Philips 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player (BDP7501) with Bonus 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray disc (Creed)

While this disc player works more smoothly and quickly than the Samsung 8500 UHD disc player, it has what could be a "fatal flaw" for some purchasers. First you need to understand the UHD disc format properties... Video on UHD discs is encoded with 10-bit color (10 bits per color, red, green, and blue), YCbCr 4:2:0 color format (this throws away a lot of color data, 4:4:4 retains all the color data and MIGHT look marginally better than 4:2:0 especially with specialty test images including pages of text). 10-bit color translates to something like 940 individual luminance/brightness steps from black to 100% of any color or white/gray. HDR (High Dynamic Range REALLY NEEDS 10-bits per color to avoid visible banding/contouring in low contrast parts of UHD images like smooth painted walls, the sky without clouds, any sort of fade from dark to light in black/gray/white or color-to-color or light color to dark color).Now here is the problem this disc player has: It only has 2 output modes for UHD discs with HDR (which is all the UHD disc titles so far that I'm aware of). The first one is 8-bits with 4:2:0 color. The 4:2:0 color is not a problem... that's the same amount of color data that is on the disc. The problem is that the the 8-bits means there are only about 220 luminance/brightness steps from black to white. This RUINS UHD/HDR video images by causing easily visible banding/contouring in low-contrast areas of any image at any brightness level.The other output mode this disc player has is 12-bits with 4:4:4 color. This is a HUGE amount of data... far far more data than exists on the UHD disc. There is ZERO benefit to upconverting the 10-bit video on the discs to 12 bits, but it doesn't hurt anything either except some UHD/HDR capable video displays may not accept 12-bit video... they may be fine with 10-bit video but this disc player doesn't offer a 10-bit output mode for UHD/HDR discs. Even if your TV or projector will accept 12-bit video, it might not accept 12-bits with 4:4:4 color... converting the 4:2:0 color on the discs to 4:4:4 isn't bad, it just creates a HUGE amount of extra data with no benefit at all. So even if your TV or projector might accept 12-bit video, it might not accept 12-bit video with 4:4:4 color at the same time. That means your only option to use this disc player will be 8-bits 4:2:0 and you will have images plagued with contouring/banding in low-contrast areas forever. Sony's $60,000 projector, for example, won't accept 12-bit 4:4:4 video from this disc player... so don't assume your TV or lower-cost projector will accept 12-bit 4:4:4... there is a good chance it won't.This disc player REALLY needs the output mode recommended by the committee that set standards for UHD discs... 10-bits with 4:2:2 color. That mode would be compatible with virtually any UHD/HDR TV or projector and would avoid the contouring/banding problem entirely. If you do not know what color banding looks like and want to see an example, go to wikipedia.org and search for "colour banding" then open the image that shows color banding in the sky... that is very much how the same image would look if played back by this disc player in 8-bit 4:2:0 mode--you need to click the image in the Wikipedia article to make it larger in order to see the banding... the banding is the rainbow-like "arches" in the blue sky.

Having owned the Samsung, I like the Philips. It has a better and more simple menu structure that properly explains the settings. It can convert HDR into SDR for UHD displays that cannot do HDR. It has a playback info window that shows what the disc format is and exactly all the details for what it is outputting, something the Samsung should have had. The micro stutters on disc playback I had with the Samsung seem to be gone with this model (I had two different Samsungs). Netflix has HDR, where the Samsung still does not (supposed to be getting it soon). It costs $70 less than the Samsung right now, and $400 less than the Panasonic will in early Sept. The remote is way better than what comes with the Samsung, and the player has a smaller footprint (is taller though). Looking at the menu structure at some points and the playback info banner, some of it screams Panasonic and people have a hypothesis it is using a Panasonic chip. Disc tray movement and playback seem to be pretty quiet.Now for the bad. It's not exactly pretty, but I really don't care about that. It only has two streaming services (Netflix and Youtube) which could sway you from a 5 star to 4-star review. Knowing that going in I give the player itself 5 stars because I think they did a great job on disc function, and that is what matters more to me (I only really use Netflix and Youtube anyways). There is a power brick, and I know some people hate those, but it should keep heat down inside (has a fan anyways) and allows a smaller footprint.I ran tests with my 1080p spears and munsil blu-ray and it seemed to do well on everything I normally check, I even got better results on the fine chroma resolution than I did on the Samsung, but not sure why. If you can live not having a lot of streaming services, and want to get into UHD discs for cheap and reliable, this definitely seems like the device to do it.

I am not sure how to score this one. The initial installation went well. HDR looked really great! The only thing missing was surround sound. I had no problems with surround sound with the blu-ray player that it replaced. My first call to Philips support lasted about two minutes. The tech couldn't figure out what the item was, put me on hold, and then I got a disconnect. The second call to support lasted a little longer, but I was again put on hold and the call was dropped. Third time, I asked the tech not to put me hold. He took my phone number in case we got disconnected and recorded my serial number. He also seemed confused, since the menu item that he requested that I click on didn't exist, but we did a few checks and confirmed that I had the latest update. He then said that it was very strange and all of a sudden the call got dropped. I honestly wonder if they have no solution or if they exceed a preset time limit for the call, they just hang up. He never called back, even though he had my phone number. I then made a fourth, and final, call to support. The woman said that she saw that I had completed all of the trouble shooting suggestions on the previous call. I asked her not to put me on hold. She check with someone, came back to me and said that they would need a picture of the unit, the model number and the serial number emailed to them to proceed. WHAT??? Okay, I admit that at that point I went ballistic. They obviously had no knowledge of the BDP7501. Sorry, Philips, four strikes and you are out. . . forever! It will be a cold day in the universe before I ever buy another Philips product. This unit is going back (thanks Amazon) and I have already ordered a Samsung UBD-K8500 as a replacement. Shame on you, Philips! Why would you ruin a potentially good product with absolutely terrible customer support?