Sony UBP-X700 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disc Player - Black

Have been using for a few months now and have had no problems. Playback has been flawless. 4K upscaling is great. There is a second hdmi for audio. 3D looks great. Wi fi streaming works great. Apps are limited and cannot be downloaded but most of the popular ones are there including Netflix and Prime. Operation and menus can be a bit slow but adequate. Still one of the best 4K dvd players for the price.

To fix playback freezing about an hour into a film, here's what I did. First, update the firmware: Setup > Network settings > Internet settings > connect to the Internet however you have it set up. Wireless must be 2.4ghz as 5ghz connections don't show up. Setup > Software update > via Internet After it's done you can disconnect it from the Internet forever unless you want to use any online features. Secondly, the 4k upscaler seems to cause issues. So let's fix that. Setup > screen settings: Hdr auto Dolby vision on (if you're watching Dolby Vision content and your TV supports it. Should be turned off for HDR movies and regular SDR Blu-rays as it desaturates the colour) Output video resolution auto if you want blu-rays to be upscaled by the TV, 4K if not. >>> 4K UPSCALE SETTING OFF <<< (this is seemingly what upsets it!) HDMI deep colour output auto With these settings I've had no problems with any discs at all. I'm not sure why it doesn't have these settings out of the box, but there you go. And here are the audio settings I'm using that might save someone some time: Setup > audio settings: Digital audio output auto Dts neo:6 off Audio drc off Downmix surround Anyway! Nice and small, about the size of a PlayStation 1. Feels quality, nice design. Very easy to set up (aside from the above!) and as mentioned I've had no problems enjoying my film collection since changing a few settings. Picture and audio quality is great. Player software is pretty barebones (reminds me of PS2 menus) but does the job very well. The manual's description of what every setting actually does can be confusing at times, so most of the setup time went into looking things up online. It should be noted that this is my first UHD player so I can't compare it to anything else, but I wanted something that supported Dolby Vision and wasn't massively expensive and this certainly doesn't disappoint!

I'm not complaining at being able to play 4k Bluray on the PS5, it's a nice extra. In practice though the interface and using a controller to watch movies on console has always felt a bit clunky to me, plus i always forget to turn off the controller while watching a long movie and waste the battery. I have quite a few physical DVD, BluRay HD/4K disks and wanted try going back to a dedicated player for a slightly nicer user interaction, but also to see if its true that picture quality and framerate is improved over the PS5. Much like the jump from HD to 4K, you're not going to be entirely blown away with the difference between 4k on a console and on a decent dedicated player, but it is definitely there. Faster disk start ups and rwd fwd searching, slightly smoother framerate when playing back 24fps material (less prone to 'judder' on panning shots etc). I'd say the picture (especially with HDR content) is crisper and more defined. It is worth playing with the Picture setting presets on your TV for best results though. Our LG TV automatically selected it's 'Game' mode when the player booted up, which is fine for the menus etc, but for actual movie content a 'Cinema' or 'Filmmaker' mode is get you better results. Speaking of Menus... The player's GUI is very very bland. Weird when you consider the effort made with PlayStation's menus etc (also by Sony). It's all very grey and functional. Oh one point... Luckily I bought this purely for playing disks, but you can forget using it as a 'Smart' player. There's only about 8 apps available. No Disney+. No Apple TV. No Now ect. And the BBC iPlayer App warned it was going to stop working in a few days time and be removed from the player's OS also.

The Sony UBP-X700 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Disc Player Summary: A great product, pretty much future-proofed and well worth the price. A really good player with really good value for money. Highlights are built-in support for HDR.10 and Dolby Live will be added later. Review: First Impressions A solid and well-built unit. A good mix of plastic and metal, with a piano-black trim. Does not look out of place on my unit next to the tv. The remote by contrast looks and feels a bit on the cheap side, but buttons respond quickly and accurately to the touch, and becomes 2nd nature to use. Plugging in and initial setup: The instructions state to hook up all the connections BEFORE powering on the unit...so I did that. My tv is an LG C7 OLED unit so I plugged in my own HDMI cable as the Sony doesn't ship with one. It also had an HDMI audio out so you can plug in your sound-bar if you have one. Connecting via LAN, USB or coaxial digital is equally simple. Wireless support is limited to 2.4 Ghz but streaming directly from Netflix showed no drop-outs or buffering. The built-in setup wizard is quick and easy to follow and if you mess up you can reset all back to default and start again. It has the basics as far as apps go with Netflix, Amazon and Youtube available, so you can smarten up you TV if you need to. Picture: Wow. In conjunction with my OLED tv the picture is stunning. Visual are crisp, clear and startling. The first movie I played was The Martian blu-ray in standard and UHD formats and, the difference is palpable; the arid landscapes and harsh beauty are brought home with a clarity and detail that is jaw-dropping. The SD copy looks pale and washed out in comparison. Other UHD movies I tried were Kong, Superman vs Batman UHD, Pacific Rim UHD and Mad Max. DVD playback is okay, not impressive but it's fine,I really doubt if anyone is going to be playing dvd's here though it's nice that it has that ability if you want. Sound: My TV is Dolby Atmos enabled and has virtual surround sound abilities.The Dolby Atmos and surround-sound quality is adequate, having heard a dedicated Dolby Atmos setup and surround sound, I realised that to get the full detail of the picture and sound quality I need to upgrade from a tv speaker system to a dedicated setup. That being said, the sound, for all its limitations is amazing, Mad Max, Kong, Supes vs Bats have soundscape that really come over well with this unit compared to my other player. The LG really gives you an immersive experience, but I do think after this I need to upgrade my system. A better review for the sound can be found on What Hi*Fi's website. It also can playback most music formats like SA-CD, mp3, flac etc. I did not test this as this is a 4K player and will be used primarily as such. Verdict: This 4K player has value for money like no other 4K player. The bang for you buck is unrivalled.It's a bargain at the price-point and outperforms its big brother UBP-X800 by some distance. It's natural rivals at this point like the Panasonics and others cannot beat this unit in features or its crisp natural 4K output. Buy it. You won't regret it. Specifications: Playback Capability DISC - BD-RE, BD-RE Dual Layer, BD-ROM, CD (CD-DA), CD-R / -RW, DVD+R, DVD+R Double Layer, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-R Dual Layer, DVD-RW, DVD-Video, SA-CD (SA-CD / CD) Playback, Stereoscopic 3D (profile 5), Ultra HD Blu-ray VIDEO FORMAT AVCHD Disc Format, HEVC, Motion JPEG (.mov, .avi), MPEG-1 Video / PS (.mpg .MPEG, .mkv).VOB, .VRO, MPEG-2 Video / PS, TS ( .mpg.MPEG, .m2ts, .mts, .mkv).VOB, .VRO, MPEG-4 / AVC (.mov, 3gp, .3g2, .3gpp, .3gpp2, .flv), MPEG-4 AVC (.mkv, .mp4, .m4v, .m2ts, .mts), VC1 (.m2ts, .mts, .mkv), VP6, VP8, VP9, WMV9 (.wmv, .asf, .mkv), Xvid (.avi, .mkv) AUDIO FORMAT AAC (.AAC, .mka), AIFF (.aiff, .aif), ALAC (.m4a), Dolby Digital (.ac3, .mka), DSD - DSDIFF / DSD (.dff, .dsf), FLAC (.flac, .fla), HEAAC v.1 / v.2 / level2, LPCM (.mka), Mokey's Audio, Vorbis, WMA10 Pro, WMA9 Standard (.WMA) PICTURE FEATURE 24p True Cinema, 4K Upscale (60p), Deep colour (12bit) DOLBY Dolby Atmos®(bitstream out)/Dolby® TrueHD decoding (7.1Ch) DTS DTS:X™(bitstream out)/DTS decoding (7.1ch) WI-FI® BUILT IN Yes WI-FI MIMO Yes FEATURES Screen mirroring (Wi-Fi Miracast) STREAMING 3D Streaming, 4K streaming, Live Streaming INPUT AND OUTPUT Coaxial Audio Output (s): 1 (Rear), Ethernet Connection (s): 1 (Rear), HDMI Output (s): 2 (Rear), USB Input (s): 1 (Front) Box Contains Instruction Manual, Remote Control, Type AAA x 2 batteries, Warranty Card,

