There currently are only 3 4K blu ray players on the market, this one, Panasonic DMP-UB900-K, and Phillips BDP7501 and 1 gaming system the Xbox one S. Phillips is rated the worse (currently $200, 1/15/17), Panasonic is too expensive (currently $700, 1/15/17) and this one (currently $236.30 1/15/17). Tech reviews, articles and forums agree that the Phillips BDP7501 has a lot of quality issues and limited features. Some people complain that the Samsung UBD-K8500 has a generic GPU, well it's still the best option on the market. I won't talk about the Xbox because the user interface, controls and functionality of a game system is much different than a blu ray player.
The Samsung UBD-K8500 works great with nearly no issues and many nice features. One feature that I really like is that it will remember where I left off with any Disc (movie or TV season); usually this would be specific to the disc but this blu ray player must have memory that records that data. My previous blu ray player didn't do that and it makes all the difference. This blu ray player also starts up/turns on and loads a disc very quickly. I will commonly watch a TV series on DVD for short periods of time and it will turn on, load and resume playback from where it left very quickly. The WiFi capabilities of this blu ray player are incredible, better than my webOS 3.0 smart TV (LG 65UH9500). When streaming Netflix my webOS 3.0 TV often lags and downgrades the resolution so low that it's a near blur such as 360P, but with this blu ray player it works perfectly and at the highest resolution.
This blu ray player is also is able to read blu rays that my previous blu ray player (Sony BDP-S590) greatly struggled to play for whatever reason. One such movie was Xmen 2 which is a standard blu ray. This Samsung blu ray player had no issue at all which I'm grateful for and look forward to playback issues being a thing of the past.
One of the downsides is the remote, there is no separate buttons for fast forward and rewind/reverse, instead you use the scene skip buttons and hold them down to fast forward or rewind/reverse which will frequently cause you to skip a scene ahead or behind. The stop button is right above the fast forward/scene skip button which in the dark it's easy to accidentally hit that button by mistake. These drawbacks become annoying quickly.
| Brand Name | SAMSUNG |
|---|---|
| Item Weight | 4.19 pounds |
| Product Dimensions | 15.98 x 9.06 x 1.76 inches |
| Item model number | UBD-K8500/ZA |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Metal batteries required. (included) |
| Is Discontinued By Manufacturer | No |
| Color Name | Black |
| Specification Met | Energy Star |
| Special Features | 3D Streaming |
