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Should I get a UHD Blu Ray player???

RPS37

Member
I just got a new OLED (LG C2) back in November and I love playing games on my XSX and PS5 on it, especially in Dolby Vision.
However, I just bought some UHD Blu Rays and I realized neither the Series X nor PS5 even support Dolby Vision for Blu Rays!

Should I say eff it and get a dedicated UHD Blu Ray player? If so, which one is good? I don’t need smart features or anything, just good playback.
 
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Sleepwalker

Member
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RPS37

Member
When I’m on the Xbox, I get so hyped when I see the Dolby Vision logo on the screen when I start.
I want to see it pop up while I’m watching discs!
 
Sony UBP x700, works good for my but is a few years old now so there might be a newer one that's better or this one is older and now cheaper.
Would not recommend as you have to manually switch between Dolby Vision and HDR10 etc. Don’t know what Sony was thinking with this.
 

jufonuk

not tag worthy
Got a Panasonic BD Player that I pimped out myself to make it ultra quite.

Was worth it.
Not Listening Fred Armisen GIF by IFC
 
i'd send the blu rays back and go digital. 1. dont need to buy a new blu ray player. 2. digital movies are cheaper than discs...even 4K HDR ones.

OR just play the discs on your console. i dont know about the C2 but my CX has "HDR Effect" which converts SDR into HDR. its not proper HDR of course but it does a decent job. I dont have any consoles so i sometimes use my old standard bluray player to watch movies and i use the HDR effect setting for them. even if the consoles dont support Dolby Vision surely they must support another HDR standard? i dont know any difference between HDR10, HLG, or DV. its all the same to me.

i dont buy discs anymore. i did think about moving to 4K HDR but again i dont have a console and i didnt want to buy a dedicated player and replace my discs. so i just buy movies through Apple or Amazon. recently i bought the LOTR and HP box sets. the HP one was £35 for 4K HDR but to buy the discs it is like £60+

you could do that and wait and see if new console revisions support dolby vision. there are rumors of a PS5 Slim this year. then you can sell a console and buy the new one and you wont have consoles AND a dedicated player
 
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sobaka770

Member
i'd send the blu rays back and go digital. 1. dont need to buy a new blu ray player. 2. digital movies are cheaper than discs...even 4K HDR ones.

OR just play the discs on your console. i dont know about the C2 but my CX has "HDR Effect" which converts SDR into HDR. its not proper HDR of course but it does a decent job. I dont have any consoles so i sometimes use my old standard bluray player to watch movies and i use the HDR effect setting for them. even if the consoles dont support Dolby Vision surely they must support another HDR standard? i dont know any difference between HDR10, HLG, or DV. its all the same to me.

i dont buy discs anymore. i did think about moving to 4K HDR but again i dont have a console and i didnt want to buy a dedicated player and replace my discs. so i just buy movies through Apple or Amazon. recently i bought the LOTR and HP box sets. the HP one was £35 for 4K HDR but to buy the discs it is like £60+

you could do that and wait and see if new console revisions support dolby vision. there are rumors of a PS5 Slim this year. then you can sell a console and buy the new one and you wont have consoles AND a dedicated player
Please, don't do what this person does. HDR effect is simply a bastardization of the original picture - like soap opera motion interpolation, you should never do that.
All non HDR Blu rays are encoded in SDR 8-bit standard and cannot be simply upconverted to HDR - the information is simply not there. What you end up is simply blown out highlights, crushed shadows to achieve "HDR-like" effect but it's all fake. The colors are screwed up as well. Don't get used to colorful crap, it's not worth it, especially as you have a nice Oled.

Digital codes are fine but still much more compressed than a full 4k Blu ray would be. Hell, even standard Blu ray is often encoded with a better codec and a higher bitrate than a digital file or God forbid - Netflix stream. This compression is especially true for audio.

