Features:

  • See the unrivalled visual clarity of 4K UHD Blu-ray
  • Features Dolby Vision and HDR10 for incredible viewing detail and accuracy
  • Hear more detail with high-resolution audio, Dolby Atoms and DSEE HX
  • Anti-vibration construction for clearer sound
  • Play almost any Disc and file format
  • Stunning picture with 4K upscaling up to 60p
  • In the box: 2 4K Ultra HD movies (spider-man-into the spider-verse & Jumanji: Welcome To the Jungle), instructions manual, remote control (rmt-vb310u), batteries (Type AAA x 2), customer registration card, card
Excellent

This is my first 4K player. I've preferred Blu-ray as opposed to DVD (some companies I've noticed have released their films on DVD and not Blu-ray I've noticed lately, a disturbing trend). But now the industry is focusing on 4K Blu-ray so hopefully we'll see more 4K movies released and with it, a drop in price. Right now, 4K is expensive and not entirely in my budget, but we know that they'll come down in price with time. This player is excellent and the picture crisp and as clear as one could hope. I won't be replacing my old DVDs or Blu-rays with 4K, the cost is prohibitive. That said, I might buy a few films on 4K. But films made before 1990, I doubt I'll buy on 4K. I have Captain America Civil War and I'm very impressed with the picture quality. The only hiccup in the system I've noticed is that for some reason it won't connect directly to the internet. I'm figuring on chalking it up to user error rather than the product. Still, if you want to upgrade your Blu-ray or DVD player to 4K, this is an excellent player to have.

Stunning picture!

The first thing I noticed about this player was it's weight. It was pretty heavy and the build quality is excellent. I noticed that over the last few years DVD players had become very light and somewhat cheaply made, almost as if they were a disposable item. Not so with this Sony. The front panel is very clean, with only a power and eject button showing. Using the eject button opens almost the entire front panel and a tray emerges for the disk. The picture quality is superb. I tried it with the 4K movies that came with it (they were included in the box. You don't have to mail in a coupon or anything like that.). I thought 1080P blu-ray was really clear but the upgrade to 4K is pretty distinct. Similar to the obvious difference between DVD and Blu-ray. I have a collection of several hundred movies and I tried a dozen of varying ages and types. Everything played flawlessly and the older disks looked better than they had on my PS3 (my disk player of choice prior to this Sony). The remote is fairly small profile, about 7 inches long and a couple wide. It comes with 1 smart button (Netflix) and the remaining buttons are pretty standard except for Favorites and Net Service. Overall I'm very impressed by this player. It has the build quality of a high end player but at a more reasonable price. Highly recommended.

my videos have never looked so good.

First thing's first: All video discs look staggeringly good. From first-gen DVDs on up to UHD. My favorite aspect is how it handles dark colors and dimly lit scenes -- it never crushes black. Colors are vibrant yet natural. My only complaint: The player auto-plays discs as soon as they're inserted, and I can't figure out how to turn that feature off. Everything I've thrown at the player, it has played without flaw. I also like the remote, because the buttons are placed intuitively and easy to find in the dark. The unit itself will look great in any home theatre set up. It's a black box of almost new brutalism design. No display, just a dim green LED to let you know it's powered on. That bare-bones concept is carried over to the user interface that's so minimalistic it's almost retro. See pic. Bottom line is I love this player and my videos have never looked so good.

Crisp and clear picture - two bonus dvds!

We got this to replace our basic DVD player. We didn’t want to upgrade the tv quite yet as it’s not that old, but we wanted the smart tv functions and enhanced picture. This player is amazing! It comes with two dvds which is a bonus - Spider Man and Jumangi. The setup is very easy. Took us less than 5 minutes to inbox and plug in. Started up immediately and within seconds we could visually see a drastic difference from what the standard dvd had been showing. The sound and picture is crisp and clear. This is on the pricier side but the quality of what this does makes up for the price. The device itself is lightweight but it is on the larger side for a DVD player but it is thin and light. For the space we have it in it is not a bother for us.

Bottom Line: This Is The Last Physical Disc Player I Think I'll Ever Desire or Need

I have a collection of BD players that are showing some age. I even have that HD “soup to nuts” one by Samsung that could play both Blu-Ray and DVD-HD (Toshiba’s failed HD format). I have 2 Oppo Blu-Ray players and one ten year old Sony ES unit that was a kind of joint audiophile SACD player as well as BD player. I say this because I have had in my past a kind of sickness of buying and trying different A/V components. I had to put the brakes on my continual purchasing of more “stuff” finally as I was actually purchasing A/V components and never even using some of them (not the BD players though as I still use most all of these). I think this fact, more or less, explains the sickness part (lol). Sometime back I put myself on a big gadget diet as a solution to my sickness. This resulted in what I came to believe was a big mistake. I didn’t buy one of the last of the two Oppos (UDP-203 & UDP-205) 4K BD universal disc players. In the last year this has caused me to frequently cruise for a used one at or near it’s original price. They don’t exist except at wildly ridiculously expensive ask prices to which I simply will not pay. I sensibly figured to just give up and see what the market would bring out in the future. I think, for me, the future has arrived. Enter my chance to review the updated Sony UDP-X800 M2. The M2 adds Dolby Vision to the original BPD-800 unit. I’m particularly happy because this universal type disc player plays everything you can throw at except the almost non-existent home made SACD-R discs which I only have a couple and can play on my older Oppo BD players if I get the notion. I do understand Sony’s desire not to propagate the SACD-R thing as it’s their proprietary baby which they seek to keep uniformly consistent on pressed discs only. As far as playing my old DVDS (I have over a 1000 ) I have no gripes whatsoever. On my LG locally dimmed 1080p unit the discs look about as good as ever - a quick comparison with the older Oppo support this. The BD discs I have reproduce spectacularly well as expected. The included 4K discs down scaled look even better actually - so I can only imagine how nice they’d be on a true 4K display which I’ve yet to buy but will eventually do so. The sound seems spot-on high-end on my large system which features ESS AMT 1D speakers that have exception mid and high resolution. The added bonuses are a few streaming apps built in with more promised in future updates as I understand. Though very limited now the ones I wanted are here and it simply gives the player a little more versatility as if you have a display which doesn’t have streaming apps (rare these days plus the built in display apps usually load somewhat faster I’d say)l These just add a bit of extra value and versatility to which it’s hard to complain. One thing I really dig is the BT audio output. I can put on any of my BT cans (I have 3 Sony BT headphones) and listen privately with what seems to be quite good fidelity considering we’re talking BT here. I think I’m no longer wishing I’d bought a UHD Oppo player and certainly have no desire to do so at the insanely inflated prices the used ones are asking. This player does everything I could ask for and good enough to say this is the last physical disc player I feel I’ll ever need. Sure you can buy cheaper units that play UHD BD discs as well, but you can not get another universal one at this price. And the excellent build quality with sleek modern industrial design seems like a bargain at this price indeed. I do not mind navigating the menus for turning off the Dolby Vision (it seems to be the auto choice) and adjusting the audio output parameters for proper digital decoding by my preamp. I see this as a fine value in a over-achieving universal disc player which really should be, quite possibly, the last one I’ll ever want or need. I’ve heard some niggles about a bit of slow loading on 4K discs but that is so insignificant to me I only mention it in passing. This extremely well built deck with sleek modern industrial design is close to everything I could wish for. I truly believe this will be the last physical disc player I’ll ever need and if like me you missed out on getting one that handles UHD I will unreservedly recommend snapping this model up. It’s a stone bargain in my humble opinion.

Full Reviews