Samsung UBD-K8500 3D Wi-Fi 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player (2016 Model)

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7.1 channel Dolby True HD/DTS-HD Master Audio
Connectivity: Wi-Fi
HDMI Outputs: 2, Inputs: 1 USB

Samsung UBD-K8500 3D Wi-Fi 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player (2016 Model) MULTI ZONE

Product Reviews

Samsung Earns Loyalty

The biggest reason I’m writing this review is to thank the folks at Samsung for being a part of a rock solid company. Fanboy? Yep, and here is why…I bought a Sumsung 65HU9000 4K TV almost exactly 2 years ago, and recently purchased the K8500 4K player. Although the player ran BluRays beautifully at 1080p, the 4K discs would not play as the HDMI 4 port in the tv was not recognized as being HDCP 2.2 compliant ( as I understand it, HDCP 2.2 is a encryption protocol designed to prevent piracy - 4K discs simply will not play on a TV that isn’t compliant). I called Samsung tech support and after an exhaustive differential diagnostic process, it was determined that either the TV or the player had a hardware problem. This is the cool part - instead of making me pay a couple hundred bucks for a new One Connect box that might or might not solve the problem on a very out of warrantee tv, they gave me an extended warranty for free and had a tech drive to my home and fix the tv (the one connect box was the problem as it turns out - the tech simply gave me a new one and installed it for free). In a nutshell, Samsung chose to spend a few hundred dollars to delight me, when they could easily have taken the typical “car dealership” approach which is to basically screw you out of every penny possible both coming and going.Hmmmmmm… That was almost a rant, sorry about that. On to the performance of the player…I had a friend over last night and we watched Star Wars The Force Awakens on BluRay, and The Martian on 4K UltraHD disk. We also compared the opening scene of The Martian on BluRay and 4K Disc by playing them back to back. Our non-technical consensus was that there was a big jump in picture quality from the BluRay to the 4K for that particular movie. We tried the same thing with the Wave scene in San Andreas, and couldn’t tell the difference (we “blinded” ourselves in this little subjective experiment - she swapped the discs without telling me which type was playing, and visa versa). Star Wars was gorgeous on BluRay at 1080p - I can’t wait to see it in 2160p when/if they offer a 4K release. I saw it in an IMAX theatre, and I frankly thought the picture was better on my home system.At the end of the day, if you are in a position to indulge your curiosity as to how far home picture quality has come, go for it! If you are a videophile on a tight budget, wait a bit, and this will drop in price especially as other players like LG, Sony, etc jump into the game. Also, realize that not all 4K discs are or will be made equal.I hope you found this review to be useful!

So far, so good

This is playing hdr movies as advertised so far, as well as upscaling dvd/blu rays to 4k.Important to note, you MUST have hdmi 2.0a or higher pass through ports on your tv and anything else you wire this to/from to get the full hdr experience. I am using it with an LG OLED65E6P and Yamaha RX-V481 receiver. Other than the HDMI-CEC battles these things like to have with each other, everything is working. ([…]… Simplink and Anynet+ have not played nice together, and the receiver also seems to just be plain confused trying to find the right input on its own. I’ve also tried a couple universal remotes and had to return them after hours of struggles… I am all ears with a good suggestion on this.)I’ve watched the Martian and was overall impressed with the picture quality. My oled is not color calibrated and some of the colors from the scenes on earth did not look as ‘natural’ as Marco Polo on Netflix in Dolby Vision did to me (only other thing I really have to compare it to so far). The sharpness and smoothness from the native, non-internet streamed 4k was definitely noticeable. Additionally, the scenes on Mars are perfect for showing off the power of HDR, especially when the sun is contrasted against the red martian landscape. My friends and I actually found ourselves squinting a bit it was so bright (I hear the non-oled hdr sets can get even brighter, although in a completely dark room, it was stunning and definitely ‘worth every penny,’ so to speak.)So in summary, it’s really too early to say how well HDR/4k are going to hold up, but as an early adopter (aka sucker), I’m at least impressed enough to say I think now wasn’t a bad time to take the jump. When we get our TV calibrated (roommates and I are moving and going to put it in a blacked-out basement), I may come and update this. A fairly detailed professional review can also be found here: […]With better calibration and better/more varied 4k source material, the future is bright (no pun intended) for this device. It will probably be the only 4k player in the US for at least the rest of this year. Considering what you get and how early it is, the prices for OLED/HDR setups are much better than say, plasma/blu ray was at first, but it’s still a lot. If you’re into A/V and have the cash, it’s probably a good pick up for $400; otherwise, you know what they say… patience is probably a virtue.

Ubdk8500 4K video player a great buy setup is easy.

I set it up today with my Samsung tv I have a 48 inch ju6700 the player is fast, and great movie detail in 4K blue ray mode which is what I purchased the unit for. But the up scaling for regular blue ray and dvd is impressive. The unit also ran cool. The menu was smooth and easy to use. The user needs to supply the video cable make sure it is 2.0 complient. And you have a uhd tv. Multichannel sound piped through with no problem. I have a 6.1channel soundbar that is also Samsung.

Worth it!

I must say that I was a bit worried about being an early adopter for this product, but as someone that likes to “beta” test I felt like I’d give it a try. Speaking from the UHD bluray perspective I can honestly say its fantastic. After watching “The Last Witch Hunter” and seeing the wider color spectrum and blacks so deep that it looked like the pixels were turned off it has exceeded my expectations in that category. Based on that alone and the ease of setup and speed at which the disc loaded its definitely worth of 5 stars. I’ll be doing some up conversion testing on some of my standard blurays also since my collection in that format has swelled over 600 titles and the UHD releases are still forthcoming. I can’t wait for DC and Marvel releases to hit the format also to allow it to really shine. As a person that works at one the largest ISP’s in the country I’ll also say physical media its still the way to go until those pesky data caps are a thing of the past since I burned 80Gbs downloading the Martian from MGO in 4k HDR. Great job Samsung! Also added a pic of the home screen for those that are interested see attachment.

First true 4K player.

Very nice player. True 4K player. not an up-convert player.

Great 4K video platform!

I have been trying for weeks to get something to play my 4K drone videos. I tried computers, XBOX with no luck. This console plays them smoothly and without any issues.

This was a rushed item. It freezes on many …

This was a rushed item. It freezes on many of the formats for multimedia. Have to always restart the player to resume. It’s collecting dust now and I just bought it.

Four Stars

Loved it

samsung blu ray player

I like the player….wish the remote was a little larger

Awesome Product!!!

Great Product!!! Super easy to set up wifi access. Works great! Great audio too, using the optical out port.

LOVE it!!

After stumbling on a great deal on a Samsung Smart 4K UHD TV, I realized that I couldn’t play the 4K UHD blu-rays on my old blu-ray player! (I’m new to this technology).

Great Player but no Apps and cannot complete setup.

I thought this came installed with apps like Netflix and stuff. When I try and complete the setup I get errors connecting to Samsung so I’ve never been able to install any…