Sony 4K UBP-X700 issues

M

Mr._Clark

Audioholic Samurai
My Sony X800 M2 has given no problems. I'm wondering if the item you bought from Amazon is actually fake, and a Sony knock off. I bought my unit from Best Buy.

Amazon have just announced today, they have recently found 10 billion dollars worth of fake goods being sold. I ordered Gillette razor blades during lockdown. They looked genuine, but they were rough and lost their edge almost right away. I'm sure they were knock offs.

We recently bought our grandson a Mitutoyo digital Vernier caliper and micrometer for his twenty first birthday. There were numerous warnings in the Amazon reviews of worthless fake goods. So we ended up buying from a specialist engineering vendor.

Right now you have to be very careful buying from Amazon. I have a hunch your player was a Sony knock off.
I've been leery of Amazon for a while. Based on reviews posted by buyers, a lot of the tools on Amazon appear to be fake.

I ordered a Canada Goose parka on Amazon several years ago. When I checked the shipping status, it showed that it had been shipped from China. Given that all of their parkas are made in Canada, this was suspicious (to say the least) so I cancelled it. Some T shirts I bought on Amazon a couple years ago were definitely fake.

I still have a Mitutoyo dial caliper I bought about 35 years ago. It still works well. Unfortunately I sold a set of Starrett micrometers I had back in the day (I just bought a new vertical mill and the micrometers would be useful).
 
H

Huey645

Audioholic
I've had the X800 for awhile now, and it was prone to numerous lockups like everyone else that has X700 and X800. Once I switched to a google mesh network, I don't think I've had a lockup since. Might be worth checking into.
 
S

snakeeyes

Audioholic Ninja
I don’t use my x800m2 to do apps. I play discs and after the couple inch lift, it doesn’t lock up on any discs or 4K UHD movies anymore. It has been good since last summer. No lock ups.

My Internet is wired for the player. Not using WiFi.
 
W

WaltC

Enthusiast
Had to check in here tonight to provide another update--as it wouldn't be cricket if I didn't, imo! I just spent the most pleasant day & evening in many weeks watching several disks, DVD, 4k & Blu-Ray, (all scaled to 2160P) with my new Panasonic UB-420-k! I had actually forgotten what it was like to watch several hours of disk-based movies (and stream--but a ROKU Ultra does my streaming now) without a single, solitary freeze-frame/pwr off and/or Factory reset! My wife was ecstatic. Nirvana has been achieved..;) Operating on the same exact network as the x700, reliability and therefore performance is demonstrably above the x700--I was surprised, really, at the differences that were immediately noticeable on the first day.

Even the bios option UI presentation and logic is head & shoulders superior to the x700, imo--now, that's the way a bios UI should be presented! Comparatively, the x700 looks like a really almost sloppy cluster of software add-ons, extensions, and literal afterthoughts. I mean--to my eyes it is exactly as if Sony was shoehorning options willy nilly to meet bullet lists of "features" with very little pre-production planning (such as the late software support of DolbyVision, for instance, which came through a software patch after the x700 shipped.) The 420 looks and presents as if designed from a carefully thought-out master plan--the x700 simply doesn't present that way at all. (Dolby Vision isn't a concern for me--because the 420 supports HDR 10 & 10+.)

That such is the case for the x700 is fairly obvious by way of Sony's official tech support advice for power cycling and/or resetting all the options to factory to try and cure the horrific freeze-ups and lockups. I didn't see any similar "support" messages from Panasonic concerning its 4k disk players, nor was I successful in finding a copious amount of "my 4k player is freezing up constantly" for the Panasonic offerings as I found easily for the x700--page after page of complaints--and after today's freezeless marathon performance of the 420, I can see why! When you don't get freezeups, you don't write complaints about freezing up, etc...;) These are real, serious problems for which Sony has done nothing except to offer the very lame and sufficient "power cycling and reset to factory defaults" advice & followed by "you may have to send to service if these things don't work"--that advice never worked for me permanently despite many weeks of trying everything I could think of along with following a lot of well-intentioned advice (here and elsewhere) for which I am grateful. But it wasn't enough. The x700 screams for a thorough bios update, for instance, but I could find no indication that Sony has any further plans for the x700 in that direction.

--Another thing I noticed with the x700 is that undoubtedly heat was on the minds of the design engineers as they moved the power brick out of the x700 case to the power-cord plug. The Panasonic retains the power circuitry inside the case instead of external to it because overheating of the 820/420 was very well considered and then eliminated in the basic player design. Size of the x700 case & the UB420-k is very similar, too

__Last thing I will comment on, is I much prefer the Panasonic remote! It isn't backlit, either, but it is a good bit larger and that's great protection against hitting the wrong key accidentally, I've found. Aside from being easier and less club-fingered to handle than the Sony remote, I find the key layout far more intuitive than the Sony keys--but that impression might simply be because of the comparatively cramped nature of the x700 remote.

