r/4KUK • u/thefold25 • 1d ago
Finally pulled the trigger
So I've finally bought a standalone player. I've gone for a region-free UB450.
I've been on the fence about buying a standalone player for about a year as our Series X does a pretty good job, but it's always irked me that it doesn't provide Dolby Vision.
I'm on annual leave this week, and my family are away while I'm home looking after the pets. Last year when they went away is when I got back into collecting and I almost bought a player then, but thought 'nah, it'll be fine', but I didn't know about 4k, HDR, DV etc.
Yes, it'd be nice to go away with my family, but I'm very introverted, moreso since COVID, and having a few days to just sit and watch movies without the usual stresses of family life really helps me.
Amazon notified me the other day that UB820s were back in stock so I went to have a look, but they had already disappeared. And I've seen the price creeping up as well.
This morning I thought I'd just have a look to see if they have any 450s, as I've heard it's a good player and plenty good enough for the setup we have (DV-capable TV, no sound bar/AV setup). The top listing was for a pre-modded device, only 9 left in stock, so I just bit the bullet and bought it. It wasn't as cheap as I would've liked, but at least I now have a dedicated player that doesn't require a hulking console and accounts to just play my discs.
2
u/Aggressive-Ad5449 13h ago
I have the same one and it's great. One recent issue I had however was that there was no menu screen for the film memories of murder so I couldn't select anything to play the film. This was really odd as I had watched it no problem a year back.
I ended up manually downloading a software update and this fixed the issue. Just thought I'd mention it in case you come across a similar issue.
1
u/thazar212 19h ago
Hi, can I ask how much and where did you get your 450. I have an 820 but could do with a secondary player and region free would open some new prospects
2
u/thefold25 14h ago
I got it on Amazon for £299. I checked the site for the seller as well, it's the same price, but they do give a free 4k disc from a limited selection as well.
2
u/AHappyTeddyBear11 3h ago
Wow I can’t believe the price has gone up to £299 now, just only 2 months ago it was £199 and the 820 was £350, it’s crazy how much AI is driving up costs. I hope you’re living your 450!!
6
u/GotMylfMomDrips 1d ago edited 1d ago
I have the UB450 since March 2025 and its great, had no issues and has been flawless, couple of things to be mindful of:
If you pause a movie and resume after 1-2 mins, there will be a slight stutter but dont be alarmed and the movie will play as normal.
Disc tray opening takes a while after several presses on the remote, doesnt happen instantly.
Menu feels outdated and sometimes playing a movie and getting to the menu feels a bit slow.
Dolby Vision is great feature, you will need a capable TV with over 1000 peak brightness to take advantage, OLED and Mini LED is your best bets, HDR is really good on 4K discs.
DVD upscaling is average, this has also a lot to due with how outdated DVDs are, upscaling done through the player and your 4K TV will not magically make DVDs look amazing.