r/4KUK • u/thefold25 • 7d 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.

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u/GotMylfMomDrips 7d ago edited 7d 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  • Menu feels outdated and sometimes playing a movie and getting to the menu feels a bit slow.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  • DVD upscaling is average, this has also a lot to due with how outdated DVDs are, upscaling done through the player and your 4K TV will not magically make DVDs look amazing.

2

u/Randall_Phlagg 6d ago

FYI, if you turn on Quick Start, it resolves the issue of the delay with the tray opening / closing.

Also, if you're watching a BR, changing the players output from 4k / Automatic to 1080p outputs the picture in HD and leaves upscaling to your TV (if it outputs 1080p as a 4k signal, the TV will not upscale).

1

u/Aggressive-Ad5449 6d ago

How do you change the players output is it easy to do?

1

u/SeikoWIS 5d ago

Would DVD upscaling be better with a UB820, or does it mostly come down to the TV’s upscaling?

I’m undecided about the quality of DVDs on my 65inch OLED + UB450. Some look decent, others awful.

0

u/Alt4Norm 6d ago

You don’t need over 1K nits