Why This New CD Could Change Storage

 

Compact Disc: The Best Audio Medium in The World

CDs: Forgotten, but still amazing

 

CDs Are Making A Comeback | Things You Should Know Before You Start Collecting

 

Blu Ray 4K Players: The New Audio Standard

Blu Ray 4K UHD players are my new standard for playing audio. The below 3 models from LG, Samsung, and Sony offer UHD 4K video upscaling, 24-bit/192kHz resolution audio DAC, USB input, and Wi-Fi streaming from Netflix, Pandora, and YouTube. They also offer superior cable connections via HDMI ports. They are readily available on Amazon and eBay. Put your library of FLAC audio and HD video on a 256GB USB drive, and you can listen and watch your entertainment library for days. 

You can also find older similar models that have the same features. Samsung had the K8500. LG had the UBK8 series and UBK9 series. In side by side listening tests, I found the LG blu ray players had better sound, being more open and dynamic, with fuller bass. The Samsung sounded bright, bass was well defined, but thinner sounding.

In terms of audio technology, the 4K UHD blu ray player will have an updated DAC, able to handle all of today's music formats. Some may look for older CD or blu ray players players, but these are certified for UHD PCM audio files up to 24-bit and 192 khz resolution. The Sony also supports SACD audio CDs.

Managing a music library is getting more challenging with physical CDs taking up more and more room. So storing & burning FLAC files on DVDs, Blu Ray discs, or a file server, is more efficient. Look at FLAC files for preserving your music collection and you have a lossless music collection! Although I am reluctant on parting with my precious physical CDs like a lot of folks. What to do?

Below are some 4K UHD Blu Ray players that I have and can recommend: Enjoy.

LG UBK90 Streaming 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray Player with Dolby Vision

Ultra HD Premium, Multi-HDR, 4K Blu-Ray Disc Playback, 3D Blu-Ray/ DVD Playback, 4K Streaming Content, Built-in dual band WiFi, USB media input

Get the best out of your 4K TV

Since I upgraded to my LG OLED 4K TV, everything I watch looks better. But I geek out the most over shows and movies in true 4K. They just seem to pop off the screen. And the LG UBK90 4K Blu-ray player will play Ultra HD Blu-ray discs with Dolby Vision — the absolute best-quality video source available today.

Ready for the best HDR formats

Ultra HD Blu-ray discs with HDR (High Dynamic Range) allow compatible TVs to display extremely bright and dark black picture content together within the same image. HDR content makes for serious eye candy on my new OLED TV — it stands out even among other, stellar-looking 4K videos.

And this player supports the required HDR 10 format, and the more sophisticated Dolby Vision format. Dolby Vision is one of the reasons I ended up going with the LG OLED. Dolby's dynamic system can adjust brightness and color levels on a scene-by-scene basis.

Netflix has a bunch of shows in Dolby Vision, and some of them look so realistic and vibrant that it actually adds to the storytelling. Take the brutal Western show Godless: the beautiful yet nightmarish landscape is practically one of the characters. Watching sunlight peek over a mountain and spill over the dusty terrain with true-to-life shading is truly a sight to see.  

Top movie sound formats and flexible connections

This player has built-in support for the highest-quality surround sound formats, like Dolby® TrueHD and DTS Master Audio™. It also plays Dolby Atmos®-encoded discs. You simply set the HDMI audio output to "bitstream" when connected to an Atmos-capable receiver.

There are two HDMI outputs: one for sending audio to your home theater receiver and one for video directly to your TV. That means you can still play sound through receivers that don't have a free HDMI input that's HDCP 2.2 compatible. You can also use an optical digital connection to get surround sound from the player to your receiver.
Dual-band Wi-Fi means smooth 4K video streaming



Along with playing discs, you can use the UBK90 to stream Netflix® and YouTube. These are the two video services that offer the most 4K content available right now. And this player's dual-band Wi-Fi gives you the strong connection needed for streaming 4K. (We recommend having an internet speed of 20Mbps or faster for 4K streaming.)

