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ConnecticutConsumer
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- Review count2
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- First reviewJuly 17, 2016
- Last reviewOctober 3, 2016
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ConnecticutConsumer's Reviews
Samsung UBD-K8500 4K Ultra HD Smart Blu-ray Player: This HDR-compatible, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player offers 4x the resolution of a standard Blu-ray player. The built-in UHD upscaling technology enhances the picture quality from standard Blu-ray discs and DVDs, and built-in Wi-Fi allows you to stream 4K movies and shows from your favorite services.Learn more about 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray ›
Posted by: ConnecticutConsumer
After spending a lot of time comparing this Samsung model to the new Philips player and the Xbox one S, this seemed like the best of those three, so I bought it. And the actual movie display on my Sony 4K HDR TV was spectacular, just as good as I had hoped for. However, the remote control that comes with this player is beyond bad, way beyond. I never thought I would return a Blu-ray player just because the remote wasn't good, but this was an easy call. First the construction: must've been designed by an intern. Teeny tiny little thing, all the buttons mushy, almost impossible to press the enter key without pushing one of the up or down arrows as well. Just awful. As if that weren't enough, when I paused the movie I was watching after 10 minutes, that was the last time the remote functioned at all. Just stopped working. I replaced the battery with another new battery just in case, but no luck. Ditto when I turned the player on/off a few times. I went to the Samsung site, which said to yank the battery out altogether and then push one of the buttons for two or three minutes, then put the battery back in, which I did, twice. No luck, twice. Enough is enough, so I took the Blu-ray player back to Best Buy the very next day and did not pick up another player to replace it. Very disappointed.
My Best Buy number: 2729603241
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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+4points
7of 10voted this as helpful.
This Sony 43-inch 4K Android TV features four times more clarity than HD for exceptional quality viewing when streaming sports, television shows or movies. Conveniently control your TV from your phone or tablet and make selections with voice search. Receive personalized recommendations from Google Play, and stream PS3 games directly to this Sony 43-inch 4K Android TV.
Posted by: ConnecticutConsumer
Purpose of this TV: small bedroom TV, not my main TV
Choices: $700 for Sony 830C (2015 model) or $750 for Sony X800D (2016 model)
Best features of Sony 830C: 120 Hz native refresh rate, X1 processor (Sony's top processor), low price
Best features of Sony X800D: Triluminos color system (Sony's top of the line), HDR, low price. I chose the 43" X800D.
Choices: $700 for Sony 830C (2015 model) or $750 for Sony X800D (2016 model)
Best features of Sony 830C: 120 Hz native refresh rate, X1 processor (Sony's top processor), low price
Best features of Sony X800D: Triluminos color system (Sony's top of the line), HDR, low price. I chose the 43" X800D.
Summary: I'm very happy with purchase of the 43" Sony X800D TV.
Some details:
1. This small TV is for my bedroom, not my main TV. It's the perfect size for a bedroom. Any bigger TV would dominate the room; any smaller TV is harder to watch.
2. I've mostly watched Netflix and Amazon Prime Video HD movies and TV shows on the new Sony, and the resolution, sharpness, and color couldn't be better. My main TV (in another room) is the 55" LG OLED 1080p (non-4K) TV, so I'm used to extreme clarity, and the Sony compares nicely with the OLED (really!). I signed up for the Netflix 4k subscription service to see how 4K movies would look on my new X800D, but was disappointed in the exceedingly small number of available movies and in the sharpness of those movies on my new 4k TV. They did not have the amazing 3D-type quality and razor-sharp images you see in the store demos of all 4K TV's. Exception: the very small number of short documentary movies looked spectacular, just like the demos in the stores. They were clearly photographed with high quality 4K cameras, while the 4K commercial movies may have been modified from HD to 4K using software (just a guess on my part). Same thing with the tiny number of Amazon Prime 4K movies: just not all that impressive. Luckily, the sharpness of the regular HD movies (upscaled automatically to fit onto the 4K Sony X800D) more than makes up for the lackluster quality of the 4K movies. By the way, I had no problem with delays or pauses while watching any of the 4K movies on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video on my Comcast WiFi network.
3. I have not plugged the X800D into my regular Comcast cable TV system. A few months ago, I purchased a 65" 2016 Sony 930D, a very high end TV, but returned it a few days later because I was so disappointed at how poorly it upscaled the regular HD cable channels. Since I won't be watching regular TV channels in my bedroom, it doesn't matter to me if my new 43" X800D displays cable channels well or not. If you were intending for this to be your main TV, however, this would probably be quite important if you watch a lot of cable TV channels. Since big box stores do not hook up their 4K TVs to local cable systems, it's quite difficult if not impossible to figure out in advance if you'll be satisfied with how a new 4K TV handles regular HD cable channels.
