New 4K player vs upscaling Bluray player

[Hugh50]

I have a new Samsung UE55KS7000 arriving tomorrow; the latest deals finally pushed me into upgrading. There was an excellent offer to buy the K8500 UHD player with it for £140, which I took. This seems worthwhile, especially as it comes with 3 good UHD films.

However, watching 'The Dark Knight' yesterday played at 1080P through my Panasonic BDT700, the picture looks great on my current Samsung UE46D7000. I'm already going to get a decent improvement due to the TV upgrade and the BDT700 can upscale to 4K. Sound is output digitally through my hifi, via a NAD M51 DAC, so it's only picture quality that's likely to be different.

The question is, will I see much if any improvement using the K8500 UHD player, or should I sell it on for a small profit whilst it's still new and unopened, and keep using the BDT700.

 

[Hugh50]

Done a little testing. A BDT310 (itself an award winner several years ago) playing a blu-ray vs the BDT700 upscaling the same film on DVD. Amazingly, the BDT700 upscaling the DVD looks almost as good as the BDT310 playing the blu-ray. The BDT700 playing a blu-ray was a significant improvement in sharpness, colour and black levels. Does raise my expectation on how good the picture will be when the BDT700 upscales to 4K, and whether the Samsung K8500 will be as good. Given that most films will be blu-ray for some time, as I'm not going to replace them, if the Panny is better at upscaling it will be the better choice and I might be better off selling the Samsung.

 

[abacus]

You cannot play UHD HDR discs on the 700, and no amount of upscaling can add this (What isn’t there the upscaler must take a guess of what it should be) so no, your 700 will fall well short of the 8500, however, with DVD or Blu-Ray, then the 700 could well be better, as Samsung upscaling tends to be less accomplished then Panasonic.

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[Hugh50]

Thanks. I've decided to keep it. I'm sure I'll be very happy with it; differences are probably only noticeable in direct comparisons and in combination with the new TV it will be better than my current set-up.

 

[abacus]

Thanks. I've decided to keep it. I'm sure I'll be very happy with it; differences are probably only noticeable in direct comparisons and in combination with the new TV it will be better than my current set-up.

Let us know how you get on, however, if you can only see a difference between a Blu-Ray and a UHD, HDR, Blu-Ray with direct comparison, then there is something seriously wrong with your setup. (4K on its own probably will need a direct comparison, (Due to the small size of the TV) however, HDR should jump right out at you and smack you between the eyes)

Enjoy

Bill

 

[Hugh50]

Initial impressions are limited as the UHD discs were not in the box; Samsung say they will arrive within 30 days :-(

The picture is an improvement, but that is down to the TV. When I have the UHD dics I'll do some testing with both players and a variety of discs and post the outcome.

One major benefit of the Samsung player is that it is fully contollable with the Samsung TV remote, despite being in a different room. I have the TV on a wall with all source boxes in a different room; the new TV is a revelation with the simplicity of control. I only have to use my Logitec Harmony One to control the Virgin Tivo box and the NAD Dac for HiFi volume control when the TV sound isn't good enough.