Going into CES, we knew we'd see a number of
Ultra HD Blu-ray players. It's no surprise Sony has one of its own: the UHP-H1. In addition to handling the visuals from those 4K discs, the player can also be configured to play multi-room audio through Sony's SongPal app or bump songs stored on a USB drive. The UHP-H1 is the company's first high-res certified Blu-ray player and its Bluetooth feature makes for easy pairing with speakers or headphones.
Not looking to go UHD yet? Sony's got a new option for you as well. The BDP-S6700 also packs in Bluetooth and can be arranged in a multi-room speaker setup. What's more, this player can be used to stream video games from
PlayStation Now and can accommodate two DualShock 4 controllers. Both the UHP-H1 and BDP-S6700 have tech that upscales high-definition content to 4K resolution for "enhanced viewing." You know, for all of those Blu-ray discs that you already have in your library. No word on pricing for either of these right now, but Sony says they'll be available this spring which lines up nicely with the scheduled arrival of the
new Blu-rays themselves.
Panasonic promises that the new player will hit the U.S consumer market in 2016. The company has already started selling
a similar and 4K Blu-ray capable media player on the Japanese market, but this other device was sold only in very small quantities and was limited to sales in Japan. Not to mention, it cost roughly $3,300 US dollars, a steep price indeed for the world’s first 4K Blu-ray player.
In any case, The ultra HD Blu-ray standard is finalized and the discs themselves are
on the verge of coming out thanks to media companies like Sony, Warner Bros, Fox and even smaller
content providers like Shout Factory, with its upcoming IMAX feature films on Blu-ray in 4K, all of which will be offering HDR and enhanced color in their disc editions. Thus, Panasonic’s new US player is very likely to support all of these display technologies as well.