Sony - UBP-X700/M Streaming 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player with HDMI cable - Black

PROS: - 4K playback is fantastic and picture is crisp and vibrant but still realistic - HDR playback including Dolby Vision and 3D - Separate HDMI audio OUT port (2 HDMI out total. 1 A/V and 1 Audio only) - Smaller size takes up less space - Upscaling quality is decent - Dolby Atmos and DTS-X supported as well as just about any other format - SDR conversion for non HDR TV’s for better SDR picture - Included HDMI cable is actually a decent cable, not low quality. (4k@60 18gb) CONS: - Audio settings needed some adjustments to function properly for my setup - Network apps are limited to the popular few and probably not worth setting up if you have access already from a different source - Privacy Policy agreement (to use online apps) can not be undone without factory resetting - small remote with close proximity buttons OVERALL: The Sony UBP-X700 is a smaller sized, budget friendly 4K player that behaves like the pricier, high end players and better than any other budget player in its class in my opinion. I tested the Sony x700 with a couple of newer 4K Blu-ray disks, remastered (older) 4K movies, as well as some DVD’s to upscale, and some audio CD sources. In every test, the player performed amazing and even better than my main 4K player in some categories. The picture quality is superb and colors are bright and vivid without looking unrealistic or overdone. Dolby Vision playback only makes this better and the ability to convert HDR sources on an SDR TV providing a better SDR image (think HDR lite) is a nice bonus if your TV doesn’t support HDR. But like most products, it’s not without its downfalls as well. Though minor and somewhat opinion based, I’ll cover these faults in more detail later. My biggest issue was audio in both quality and performance, but with some tweaking, I was able to fix most of my issues and get the player to work the way I wanted. VIDEO PLAYBACK 4K and HDR: I started by testing Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp in 4K dolby Vision with Dolby Atmos Audio. I have the 4K player hooked up to a fairly new (2020) Hisense 4K, top tier, 60 inch smart TV (with dolby vision support obviously) and the Vizio Elevate soundbar with atmos support. I ran a separate HDMI directly to the soundbar out of HDMI 2 on the Sony player and the video passed through an HDMI switch out of HDMI 1, before heading to the TV. This is all done with high quality HDMI cables and I had no issues with getting Dolby Vision and 4K resolution as well as Atmos signals sent out. With the specs out of the way, let’s get to the details. With the player hooked up, I powered on the unit and was able to watch after a “quick start” walkthrough of settings. But I’m the kind of guy that likes to go through all the settings in the menu and make sure everything is set correctly for my system. I did have to change a few things from their defaults so checking over settings should be your first area of troubleshooting issues, but more on that later. The picture quality was great for ant-man and the quantum realm was particularly vivid and bright. But the more natural scenes were not overly saturated or unrealistic looking, leaving a nice mix of quality, realistic picture without the “too vivid” feel some HDR players can give to more natural set scenes. The Dolby Atmos audio worked with no issues as well and my soundbar was able to decode the signal easily. One thing I did have to do was adjust the A/V sync on the player for 4K ultra HD blu rays but that was easily done with the options menu. When I played DVD’s later, this was not needed. I prefer to adjust A/V sync manually but your system may have an auto function and you could attempt to use that if you prefer. While we’re talking about audio, my biggest issue I had with this player was getting the audio input source to stop switching to the ARC channel and instead stay on the HDMI 2 Out from the 4K player. I fixed this by changing the HDMI out setting from “Auto” to “HDMI 2” only. This stops the audio from sending over HDMI one and after changing this setting, I was able to stop my system from switching audio inputs throughout playback. This was a fairly easy fix once I found the issue and has been working ever since. Note, if you’re not using the second HDMI audio out from the 4K player, then this should not be an issue for you. Moving on, I next played John Wick 3 to get a look at a darker, much more colorful movie full of action and superb colorist work and the results did not disappoint. Much like Ant-Man, The colors were vibrant and full without being too much. Skin tones still looked natural but brighter and the contrast, even in dark scenes, was really well represented. The atmos playback on John Wick put me right in the action and combined with the gorgeous picture, made what used to be my casual movie watching location rival my go to movie screening room in quality. UPSCALING DVD: But what about upscaling DVD sources? Again the Sony X700 did not disappoint. I threw in my digitally remastered DVD of James Bond Goldfinger and the upscaling looked as good as my more expensive, pro level LG player and even better than my older Sony player. The picture was crisp but not overly sharpened and even being upscaled all the way to 4K, it was still a solid image and the colors were still vivid and bright. Obviously DVDs that are not remastered or just lower quality in general do not look AS good, but they still upscaled nice which is saying something for a budget player like this. The areas that usually struggle to perform on a budget 4K player just don’t seem to be a problem with the Sony X700. Even the older, pro level X800 