Product highlights:

    Plays Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, 3D and standard Blu-ray discs, DVDs, CDs and rewriteable discs
    full 4K resolution video for use with Ultra HD TVs
        4K video upscaling for standard Blu-ray and DVDs
    HDR (High Dynamic Range) for extended picture contrast and brightness on compatible TVs
        supports HDR10 and Dolby Vision
        Dolby Vision adjusts brightness dynamically for premium shading and depth
    supports lower resolutions when used with non-4K TVs
    plays Region A Blu-ray discs and Region 1 DVDs




Wireless Features and Technical Specs:

    Dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi for smooth wireless streaming from Netflix and other video streaming apps
    HEVC for watching streamed 4K content from Netflix (requires internet speed of at least 20Mbps)
    selectable video resolution up to 3840 x 2160 pixels
    built-in audio decoding for Dolby® Digital, Dolby TrueHD, DTS®, and DTS-HD Master Audio
        can pass Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks when HDMI output is set to "bitstream" for decoding by a compatible receiver
    Plays AAC, FLAC, MP3, and WMA audio file formats
    BD-Live and BonusView support for added bonus features with compatible discs (requires external USB storage device)




Connections and General Info:

    Front-panel USB port to play music, movies, and images from external hard drives, thumb drives, or Android phones
    2 HDMI outputs for separating audio and video signals
        HDMI 1 output is HDMI 2.0a (connected 4K TV and/or receiver must have an HDCP 2.2-compatible HDMI input, and must have HDMI 2.0a to support HDR)
        HDMI 2 input does not output video signal (audio only)
    optical digital audio output
    dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Ethernet port for downloading firmware updates
    remote control
    16-15/16"W x 1-13/16"H x 9-3/8"D
    warranty: 1 year

Source: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-XFqSaCjdYa1/p_689UBK90/LG-UBK90.html

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc playback provides the ultimate in audio/video quality with a stunning 4K picture and state-of-the-art audio. Pop in a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc and prepare to be transported
4K streaming content - this internet-ready LG device is capable of delivering an uncompromising Ultra HD 4K streaming experience. (Additional subscriptions services may be required)
High pressure audio playback - this UHD Blu-ray DVD player Supports high Resolution audio
HDR playback - this LG Blu-ray Disc player is HDR compatible with Dolby Vision and HDR10. (HDR/Dolby Vision TV sold separately and required for Dolby Vision playback)
Blu-ray & DVD backward compatible - this LG UHD Blu-ray Disc player is backward compatible supporting both of these popular legacy standards.

Samsung UBD-M8500 4K Blu Ray Player

If your new 4K TV just arrived, you're probably chomping at the bit to see its best picture. Place an Ultra HD Blu-ray disc into the Samsung UBD-M500 4K Blu-ray player's tray, and savor your movies in true 4K resolution — a staggering 3840 x 2160 pixels. This player delivers an incredibly sharp, realistic picture, even when you sit up close.

The Samsung UBD-M8500 features a sturdy disc drive to prevent vibration.
Beautiful, lifelike picture contrast

I think High Dynamic Range (HDR) is the most exciting aspect of Ultra HD Blu-ray. It allows compatible TVs to display extremely bright and dark black picture content together within the same image. (Think tiny stars peeking through the pitch-black night sky.)

This also has Hollywood buzzing. It's given directors a brilliant visual palette to play with — subtle, delicate lighting, sparks of brightness, and true-to-life shading and shadows.
Samsung gives you more 4K viewing options — yep, including Netflix®

Have you ever seen the vibrant Colombian landscapes of Narcos in 4K? It is really something else. And the deeper shading and detail make scenes in small cafés feel even more claustrophobic.

When you connect this player to your home network via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, you get several 4K streaming options including Netflix, Amazon Instant Video, and M-Go. Plus, you can watch 4K video clips on YouTube.
Don't throw out your old discs!

You can still enjoy all your old standard Blu-rays and DVDs on this player. Samsung made 4K upconversion a top priority for the UBD-M8500. Their UHD Upscaling automatically upconverts any signal to 4K resolution. All of your movies and shows will look better than ever.
QLED TV

Find out how great the picture is on your new QLED TV (sold separately) with the Samsung UBD-M8500

Impressive sound and music options

Along with the state-of-the-art picture, your movies will sound amazing too. The Samsung UBD-M8500 has built-in support for the highest-quality surround sound formats, like Dolby® TrueHD and DTS Master Audio™. It also plays Dolby Atmos®-encoded discs (just set the HDMI audio output to "bitstream" when connected to an Atmos-capable receiver). 

