When you buy one of the best TVs, most of which now have 4K resolution, you want to feed it the best quality possible. I recently tested 4K Blu-ray vs streaming, and although I found the picture with both to be closer than expected, it became clear during my comparison that 4K Blu-ray was superior - especially when it came to audio quality.
If you’re thinking of buying one of the best 4K Blu-ray players, you’ll find that, in terms of price and features, the market can be as diverse as TVs themselves. You can pay as little as $199 / £159 / AU$399 for a basic player, up to over $999 / £999/ AU$1,699 for a premium model.
While there are competitors within the 4K Blu-ray player market, the main manufacturer is Panasonic, which makes consistently high-quality, well-built models that rate highly regardless of whether they are budget, mid-range or premium. Other manufacturers include Sony, Raevon and Magnetar (with the latter two at the premium end of the market).
It should be no problem to opt for a budget model because a 4K Blu-ray player just plays discs, right? Well, a budget player will give you 4K Blu-ray disc playback, but there are a lot of other factors to consider including HDR support, upscaling, audio quality, connectivity and even built-in smart features. The best 4K Blu-ray players do more than just play discs nowadays.
Whilst there are many great 4K Blu-ray players, I’ll primarily discuss three models here: the Panasonic DP-UB154 (and DP-UB150) as the budget entry, the Panasonic DP-UB820 for the mid-range, and the Panasonic DP-UB9000 as the premium option (with a few more at the premium end).
Picture
While your display, be it a TV, monitor or projector, is extremely important for overall picture quality, the 4K Blu-ray player you use is also important. The player decodes the digital information on the disc and passes it on to the display, applying digital processing such as noise reduction and other image enhancements that can make or break picture quality.
When I tested the UB154 and UB820, the picture quality of both impressed me. I haven’t tested the premium UB9000 in the same way, but it was the 4K Blu-ray player of choice in the demo room at my AV retail job, so I was very familiar with it and impressed. But what makes the two players different?
The 4K picture reproduction is brilliant across the board on these three players, which provide crisp detailed textures and strong contrast. But as you go up the range, there is a noticeable step-up in picture quality, with the UB9000 offering the smoothest visuals. Even the mid-range UB820 provides greater detail than the entry-level UB154.
Upscaling of HD Blu-rays and lower-resolution DVDs is effective across all three players, but once again, the higher up the range you go, the more effective the upscaling gets. We said in our review of the UB9000 that its upscaling provides a “slick, detailed presentation”. There is a difference in upscaling quality between the UB154 and UB820 as well, with the UB820 delivering a picture with finer detail and less noise compared to the UB154.
HDR support is where the UB154 differs from its more premium counterparts. It doesn’t offer Dolby Vision, but does support the less commonly used HDR10+ format. So, if you have one of the best OLED TVs that does support Dolby Vision, sadly you’re out of luck with the UB154. There is a slightly pricier alternative with Dolby Vision, but not HDR10+ support, the Sony UBPX700 ($259 / £229 / AU$399).
Audio
Audio decoding and support is a surprisingly even playing field among these models. Each supports Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby TrueHD and more, so if you have a home theater setup with one of the best Dolby Atmos soundbars or a TV that supports those formats, these players will have you covered.
Hi-res audio and music codecs are also widely supported, though the UB820 and UB-9000 support ALAC up to 7.1 channels. This was the only difference in terms of codec support that I could see.
For audiophiles, it’s worth noting that none of these players support SACD or DVD-A playback. For that, you’ll want the Magnetar UDP800 or Reavon UBRX-200, though with both you’ll be paying at least $500 more than the premium Panasonic UB9000. However, all these named players support CD playback if you want to hold on to your CD collection.
Features
Features are where your budget matters with 4K Blu-ray players. As a budget player, the UB154 comes up short compared to the rest of the range. Primarily, it has no analog audio outputs or Wi-Fi support, whereas the UB820 and UB9000 have 7.1-channel analog and optical digital audio outputs (the UB9000 even has XLR outputs) and Wi-Fi for streaming from apps including Netflix and YouTube.
Among the most noticeable differences between these players are their menus and usability. The UB820 and UB9000 offer more video and audio settings to tweak compared with the UB154 and also more responsive navigation and disc loading times. For example, the time elapsed from first loading a disc to seeing logos on screen can take almost 30 seconds longer with the UB154 than with the UB820.
The build quality of these players suits their prices - the UB154 feels cheap, while the UB9000 has a sturdy, solid metal chassis that makes it feel premium. The UB820 is the real standout here, as it feels suitably tough, and is also a workhorse.
Final thoughts
Unsurprisingly, spending more on a player will get you a more premium 4K Blu-ray experience. The UB9000 has all the bells and whistles (barring SACD) that you need and delivers audio and video at the highest quality level. But then again, none of these 4K Blu-ray players will let you down, and they offer enough positives at their respective prices.
If you can stretch your budget for the UB820 ($425 / £349 / AU$769), you'll find it absolutely worth it. Panasonic’s mid-range player has many of the premium UB9000's features at just over a third of that player’s price. From my personal experience, the UB820 is built to last and delivers excellent picture quality. There are good reasons why the Panasonic UB820 sits at the top of our list of the best 4K Blu-ray players.
