Samsung - UBD-M9700 - Streaming 4K Ultra HD Wi-Fi Built-In Blu-Ray Player - Black

I received this new Samsung 4K Blu-ray player model # UBD-M9700 to evaluate. After several months I rant it thru some tests and here is what I got. Now I am a Samsung Fan BUT I have owned LG products such as TV's DVD and Cell Phones. I LOVE my LG PF50KA 1080P Smart Projector and my V30 which fell in 12 ft of water and was perfect after 10 hours under water, but never had luck with LG's DVD Players. So I compared this new Samsung UBD-M9700 to a regular Samsung BD-J5700/ZA Streaming WiFi built in Blu-ray player, a great fantastic mini player as well as a 5 year old Samsung 1080 Upscale to 4k model # BD-F7500. I had them all hooked up to a Samsung QLED Q6 49” SUHD Smart TV. First thing you will notice is the Remote. Samsung is now using its new remote and software where less is more. Basically the Blu-Ray’s remote has about a 18 buttons plus a round push button similar to the new remotes on new Samsung TV’s. By the way, the TV remote has even less buttons! It takes a bit of getting used to it but once you do, it actually works very well! Kind of like Windows, where you open one window, slide to another and via a few clicks you’re done. There are no number buttons for channels! The DVD player has HDMI in, HDMI Out, Audio HDMI out and Digital Optical out for Headphones. Now the test TV, Q6 49” SUHD LED is just great. It has Samsung’s HDR + Feature. In order to get the most out of this DVD player, which is equipped with HDR, the TV must support HDR. Just because the TV is a 4k, it does NOT necessarily mean it supports HDR! The picture is nothing less than spectacular, it’s one of the smartest TV’s I’ve ever owned. Seriously, on set up, if there is a Samsung Cell phone nearby, it will message it, ask if it’s yours and if you want to run set up via your cell! The APPS are lightening quick, Streams YouTube videos off my cell’s Wi-Fi hot stop at 600KB a second which isn’t the fastest but does well. If you close an app like YouTube off by mistake, when you open it, it will pick up where it left off! It’s a great TV with only 1 issue, a sound issue when hooked up to Cable analog signal TV. It’s definitely a Samsung issue but that’s for another review as this review is for the Blu-Ray player! The Set up on this new Samsung Blu-Ray player is similar to the New Samsung SUHD TV’s. It’s extremely easy and smart. The first thing you will notice is its clarity and high definition in 4K. Everything is in 4k when it’s hooked up to a 4K TV, even the menu! Next you will notice the setup, easy fast and extremely smart, it’s scary! The on screen software is pretty much identical to what Samsung has on its new TV’s and remote identical except it has a few more buttons for DVD control, understandably. When hooking up to a Samsung product, life’s easy! The Apps are easy to pull up and work flawlessly, smooth and just slightly different in the way it shows when compared to the TV’s software. Wi-Fi, some always complain about it. My unit connected flawlessly on my Wi-Fi, of which I have 2 different hot spots. Best part it connected every time without issues. Never losing its stored password, never a hiccup! Now comes the best part, 4K. While my 1 st 1080 plain Samsung Blu-ray is ok, and my second test on my Upscaling 4k Samsung BD-F7500 is a bit better, when you run this true 4K with HDR on TV with HDR , a true SUHD TV using a 4K Movie streamed or on DVD, you get that awesome 4K picture you see when you’re in the Big Box BB Store! I watched several DVD’s with almost no issues. I ran into just 1 small issue. During play back, it froze for a second or two. I thought a Smudge on the DVD? I thought I’d have to eject it or worse turn off and back on but no. It quickly recovered and no further issues. Then on another different movie it did the same thing?! Always picking up a second or two from where it originally froze in the movie. Now this got my attention. Now I’m checking the DVD disk for issues such as a scratch or finger print but nothing. One disk was a 1080 so I played it on my other 2 players and it didn’t skip. One disk was a regular DVD not a Blu-ray disk. Is it a huge problem, NO. The rest of the player lives up to all expectations. But I am a tad disappointed that it has this issue as I am with the sound issue on my new Samsung Q6 TV which I will explain. The Q6 TV, it starts sounding this horrible Audio Beeping. The only way to stop it is to go into the settings, broadcasting, and remove it from Stereo and set to Mono. If the TV loses power, it goes back to Stereo and you have to do it all over again! Spectrum Cable advised it’s a known issue where the TV doesn’t like the Digital signal converted back to Analog and its searching for the Stereo signal. Spectrum is all digital now and they convert it back to analog for large H.O.A communities that provide basic cable where you don’t need a cable box for basic Cable. My other NEW Samsung TV’s doesn’t have this problem. Now this Blu-ray players little Glitch just adds to my thoughts as to why Samsung’s QC doesn’t catch these issues? One more thing to point out is this Blu-Ray player has Samsung’s HDR. It’s NOT an High Definition Recorder like TiVo, it’s an acronym for “High Dynamic Range” on 4K TV’s. Basically it a software that adjust the brightness, contrasts and other adjustments. It makes 4K more VIBRANT! With that said, this DVD player has Samsung’s HDR technology. You have to have an HDR compatible tv and HDR content BUT with HDR + feature in the menu, it will try to up it to HDR as much as possible. All in All its one of the best Samsung DVD players to date and which I’ve owned. If you have a 4K Samsung TV, preferably SUHD with HDR, this is the perfect match for that picture you’ve been seeing in the stores HDTV but not at home. It's a no brainer.

