Samsung UBD-9500
Samsung recently announced it will no longer introduce new Blu-ray or 4K Blu-ray player models in the US market, which follows on the heels of former Blu-ray player manufacturer, Oppo Digital, who departed the industry last April.
4K Ultra HD with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision Playback – Hi-Res Sound – 4K VOD Streaming – Alexa/Google Voice Assist
Price – $499.00
There is a new addition to the handful of 4K UHD Blu-ray players currently available… LG has recently launched their UP970 4K UHD Blu-ray player to spin the ever increasing number of 4K Blu-ray discs.
The 4K UHD Blu-ray disc player family will soon be growing by one. I know that’s not a huge number, but in the current 4K Blu-ray player market, which is very limited at this time with only a handful of available machines here in the U.S., one more player makes a significant impact in a product category that is in its infancy stage.
Oppo is known for its high quality and excellent performing DVD and Blu-ray disc players, and has a long standing tradition of manufacturing some of the finest optical disc players on the market with affordable pricing.
As popularity and sales continue to increase for 4K Ultra HD TVs, so does the demand for 4K hardware and physical media such has Ultra HD Blu-ray players and discs to enjoy on these high def displays.
The wait for 4K Blu-ray players is almost over… Samsung’s recent announcement at the IFA electronics show in Berlin, showcased the “curved design” UBD-K8500 which will be the world’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray player and is expected to be released early next year (2016), however many industry experts and enthusiast are hoping for a launch date that will be just in time for the holidays.
BDP-88FD
It has been about five years since Pioneer has released an Elite blu-ray player going back to their reference quality BDP-09FD.
There are now two new flagship models scheduled to be released this month (December) – the BDP-88FD (MSRP:$2000.00) and BDP-85FD (MSRP:$1000.00). Both models are considered to be universal players meaning they will playback most if not all video and audio formats including CD’s, SACD (Super-Audio CD) and DVD-Audio disc.
How do you enjoy watching movies and your favorite TV shows while in the comfort of your own home? Is it via video streaming, cable, satellite, video-on-demand services, over-the-air broadcast or blu-ray disc? Many consumers including myself, use a combination of these video avenues for our home viewing. But which of these will give you the best viewing experience (picture quality)? If you chose blu-ray, then you are (in my opinion) enjoying the best possible picture quality available to you in your home.
However, with the exception of 4K video which is superior to any 1080p produced blu-ray disc and thats only if the 4K content you’re watching has been produced with excellent video quality and doesn’t suffer from video compression artifacts. But when 4K blu-ray disc does arrive in the near future, the blu-ray disc once again should be the king of picture quality in your home.