I got a Panasonic UB824 in addition to my PS5 and it's worth it imo. If you want to get the most out of your movies I suggest, in order of importance:

0. Go online and read up on TV picture settings and modes. Read up on SDR, HDR, encoding and compression. It's free and a lot of people get it wrong. (See above) Make sure you even want to dig deeper.
1. Calibrate your TV and disable all unnecessary motion/interpolation/color effects. Calibrate for day, night SDR, HDR and DV modes.
2. Invest in sound - 5.1/7.1 + sub. Dolby Atmos support. Headphones are nice but nothing beats a real stereo system.

Now you may start noticing the difference between streaming/digital and physical disk quality.

3. Invest in favorite disks - test of you even want to collect physical
4. Invest in player. Sony is a good budget solution but if you have extra cash - Panasonic is just better and you don't have to manually enable Dolby vision every time.
 

reksveks

Member
Sorry this is wrong, series X only supports dolby vision for games and not blu ray disc content playback. The ps5 doesn't support either.
Half correct, the series x/s does technically support it for streaming apps but yeah, no disc's. Wish xbox would let me buy the license but ehh.

  • On Xbox Series X|S, Dolby Vision is available for streaming media apps and playing games.

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/help/hardware-network/display-sound/dolby-vision

Software support has been a bit iffy iirc.

On topic, uhd blurays and even normal blurays are personally a significant upgrade on digital streams. I haven't bought a digital copy so can't compare.
 
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Amory

Member
I’m a UHD collector and personally I don’t think you need to buy a dedicated player if you have a PS5. It’s not going to make a major difference in your viewing experience and it’s just one more device to put on your shelf.

I’m not a videophile by any means so take that for what it’s worth, but to me DV vs HDR10 just doesn’t make that much of a difference
 

kurisu_1974

is on perm warning for being a low level troll
I have a 4K UHD Sony BRD player because why not?

Only thing is, I completely forgot I needed a region free player and it's not... and it seems making Sony players region free isn't as simple as entering some codes with the remote like it was with my Philips one I had before. I have a lot of US import stuff that I now can't play.
 

Tams

Member
i'd send the blu rays back and go digital. 1. dont need to buy a new blu ray player. 2. digital movies are cheaper than discs...even 4K HDR ones.

OR just play the discs on your console. i dont know about the C2 but my CX has "HDR Effect" which converts SDR into HDR. its not proper HDR of course but it does a decent job. I dont have any consoles so i sometimes use my old standard bluray player to watch movies and i use the HDR effect setting for them. even if the consoles dont support Dolby Vision surely they must support another HDR standard? i dont know any difference between HDR10, HLG, or DV. its all the same to me.

i dont buy discs anymore. i did think about moving to 4K HDR but again i dont have a console and i didnt want to buy a dedicated player and replace my discs. so i just buy movies through Apple or Amazon. recently i bought the LOTR and HP box sets. the HP one was £35 for 4K HDR but to buy the discs it is like £60+

you could do that and wait and see if new console revisions support dolby vision. there are rumors of a PS5 Slim this year. then you can sell a console and buy the new one and you wont have consoles AND a dedicated player
If you're considering Blu-rays then you want physical media and/or are picky about quality (especially sound).

No digital stores (and absolutely not streaming) offer either. You can't buy it digitally in the best quality - only rip a Blu-ray, which takes up a lot of storage.

Something tells me you are rather ignorant of all that.
 

Celcius

°Temp. member
eh, personally I would just use your xbox or ps5. I have physical discs myself but I wouldn't shell out for a standalone player when I can already play them on my console, unless you REALLY watch a lot of physical movies.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
Plus. If audio is important to you, BD is a lot better than streaming.

Get the Panasonic DP-UB824, it’s a BD endgame player that features everything the format has to offer.

Except support for SACD and DVD-A.
 

GloveSlap

Member
I think I need to get one too. Thr Xbox Series X player is the grestest piece of garbage ever made. Plays maybe 1 out of 10 discs I feed it. Had to pull out my olf One X to play my UHDs.