In closing, I have nothing against Sony--of course not. Indeed, I bought the x700 after having been so impressed with my last Sony BR player & streamer--which to my knowledge never locked up once in years of use! But something happened with the x700 on the way to market, and thus my problems have existed as I have recounted them here. As mentioned earlier, I might be more skeptical as to the origin of my x700 if it looked like the problems I've reported were rare among the x700 user base--but when I can find many Internet forum pages in which people report the same problems I've had, I really have to dismiss the idea that I purchased a cheap knock-off product direct from Amazon (I didn't buy from a third-party AMZN retailer, etc.) No, I think the design as it sits is flawed in different ways--but not enough that 100% of production units are affected, of course...;)

Thanks again for the kind suggestions I received here in these forums--there wasn't a one of them that I ignored...;) Now--it's back to enjoying my movies & music, etc.! Delighted to do so!
 
W

WaltC

Enthusiast
I've been leery of Amazon for a while. Based on reviews posted by buyers, a lot of the tools on Amazon appear to be fake.

I ordered a Canada Goose parka on Amazon several years ago. When I checked the shipping status, it showed that it had been shipped from China. Given that all of their parkas are made in Canada, this was suspicious (to say the least) so I cancelled it. Some T shirts I bought on Amazon a couple years ago were definitely fake.

I still have a Mitutoyo dial caliper I bought about 35 years ago. It still works well. Unfortunately I sold a set of Starrett micrometers I had back in the day (I just bought a new vertical mill and the micrometers would be useful).
Just from my personal perspective, if a company accepts my serial numbers and product registration--I do feel like I bought the real thing. AMZN would be in big, big trouble if it's caught selling knock-offs to its customers instead of what its customers believe they are buying, imo. Pretty sure that's criminal fraud. In addition, many, many things are "assembled" in certain countries from parts made in various places all over the world. That's common-place today, actually. Check out the window sticker on your next car...look for the origin countries of the parts and then look for the country that "assembled" those parts--often Canada or Mexico, today, for some car brands. Apple was careful to say for some of its Macs--"Assembled in America" (but the parts were made and shipped in from Taiwan, etc.) Really is a lot of that going on, but that's much different from fraud, imo.

I might think I was sold something under fraudulent pretenses if Sony hadn't referenced the very problems I had with the x700 in its official tech support docs--and I hadn't read so many pages on Internet forum pages written by people having the same problems I was having, etc.

Anyway, thanks for all the Audioholic forum suggestions, once again!...;)
 
M

MTVhike

Audioholic Intern
Do these freezeup problems for the X700 and X800 Sonys happen with all types of disks, or just Bluray? I use mine exclusively for SACDs, but if I get some BR-Audio ones, I'll want to be able to listen to them.
 
Replicant 7

Replicant 7

Audioholic Samurai
Anyone who has the Sony 4K UBP-X700, check for firmware up, mine just updated yesterday. So I played GOT S4 again in 4K and as of right now it didn't freeze up and I played the 1st disc of S8 3 time just to make sure. Before the update, it would freeze up on the 3rd episode right before the battle scenes and it did it every time hasn't done it yet since the update so check!!
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
I barely used my Sony X700. It won’t read any kind of disc. Also tried firmware. Going to try a Panasonic 4K player.
 
W

WaltC

Enthusiast
I just noticed there was a recent x700 bios release, finally, and I just wondered if any of you guys who were having problems similar to mine have tried it and determined whether the freeze-lockups had been solved....

BTW, I bought the Panasonic 4k UB-420 and love it--no problems! Not a one! I'm also streaming with a newer Roku Ultra, which also seems problem-free at this time. But I still have the Sony but don't know if I want to drag it out and test it...unless I hear that the bios has finally fixed these problems...

After reading the bios notes I'm inclined to think the major problems have not been addressed.
 
Replicant 7

Replicant 7

Audioholic Samurai
@WaltC , I did the update on my Sony X700, it is the first and only update that I have received from Sony on the X700. Before it would freeze up one a 4K disc, and when streaming, as of right now it hasn't frozen up once. But I haven't played a lot of 4K movies as of yet. I will run it through a few more soon. I did notice that there is a newer model on Amazons site of the X700, it's X700M now with a higher price of course. I have tried other 4K players, a
LG and a Panasonic. They where both on the lower end and they to would freeze up. I was beginning to wonder if I'd gotten some defective 4K disc and or my internet service was dropping out for a second or two without me noticing.
 
