Panasonic DP-UB450 and DP-UB150 and Sony UBP-X800M2 @ CES 2019
What is happening to plastic physical media? Sales of vinyl media are sky rocketing and we saw at CES 2019 a good showing of new turntables from companies like Cambridge, VPI, Audio-Technica, Technics and Sony to name just a few. Blu-ray sales are down and there were only three new (quite basic) players on show. ATSC3 wasn’t even represented at CES 2019 and 8K displays were all the rage! Why do we need more resolution? See here for my comments on 8K.
On the home cinema front, Panasonic has unveiled two high-spec 4K Blu-ray players, both supporting passthrough Dolby Atmos and the latest version of HDR (HDR10+). The DP-UB450 also supports Dolby Vision, while the DP-UB150 aims to be slightly more affordable, although pricing and availability is yet to be announced.
Panasonic DP-UB450
Panasonic DP-UB450
Panasonic demonstrated that there’s still a place for physical media in this age of streaming with the introduction of these two new UHD 4K players that both support many Hi-Res Audio formats.
The first is the DP-UB450, which supports HDR10+, allowing the brightness of the picture to be adjusted on a frame-by-frame basis. Panasonic claims this will provide a more detailed image than HDR10.
The DP-UB450 also supports Dolby Vision, and can provide Dolby Atmos via a third-party sound system or sound-bar making for a totally immersive movie experience.
Both of these new Blu-ray player also support the MP4 file format (4K camcorder videos), as well as JPEGs, both of which can be output in 4K.
Main Features
Video
- Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback (4K/HDR)
- Supports HDR10+ dynamic metadata technology
- Supports Dolby Vision
- 4K 60p/50p/4:4:4 output
- 4K video / 4K JPEG playback
Audio
- High-Resolution Audio playback (DSD (11.2MHz/5.6MHz/2.8MHz), ALAC, FLAC, WAV, AIFF)
- Twin HDMI Pure AV (isolated twin output）
- Digital audio output (coaxial)
Panasonic DP-UB150
Panasonic DP-UB150
The second and more affordable Blu-ray player to be debuted by Panasonic at CES 2019 was the DP-UB150.
Like the DP-UB450, it supports HDR10+ for crystal clear viewing and Dolby Atmos passthrough, but doesn’t support Dolby Vision. Neither of the Panasonic player supports any video streaming applications like Netflix or Amazon Prime.
Main Features
Video
- Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback (4K/HDR)
- Supports HDR10+ dynamic metadata technology
- 4K 60p/50p/4:4:4 output
- 4K video / 4K JPEG playback
- Full HD 3D Blu-ray disc playback
Audio
- High-Resolution Audio playback (DSD (11.2MHz/5.6MHz/2.8MHz), ALAC, FLAC, WAV, AIFF)
Pricing and availability of both Panasonic players is yet to be confirmed.
Sony UBP-X800M2
Sony UBP-X800M2
Sony also released a new Blu-ray player at CES 2019, the X800M2. This new player supports 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs with HDR10, as well as Dolby Vision HDR formats and many Hi-Res audio formats.
It also supports Hybrid Log Gamma HDR content, DVD-A and SACD discs. Unlike the offerings from Panasonic, the X800M2 doesn’t support HDR10+, but it is able to upscale non-4K content, such as standard Blu-rays, to near 4K quality.
This Blu-ray player also offers streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime built into its smart platform, bridging the gap between physical and streamable media; together with Bluetooth for audio connectivity.
Main Features
Video
- Ultra HD Blu-ray disc playback (4K/HDR)
- Supports Dolby Vision
- 4K 60p/50p/4:4:4 output
- 4K up/down scaling playback
Audio
- High-Resolution Audio playback (DSD, ALAC, FLAC, WAV, AIFF)
- Twin HDMI video and audio outputs (isolated twin output)
- Digital audio output (coaxial)
The X800M2 should be available in May 2019, and based upon the current conversion rates will be priced at about $450. This price is yet to be confirmed.
See here, here and here for further details on the Panasonic players.
See here for further details on the Sony player.
I do find it worrying that new models of Blu-ray players seem to be few and far between, especially high end 4K audiophile players. I just hope that the move to low quality 4K video streaming doesn’t impact the release of high quality 4K plastic media.