Unbelievable.
There might be something wrong with your X. I have over 100 UHDs and i never have a problem with discs not playing. The One X was definitely quieter while playing them though.
 

MaestroMike

Member
Sorry this is wrong, series X only supports dolby vision for games and not blu ray disc content playback. The ps5 doesn't support either.

If you want to play movie/shows discs with dolby vision your best bet is getting a blu ray player. Personally I ripped most of my discs and just stream them through plex.

how do u rip discs ??
 
I bought the Panasonic UB820 on sale during the holidays ($400 sale price). Definitely worth it for me, I’ve noticed improvement in picture quality (the player has an HDR optimizer) and a huge improvement in audio quality. I have the Sonos ARC/Sub and anytime I wanted to pass through audio to Sonos for the atmos track there would be lip sync issues (I was using PS5 as player and LG CX 77 OLED). Now all of those issues are gone and I feel I have a setup that rivals the premium theatre experience so definitely worth it for me. Only issue with the setup is that Sonos can’t handle DTS tracks and automatically converts to LPCM 7.1 which is not ideal since Sonos is 5.1. So sometimes I’ll have to mess with settings to get the Dolby 5.1 track in these situations. Not the worst but still an inconvenience - future 4k releases will likely always include atmos (I hope, just what I’ve noticed will latest buys).

The problem is once you start looking into all this optimization, the audio track being used, etc it’s hard to go back to just regular movie watching. Be careful loooking into this stuff
 
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Go all digital? There’s that Asian Utube channel about tv blu rays , HDTVtest?
And in many cases the digital won best picture over physical media, (Disney plus with those imax content).
Of course other old titles look better on disc.

I say just keep streaming. I have a bunch of dvd and blue rays now … need to go throw them away … they become garbage really fast and I’m not trying to make a stand full of them . (For that I prefer books 😂)

I’m also thinking about my cd music collection… all nice box but for what … they may not even play anymore
 

VulcanRaven

Member
How big is the difference between HDR10 and Dolby Vision in gaming? My Sony tv has a game mode (HDR10) with less input lag so I wonder if Dolby Vision is worth it?
 
Please, don't do what this person does. HDR effect is simply a bastardization of the original picture - like soap opera motion interpolation, you should never do that.
All non HDR Blu rays are encoded in SDR 8-bit standard and cannot be simply upconverted to HDR - the information is simply not there. What you end up is simply blown out highlights, crushed shadows to achieve "HDR-like" effect but it's all fake. The colors are screwed up as well. Don't get used to colorful crap, it's not worth it, especially as you have a nice Oled.

Digital codes are fine but still much more compressed than a full 4k Blu ray would be. Hell, even standard Blu ray is often encoded with a better codec and a higher bitrate than a digital file or God forbid - Netflix stream. This compression is especially true for audio.

I got a Panasonic UB824 in addition to my PS5 and it's worth it imo. If you want to get the most out of your movies I suggest, in order of importance:

0. Go online and read up on TV picture settings and modes. Read up on SDR, HDR, encoding and compression. It's free and a lot of people get it wrong. (See above) Make sure you even want to dig deeper.
1. Calibrate your TV and disable all unnecessary motion/interpolation/color effects. Calibrate for day, night SDR, HDR and DV modes.
2. Invest in sound - 5.1/7.1 + sub. Dolby Atmos support. Headphones are nice but nothing beats a real stereo system.

Now you may start noticing the difference between streaming/digital and physical disk quality.

3. Invest in favorite disks - test of you even want to collect physical
4. Invest in player. Sony is a good budget solution but if you have extra cash - Panasonic is just better and you don't have to manually enable Dolby vision every time.
You're already telling me shit I know :messenger_unamused:

I know HDR effect isn't the real thing as i said that in my comment if you read it properly. I know Digital isn't as good as Bluray. I'm not buying bluray discs because i think digital movies look good enough and they are cheaper. if something doesn't use HDR then i'll apply HDR effect. again, it's not great but it's still better.

