Samsung's high-end 4K Blu-ray player coming in April for $400

The $400 Samsung M9500 4K Blu-ray player offers the ability to stream audio and video to your mobile device.

Ty Pendlebury Editor

Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.

Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials

Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.

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Ty Pendlebury

Dec. 28, 2016 10:14 a.m. PT

Samsung has announced that its second 4K Blu-ray player, the M9500, will be available in April 2017 for $400 -- the same price as last year's UDB-K8500. UK and Australia pricing and availability has yet to be announced.

While the player's price hasn't changed, features get a bump on this model with Bluetooth streaming and tighter integration with other Samsung Smart Remote-compatible products.

Samsung also promises improved mobile integration with the ability to stream Blu-ray discs to a mobile device, but exactly how the company has managed to circumvent or renegotiate copy protection is unclear.

Like LG Blu-ray players and the Roku before them, the M9500 now features a Private Cinema Mode that enables audio to be streamed to Bluetooth headphones .

In addition, Samsung's new player will automatically flag HDR content so that your (Samsung) 4K TV switches automatically, which is something that should have happened from day one, if you ask us.

Finally, if you're sick of having to look at 360-degree photos on Facebook, the M9500 now offers the ability to view them on your Blu-ray player.