Sony UBP-X800 4K Blu-ray player in DA HOUSE!

[struth]

ive been extracting audio cd or bluray with it into my stereo and sounds great. not actually tried a sacd yet although i do have a few somewhere. redbook via this box is better than coax or tos imv.
gaz has one too

[Marco]

Just bought one of these little chaps from Mark Grant: https://markgrant.co.uk/sboosters/16...ushmaster.html

Not exactly new, so many folks will be aware of them and what they do, but as I haven't played around with them before, I have to say for the modest outlay they really do make a difference to the (already excellent) performance of the BM II - simply by 'tidying up' the sound, in terms of reducing the influence of noise (mains 'hash') on the music signal, thus improving the quality of sound reproduction in all areas.

The addition of the S-Booster has simply served to further increase my enjoyment of music on my secondary system, which is beginning to become less 'secondary' by the day...

In my view, such is its 'no-brainer' efficacy, the S-Booster should be considered as mandatory equipment (and not simply an 'accessory') by all Beresford Bushmaster II users. (Very) highly recommended!

Marco.

[Gazjam]

Can be fun to start improving the second system, reminds you of the enjoyment you had building up the main one.

[Marco]

Absolutely, mate. You're also not as critical of the sound, so tend not to over-analyze it, as you often might do with your 'big rig', and so just enjoy the music for what it is - a great cure for 'audiophilia nervosa'!

Marco.

[Marco]

Just a small thing I've observed with the Sony player, not a bug as such, rather more of a 'quirk'...

If you've been streaming music from Spotify, YouTube, or were using any of the apps on the homepage, and once finished simply leave the unit to go into standby mode, if you try and use it again afterwards to play a disc, the drawer tray won't open, as the unit won't respond to that command until you've hit the 'Home' button on the remote control, which cancels all previous commands.

The best thing to do, before each new session, is to 'wake up' the player, from standby mode, by pressing the 'Home' button. That way, you'll always be starting afresh, and it'll be ready to receive a new command.

Took me a while to suss what was happening, as initially I thought the player had developed a fault. Just thought I'd let folks know, existing or future users (perhaps Phil), in case they encounter that issue and also think it's a fault

Marco.

[struth]

Just a small thing I've observed with the Sony player, not a bug as such, rather more of a 'quirk'...

If you've been streaming music from Spotify, YouTube, or were using any of the apps on the homepage, and once finished simply leave the unit to go into standby mode, if you try and use it again afterwards to play a disc, the drawer tray won't open, as the unit won't respond to that command until you've hit the 'Home' button on the remote control, which cancels all previous commands.

The best thing to do, before each new session, is to 'wake up' the player, from standby mode, by pressing the 'Home' button. That way, you'll always be starting afresh, and it'll be ready to receive a new command.

Took me a while to suss what was happening, as initially I thought the player had developed a fault. Just thought I'd let folks know, existing or future users (perhaps Phil), in case they encounter that issue and also think it's a fault

Marco.

my oppo can do that too.

[WAD62]

Hi Marco, I notice the X800 does HDR, have you tried it out yet?

I've just got a Panasonic UB900, with HDR and the results are spectacular...

[Marco]

Hi Will,

Yup, I noticed you're recent acquisition - nice one

How would I 'try out' HDR, as such - doesn't the player automatically default to that mode, if the software played supports it?

For example, if I'm playing a 4K Blu-ray disc, won't the Sony automatically default to HDR, or do I need to manually set something on the player's settings menu, in order to activate it?

FYI, I already have a 4K compatible TV.

Marco.

[WAD62]

FYI, I already have a 4K compatible TV.

Hi Marco,

FYI The TV needs to be HDR compatible too, with my Panasonic this came with a firmware update, and added an option on the HDMI input settings, this is to permit HDR via that input, the default on mine was OFF so once set the TV will enter HDR mode, if there is an HDR source,

Have a check to see if there's an HDR upgrade available for your TV, or it may already have it, check in your HDMI settings

The most reliable way of checking it is via an HDR disk, when you press 'i' or info on your TV during playback you should see '3840*2160/24Hz(or60Hz)/HDR'

The other HDR sources are Netflix (requires a 4 screen account) , Amazon, and Youtube however panasonic's Youtube app doesn't provide HDR support, but I do have HDR working from a Netflix account.

Unfortunately still no news from sky as yet...

[Marco]

Hi Will,

Thanks for that. First of all, my TV is a 46" Sony KD-43XD8305, full spec here: https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/s...specifications

The relevant bit:

Picture (processing) HDR (High Dynamic Range) compatibility: Yes

Video signal support:

4096x2160p(24, 50, 60Hz), 3840x2160p(24, 25, 30, 50, 60Hz), 1080p(30, 50, 60Hz), 1080/24p, 1080i(50, 60Hz), 720p(30, 50, 60Hz), 720/24p, 576p, 576i 480p, 480i.

So we can safely tick the HDR box, and we already know that my Sony Blu-ray player supports HDR.

Now, I've just popped in a 4K UHD Blu-ray disc of 'Alien Resurrection', pressed the 'Display' button on the player's remote control (which performs the same function as the 'i' button on my Sky remote control), and the information displayed is as follows:

1080/24p
HDR>SDR

However... On the TV screen it says at the bottom: Ultra HD Blu-ray HEVC Mbps. There is a big blank space in between HEVC and Mbps.

Now, I know that 1080 is only HD resolution, not UHD or HDR, so what's happening there? The picture quality, however, looks superb.

Is the Blue-ray disc I'm playing only 4K, and not 4K HDR (I don't really understand the difference), or is there a setting on my TV and/or Blu-ray player that needs correcting, in order to activate HDR - or what?

Marco.