Recommendations for 4K UltraHD Blu-Ray Players?

[Ryan Gallagher]

For booth use, what are the favorite models out there?

Any particular gotchyas to consider?

Possible feature ideals:
- Play DVD/BR/4KBR
- 1080p output (which can be permanently set until we are a 4K house).
- Possibly dual HDMI outs like the Oppo has, even if one is only 1080p?
- Some method of control (be it RS232 commands, or TCP (without complicated auth/session).
- Region A
- Coax output for 5.1 (although we should re-configure away from coax cause we are a 7.1 house).
- maybe Zone-Free (didn’t even know that was possible!)

One too many mis-orders of a 4K Ultra HD blu-ray that we can't play on our Oppo, and now they are considering upgrading our player and shift to building the 4K library (for future projector) instead of continuing to buy 1080p discs when no DCP/Print is available.

That and our film programmer has a massive 4K UHD BR personal library we could tap when needed on occasion.

[Ryan Gallagher]

I'll start looking, but I ask cause my TD mentioned he could get one for 200$. I'm afraid of where we'll land at that price point.

[Steve Guttag]

Tascam BD-MP4K

https://tascam.com/us/product/bd-mp4k

It isn't cheap but it is pro. It is just 1U, has rackmounts included...decodes most everything (not Atmos...it will pass that on but for 7.1 audio and less) and provides both digital and analog outputs, including 2-channel mixdown on XLRs.

We've also developed a Q-SYS component for it that allows one to control it and even cue for credits.

For just 1080p...they have the BD-MP1 MkII. It is the same player but just 1080p.

[Steve Guttag]

There is nothing worth having at $200. At least, not if want some form of integration. If you just want a Birthday Party player, maybe.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Tascam BD-MP4K

https://tascam.com/us/product/bd-mp4k

It isn't cheap but it is pro. It is just 1U, has rackmounts included...decodes most everything (not Atmos...it will pass that on but for 7.1 audio and less) and provides both digital and analog outputs, including 2-channel mixdown on XLRs.

We've also developed a Q-SYS component for it that allows one to control it and even cue for credits.

I like the front panel controls, native racking, xlr, coax, control choices. The note about the HDMI audio out is amusing: "* HDMI audio output is limited to one with AUDIO ONLY prioritized. (For HDMI Audio output, both AUDIO ONLY and VIDEO/AUDIO cannot be output simultaneously)." So that 2nd HDMI is dead to us, as we would always need the video too. I guess the cheap splitter would have to remain for the booth monitor.

Would have been cool to send the audio HDMI to the AP20 and the video HDMI to the splitter (projector+monitor).

[Steve Guttag]

Yeah, I don't know of any 4K player (not even Oppo with their 203 and 205) had dual outputs with Video and Audio on the second output. With a splitter, you need to ensure you can downscale one output, unless your monitor is also 4K.

Since we rarely put in JUST a Blu-ray player, there is going to be a switcher in there too, to select sources (laptop, Blu-ray, Aux) so...that switcher can be a single output going to a splitter or a 2-4 output to split up the projector, preview and audio feeds. When one has a 4K video path, it complicates the system in order to get actual 4K to the projector without something else sending its EDID that it doesn't support either a picture or sound format...including 24Hz.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Yeah, I don't know of any 4K player (not even Oppo with their 203 and 205) had dual outputs with Video and Audio on the second output. With a splitter, you need to ensure you can downscale one output, unless your monitor is also 4K.

Since we rarely put in JUST a Blu-ray player, there is going to be a switcher in there too, to select sources (laptop, Blu-ray, Aux) so...that switcher can be a single output going to a splitter or a 2-4 output to split up the projector, preview and audio feeds. When one has a 4K video path, it complicates the system in order to get actual 4K to the projector without something else sending its EDID that it doesn't support either a picture or sound format...including 24Hz.

Yeah. We’ve been bare bones in that dept. We can only do 2 Alt sources at a time because no switcher. (BR, booth laptop, or the SDI hit from stage).

have also not been 24htz cause the booth monitor splitter combo does not support that rate. Possibly solvable with the 2nd hdmi on the Oppo, but not if we only have the one output.

There was an extron non-seemless switcher at one point, but it gave everyone so much trouble it was bypassed before I started.