M

MTVhike

Audioholic Intern
I've never updated my X800, but haven't had any problems with it. On the other hand, I rarely use it and never for DVDs or BuRays.
 
W

WaltC

Enthusiast
Thanks for the info, guys...! Still deciding whether to pull it out of mothballs and update it.
 
S

snakeeyes

Audioholic Ninja
Mine is x800m2 and after I followed the suggestion to lift it about an inch off the shelf for better cooling last year, I haven’t seen any freeze issues on 4K UHD discs anymore.
 
M

MTVhike

Audioholic Intern
Why should I sell it? It works perfectly for SACDs! And I might want to get a BR. It also has the ability to stream Netflix, Prime, although I don't know if those services are any better through the X800 than using the Roku application on my TV.
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Why should I sell it? It works perfectly for SACDs! And I might want to get a BR. It also has the ability to stream Netflix, Prime, although I don't know if those services are any better through the X800 than using the Roku application on my TV.
IMO, for streaming Roku is better than a Blu-ray player. The BD player is mainly designed to properly read discs.
 
M

MTVhike

Audioholic Intern
If the original movie is 5.1 (or 7.1), do both of these Netflix streaming services give the full surround?
 
T

Trebdp83

Audioholic Ninja
Why should I sell it? It works perfectly for SACDs! And I might want to get a BR. It also has the ability to stream Netflix, Prime, although I don't know if those services are any better through the X800 than using the Roku application on my TV.
Concerning the Sony UBP-X800, it supports 4K HDR 24hz playback when using Netflix but Dolby Digital+/Atmos is not available and Dolby Digital 5.1 is streamed. The Amazon Prime Video app also supports 4K HDR 24hz playback as well as Dolby Digital+ but atmos metadata is not supported. Unlike streamers such as the Apple TV 4K that stream 4K HDR @24hz in 4:2:2, the Sony supports streaming of 4K HDR @24hz in 4:4:4 like it does on discs. Turning 24hz playback OFF results in 4:2:2 for 4K HDR @60hz.
 
I

iFrog

Enthusiast
Hey guys, I'm brand new to this forum. I just joined today so I could interact with this thread.
I own both a Sony UBP-X800, and X700. Both players have been very reliable, and I haven't hard the constant problems people have reporting. However, I've just discovered an issue with my X700 after changing my setup (however, I'm able to resolve it) but was curious as to if anyone else has had it, and why it might be happening.

OK: here is the situation, I live in a small apartment, so space for a full AVR isn't possible. So, I've used sound bars with dedicated rear speakers and a wireless sub. For the god part of using the X700 connected to a Sony XBR-X43800D I ran a separate HDMI cable from the X700's second HDMI out to the sound bar because the model I started with was unable to pass 4k / HDR, so I did that so I could get the best audio and video possible, and my streamers (Roku, Apple TV 4K) connected to the TV, and I used optical out from the TV to the sound bar for those devices.

Fast forward to last month, and I upgraded to a Dolby Atmos, and DTS:X compatible sound bar and can now do what you would do with an AVR, and pass all audio / video through the sound bar and get 4k and HDR, and full lossless audio on supported devices.

Here is the glitch though: When playing non 4k content on the Sony X700 (mainly with a DTS-HD-MA track) the tv would start whining about it receiving an unsupported audio format and to check the source. Turns out that I can do one of the following to resolve this:

1. turn off 24p for BD/UHD discs
2. Leave 24p to auto and set 4K upscaling to Auto 2 so everything is forced out at 4k
3. set the output resolution to a fixed 4k resolution.

So, the bottom line of this is, The TV wasn't liking when the Sony player was changing between 24p and 60p for resolutions under 4k with a DTS HD-MA track. The issue didn't seem to happen with dolby or other formats. Just DTS.

Also like I mentioned, the issue went away when setting the player to stay at 4K resolution, either in output settings, or upscale settings, or leaving everything auto, and simply turning off 24p.

The thing is, there was no way to know if this issue was always present, but didn't see it because prior to the upgrade I was separating the audio and video connections.

I've been asking around different places and sharing this, because I haven't been able to find any other reports of stuff like this going on. The only thing I found a while back is: sometimes setting a fixed resolution can resolve things leaving it set to auto can introduce.
 
T

Trebdp83

Audioholic Ninja
Hello and welcome. What is the model of the TV? Most new sets do not support DTS so issues will arise if trying to send DTS tracks through them. Are you now sending all audio through the TV and using eARC?
Sorry, I see where you mention it. When you are making the adjustments and audio is output, is it still in DTS?
 
newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top