This Ultra HD player's no slouch when it comes to music, either. You can play music from a CD or stream tunes from services like Pandora® or Spotify®. You can even wirelessly connect to a compatible networked PC via DLNA technology and play songs from your computer.
Samsung's smart hub is smarter than most

This player's brain is a super-speedy eight-core processor — the same found in Samsung's latest high-end TVs, Galaxy phones, and tablets. It lets you do serious multitasking. You can browse the web without having to interrupt your movie, or use one app while downloading another. Plus Samsung's on-board selection of apps is pretty stacked — streaming video, sports leagues, music, games, you name it.
Project images to your screen

While newer phones are getting harder to cram into pockets, sometimes the screens still aren't large enough for certain tasks. Maybe you want to share a video or picture with a group of people. Wirelessly "push" the display to your TV's big screen through the Samsung UBD-M8500. Allshare™, Samsung's take on Miracast™ technology, mirrors the screen of your compatible mobile device, tablet, or computer screen for everyone to see.
READ LESS






Product highlights:

    Plays Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, standard Blu-ray discs, DVDs, CDs and rewriteable discs (no 3D playback)
    full 4K resolution video for use with Ultra HD TVs
        4K video upscaling for standard Blu-ray and DVDs
        supports lower resolutions when used with non-4K TVs
    HDR (High Dynamic Range)-ready for extended picture contrast and brightness on compatible TVs
        supports HDR10 format
    plays high-resolution digital music files via USB storage device; PCM files up to 24-bit/192kHz resolution
    this player accepts Region A Blu-ray discs and Region 1 DVDs

Wireless Features:

    Dual-band Wi-Fi for streaming video and music (subscriptions required for some services)
        streaming video services: Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Vudu, and more
        streaming music services: Spotify, Pandora, SiriusXM, iHeartRadio, and TuneIn
    HEVC for watching streamed 4K content from sources like Netflix, Amazon Instant, or YouTube (requires Internet speed of at least 20Mbps)
    Samsung's Smart Hub lets you scroll through apps and menu while you watch a disc
    AllShare lets you stream content and mirror screens from compatible Samsung smartphones and tablets
    Multiroom Link for syncing wirelessly with Samsung Shape wireless speakers
    on-board web browser

Technical Specs and General Info:

    Selectable video resolution up to 3840 x 2160 pixels
    built-in audio decoding for Dolby® Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS®, and DTS-HD Master Audio
        can pass Dolby Atmos and DTS:X soundtracks when HDMI output is set to "bitstream"
    plays AAC, AIFF, ALAC, , FLAC, MP3, WMA, and WAV audio file formats
    front-panel USB port for use with external storage devices
    1 HDMI output
        HDMI 2.0a (connected 4K TV and/or receiver must have an HDCP 2.2-compatible HDMI input, and must have HDMI 2.0a to support HDR)
    Anynet+ simplifies control of compatible Samsung components via "MAIN" HDMI connection (HDMI-CEC)
    optical digital audio output
    remote control
    Ethernet port for wired network connection
    16"W x 1-7/8"H x 8-15/16"D
    warranty: 1 year

Source: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-tNRdn7lQC2L/p_305UBDM85K/Samsung-UBD-M8500.html

Sony UBP-X700 review: More 4K HDR Blu-ray goodness for less money-CNET

4K Blu-ray is growing up. Current players offer better performance and cheaper prices than their predecessors. The latest batch of UHD players are available for between $100 and $200 and offer things the early adopters couldn't, including compatibility with Dolby Vision discs.

The Good

The Sony UBP-X700 is a compact powerhouse that offers similar performance and better features than the X800 for a $50 discount. The player includes a host of streaming options, and Dolby Vision support is forthcoming.The time it takes for the player to load Netflix is insanely fast.

The Bad

Only supports streaming 4K HDR from YouTube. Both cheaper competitors and Sony's own X800 offer better DVD performance.

The Bottom Line

The Sony UBP-X700 is at the cutting edge of 4K Blu-ray technology and rewards with a solid performance at a reasonable price.

With a software update available later this year, the Sony X700 will work with Dolby Vision-encoded discs, lending owners of DV-equipped TVs a sense of future-proofing. 

Unlike the cheaper  LG UP870 and the Oppo UBP-203, which are strictly disc players, the Sony UBP-X700 offers the best of both disc media and streaming. It's relatively fast, offers all of the apps you need, and its picture quality is top notch.

"But what about the Sony X800?", you might say, especially as that one's not going away. Performance-wise it's a wash between the two Sony players -- the main benefit to the more expensive model is a nicer-looking box and marginally better DVD performance. At a $50 saving and with the promise of Dolby Vision in the future, there's no real reason not to buy the X700.  Don't need streaming, though? Save some money and get the equally impressive LG UP870. 

