However when I flipped a switch (Settings > Audio Digital Audio Output > Auto) and the player sent the file unmodified, the harshness disappeared and I could enjoy the music. Listening to music I found that a hi-res (24/44.1) version of "Default" by Django Django sounded tinny and unpleasant when the digital stream played back through our reference Rotel receiver. By default the player is set to output digital audio as PCM at 48kHz, which uses the player's onboard processing. However, switching the player menu's 24p mode to "on" fixed the issue.ĭepending on your setup, pristine audio might require tweaking the setup menu. Only when it came to playing DVDs did I have a little initial trouble playing our test disc of " Star Trek: Insurrection." As the camera panned across the roofs of the village the frame rate chugged like it wasn't performing the 3:2 pull-down process correctly. This thing is solid, acing all of the various jaggy and 2:3 pull-down tests.
While I take synthetic patterns with a grain of salt, the Sony performed the HQV 2.0 1080p Blu-ray tests better than any other single player we've seen - including any Oppo currently on the market, and the Samsung. Performance with standard Blu-ray discs was very good. No third-party 4K test discs are available yet - a 4K HDR disc Samsung gave us won't work in the X800 (by design, Sony says) - but it's still early days for 4K Blu-ray.
Compared side-by-side with both the aforementioned Oppo and Samsung - using a Samsung QN65Q7F 4K HDR TV - there were no observable differences in picture quality between the players. The current crop of 4K movies looked as good as any 4K Blu-ray player. Superman UHD | player on | disk tray open The X800's Value rating dropped from 8 to 7, and its overall rating was lowered from 8.1 to 7.9.īatman vs. : The introduction and conclusion of this review have been updated to account for more recent reviews, including the Sony X700. As a result the X800 is no longer our go-to 4K player, and we now present two alternatives: If you want streaming apps and Dolby Vision, get the X700 if you want to save money and get an even faster player, but no streaming apps, the LG UP870 is an out-and-out bargain. Performance-wise there's not much to separate the X700 and X800, except that the more expensive player is marginally better at DVD playback. In the 12 months since we reviewed the X800 a lot has changed - more 4K players have come out, prices have come down, and Dolby Vision has become a more viable format. It's cheaper, and has better support for HDR formats. Yet the sticking point is Sony's own X700. Its $249/£400/AU$499 price compares well against other manufacturer's players such as the $559 "videophile" Oppo UDP-203 ( now discontinued but still available).
Despite the presence of the newer player, the Sony X800 is still available and offers excellent playback quality plus a design that feels solid and high-end, unlike typical non-4K players today.