4K Blu-ray is set to become a big deal in 2017, and Oppo is readying its own addition to the, currently very limited, line-up of UHD Blu-ray players.
And now it seems we have a price and release date for the company’s first 4K Blu-ray player, as Oppo has confirmed to What Hi-Fi that the UDP-203 will arrive in the UK this week.
But the new device won’t come cheap. Oppo says it will launch the player with a £649 price tag, which is a tad more expensive than the Panasonic DMP-UB900.
Related: What is Ultra HD Blu-ray?
What do you get for shelling out that much? Well, the UDP-203 supports UHD Blu-rays, standard Blu-rays, 3D, DVDs, DVD-Audio discs, SACDs, and CDs.
There’s also HDR support, so your £650 will at least ensure you can take advantage of what is set to be the next big thing in TV tech.
HDR, or High Dynamic Range, is a term used to refer to several picture enhancements that make for brighter whites, deeper blacks, and more natural colours.
Oppo’s player will also play hi-res audio files, such as FLAC, WAV, two-channel DSD256, and multichannel DSD64/128, with a 7.1 multichannel analogue output and two USB ports round the back.
A spokesperson for Oppo told What Hi-Fi the company was dispatching UDP-203 units to retailers today, so we’re expecting to see the player available before the end of the week.
The company’s site says the UDP-203 will be available for pre-order this Friday, but for US customers only, however, so we’re not entirely sure what Oppo’s plans are.
Related: What is HDR?
The latest generation of Blu-ray discs, 4K Blu-ray, as the name suggests, supports Ultra HD – aka 4K – and requires higher capacity discs than standard Blu-ray.
That means Ultra HD discs won’t play on a normal Blu-ray player, but you’ll be able to use standard Blu-rays with a UHD Blu-ray player.
The cheapest UHD Blu-ray player available is the Xbox One S, which can be picked up for around the £240 mark, while Panasonic’s DMP-UB900 is currently on sale at Amazon for around £440.
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Let us know if you’ll be buying Oppo’s player in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
