Hi all,Longtime lurker, have learned a lot from the forum decided ill make an account and do a review/spiel about the newest and most exciting thing since HD.TL/DR version: Put off buying a tv till HDR is more popular but if you already own a 4k tv that's 2015ish model that can do 4k 60p and HDCP 2.2 compliant then you might as well get this awesome player.Before i move on i want to do a little flowchart thingy:SD < HD (Noticeably better) < 4K upscaling of HD (getting there) < 4K Native (Meh) < 4K 60p HRD (OMFG THIS IS IT!!!) (Note 1080 will soon get the 60p HDR treatment and it looks nice and smooth but lots more noise and grain compared to 4k) Secondly before going into the review ill cover some of the jargon for people who may not be familiar.UHD PREMIUM/UHD ALLIANCE (The standards authority for new Blurays)UHD: 4k resolution 3840 x 216060p: 60 frames per second (compared to 24 we are used to)HDR: High dynamic range (The WOW factor) Colours and brightness pop out the screen (Only Sony has a HDR tv out in NZ but dont fret you can get 2/3 its benefits if you have a mid - late model 2015 model 4k tv with wide colour specs)Dolby vision/HDR10/Peak Illuminator/Precision Blacks: All HDR buzzwords, basically hdr is not only insane at colours and brightness the dark spots are way darker and the contrast is amazing.BT.2020: New encoding format on XXL discs.HDCP 2.2: New protection (no drawbacks when using this player as it has a seperate audio out hdmi) but basically this player needs to be plugged into a new style audio receiver that can handle 4k 60p passthrough otherwise no picture.HDMI 2.0a: New HDMI protocol that actually uses the 18Gbps availlable (note your $5 cable will still work)Region: No regions for UHD Discs (YAY)Well now that that is out of the way...The player:Well its curved... My tv isnt none of my other stuff is but hey... its cool i suppose.It took me around $800 to get it here and running from Amazon and youpost/customs and a step down transformer from JaycarNote i used only the audio out because i wanted to do a simultaneous test with all inputs directly into tv between my old bluray player, my htpc and the new player, tested Martian, Life of Pi and Mad Max (1080 vs 1080 upscaled vs UBD K8500 {winner everytime by a mile}) Yamaha RX V379 recognized it right awayAnd then comes the first screen...Then you realize oh need the remote but you need a coin to get it going, i had to go to the garage a hunt for a washer (although turns out didnt need it my tv remote did everything)Really cool thing about it is it picks up a 5Ghz wifi signal and since I am lucky enough to get fibre and 100mbs the streaming options will be very cool (but im not going to discuss that as no stream is going to look as good as the discs not atleast until everyone has fibre speeds and even then its heavily compressed except UltraflixHDR) I will review the streaming apps etc if someone wants but i use my htpc for that stuff.After it updates you get the main screen...NOW COMES THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP, make sure you manually enter these settings, if your TV can handle YCbCr select it and also once you play something select tools on remote and select user in picture mode, keep everything at 0 and put colour up to 10. And make sure you have deep colour set to auto. This way your Non HDR tv can experience some of the benefits of more colours and contrast. Keep 24p on if your TV cant deal with 60p.I also got the Sony Camp HRD and non HDR files to compare and also a Samsung HDR demo file (please note if you download these files you will have to transfer onto harddrive usb 3.0 and plug into the usb port on the UBD K8500 to view, YOU CANNOT view HDR BT.2020 files on your PC (yet) If comparing the sony camp videos the HDR version can look dull and lifeless on a PC but through the UBD K8500 it looks insanely vibrant and like someone took a veil from in front of your eyes when comparing the standard version to the HDR version.My camera work sucks im trying to capture the colours but i cant get the right settings.HDR also turns any TV into an "oled" tv, the blacks just disappear the contrast between bright and dark seems infinite, (Ive over done it in these photos trying to get the colours) cant even notice any backlight at all, but i suck at getting the right camera settings to show any of this, please go to the demo uhd website and click hdr tab to download these videos to compare for yourself once you buy the samsung lol (i mean you have read this far!)These are the movies i got from amazon, i have deadpool and revenant on the way ill update this post once ive seen those. All these movies start with a message saying your tv isnt HDR compatible and the viewing will be dependant on the capabilities of your tv.Fortunately my tv seems to get me the colours and the infinite light/blacks but not a high dynamic range more of a Mild dynamic range (better start saving for the Samsung KS8500 tv when it lands here) Ive seen life of pi on 1080 (upscaled) bluray like 3 times and watching it on 4k was even more magical the colours (esp the trippy scenes) just jumped out of the screen, things like sunlight didnt even seem 2d some parts were like it was shining right in your eyes, the tiger is just gorgeous to look at (Cant wait for 4k HDR release of force awakens and jungle book!) Mad Max is the most demanding, it really shows when your tv cant handle the decoding as the colours on faces sometimes get really noisy, i managed to tame it by changing some colour ranges on my TV (lots of experimentation but pay off is worth it) the action is epic as ever but i think I need to wait and get an HDR tv before i see how eye popping mad max really is. The slickest of the bunch is Martian its just shot after shot of jaw dropping backdrops and you can see every crack in every rock no matter near or far, the colours again are so full it like fills the room, you dont miss a bead of sweat or a piece of dirt its all clear and the hdr must be working cuz the realism and the planets colours just were so much crisper (esp 1080 vs 4k in scenes of stars etc, the black in between the stars was like pitch black it was like looking at the sky irl, no light hue on the screen, 1080 seemed like SD on most of the martian in comparison actually).Conclusion: Im happy as larry but i still wont be satisfied till I get a proper HDR or Doblyvision TV but im probably never going to be happy so ill take this as a win. This is definitely the best quality of video anyone has ever seen in a home (HDR projectors arent a thing yet and i cant afford a real hdr tv yet) it easily rivals the cinema in sheer excitiment value, except you can rewind and re watch scenes as much as you like.Any question please ask and ill try find an answer for you...HAPPY MOVIEING EVERYBODY!!!Pls be nice this is my first post :P
↧