Blu Ray Player for Samsung Sero TV
Discussion
Samsung doesn't make Blu-ray players anymore, and even when they did, they were never anything to rave about. Don't worry though, any Blu-ray player will work with your TV, and they'll all play DVD too.
Of the mainstream brands, Panasonic and Sony are where you should be looking. From those two, Panasonic definitely has the edge. It offers 11 models across the DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD player range compared to just five from Sony (2x DVD only, 1x Blu-ray, 2x UHD). The performance is a notch up on like-for-like models too. If you can afford it, THE player to have at the sweet spot between price and performance is the Panasonic DP-UB820.
This is a UHD 4K Blu-ray player, and so it plays DVDs, Blu-rays, and the newest 4K UHD discs. It ticks all the boxes with the HDR video formats, and if you have CDs it does a good job of paying them too. The specs on this thing are incredible. Internally it has the something called the Hollywood Cinema Experience processor - HCX. This is not a gimmick. It works with the TV (your TV, any 4K TV) to improve the playback of UHD discs with HDR10 so that they're closer in performance to the premium HDR10+ and Dolby Vision titles.
Obviously, HCX is more of interest to someone with UHD disc, but there are a few tricks up the player's sleeve relating to Blu-ray and DVD playback. Something useful is the independent picture menus. It's possible to tweak the video settings to help DVD playback look cleaner.
The UB820 has been as high as £399, and £349 for a good portion of this year. It's at a great price at the moment though, post Black Friday. £299.00 That's a bit if a bargain if you want to go te whole hog.
If all you're looking for is decent Blu-ray and DVD playback, then I have a nearly mint BDT160 Blu-ray& DVD player sitting here doing nothing. £30 + delivery, and I'll throw in a HDMI cable.
Of the mainstream brands, Panasonic and Sony are where you should be looking. From those two, Panasonic definitely has the edge. It offers 11 models across the DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K UHD player range compared to just five from Sony (2x DVD only, 1x Blu-ray, 2x UHD). The performance is a notch up on like-for-like models too. If you can afford it, THE player to have at the sweet spot between price and performance is the Panasonic DP-UB820.
This is a UHD 4K Blu-ray player, and so it plays DVDs, Blu-rays, and the newest 4K UHD discs. It ticks all the boxes with the HDR video formats, and if you have CDs it does a good job of paying them too. The specs on this thing are incredible. Internally it has the something called the Hollywood Cinema Experience processor - HCX. This is not a gimmick. It works with the TV (your TV, any 4K TV) to improve the playback of UHD discs with HDR10 so that they're closer in performance to the premium HDR10+ and Dolby Vision titles.
Obviously, HCX is more of interest to someone with UHD disc, but there are a few tricks up the player's sleeve relating to Blu-ray and DVD playback. Something useful is the independent picture menus. It's possible to tweak the video settings to help DVD playback look cleaner.
The UB820 has been as high as £399, and £349 for a good portion of this year. It's at a great price at the moment though, post Black Friday. £299.00 That's a bit if a bargain if you want to go te whole hog.
If all you're looking for is decent Blu-ray and DVD playback, then I have a nearly mint BDT160 Blu-ray& DVD player sitting here doing nothing. £30 + delivery, and I'll throw in a HDMI cable.
Mr.Nobody said:
I’ll have a look at the 820 as it gets very good reviews. I also maybe interested in the Blu-ray player you have. Also could you recommend a HDMI cable?
I don't think you have to spend a bundle to get a decent HDMI cable for 4K. Something like this Kenable 1.8m is Premium Certified and just over £6.00. You could waste an hour looking at dozens of other cables to knock off 50p or a Quid, but dear God, life's too short. LOL 
Oh, and they do it as a 3m for around £8.50. Incidentally, my BDT160 is unlocked to play any region DVD. That's probably not so important for you, but I thought I'd mention it in case you're interested in collecting rare and OOP titles from other parts of the world.
As for the 820, it's a cracking machine. The nearest competitor from Sony is the UBP-X800M2 (£299) which does have the edge if you want to play SACD and DVD-Audio, but for the main business of playing Blu-ray and 4K it's off the pace. The lack of HDR10+ is also a bit irksome for someone such as you with a Samsung TV.
Mr.Nobody said:
That’s good to know. I’ll probably order the 820 from John Lewis or Richer Sounds. The Sero does have HDR10+
I'm aware. What I'm saying is that Samsung has HDR10 and HDR10+ but not DV. The Sony, if you were to buy one, which I hope is unlikely, has HDR10 and DV, but not HDR10+. Put the Sony and your TV together and you end up with just HDR10 as the common standard. This is another reason to choose the Panasonic 820. It's a no-brainer, IMO. JLP warranty is 2 years. RS standard warranty is 12-months, but can be extended to a total of 6 years for £30.
Mr.Nobody said:
I’ve just setup my Panasonic 820 and I must admit it’s great. I’ve connected it to the HDMI E Arc. I’ve a Bluestream HDMI Cable. Is there any setting anyone can recommend to get the best out of the player.
The UB820 is pretty much ready to go out of the box. The only things to play around with are the TV type and the HDR Optimiser feature. You only use this with discs that are HDR, and the results depend on the dynamic range of the disc versus what your TV can do. The player does give an enormous amount of adjustment for various playback modes. However, before you start tweaking the player's settings for DVD, Blu-ray etc you should really look at getting the TV set up correctly. This is waaaaay more important than tweaking the player settings. You could really do with buying or borrowing the Spears & Munsil 4K test disc called Ultra HD Benchmark. If the TV isn't set-up properly then you won't know whether any player tweaks are making things better or worse.
As for the connection to your TV, why the eARC HDMI socket? Do you not have a sound bar that needs to be connected to that?
Edited by Lucid_AV on Sunday 7th January 03:53
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