The 4K Bluray Player category is generally in the $200 - $250 price range (still!), here’s a straight-simple player for under $100, and it’s a good one: the LG UP875.
This is a no-frills 4K Bluray player that boots up faster than any I’ve ever seen, is flawless in it’s operation and looks great on the shelf. Plays 4K discs and upscales conventional Blurays to near-4K image quality (also has 1080p Upscaling for DVDs). I’ve read reviews by people complaining about it’s lack of wifi connectivity and lack of apps (such as Hulu, Vudu, etc.). Guess what? Get a Roku box or fork out 39 bucks for a Fire Stick. This is not for anyone who wishes to use his / her bluray player as their primary streaming device.
So what you get here is a 4K disc player that has one job and it does it well. Play movies and recorded material beautifully, and this is reflected in the price, a very fair price. On top of all this, you get the (typical) LG excellence in build quality and a beautiful media appliance, upon which you can rely for a long time to come.
This was something I had not known about, had no plans on buying a 4K player but stumbled upon it while in a Best Buy, with a sale price of $99. Tested on a premium television with 4K discs (and streamed), it’s performance is stellar.
4K discs are expensive, relative to conventional Blurays. Going down fast, though - Started out at around $30, New Release product is now down to around $24.95, many for $19.95.
Movies that are not new release can now be found for much less. I got a remastered 4K version of E.T., for example for $14.95 and have already seen some bargain-basement discs for $12.95. Like Bluray discs and DVD before them, they will continue to go down. For me, for a movie I really love, I’m happy to pay 15 bucks for now.
If anyone in your household plays video games, the Xbox One S and Xbox One X are 4K Blu-ray capable, so you can factor that into the value of the console. The S is available for $200 to $300 depending on the bundled extras.
I personally never buy physical games anymore, so the only thing I use the xbox optical drive for is 4K movies.
That’s a great idea and excellent recommendation, it’s something that would not have occurred to me. Those price points fall right in line with a good 4K disc player, but in a beautiful package with streaming services as well. Even for non-gamers, I see this as very much equal-to or better-than in all aspects.
If you pit the Xbox One S against a $250 - $300 dedicated UHD player, how good / bad would that be in comparison (I know nothing about Xbox product)? Looks like I’ll need to do some research on this. Again, it’s not something that would ever have occurred to me.
Blurays/4ks/etc. are lossy video formats (as I’m sure you know, but others here might not). So a $100 UHD player obviously won’t decode as “cleanly” as a $300 UHD player, or upscale as nicely, or might have HDR10 vs. Dolby Vision (but not both), or reproduce the colors as accurately, or… etc.
Would the average person notice? Probably not. Just like the average person likely won’t hear much/any difference between Dolby Digital (lossy) and DTS-HD MA (lossless).
To answer your question: I’m not sure. My kids are starting to ask for gaming systems, I looked at getting an Xbox so that I could play 4k movies, I’ve read mixed reviews from “it does surprisingly great with 4k” to “it’s OK, but a dedicated player does better”. Since we stream a lot more than buying physical media, I don’t see the point in investing in an Xbox AND a dedicated player.
Really appreciate your input on this. The 1S showed up at Costco for $199! The Xbox 1S with 1TB, with Minecraft (whatever that is) and a three month Game Pass. If you’re thinking about getting something for your kids, this is as good as a deal gets. Prior to this, the best I’d found was $250 for the (discontinued) 500MB 1S, which I thought was good & getting ready to buy.
If I find it to be as good as (or better than) my LG, I’ll make it my primary and relegate the LG to a bedroom or guestroom.
You’re very welcome. The fact that you don’t know what Minecraft is - is a miracle. Try to keep it that way!
I wasn’t watching this thread so I didn’t see the earlier questions about quality… but the Xbox is essentially a powerful graphics processor, so I can’t imagine any possible reason it would not be able to handle the relatively simple process of decoding video files from Blu-ray discs. The idea that a machine capable of CREATING and outputting complex 3D images at 60 frames per second in 4K (the X) or 1080p (the S) would not be capable of decoding and outputting simple 4K MPEG files at 24 frames per second… frankly, is just nonsense. I own a 65" LG OLED tv and I have nothing but good things to say about 4K movies on my XBox One X. You won’t be disappointed.
If you’re worried that price = quality, that’s not how it works with game consoles. Manufacturer profit margins on consoles are typically very tight - sometimes there’s none at all. And that’s because they’re literally banking on customers buying lots of games and accessories and online services that have HUGE profit margins. A dedicated Blu-ray player manufacturer, on the other hand, has to make most of their profit on the sale of the device (and possibly some from app licensing deals), so they can’t count on earning more money from you after the purchase.
I couldn’t believe the 1TB version (with bundle) showed up at 200 bucks, so it was an instant score (didn’t have to think about it). And to think, two days ago I didn’t even really know what an Xbox was, is or does. I’ll let you know if I ever succumb to the Minecraft thing
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that an S bundle is available for $200. I just did a quick search before my first post, and the cheapest I saw was $250, but Black Friday made a dent in that.
Tons of people love Minecraft, but it’s so bizarre. I don’t even know how to describe it. Let’s just say I have something like 210 games on my Xbox (seriously), and Minecraft is not one of them. lol
Now that you’re an Xbox convert, you might check out the Microsoft Store (it’s in the Xbox interface) for their current Black Friday deals. If you’re not into games, there are movies and things on sale as well.
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