Had to come back to add a few things:
First--in the matter of playing disk-based media, this Sony UBP-x700 is without a doubt the very worst disk player I have ever owned, bar none. There is something fundamentally wrong with this player. My opinion is that the software is heavily bugged--so much so that Sony cannot fix it. I also have another opinion which I will share later on.
No matter what sort of disks I view, the player invariably locks up & shuts itself down--most of the time. Occasionally, I have had to physically remove the power cord because the system locks up hard and refuses to power down. None of Sony's horrible--unplug the pwr cord, wait a minute, plug it back in and power-it-up "fixes" have accomplished anything at all. Doesn't matter how many times I reset to factory options--the problems endure. I have never seen such horrible "technical" advice for any product I have ever owned.
Whether it's DVD movies, Blu-Ray or 4k, lockups and pwr-offs are regular occurrences. Bear in mind that these disks are all brand new--never been touched! We can't watch a movie--without at least one freeze! Multiple freezes is the rule. Last night was the last straw--a DVD movie we were trying to watch kept locking up every five minutes until we simply gave up on it. Brand new movie, never been touched.
One thing I've noticed is that if you have to fast-forward a DVD that doesn't have its own top menu with a go-to-scenes option, in order to return to where you were before the last freeze & power off, shortly thereafter (five minutes or so) the movie will lock up tight and the player will power down (maybe)--again! Rinse & repeat. So the problems are related to pausing the disk and/or fast forwarding the scenes, apparently. Doing those things seems to aggravate and accelerate the freeze-frames and power offs. But as I say, neither pausing or fast-forwarding is required for lockups and power-offs to occur on a regular basis.
Theory: I bought the x700 from Amazon, new, on sale for $175. My thinking is that Sony dumped a bunch of defective returns on Amazon--and reduced the price to get rid of them quick. I got caught in the net. And get this: I tried to return it to Amazon for a swap--in the allotted time period--and Amazon said: "Gee, we aren't selling that unit direct anymore so we cannot exchange the unit for you. We will be happy to refund the full purchase price, if you like." To this day, Amazon sells the x700 only from third parties--even if Amazon ships them. IMO, Amazon has suffered a *lot* of returns and refunds for the x700--hence its decision to drop it except from third party sellers.
And get this: Now, Amazon is selling direct the
x700M!...
The x700M has 8 reviews as of today--and every one of them is review from a person who received a free x700M. Wonder how long this will last. The whole thing feels like a scam to me.
Today I ordered a Panasonic UB420-k which I will receive in two days time, on sale for $195. Amazon *is* selling that one direct. I cannot possibly see how it could be worse than this Sony x700, for disk play or
streaming--the lockups are the same--possibly worse playing even brand-new, untouched disks. As far as streaming goes, I am delighted to report that my ROKU Ultra has yet to lock up one time streaming 4k or anything else--for the last couple of months. The ROKU is excellent for streaming, imo.
Please, do not buy a UBP-x700--you owe it to yourself and your family! Last, I'm aware there are people who have had no problems with this unit--but they certainly seem to be as rare as hen's teeth. What a truly awful product to have released.
