Someone polled 4K Blu-ray player owners about the reliability of different models over time, and there's a clear winner | Tech Radar
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Someone polled 4K Blu-ray player owners about the reliability of different models over time, and there's a clear winner
400 actual owners spill the tea on the best and worst Blu-ray players based on their real-world usage
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Nearly 400 4K Blu-ray users shared info about player problems
There's a huge gap between the best and worst in the poll
One of the things I like best about Reddit is the way people share their experiences of particular products: whether it's a kitchen knife, a portable AC or a Gibson guitar I know I'll be able to find sage advice on what to buy and what to watch out for. And now the good people of r/hometheater have come together to talk about the best 4K Blu-ray players and their reliability.
The poll was carried out by r/hometheater poster "requieminadream" and generated nearly 400 responses — almost double the number of previous poll respondents — from r/4KBluray, r/Bluray, r/Physical Media Matters, the AVS Forums, and the Blu-ray.com forums. And there are some very clear differences between different firms' Blu-ray devices.
Requieminadream very kindly summarized the results in a sentence: "The Sony UBP-X700 is still the problem child, the Panasonic DP-UB820 is still champ, and the pricey UB-9000 posted the cleanest numbers (small sample though)."
But there were some interesting discoveries in the detail too, so it's definitely worth looking at if you're considering a pre-owned 4K Blu-ray player purchase, or just which one seems to make people the happiest long-term.
The 4K Blu-ray Standalone Player Reliability Poll numbers ARE IN! from r/hometheater
One of the reasons I like Reddit wisdom is because with few exceptions, reviewers can't spend years with the products they test — so the reviews of my car don't know about the software issues that drive me wild and sometimes require a reboot at traffic lights, and the reviews of my router don't know about its tendency to misbehave every few weeks.
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It's the same with Blu-ray players: even the most in-depth review won't be able to tell you if a player's likely to pack up in year two or three. (Though one exception is our Panasonic DP-UB820 review, written by our TV Hardware senior writer James Davidson, because he wrote us a fresh review based on combining using it in our test room and having used it daily for several years beforehand.)
But in general, polls like this are a brilliant resource.
By a large margin, the Panasonic DP-UB820 is the community's favored player: 43.4% of respondents have one, and its problem rate was around half that of the Sony UBP-X700. The rate of serious issues was very low, at just 8% — backing up what James had said, when he called it "the workhorse of the 4K Blu-ray player world".
The "problem child" that emerged from this latest poll is the Sony UBP-X700. Of the 103 Sony users, some 77.7% reported some issues over time; recurring and/or serious issues were 23%. The number one complaint is freezing during triple-layer transitions, which is something that has long been discussed on Blu-ray forums.
The poll shows another interesting pattern, which is problems over time. For the Sony, issues became more common over time — but for the Panasonic the pattern was of any failures showing up early, but better long-term reliability.
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The other players in the survey came in between the two extremes, but some of the best results were from "other" players including games consoles and more niche Blu-ray products.
Satisfaction with those products was exceptionally high, with the PS5 getting a significantly higher rating than the Xbox. That's all the more striking given the Sony X700's performance: the PS5 is a more premium product and that seems to be reflected in its reliability — alas, we shouldn't expect any more Play Stations to arrive with a disc player.
I should make clear, as the original Redditor did, that in some cases the sample sizes for ownership in these polls is pretty low, so we should take the results with a pinch of salt. However, the Panasonic UB820 and the Sony X700 were the best-represented, and are the two most popular players, so their data is arguably the most useful anyway.
➡️ Read our full guide to the best 4k Blu-ray players
- Best overall Panasonic DP-UB820
- Best budget Sony UBP-X700
- Best premium Panasonic DP-UB9000
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Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than twenty books. Her latest, a love letter to music titled Small Town Joy, is on sale now. She is the singer in spectacularly obscure Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.
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