The booth superstition now is that it acts like the ghostbusters containment system, and must remain powered to prevent all the gremlins from escaping.

For now, all outputs would be the player downscaled 1080p, as there is no 4k path yet.

[Ryan Gallagher]

There is nothing worth having at $200. At least, not if want some form of integration. If you just want a Birthday Party player, maybe.

Thanks for your expert input Steve.

I fielded the Tascam recommendation. Our decision maker has a history of bad experiences with tascam and was not keen to bite again. There is also the issue that we have a slated rennovation and refit in a hopeful 5 years or less. So he is inclined to try a cheapo option as a floater 4K player that can move between the two venues in the short term.. until both booths get an equipment upgrade (presumably with the 4K upgrade).

This may be a "you get what you pay for" teachable moment. And a headache for us who have to use it.

[Scott Norwood]

Seconding the Tascam recomendation. Strangely, it is the only 4k player on the market that I am aware of that isn't trash-tier or stupidly expensive. Normally, I rip Blu-Rays and make DCPs of them now, but having a BR player in the rack is always a good thing for last-minute show changes and such.

[Ryan Gallagher]

Seconding the Tascam recomendation. Strangely, it is the only 4k player on the market that I am aware of that isn't trash-tier or stupidly expensive. Normally, I rip Blu-Rays and make DCPs of them now, but having a BR player in the rack is always a good thing for last-minute show changes and such.

Do you also rip 4kUltra blu-rays on the regular? We have no current storage solution for a rips library unfortunately. Guess you could rip them every time but that seems cumbersome.

[Scott Norwood]

Do you also rip 4kUltra blu-rays on the regular? We have no current storage solution for a rips library unfortunately. Guess you could rip them every time but that seems cumbersome.

I pretty much only do this for one-off shows. I don't keep the rips or the DCPs. The Blu-Rays go back to the owners.

[Scotty Wright]

When using a 4K player in the booth, do you keep it locked to SDR color output only? Is the benefit simply more resolution and bitrate?

One of our booths has a blu ray player. We recently showed a rep title that was only available to us on disc and we had the option of 4K or standard and opted for standard blu ray to keep things simple. We do have room in the rack to swap out or add in a 4k player, but I’ve been uncertain if 1) it would be much of an upgrade, and 2) if the cost exceeds the value of the upgrade.

[Ryan Gallagher]

When using a 4K player in the booth, do you keep it locked to SDR color output only? Is the benefit simply more resolution and bitrate?

One of our booths has a blu ray player. We recently showed a rep title that was only available to us on disc and we had the option of 4K or standard and opted for standard blu ray to keep things simple. We do have room in the rack to swap out or add in a 4k player, but I’ve been uncertain if 1) it would be much of an upgrade, and 2) if the cost exceeds the value of the upgrade.

if you are a 2k house there is no real quality upgrade, just that both types of discs become playable for you, as a standard blu-ray player cannot handle the variants of 4k discs. Maybe you could tease out some color depth improvement if the 4k releases have it and will send it down a 1080p signal path?

We were just considering it cause we tend to buy a lot of titles, and no reason to keep buying the older standard when the new is available.

[Scotty Wright]

if you are a 2k house

The resolution benefit seems clear enough. I’m mainly curious how the HDR factor is handled in professional installs since most 4K discs are encoded in at least HDR10. That has to be displayed properly or at least tone-mapped back to SDR (even when ripped and rendered to dcp).

[Carsten Kurz]

I think Barcos ICMP will handle 'some' HDR. Don't know about other more recent projectors. There seems to be no straight solution for consumer HDR into standard DCI projectors using a deeper color pipeline. Currently, the only solution seems to be to let the HDR player carry out a basic tone mapping.
Alan Gouger mentioned a HDFury device being capable of a decent conversion, but I don't know in how far this would be better than using the players own HDR->SDR mapping.
I tried to convert some HDR titles with DCP-o-matic, but while DCP-o-matic supports rec2020, it does not support HDR ->12bit XYZ mapping currently. The results look dull. Some people try to overcome this by using Davinci Resolve to perform their own tone mapping, but I don't like to just dial-in pleasing colors. I usually prefer to convert the standard Bluray then.