If you're considering Blu-rays then you want physical media and/or are picky about quality (especially sound).

No digital stores (and absolutely not streaming) offer either. You can't buy it digitally in the best quality - only rip a Blu-ray, which takes up a lot of storage.

Something tells me you are rather ignorant of all that.
Something tells me you are ignorant of what my comment said.

I'm not considering Blu-rays. I was but not anymore. And no I'm not ignorant of all that. I know you should get blu ray if you care about video/sound quality. I'm not interested in the absolute best quality which is why I don't give a shit about blurays anymore and I'm happy streaming shit and buying digitally.
 
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daveonezero

Member
Sorry this is wrong, series X only supports dolby vision for games and not blu ray disc content playback. The ps5 doesn't support either.

If you want to play movie/shows discs with dolby vision your best bet is getting a blu ray player. Personally I ripped most of my discs and just stream them through plex.
How does hdr work? I’ve seen it can be an issue. Like with jellyfin I couldn’t get it to work.
 
Trigger warning for the Dolby Vision worshippers and simps out there.

There are no consumer displays where you would actually notice the difference between HDR10 and Dolby Vision anyways. Just use your PS5. I guarantee you that it's fine. UHD BD is already vastly superior to streaming with "only" HDR10.

Furthermore, I defy any of you to actually look at one of those pro displays flashbanging 10,000 nits at you and honestly think this is a good idea that people want in home theaters.
 
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RPS37

Member
Trigger warning for the Dolby Vision worshippers and simps out there.

There are no consumer displays where you would actually notice the difference between HDR10 and Dolby Vision anyways. Just use your PS5. I guarantee you that it's fine. UHD BD is already vastly superior to streaming with "only" HDR10.

Furthermore, I defy any of you to actually look at one of those pro displays flashbanging 10,000 nits at you and honestly think this is a good idea that people want in home theaters.
I’ve got a C2 and my player comes next week.
Will report back potential placebo effect.
 
Trigger warning for the Dolby Vision worshippers and simps out there.

There are no consumer displays where you would actually notice the difference between HDR10 and Dolby Vision anyways. Just use your PS5. I guarantee you that it's fine. UHD BD is already vastly superior to streaming with "only" HDR10.

Furthermore, I defy any of you to actually look at one of those pro displays flashbanging 10,000 nits at you and honestly think this is a good idea that people want in home theaters.
Sure there is, HDR10 has static metadata for color, light levels and max brigtness, HDR10+ and DV have dynamic metadata, meaning that the movie can be graded on a scene by scene basis to best fit the medium and creators intent. So you can have really impactfull HDR moments and seconds later a non washed out scene in the dark.

HDR10+ and DV are eaquall imo, but DV has become the defacto standard going forward.
 

Alcibiades

Member
My Xbox One S plays 4k disc's very dark for some reason. While the same movies look normal when streamed. Also for some reason it used to be able to do 5.1 surround but now it only does stereo for most if not all content.

Thinking I might have to do a UHD player at some point.
 
Trigger warning for the Dolby Vision worshippers and simps out there.

There are no consumer displays where you would actually notice the difference between HDR10 and Dolby Vision anyways. Just use your PS5. I guarantee you that it's fine. UHD BD is already vastly superior to streaming with "only" HDR10.

Furthermore, I defy any of you to actually look at one of those pro displays flashbanging 10,000 nits at you and honestly think this is a good idea that people want in home theaters.
Most won’t notice but once you do there is no going back. Maybe you’re right about HDR vs DV, I’m not too knowledgeable. I just know to my naked eye UB820 definitely looks better than PS5. UB820 also has an HDR optimizer running in the background, maybe that’s what’s causing it.

And again the audio options alone on the UB820 makes it worth it for the Atmos track. Sicario is my reference, sooooo much better on UB820
 
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