My first 4k UHD player Samsung branding. This device changed my idea of being skeptical about using any other brands in this segment. Design is very attractive and light weight, setup is simple and straightforward, plenty of apps that you can choose from Samsung store, picture is so brilliant and HD scaling “enhance lower resolution to HD” with crispy sound with Dolby 7.1 decoding channel, HDR is supported, BT connectivity is really my favorite feature becuase I like watching movies without being disruptive to people around me. The only thing that I hoped Samsung may have considered is to allow streaming feature from UBD M-9700 to smart phone to be ipen and not exclusively fir Samsung devices, other than that I liked it and doesn’t make much noise comapred to others out there in the market

The Samsung UBD-M9700 Blu Ray Player stretches far past just watching Blu Ray. I was amazed by the number of apps offered on the Samsung app store. The crisp sound quality, the beautiful 4K video is top of the line, and unlike any other, I have ever used. I stream a lot of music, so I was very excited when I saw that it offers every music service I subscribed too and I discovered even more music services (most of them free!) to begin using. Cord Cutters will love to add this to their home theatre system as well. It includes Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, Google Play Video, ESPN, and hundreds more! You can also cast your mobile devices through different ways to the player. It allows for Bluetooth connectivity, so I was quickly able to connect my soundbar with no issues. I wish I could give it 4 1/2 stars and the only reason I didn't give it a full 5 is the setup of your Samsung account, and connecting of the wifi is a tad tedious only because there is no keyboard, or code to enter so you can do it on the computer. Other than that this product is unsurpassed to any media player currently on the market. It can do everything you can imagine and so much more!

We've been through three Sony 4K blu-ray players, and we decided to give this one a try. The first Sony one, motherboard went bad (thank goodness for geek squad protection plan), the replacement one froze within 2 days. Returned it for a different Sony one, which froze too! We switched brands and got the better model...LOVE it! And the remote works together with our Samsung TV. The crispness and sound of the movies are amazing. Easy streaming access to Netflix, etc... and no more issues with frozen screens! Highly recommend this model.

Yeah I know it was expressive but you will quickly realize what a really nice Blu-ray player this is. Samsung to Samsung products work so well together. The moment I turned the Blu-ray player on the TV went right into setup mode. A few clicks on the remote and player was ready to use. You will need a high quality 4K HDMI cable to take advantage of the high resolution this unit can produce. Be prepared to spend another $70+. It is simple to hook up. The unit is so quite! not like the Samsung 8500 I returned. Picture is very clear, no glitching or static noticed. So far I am very please with my purchase.

This was easy to set up with our Samsung 70" tv. the picture and sound are excellent.

The Samsung UBD-M9700 is more than just an updated Blu-Ray player. This definitely gets us one step closer to an all-inclusive media hub. While I will still watch Blu-Rays on it, it can do so much more. However, let me start at the beginning and talk about the setup. The user interface is very nice and easy to work with. It was almost ridiculously easy. I plugged it in, connected it to my wireless system, and the rest was history. It connected to my Samsung TV and LG soundbar almost instantly. From there, it was just loading my credentials for streaming services. The number of apps that are preloaded are nice too. I didn’t have to go searching for them and wait for a download. I was able to stream right away. From a quality perspective, you can see the nice sharp image transfer from the get go. I noticed the crispness while streaming and watching movies via Blu-Ray. While my TV’s quality is already pretty good, this definitely enhanced it a little more. That’s what you get with this ultra 4K HDR supported beast. From a sound perspective, I don’t think it misses a beat either. The clarity and richness are tremendous. I love how it doesn’t appear to downgrade it at all. The last piece is just a little note on some of the features. The remote is blah, but I can get around that when it comes with so much more. As I mentioned before, there are apps already downloaded. You can hit up you Netflix, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube, Hulu, Vudu, and more right from the front screen. There are more options there to tinker with everything as well. Also, you can stream from Samsung UBD-M9700 right to your Samsung phones/tablets. That’s quite the little gem if you are trying to watch something on your own or handing it off the little ones to keep them entertained. All in all, this is an awesome media hub. The Samsung UBD-M9700 might be a little expensive, but I think you can definitely get your money’s worth. The colors, sound, and streaming options wrap this up with a nice little bow that’s hard not to open as soon as you see it.

I purchased this Samsung player mainly because I have always been well satisfied with Samsung products. It is the same with this player. It plays all of my Blu-ray and 4K discs great and has great user functions. I would recommend this player for anyone who needs a player. I hope this information has been helpful.