SONY UBP-X700 4K ULTRAHD BLU-RAY PLAYER REVIEW & SETUP | DOLBY VISION & GREAT VALUE!

The Sony UBP-X700 is a very capable 4K player at a great price, but it has a few quirks. Let’s take a look and review and setup this player in this video. Please Note: You do need to turn Dolby Vision On and Off depending on the content. If you leave it on, all HDR signals will be converted to Dolby Vision, which can cause potential issue.

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#Bluray
#4K
#Sony

[JeffRauseo]

UPDATE: I have talked to Sony about this player. While the player display menu does show HDR10 content as being displayed in HDR, not Dolby Vision, the player is in fact converting all HDR sources to Dolby Vision HDR when that setting is turned on. You can confirm this via your TV display settings, which will show Dolby Vision. In short, you should NOT leave that setting On at all times. Apologies for the mix up there.

However, Sony has stated that this conversion should have little to no effect on your final image, and at worst, will make it slightly brighter. They do not see this as an issue, because everyone adjusts their own brightness levels on their TVs to begin with, so anyone who has calibrated a TV to their liking may not notice this conversion. I would be in this camp, as standard Blu-ray content and 4K discs with HDR10 have looked largely the same here as they do on another player which is not Dolby Vision capable.

That being said, I will make sure to turn that setting On/Off depending on the disc I am reviewing. To date, this would have only affected 2 of my 4K reviews (Do the Right Thing, and Tremors), as this did not become my "daily player" until late December 2020 as I was testing it against my previous Panasonic player. The rest of my reviews in this time period were on discs with Dolby Vision, so there would be no discrepancy there.

[antiparrot]

Side note as someone that owns this player, don’t leave Dolby vision on all the time because if you do then it applies Dolby vision to 4k discs that don’t have it, or even blu rays and DVDs that obviously don’t have any hdr capabilities. It’s annoying you gotta turn it on for Dolby vision stuff and off for stuff that isn’t, but for a player at that price point it’s only a minor inconvenience. For reference I own an lg b9 tv so maybe it’s a different story for Sony tv’s.

[toneriggz]

Recently purchased this one. So far, so good. I know a lot of people swear by Panasonic but I wanted to try the cheaper alternative first. If it conks out on me, then I’ll consider one of the more expensive ones.

[MartinAdrianoFlores]

Had a bunch of issues with this model, freezing, couldn’t get Dolby vision to work properly. Returned it and picked up a Panasonic player and love it.

[richardvacanti]

Just got one for reduced price for Black Friday then for open box. And everything was fine. .$99.99 at Best Buy.😀 very happy with the product thank you for reviewing it because I didn’t know if it was a good product or not

[superstew]

The Panasonic 820 is the player to get 👌🏻 I’ve had it since launch which will be 3yrs this year and I’ve never had a issue and think it’s incredible

[lowinyl]

Man, I really like your channel. Perfectly easy to understand language - for non-native english speaker like me. Great content, nice overall. Greetings from Poland!

[chrisd]

I have the 800- it seems to work pretty darn well. It also plays super audio CDs which is pretty neat, especially if you have surround sound!

[danieltoh]

Thanks for the Dolby Vision tip. I had this player for more than a year and this function was OFF. Now my standard blu-ray disc has been upscale to HDR. They look great!

[joker]

Purchased this in 2018 and still recommend it to everyone in 2022. Super cheap and never had a problem.

[MariachiBro]

I bought this player like 2 years ago and its still going strong! Really works well with my vizio 4k tv. Except I got it a little cheaper in price. Like $150 I believe.

[marvelvsdc]

I’ve had this player for 2 years and had no issues...I’m using Sony STRDH790 receiver, Polk VT60 in ceiling speakers, along with Klipsch R100sw sub paired to Samsung 8 series 75in 4K tv (wish it was a Sony but couldn’t pass up the sale price of $1000!)-this setup works perfectly for me and my media room...theater quality experience every time!

[fh]

Sir, THIS Video (Compared to MANY Others on Y/T) Has Been MORE Helpful and informative than ANYONE Else is!!! YOU Sir do what Others Claim or Say. Thank You Again!!!!

[gorillapancake]

A tip for the upscaling settings:
Auto 1 - Up-scales all to 1080p
Auto 2 - Up-scales all to 4K
Off - No up-scaling

[chrisstafford]

I bought this player unlocked and region-free from 220-electronics at the start of quarantine and I absolutely love it, If u r a physical media collector you really must go region-free if you want all titles to be available to u. Cant recommend this player enough

[DoctorHades]

I ditched Sony BD players after experiencing disc freezing issues with DVDs, BDs and 4K UHD BDs on two different Sony BDP-X800 4K UHD BD players. The issue was not with the discs, since they played fine on the second attempt, but with the way the player would completely freeze and not respond to the remote, requiring me to unplug the player at the mains to be able to use it again! It didn't happen often but when it did it was annoying. The nail in the coffin though was random HDMI handshaking issues with my LG B9 TV that required me to turn the TV off then on several times to get the player's Home menu to display.

I decided just before Christmas to treat myself to a decent Dolby Vision player, something the X800 could not handle, so I bought a Panasonic DP-UB820 player and it has been awesome. No handshaking issues at all, using the same HDMI port and cable as the Sony X800 player, and absolutely flawless disc playback with NO freezes at all. The only things I have against this player is thec cheap plastic construction (in comparison the X800 is built like a tank with its mostly metal frame) and its poorly designed and sluggish user interface for the meagre selection of built-in apps but since I use YouTube, NetFlix, Disney+ etc on my TV this is not a big deal.

What put me off the X700 player was it's poor implementation of Dolby Vision which requires the user to enable and disable it depending on whether the disc supports it or not. If you leave Dolby Vision on as you suggested in your review then all HDR discs will be output as Dolby Vision whether it supports it or not!!! Considering how difficult is to tell if a 4K disc even supports Dolby Vision then this is not only a baffling decision (if Panasonic can do it then why can't Sony?) but one that means many less informed people will be using it for movies that actually do not support this HDR format.

Sony really have become a bit too complacent with their disc players in recent years in my opinion and having experienced the issues I had with the X800 I personally would not recommend them at all.

[billy]

I bought the Panasonic dp-ub820 player not that long ago. It's fantastic. It has HDR10+ and Dolby Vision with terrific 4K upscaling for both blu ray & DVDs. Never had a problem with and the sound decoders are phenomenal. It has settings you can adjust like the hdr and audio while you watch the movie and gives specific information on the color spectrum of the film.

[eddiecfloyd]

I just grabbed this player. It still out shines a lot to the newer players.

[Rockapotamus]

Dolby vision output will force DV on everything even if you only have HDR10 discs. It will have to be turned on/off manually depending on the disc.

[geminisundone]

I bought this 4k blu ray player for £100 here in England, 2nd hand, and ive had no issues so far.
Brilliant player.
Obviously i turn Dolby vision off unless im playing a movie disc that has it.
Also keep it on upscale Auto 2 for my standard blu rays.
It upscales great but so does my tv.
Love it.