Panasonic reveals UK’s cheapest dedicated 4K Blu-ray player – what you need to know
Panasonic has unveiled the UK’s cheapest dedicated 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player in the form of the £399 Panasonic DMP-UB700. Here’s what you need to know about the new machine.
Panasonic revealed its second Ultra HD Blu-ray player, the Panasonic DMP-UB700, at IFA 2016 ahead of a November consumer release.
Costing £399 here in the UK, the price tag makes the UB700 the cheapest 4K Blu-ray player to be sold in the UK, notwithstanding the double-dipping Xbox One S games console.
Despite being almost half the price of the firm’s flagship DMP-UB900 player, it retains most of the best-in-class unit’s key features, including a UHD Premium certification (meaning it’s happy pumping out both 4K and HDR content), plus twin HDMI outputs for separating video and audio feeds.
Speaking of audio, it’s still a priority with the UB700, which supports hi-res sound up to DSD 5.2Mhz, so the only clear omission I can see so far is a lack of THX certification, something that the UB900 boasts.
Will that make a noticeable difference in performance? We’ll be sure to test that in a full review.
The DMP-UB700 is not the only news Panasonic has to share: the company has also confirmed it is working on another OLED TV. A prototype unit exists, and we’ll be posting first impressions of that shortly.
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Is it worth paying £399 for a stand-alone 4K Blu-ray player when the Xbox One S exists? Let us know in the comments below.