Sony UBP-X700M 4K UHD Blu-ray Player

I DISLIKE THAT IT IS DIFFICULT TO MARRY TO MY LG OLED TV WHEN IT COMES TO PLAY DVD’S. THE TWO DON’T WANT TO WORK TOGETHER WHICH CAN BE VERY FRUSTRATING . THAT SAID WHEN IT FINALLY DOES WORK THE PICTURE AND SOUND QUALITY IS AMAZING

From time to time you have to replace your DVD & Blu-Ray player. We had an LG unit before that had good picture but did not play that well with our TV, satellite dish tuner, and sound bar. I decided to go back to a Sony unit and BOY am I glad I did! Through the years, I never had a bad Sony unit – whether it was a television, stereo system back in the day, boom box, or anything else. This unit lived up to its name. It was a very fair price and it was a SNAP to install. Basically unplugged the old one, trashed it, and plugged in the new one. And it works PERFECTLY with all our stuff. This was a major upgrade so far as I am concerned! I HIGHLY recommend this unit!

So this product works great, but this is the 2nd time I purchased it. There are not many options to purchase a 4K Bluray player. This seems to be the best 1. The first 1 I had was the only form of entertainment I had. I ran this thing close to 24/7 for 2-3 years. This burnt out the Bluray laser, left the red DVD laser, but could no longer play any blurays. So I had to get another. But over a year ago I bought a firestick and have many streaming platforms now to watch. So hopefully this player wont burn out in 2-3 years

Three weeks ago I purchased a Sony Bravia Ultra High OLED 55″ TV. It came with no documentation nor comprehendible explanations of the 4 HDMI ports. I then added this Sony 4K Ultra Blu Ray player with the expectation that being all in the family it should be Plug and Play. Documentation on the Blu Ray is better versus almost nothing for the TV. After much tinkering I am now configured with HDMI: 1- FIOS Cable 2- Apple TV 3 -(E-ARC) – Bose TV Sound Bar 4- Sony Ultra HD player. The system tried told me to connect the Blue Ray to HDMI 3 but then the Bose would not work. The system also states HDMI 4 is the input for FIOS but then the Blu Ray is incompatible. All of this involves getting behind the TV and rearranging the thick HDMI ultra high shielded cables. Add to this the Google TV operating system, software and firmware updates, a strong household WiFi signal plus the FIOS interactive setup box and we have moved into the world of System Integration. Messages may appear on the screen from any one of the devices without attribution. In summary the products are good but getting all of them to work together is hardly trivial and taking full advantage of all the features could be the impossible dream.

Of course the same issues apply to understanding the features of a modern car, interactive refrigerator or even keeping up with Alexa and its increasingly complex array of features and functions. Maybe we will need AI to handle all this stuff that can be, at times, stressful.

(DECEMBER 2021 NOTE: I will provide an update at the bottom of the review.)

(APRIL 2022 NOTE: I will provide a second update at the bottom of this review.)

ORIGINAL REVIEW:

I bought one of these units when I upgraded my TV to a 4K model, and for the most part, it did its job well. My 4K UHD discs look excellent, and even regular Blu-Rays have a nice upgraded look to them when upscaled to my 4K screen. The player typically works well, and has good load-times and is relatively accessible. Even my parents who can’t wrap their head around most modern tech can use it.

However, there is one big bug that did bring it down a few points for me. That being that certain titles sometimes won’t display when you put the discs in. It’s happened consistently with several Blu-Ray discs I own. You put them in… and the TV loses the player’s signal, so you can’t watch the movie. In order to get them to play, you have to eject and re-insert the disc over and over again until it randomly works. (Sometimes it takes up to a dozen times before the disc will display.) As I said, it seems to only happen with certain specific titles, which is kind of mystifying to me. (Ex. My Blu-Ray copy of “Tucker and Dale VS Evil” has this problem every time I try to play it.) It’s not the discs… they’re in excellent condition and work in other players. So it seems to be a problem with the player.

This is a pretty annoying issue, and it’s happened enough to become a genuine nuisance. So I do gotta dock the player a few points.

All in all, it’s a decent player that is unfortunately brought down a few pegs due to technical bugs. I’d still mildly recommend it because it works MOST of the time. Just be aware you may have the same issue I’m having. I’m giving it a 3 out of 5.

DECEMBER 2021 UPDATE:

It has been a few months now since I have encountered this bug. It was happening all the time until this past summer, when it began happening less and less. And it has effectively not happened at all in over four months. I’m going to assume this was some sort-of bug that got squashed in a software update. Therefore I am upping my score to a better 4 out of 5. If it continues to function this well for a while and I encounter no other bugs, that I’ll probably update it to a perfect 5 in the future, because it is otherwise a very good 4K player.

APRIL 2022 UPDATE:

It has officially been about eight full months since I encountered the software bug with the TV losing the player’s signals. I’ve not had a single issue with it since. Therefore, I am upping my score to a 5 out of 5. As long as your software is up to date, this is pretty much a perfect 4K player.