4. My only quibble with the X800D is the remote control. It's not backlit like the remotes of other new TVs and cable TV remotes, which I wouldn't have thought would be important, but it is somewhat annoying since the lights in my bedroom are turned down low when I watch my new X800D. A second issue is the overall cheapness/poor design of the remote, particularly in the up, down, left, and right buttons. They are located inside a circle on the remote, and the outer sections of the circle are also active control buttons -- it's really easy to accidentally click the outer section and go zooming off on some unexpected tangent. You have to rely on the tactile feel of the tiny nubs on the up, down, etc., buttons to distinguish where your finger is resting. Important enough to not buy this TV? Not at all. This is a truly fabulous TV for $750.
1. This small TV is for my bedroom, not my main TV. It's the perfect size for a bedroom. Any bigger TV would dominate the room; any smaller TV is harder to watch.
2. I've mostly watched Netflix and Amazon Prime Video HD movies and TV shows on the new Sony, and the resolution, sharpness, and color couldn't be better. My main TV (in another room) is the 55" LG OLED 1080p (non-4K) TV, so I'm used to extreme clarity, and the Sony compares nicely with the OLED (really!). I signed up for the Netflix 4k subscription service to see how 4K movies would look on my new X800D, but was disappointed in the exceedingly small number of available movies and in the sharpness of those movies on my new 4k TV. They did not have the amazing 3D-type quality and razor-sharp images you see in the store demos of all 4K TV's. Exception: the very small number of short documentary movies looked spectacular, just like the demos in the stores. They were clearly photographed with high quality 4K cameras, while the 4K commercial movies may have been modified from HD to 4K using software (just a guess on my part). Same thing with the tiny number of Amazon Prime 4K movies: just not all that impressive. Luckily, the sharpness of the regular HD movies (upscaled automatically to fit onto the 4K Sony X800D) more than makes up for the lackluster quality of the 4K movies. By the way, I had no problem with delays or pauses while watching any of the 4K movies on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video on my Comcast WiFi network.
3. I have not plugged the X800D into my regular Comcast cable TV system. A few months ago, I purchased a 65" 2016 Sony 930D, a very high end TV, but returned it a few days later because I was so disappointed at how poorly it upscaled the regular HD cable channels. Since I won't be watching regular TV channels in my bedroom, it doesn't matter to me if my new 43" X800D displays cable channels well or not. If you were intending for this to be your main TV, however, this would probably be quite important if you watch a lot of cable TV channels. Since big box stores do not hook up their 4K TVs to local cable systems, it's quite difficult if not impossible to figure out in advance if you'll be satisfied with how a new 4K TV handles regular HD cable channels.
4. My only quibble with the X800D is the remote control. It's not backlit like the remotes of other new TVs and cable TV remotes, which I wouldn't have thought would be important, but it is somewhat annoying since the lights in my bedroom are turned down low when I watch my new X800D. A second issue is the overall cheapness/poor design of the remote, particularly in the up, down, left, and right buttons. They are located inside a circle on the remote, and the outer sections of the circle are also active control buttons -- it's really easy to accidentally click the outer section and go zooming off on some unexpected tangent. You have to rely on the tactile feel of the tiny nubs on the up, down, etc., buttons to distinguish where your finger is resting. Important enough to not buy this TV? Not at all. This is a truly fabulous TV for $750.
My Best Buy number: 2729603241
I would recommend this to a friend!
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+43points
50of 57voted this as helpful.
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Samsung UBD-K8500 4K Ultra HD Smart Blu-ray Player: This HDR-compatible, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player offers 4x the resolution of a standard Blu-ray player. The built-in UHD upscaling technology enhances the picture quality from standard Blu-ray discs and DVDs, and built-in Wi-Fi allows you to stream 4K movies and shows from your favorite services.Learn more about 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray ›
I have a Sony receiver that is not 4k compliant...so I am using the optical out from my Samsung 4k HDR tv to my receiver...when I purchase this DVD payer, I plan to also purchase an HDMI 2.0 cable and connect to my HDMI TV.....will that work?
Yes, it will work. But, if your receiver has HDMI ports, then you can make use of the two HDMI outs on this Samsung 4K Blu-ray player. One of them is specifically for audio – it's designed for people such as yourself who have an older receiver which is still working well but can't pass a 4K signal. Just make sure you tell the receiver which of the HDMI ports you connected the blu ray audio out HDMI cable to whenever you're playing a blu ray disk, and the receiver will disregard the optical audio signal that is simultaneously being transmitted from the TV. Of course, you'll have to switch the receiver setting back to whatever the setting was for the optical audio when you're watching something other than a Blu-ray on your TV. I have done this exact same procedure, and it works fine. Technical people could explain why passing audio through an HDMI cable can produce a better audio signal than passing it via optical audio, but I don't recall all the details now. Good luck.
7 years, 6 months ago
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ConnecticutConsumer