I was feeling pretty good about my previous 4K Blu-ray player, until the day it froze during the climax of Interstellar.
Just as that Christopher Nolan epic was soaring into its final act, the glorious 4K UHD image ground to a halt, and no amount of cleaning the disc or fidgeting the controls would help. The best I could do was navigate to a later chapter and painstakingly back up to a point just before the freeze.
That’s not an ideal way to experience Interstellar on 4K Blu-ray, and the same thing was happening on other discs, including Top Gun: Maverick (the image would freeze on Tom Cruise’s eye as he lay in the snow after being shot down by the bad guys).
It turns out my player at the time (the affordable Sony UBP-X700) was getting stuck on the second layer change of triple-layer 4K Blu-ray discs, and there was pretty much nothing to be done about it, save for replacing it with a more reliable model.
After doing some research, I settled on the Panasonic DP-UB920, a player that’s widely regarded as one of the best 4K Blu-ray decks around. The DP-UB920 is getting a 27-percent Black Friday discount, bringing its price to $399.98. That might still sound like a lot, but here’s why it’s worth it—and why you should grab this deal while you can.
I love watching my 4K Blu-ray of Interstellar without worrying whether the picture is going to freeze at the layer change.
Ben Patterson/Foundry
Besides offering a full slate of streaming services as well as Dolby Atmos, the DP-UB820 supports HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision. What I particularly like about the UB820 is that it detects which version of HDR your disc uses and makes the switch automatically. That might sound like a minor feature, but speaking from experience, it’s all too easy to hit “play” on a UHD disc without remembering to switch the player to the proper HDR mode (and some discs don’t have their HDR support clearly marked).
Even better, the DP-UB820 has a reputation for breezing through triple-layer discs without skipping a beat, and that’s been my experience after more than a year of use. It’s glorious being able to watch Interstellar without having to brace for a frozen picture.
I wound up paying almost full price for the DP-UB820 (I believe I paid close to $500), but I figured it was worth it; I take movies seriously, and I was willing to invest in my 4K Blu-ray hobby.
At $399.98, though, the Panasonic DP-UB820 starts to look way more appealing. The Panny has been cheaper in the past (its all-time low was $347.99 a couple of Black Fridays ago), but $399.98 is still a pretty good deal, given that the UB820 is currently commanding a $50 tariff-induced premium.
Buy the Panasonic DP-UB820 for $399.98 on Amazon