The Sony UBP-X700 is available for $199, £269 or AU$349.

Design and features

 

In terms of design, the X700 sits somewhere between the up-market, book-like X800 and compact HD models like the BDP-S3700 The X700 measures a foot across and boasts a two-tone finish, but it lacks a display on the front panel -- all you'll find there are play and eject buttons. To the left of the front panel is a drop-down drawer that hides the disc mechanism.

Apart from the design, what is the difference between the X700 and the $250 X800? Two words: Dolby Vision. No one likes a format war, but Dolby's baby is one of a handful of HDR technologies vying for your attention. While support isn't coming till mid-2018, the X700 also includes the more widespread HDR 10, so you'll have most of the bases covered.

 

Connectivity is identical to the X800's with two HDMI ports -- one for audio and video and a second for decoding audio from an older, non-4K-sporting AV receiver. The player also comes with a coaxial digital port, which is a bit unusual, as most TVs and sound bars support optical, plus it offers a USB connection.

 

The menu is sensibly laid out and pretty much identical to the X800's, plus the X700 has most of the apps you can ask for, including Netflix , Amazon Prime Video, Panora, Spotify and Hulu. The player also supports 4K streaming from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube, but only the latter in HDR. Lastly, If you somehow still need it the player includes Miracast for streaming your mobile device's screen to your player as well as DLNA.

The remote control is compact and fun with easy access to most of the functions you'll need.

 

Performance

There's a reason Sony players are so popular -- in our testing they have proven to be consistently good performers -- and the X700 again acquits itself quite well. We found it was equally comfortable with HD discs, 4K Blu-ray and YouTube HDR streams. Compared to the X800 though, the more-expensive player was a little bit better at playing DVDs, with less moire on the edges of the buildings in our Star Trek test disc. The X700 gives you a choice of two different settings for upscaling -- Auto1 (2K) and Auto2 (4K). As Auto1 (2) was better than Auto2 with this test, which indicates that the scaler in our LG OLED TV was taking over the heavy lifting to bring it to 4K. By contrast, we found both the LG UP X870 and Sony X800 to do a better job of reproducing DVDs with less jaggies. 

 

So the X700 put in a good show picture quality-wise and in terms of speed it was equally adept. Most surprising was how quickly the player loaded Netflix -- at only 1.89 seconds it's the fastest a player has ever performed this test. It felt instantaneous. While we would always recommend a dedicated Roku box instead of a Blu-ray as your main streamer the X700 is a very good alternative. That said, the X800 is no slouch either -- since we first looked at the X800, its loading times have also improved, and on the disc side it is now the second-quickest at loading the Batman versus Superman 4K BD. 

Loading times

Load times (s)	LG UP870	Oppo UDP-203 (discontinued)	Microsoft Xbox One S	Samsung UBD-K8500	Sony UBP-X700	Sony UBP-X800
Netflix (until menu)	N/A	N/A	10.01	7.64	1.89	4.26
MI:III | player on | disk tray open	9.36	14.81	22.87	10.00	12.56	12.41
Batman vs. Superman UHD | player on	21.2	39.3	37.69	28.78	30.72	24.05

Finally, we watched a number of HDR discs, both in HDR 10 and Dolby Vision. Why Dolby Vision when it's not supported yet? We had some troubles last year with the Xbox One overblowing HDR highlights on the Dolby-sporting Despicable Me 2 test disc and wanted to see if the X700 did the same. The answer is, no; it simply read the HDR 10 layer and relayed it without issue.

Likewise, Mad Max Fury Road looked lovely, with a much more natural palette when played through the LG OLED55C8P TV than we'd seen previously. When you first see the procession of vehicles as they chase the war-truck (Chapter 2 17.00), the ultra-red details of the flaming exhausts and the blind guitarist's velour outfit "pop" but don't look completely unrealistic.

Should you buy it?

For your extra 50 bucks, what does the X800 give you? The most obvious answer is a premium build -- while the X700 looks like something you keep in a motorhome, the X800 more befits a home AV system. The other is that the X800 is a little faster with 4K load times. But things can change drastically in 12 months, for while the X800 was the best player at this time last year, that is no longer the case. In its place we present two alternatives: for the shttps://www.cnet.com/reviews/sony-ubp-x700-review/treamers, this X700 is the best option, while for people who strictly want a disc player, the LG UP870 is shaping up to be a budget superstar. Look out for a full review of the LG player soon.

Source: https://www.cnet.com/reviews/sony-ubp-x700-review/