but at first glance according to what my receiver is displaying as the signal coming out of the player it doesn't get converted to 60.

I haven't done much testing but I saw while playing one DVD 60Hz out but on another 50Hz.

If somebody who has a TV that can only display 60Hz can confirm that the player is outputting the PAL as 60Hz, then I'll be very impressed with Sony for adding that feature. Until then, it doesn't help much unless you own a TV that can play PAL.

[Prim]

Originally Posted by cochon

I don't remember if it was in this thread or another that people were asking but I've just received my US x800 and can confirm that is unable to play PAL content, that includes PAL DVDs regardless of whether they are region locked or not.

If you don't mind me asking, does this player run on 220v power, or are you using a step transformer to power it? I was also wondering if closed captions work with NTSC DVDs on the player, do you happen to know? Thinking of buying one myself for Region A and NTSC DVD's (and 4k later )

[jala12]

Got a question. If I turn off 4k upscaling on the player, does this mean that neither the player nor the TV is upscaling the SDR content?

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by jala12

Got a question. If I turn off 4k upscaling on the player, does this mean that neither the player nor the TV is upscaling the SDR content?

The 4K TV will automatically upscale incoming content that's <4K. If it wasn't upscaling then a 1080p signal would take up a quarter of the screen and a DVD would be like 1/20th of the screen.

[cochon]

Originally Posted by Prim

If you don't mind me asking, does this player run on 220v power, or are you using a step transformer to power it? I was also wondering if closed captions work with NTSC DVDs on the player, do you happen to know? Thinking of buying one myself for Region A and NTSC DVD's (and 4k later )

Hi,
On the outside the player is rated as having only a fix 120V 60 Hz input. The 60HZ is not a problem in Europe for this type of device but you MUST use a transformer which is what I do or you'll risk blowing it up.

The close captions I have not tried however there's been a discussion earlier on this thread where we discovered one difference between my Australian player -also the European versions- vs the US version. If I recall properly in the US model they took away the feature that controls the "auto standby" and replaced it with "close captions" which according to what I saw in my menu allows you to change how close captions are displayed. If this is really important to you let me know and I'll try to check but I am not sure whether I have many NTSC DVDs with close captions and finding them in this place can be a lottery

[jala12]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The 4K TV will automatically upscale incoming content that's <4K. If it wasn't upscaling then a 1080p signal would take up a quarter of the screen and a DVD would be like 1/20th of the screen.

Ah, I see. I tried turning off auto 2 on the player and the TV upscale looks quite inferior. With the player's upscaling, the picture stands out a lot better.

[Leterface]

Originally Posted by jala12

Ah, I see. I tried turning off auto 2 on the player and the TV upscale looks quite inferior. With the player's upscaling, the picture stands out a lot better.

Can I ask what TV you have, wondering if my Samsung KS7000 or the X800 does a better job with upscaling as I haven't had the chance to try out myself. But what I have understood is that many new TVs are often infact better with scaling than the players.