lacks some of the features and quality of the newer. smaller, and cheaper X700. AUDIO SOURCES and APPS: Lastly I played a few audio sources like CD’s (yes those are still a thing) and USB audio files which all played nicely and without issues. It’s probably not really a feature most people will use, but for those few that will, you will also not be disappointed. The network apps are a bit disappointing but also probably isn’t the main reason anyone buys this device. Most likely you will have a smart TV to use internet apps or a streaming stick etc. If you are planning to use this device for your streaming sources, note that there are not really a lot of apps, just the basics; Netflix, hulu, youtube, etc. Nothing like plex or crackle or other less popular apps. One last note on the apps, you have to agree to the privacy policy (like any other online access these days) to use the apps. Obviously I clicked agree so I could test the apps, but after realizing I wouldn’t use any network features and preferred not to “agree” to the privacy policy that shares data and info with “third party” sources, I tried to switch my settings to “disagree”. This is how I realized you can not undo your agreement to the privacy policy without a factory reset (which also resets all your personalized settings). This was not a deal breaker, but it is a bit annoying and says something about the new way your personal data is handled. Recently we’ve seen companies make moves to be more open and honest about the use of your data as well as giving you more control over what is shared. Unfortunately this device does not allow you to easily disagree with the policy after already agreeing. CONCLUSION: Other than those few downsides however, the Sony UBP-X700 is one heck of a 4K player packed full of quality and features jammed into a smaller, sleek body ready for any home theater system. The picture is comparable to pro level players at a budget friendly price and you can’t go wrong with the Sony name. They know how to make a quality product and you won’t be disappointed.

I’m old enough to remember when VCRs were invented. They seemed magical. By today’s standard they had a laughable resolution, but then TVs weren’t any better, so they matched well. Then TVs started upping their game to 720p, and DVD players overtook VCRs, and from there, 1080p and Blu-ray disks to keep up, and now 4K TVs are the norm. Many of us have become used to streaming movies over wifi into our TVs, but what many may not know is that even if you are watching a 4K TV, you may not actually be getting a true 4K stream. Smart TVs are quirky in how they handle streams, and not all give you the best they can, and if your satellite or cable boxes are more than a couple of years old, they may not actually be capable of sending true 4K signals to your TVs. Enter a 4K DVD player such as the “Sony UBP-X700m Ultra Blu-ray and DVD player”. I’ll refer to it as the Sony X700 for short. The Sony X700 looks like many other standard disk players over time, but packs a ton of features into it. It includes an 18 Gbps HDMI cable to make sure the video stream is high quality going into your TV. It can play pretty much any disk from old DVDs to Blu-rays, audio disks, and the newest 4K Ultra disks. It will upconvert your older disks into a higher resolution as well, so they look better than they originally did using Dolby Vision. File and disk formats it will play include FLAC/WAV/ALAC/AIFF/HEVC/AVC, etc. Two HDMI ports on the back are for video and audio, and Dolby Audio cranks out clear sound, and with the right equipment, Dolby Atmos and DTS-X surround sound will give movie theater quality sound. Smart features allow you to stream popular apps like Netflix and Youtube (there’s a dedicated Netflix button on the remote) and you can add your own favorites to the streaming menu as well. Setting up the X700 was a breeze. I didn’t even have to look at the instructions to get the basics going, and it only took a few minutes to enter my wifi password for the machine to get fully set up. It’s quiet, too – playing the test disk I bought, there was no rattling or clanking or loud fan noises from the machine (something not every machine can say). So, I put in my 4K Planet Earth disk and I’ll have to say – the X700 blew me away. I tested it on a 65 inch 4K TV and the picture coming directly from the Sony was amazing – BETTER than what the TV on it’s own cranks out when using satellite or streaming. Colors and details were very vibrant and stood out, and the sound quality was equally as good. I could not rate it better in this regard. When streaming Youtube and Netflix, likewise, the X700 seems to get more detail info from the streams than my TV does on it’s own – the streams again, looked better, too. Sony says it’s because this model uses “MIMO” technology which basically boosts wifi signals getting you better speeds and quality. The remote is small, but the major buttons are larger and easy to find. It’s easy to navigate the menus, videos, and DVD controls and it doesn’t feel cheap. No complaints there. Audio disks play just fine, and sound great on my TV’s speakers, but you can rig up other equipment via the ports as well for your needs. So, yes, I recommend the Sony UBP-X700m. If you’re coming from any kind of old regular DVD or Blu-ray player, you’ll definitely see major upgrades using this machine. My ONE complaint… the power plug is very large that plugs into your strip or outlet, and I think they could have done better having a normal sized plug and a brick halfway up the cord so you can keep it out of the way better. But I won’t knock a point off for that – it’s rare I give 5 stars unless something is perfect or near so, but the X700 is near so… so yep, 5 stars!

I just recently bought a 4k DVD player made by a different company, and after testing this Sony one, I'm kicking myself for overlooking it. I've always had great luck with Sony DVD players in the past, and I feel like this one will be just as reliable as others I have owned. Out of the box, my first impression was how pleasantly small this player is, especially compared to the other one I just bought. Set up was a breeze (the player walks you through everything), and the player was up and running within a few minutes of hooking it up to my tv. The only issue I had during setup was that I never got the DVD player's remote to sync with the TV, but my TV remote automatically synched to the DVD player. The picture quality with this player is excellent! I use a sound bar for my tv and I felt that the sound quality was better than normal when watching a 4k UHD DVD as well. One sound issue I did have was that there was a noticeable delay in sound when playing the movie after it was paused. (The movie would start without sound for a couple seconds.) The player loads discs very quickly, and navigation throughout the menu and apps is quick as well. The wifi connection with the player is also excellent. I had no connection problems with it running off the wifi, but there is a built in ethernet port if needed. The remote is very handy and I love all the menu option buttons on it. Don't lose your remote though because the buttons directly on the face of the player are limited to an on/off button and an eject button. The player does come with quite a few built-in apps (see attached picture), but you can't add additional apps. To me, I feel like this kind of defeats the purpose of having a "smart" DVD player. Additionally, in order to access the built-in apps, you have to give permission to having your data tracked -which I'm not a fan of, but is likely happening with other devices I use either way. Overall, I am very happy with this 4k UHD DVD player. I do think it's performance is superior to the other 4k DVD player I just recently bought, which means the value is definitely there with the higher price point. The player offers many playing options which makes for a very versatile player for any household. PROS -Excellent picture and sound quality -Excellent wifi connection -Compact size -Quickly load discs -Numerous playing options plus included built-in apps -Quick response when navigating menu options -Remote control buttons include menu options which is super convenient -TV remote automatically synched up with the DVD player (even though it's a different brand) CONS -Delay in sound from pause to play -Limited buttons on the face of the player -Can't add additional apps to player (apps are built-in) -Have to agree to data tracking in order to access built-in apps -Remote control didn't synch with TV -Resume playing feature lacking (It doesn't automatically start from where you left off. A pop-up selection option to resume play appears when the movie is first started back up, and if you don't select it, then it seems you're out of luck as it will start from the beginning.)

The Sony Ultra HD Blu-ray DVD player plays standard DVD, Blu-ray, 3D Blu-ray, and the Ultra HD 4K Blu-ray. It also plays music CDs, and a front port offers a USB A port for playing music, video and photos. Then you can stream wired or wireless (2.4GHz) internet (should have 5G WiFi too) with the 9 Movie/TV Apps: prime video, Fox News, hulu, NETFLIX, tubi, VUDU, YouTube, YouTube Kids, and yuppy TV and the 6 music Apps: Berliner Philharmoniker, pandora, Sirius XM, Slacker Radio, Spotify and iHeartRadio. Unfortunately those are the only ones and no way to add others. At the moment anyways. I hope they add more. I have Dish Network and have to change sources to access the steaming features on our Samsung TV. This is a much easier way with a more direct way to access my streaming at least the prime video, hulu and YouTube included. I updated the software and no more Apps were added. If you have Amazon Prime it’s as simple as using your smartphone and an on screen QR code to enable the built in app. We have Hulu, YouTube and SiriusXM. All worked fine with the player. Setup was easy to do. Just follow the instructions. There are several ways to connect the player to your TV as shown in the instructions. However, I have a Samsung 4K TV and Samsung sound bar that is fed from input 2, HDMI / ARC. ARC means Audio Return Channel. In my case I connected the player to the HDMI input on the soundbar which now acts as input 2 to the TV. The Sony Ultra HD Blu-Ray player comes with a Digital out (coaxial) jack, two HDMI jacks one is for video/audio and the other is audio only, the USB A jack is on the front of the player. To program the remote to access the TV input, power and volume controls was literally 2 seconds to program. The remote has a Home button to access the streaming features as well as a NETFLIX direct access button. Making hulu a favorite direct access button on the remote was easy to set up. I would like to have been able to choose a second one vs the NETFLIX preprogrammed one. The four yellow, blue, red and green are shortcut keys for interactive functions. They didn’t do anything for me regardless of what I was doing. Disk or app. Player comes with a Power Adapter, HDMI Cable, Remote with batteries included. Feels pretty solid. All black. I put some 4K videos from my Samsung Note 10+, photos and 4K videos from Canon EOS R on a USB thumb drive and enjoyed playing them from the player. Having the USB A jack on the front of the player sure beats trying to access USB on the back of a TV hanging on the wall just out of reach. One of us uses this player every day for music or streaming. It responds faster to navigating its apps than the TV does. Too bad the number of app options are limited. Also of note: Of all the picture quality features and options that this player boasts of, what you will actually get depends on high end your TV is and what its picture settings are. Obviously the higher end the better to take advantage of HDR. Conclusion is it worked perfect for me for its primary purpose. Playing 4K Blu-ray and other Disk Media. I consider the streaming apps a bonus so I'm not counting off for it lacking apps or no 5G WiFi.

If you need a blu-ray player, this is definitely the one to get. It's versatile, works flawlessly and is easy to use. I hooked up this player to my QLED 4K TV and high-end soundbar which has Dolby Atmos capabilities. With that setup I needed a good blu-ray player to make use of it. Setup is very easy, plug it in, attach the included high speed 18Gbps HDMI cable and turn it on. It walks you through a few steps to get WiFi and everything all set up. First thing I did was put in my Ultra HD Avengers Endgame disc. The picture was amazing and made full use of the TV's capabilities. One of the reasons I like having a blu-ray player is that even with streaming services pumping out 4K content, it's still not as crisp as a disc. Using all the features was really intuitive as well. I was able to fairly easily figure out how to use the menu's, try different options, skip scenes, etc. Of course not all movies are available on blu-ray. I have a few older DVD's that were never released in a newer format, and this player is fully compatible with all the other DVD's I tried. Same with CD's. I actually still have a few laying around and was able to pop them in and play them. And with the old DVD's, it even seemed to put out the best picture it could with what it was working with. Between all of the formats, the outputted audio quality is excellent as well. With the Ultra HD Avengers Endgame, I had full Dolby sound coming out of my sound system. DVD's and CD's were both clear and smooth. Of course it also plays digital content through WiFi so you can still stream Netflix or other streaming apps through it, and still with excellent audio and video quality. Altogether, this blu-ray player is more of a media center. And even though everything's going digital, you just aren't going to get as good of use of your TV's 4K capabilities like you will with physical media. Best of all, you're not relying on Internet. So when the internet goes out, you can still play all those discs you have. Overall this is probably the best video player of any kind that I've had. I honestly don't have one negative thing to say about it. It's sleek, compact, sets up in just a couple minutes, easy to use even without reading the manual, and produces some of the best picture that's ever played on my 4K TV with great audio to boot. I whole-heartedly recommend this player if you're in the market for one

Physical media is still a thing and not everyone is into streaming and may have a preference for disc based media. As most modern Blu-ray players and media devices it isn't uncommon for them to be a "jack of all trades" where it does a little bit of everything and by that I mean it's primary purpose which is to play disc based media but thus Blu-ray player has streaming capabilities with support for current media consumption. In this review I'll be discussing the Sony 4K HDR Blu-ray player and all that it has to offer. ::Initial impressions:: My unboxing experience was pretty much what you would expect a fairly simple process. The Blu-ray player, a pair of batteries, remote control, and an 18gbps HDMI cable which is good at displaying 4K content at a maximum of 60Hz if my memory serves correct. It was a relief to see an included HDMI cable in the box but as far as I can remember Sony is typically generous with their devices and include what is necessary to enjoy their products. ::General thoughts:: Setup was a breeze and this device has a minimalistic UI (user interface) while it is tried and true I would love to see Sony try something new and use an updated UI perhaps they can adopt the one that's used on the PS5. The UI that Sony is using I believe is similar to that of the PS3. I guess "if it ain't broken don't fix it". I'd love to see Sony adopt Android TV OS, or even Google TV into their Blu-ray players much like they do on their televisions. I believe it is much needed and possibly may even improve