# Sony Releases New Affordable Players; Dismisses 4K Blu-ray (BDP-S6700, UHP-H1)



## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Color me semi-surprised, but Sony Electronics (the originator of the world’s first consumer Blu-ray player) appears to be forging ahead with 2016 plans to delay the release of a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray player until next year. As first reported by the trade publication TWICE, the company says it wants the 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray market to mature and saturate itself with media before officially launching a 4K player. 

This begs the question: Why?

The surface answer is that Sony is hedging its bet with the impending launch of a 4K High Dynamic Range streaming service. This isn’t to say the company is completely ignoring the physical media side of the equation. After all, they are manufacturing and releasing movies on 4K Blu-ray. But the ugly truth – the sad and painful truth – is that Sony is entering a wait-and-see mode. In other words, Sony appears to be cautiously implying that the 4K Blu-ray player world has limited life; streaming is the new and true battleground. 

Yesterday, the company further cemented its 4K Blu-ray player stance by releasing a new standard player. The new BDP-S6700 ($130) is deceptively called a “4K Upscaling 3D Streaming Blu-ray Disc Player,” which implies it’s capable of playing true 4K UHD discs. Alas, it’s not. Instead, the S6700 is built around technology that up-scales standard Hi-Def video material to “near 4K quality,” enhances the quality of compressed music, and provides access to PlayStation’s cloud based videogame platform. It also houses LDAC Bluetooth technology that’s able to stream audio to wireless devices at nearly three-times the bandwidth of regular Bluetooth. And with onboard DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance), owners have easy access to streaming and transfer of music, film, and photo files.

So, for a relatively small investment (only slightly more than other standard BD players on the market), Sony’s new player brings streaming convenience to the table. As of now, it doesn’t appear that the S6700 will exclusively offer access to any kind of Sony streaming video network. But it does provide access to current popular app based services like Netflix and YouTube.










_The UHP-H1 is due to be released soon._​

Sony also announced a pre-sale of its forthcoming UHP-H1 Premium Audio and Video Player. This model is a different animal and is the company’s new flagship Blu-ray player, with a price tag that’s more than twice as large ($350). Much like the S6700, it does just about everything but play a 4K Blu-ray disc. It carries everything the S6700 offers in addition to a step-up digital sound enhancement engine and versatile Hi-Res audio playback of FLAC, ALAC, AIFF, DSD (up to 5.6 MHz), and WAV (192kHz/24-bit). Sony says the UHP-H1’s chassis is smaller than traditional players and offers anti-vibration construction.

So there you have it. Sony’s 2016 Blu-ray player offerings deliver on a bevy of consumer friendly and hi-res performance parameters…but swing and miss on the one front most videophiles have an eye on: 4K UHD Blu-ray playback. 

Surprising? Most certainly. A mistake? Only time will tell.

_Image Credits: Sony Electronics_


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## Dub King (Aug 10, 2012)

Probably making as much room as possible for the still-rumored but seemingly inevitable PS4 4K (PS4+). That's gotta be Sony's big move, otherwise the company is smoking something really good and not sharing.


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Dub King said:


> Probably making as much room as possible for the still-rumored but seemingly inevitable PS4 4K (PS4+). That's gotta be Sony's big move, otherwise the company is smoking something really good and not sharing.


Perhaps. That's one way to corral folks toward that product. But, one would have to assume the targeted audience for a PS4 reboot would fall more in line with the streaming-focused crowd? :huh:


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

I still dont see the big deal with 4k (UltraHD).
HD (2K) on a good display looks great and the upgrade to 4k wont really make any big impact until we see projectors offering true 4k performance on a big screen at a reasonable cost. Ive said it before all the major TV networks just spent millions going to HD Im not sure if they are willing to fork out more to go even higher. Streaming still has a long way to go given most people dont have the bandwidth to stream true 4k and any that do are really only getting 4k thats being compressed and looks only slightly better than HD.

I wonder if 4k sales are sluggish and they are waiting to see what the market does?


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Tony, I agree with you about 4K from a pure pixel count perspective... HDR is the true game changing tech that's paired with it, thus making 4K a big deal. The 4K HDR demos I've seen have been incredible - awesome... You name it. Add to that, WCG... And it's a whole new ballgame.


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## Blacklightning (Nov 22, 2011)

Not to mention that most UHD Bluray Movies are shot and mastered in 2K and just upscaled to 4k for the disc. I real magic of UHD is HDR.


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## JBrax (Oct 13, 2011)

I've been eyeing 75-90" 4K displays and it seems HDR is the main feature that differentiates price. It would appear to me that's the way to go. Yes?


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

JBrax said:


> I've been eyeing 75-90" 4K displays and it seems HDR is the main feature that differentiates price. It would appear to me that's the way to go. Yes?



100% - yes.


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## JimShaw (Apr 30, 2012)

Sony, 2017
Oppo. the 103 4K end of 2016, the 105 4K 2017

Looks like if someone wants a good 4K player, its Samsung now or wait.


.


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## phillihp23 (Mar 14, 2012)

Sony announces Ultra App for 4k HDR movies....
http://view.email.sonypictures.com/?qs=5517ebd61c151271cd6b3de3524ea34e9c70835cb0460f6b833f6822d9c3e8333918d34d33b86d1e08fc6bbe068b6ef16283686ea1a65151e49d87baa535737d


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## Dub King (Aug 10, 2012)

JBrax said:


> I've been eyeing 75-90" 4K displays and it seems HDR is the main feature that differentiates price. It would appear to me that's the way to go. Yes?





Todd Anderson said:


> 100% - yes.


It should be noted that the very quality that makes for a great HDR-capable TV—a very high native contrast ratio—also makes for better-looking reproduction of HD BT.709 content. But not the cheap TVs that claim to do HDR like Vizio M and the lower-tier LGs. But LG's OLED, Vizio P, Samsung KS series, and Sony's top TVs are all also going to look better playing Blu-rays than TVs that came before. They will all nail the rec.709 color space and they will all support between a 60 and 70 foot-lambert peak brightness for a SDR calibration (great for rooms with moderate ambient light, which is so common.).


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## Dub King (Aug 10, 2012)

Todd Anderson said:


> Perhaps. That's one way to corral folks toward that product. But, one would have to assume the targeted audience for a PS4 reboot would fall more in line with the streaming-focused crowd? :huh:


You never know with PlayStation. The PS3 did a lot to popularize Blu-ray, but it was also an early Netflix streaming platform and the first to offer 1080p from that service. The PS4, I thought would be a streaming powerhouse but in effect Sony did nothing in that regard. But if the PS4 moves to an Ultra HD BD drive, that would increase the install base for that format automatically in a way that simply appealing to the videophile HT crowd would not.


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## gac (Mar 7, 2016)

Given that this player has been named UHP-H1, it would be interesting to know if Sony has in mind a follow-up called UHP-H2, which to be provided with 7.1 channels analogue output. This might be useful for those who enjoy listening to multi-channel music from DVD-Audio, SACD and BD-Audio despite the player has only 4K video upscale capability.


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