In my original review I complained about the player locking up when approaching the finale of 4K Bluray movies. The manufacturer drew my attention to a firmware update which so far seems to have solved the problem. Since that was my only complaint about the player, and that is now gone, I've updated my review score to suit. My original review remains below. ************** Watching the opening scenes of the "The Dark Knight" in 4K on a big screen makes you gasp, there's a section where they cross a chasm on a rope that almost gives you vertigo. I find speech a bit muffled, but that could be my TV, I'm still investigating. My main problem is that the player locks up, regular as clockwork, somewhere around 2 hours into any 4K movie (it could be any movie, but I'm mostly using my new kit to watch UHD for now). It totally ruins the impending finale of the movie. When it happens the player ignores all remote buttons except power off - so that's what I have to do, then I can power back up and resume play. So far this recovery method always seems to work, so the problem doesn't seem to be caused by disk content, I suspect it may be a buffering glitch or buffer overflow, perhaps after a layer change. Once upon a time Sony had the Japanese reputation for quality, they would never put out buggy firmware because it would be thoroughly tested before going public. If a bug did escape then it'd get fixed quickly. Not any more. Nowadays they design down to a price - but are still more expensive than the Chinese - and firmware quality is one of the corners that got cut.

I bought this Sony Blu ray UBP-X700 player to try and cut down on the number of boxes I have in my AV cabinet and to make it easier for the less ‘tech-savvy’ members of my family to access Netflix. Overall, I am very pleased with this player. I can now access Netflix/Amazon prime/ BBC iPlayer, watch all of my ripped DVDs/ listen to my FLAC file CDs (from my Western Digital NAS drive), and play my Bly-ray discs, all from one device. The unit did feel a bit flimsy when I took it out of the box and put it into my AV cabinet, but as I do not tend to move it this will not be a problem. I find that connection to the internet it better when I use an ethernet cable as opposed to relying on the built-in Wi-Fi. Some other reviewers have not liked the remote, but I like the simplicity of it. It does everything I need and I can also use it to switch on/off and adjust the volume of my 55inch LG TV. The less tech-savvy members of my family like the Netflix button on it. Picture and sound quality appear good to me. To my knowledge, you cannot add any more apps. It would have been useful to be able to add the Now TV app so that I could watch season 8 of Game of Thrones without having to plug in another box. To conclude, if like me you just want one box to try and watch most things, and you are not too concerned about looks or build, then I highly recommend this blu ray player.

Where's the cable? This is an excellent 4K player, which was purchased to feed a new 4K Sony TV. Set up is relatively easy, instructions are sensible, packaging isn't daft, and the final picture quality and sound is fantastic. Quite why Sony didn't put in an HDMI cable is probably a reflection on how sales are done these days. It would fit in the box and wouldn't really increase the cost of the product much. I suppose it's a way of getting extra cash by the hapless customer buying the separate premium cable. We just bought a high quality generic HDMI cable for a lot less and added Sony to our list of companies that will always require a substantial discount before we buy stuff from them again because of misguided marketing techniques. Which is a shame, because their stuff is great quality and we want to buy it. Summary Fantastic product, terrible PR.

A good machine let down by a few niggles. Firstly, bearing in mind that this unit is still being sold, despite being released a good few years back, there have been no firmware updates since mid 2022. Any smart features/apps that were part of it's smart offerings have gradually reduced over time to just netflix, prime, iplayer, youtube and so on. The menu is now a bit bare. Sound and picture are good in general, the 4k upscaling is good, but, I have witnessed a significant number of lockups and disc skipping that only restarting the player has fixed which is not great experience for a mid range player and having known this now may have influenced my purchase of this in the first place. Sometimes cleaning the disc or disabling the 4k upscaling has fixed these glitches. It's a bit sensitive. It's quite a solid but small unit, with a plastic front and metal case, no front display. It uses the exact same remote as my previous player from years back, so if you have more than one or are adding a second for whatever reason, you might find that both operate at the same time! Speed wise, it's a little sluggish, but acceptable. Connectivity, the usual hdmi video/audio and audio out, 100mb lan and wireless lan (2.4 ghz only), pcm/dts/dolby digital out coax, usb port. Compatibility, it'll play most types of blu rays (including 3d), dvds and super audio cds. All in all, ok but could be better and better supported by Sony