sales because it would essentially become more like a high end media streaming device. The simplistic design is appreciated it isn't a total fingerprint magnet and that's awesome. And it doesn't feel sluggish which is great. You pop in a disc and the film or TV show starts up in seconds. HDR can be subjective but in what sense you may wonder? Well to best explain that your Television would be doing the processing so if you bought a TV with mediocre to non existent HDR implementation then you will not get the best results. The old saying goes you get what you pay for. My Television is pretty good and gets really bright. When your Television is properly calibrated and you watch Dolby vision content you can really enjoy content on your television whether it be a disc or via streaming. I tried out a few movies and watched some Netflix. I really enjoyed watching Batman VS Superman and I also watched the Snyder Cut of Justice League. I am impressed with the HDR capabilities it is what you would expect bright scenes that pop and dark scenes that set whatever mood that was intended by the director. ::Pros & Cons:: Pros - Fast - Excellent HDR support - Small form factor - included all necessary accessories - Trusted brand Cons: - Outdated UI - Needs more apps ::Closing thoughts:: Overall this 4K HDR Blu-ray player is a solid device and is near perfect. It is fast and has streaming capabilities which is plenty for most consumers. The thing that holds it back from being perfect are the lack of an app store that offers lots of the popular apps. The UI can be overlooked because that's minor in the grand scheme of things. ::TL;DR:: If you don't have a 4K Blu-ray player consider this one it is fast, solid, has HDR and will do all that you want it to do.

So it's 2021 and you're wondering, why should I even think about getting a DVD player? My kids only know about DVDs because of the discs I put in my PS5 or Xbox Series X. Well, if you're like me and care about having the ultimate picture and audio quality (and making your 4k TV really bring out its capabilities) when watching movies, a 4k DVD player is the answer. Coming in as a contender, the X700 is a great budget and compact 4k DVD player. A little larger than the size of a piece of 8.5" x 11" printer paper, it comes in a hard plastic housing with the front having a lint attractive glossy look. On the back it has 2 HDMI ports (has the option to separate video from sound if you prefer to), an ethernet port, a coax port, ethernet port, and power port. On the front it also includes a USB port where you can connect an external hard drive or flash drive to watch out listen to video or audio content. The X700 comes with everything you need to get started watching movies and shows. Plug in the power cord and the 18Gbs HDMI it comes with (allows for a full 4k UHD 60fps/Hz signal) and you're ready to go. The X700 supports 4k UHD (upscale to 4k 60p as well), HDR10, and Dolby Vision for video and Dolby Atmos, DTS:X, and Dolby True HD for audio features. It also comes equipped with popular streaming apps Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Vudu, Prime Video to name a few. After connecting to your Wi-Fi with the X700s built in Wi-Fi, you could then start using the streaming apps. Additionally, you also the capability to cast your mobile device screen or laptop through Miracast via the X700 (if they support it). The quality of watching movies with the X700 is stunning and amazing. Compared to watching 4K HDR movies from streaming services, through the X700 video and audio shows to be clearer, colors are more vivid, and there are also darker blacks. This is due to the DVD player having the bandwidth to display all of the data from a 4k UHD disc while streamed movies only use about a fifth of the data, give or take. Another great thing about the X700 is the ability to play older DVDs, Blu-Ray DVDs, and CDs on it. Although the X700 has many great features, there are a few downsides to it. The biggest downside for me is that it does not come with other popular streaming apps like Disney+, Paramount, Noggin, and others (and has not released an update to include them). While most 4k TVs are also smart TVs and have these apps, it would've been nice to have the option to use them from the DVD player as well. Another downside is that it doesn't include the latest HDR10+ technology (essentially a brighter display) as well (although there isn't much content out that is using it). Being at a great price point and offering many features, the Sony X700 is a great buy for those looking to get the most out of their 4k TVs picture quality and wanting to get into 4k DVD watching. Because it comes in a smaller form factor and supports HDR and Dolby Vision technology, it makes it an even better buy.

I set this up with my LG CX65 tv and LG Dolby Atmos Sound bar and I was unable to get Dolby Atmos sound. Went to VUDU and even though is saying Atmos the sound is not showing on either the tv or sound bar. I knew that for this price is too good to be true. Heading back to Best Buy tomorrow afternoon