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Sony announces $299 pre-order for UBP-X800B 4K Blu-ray player

Sony's new UBP-X800 4K Blu-ray player appears to be elegantly designed and has support for a wide number of formats and services.

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
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Sony

Update, February 10 2016: Sony has announced the X800 is now available for pre-order for $299, with UK and Australian pricing and availability yet to be announced.

At $299 the Sony UBP-X800 is the same price as the 4K Blu-ray compatible Xbox One S (which also plays games) and the Samsung UBD-K8500.

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4K Blu-ray was a long time coming but when it finally arrived it came with a murmur not a shout. Companies such as Sony and LG decided to hold off on the first wave of players until the format matured.

Sony's UBP-X800 will be the company's go-to player when it's released in March 2017 and it includes a host of features including: a Sony developed Precision HD drive for enhanced playback of most disc types as well as support for 4K streaming services. Sony says the player will adjust itself when playing HDR material on an SDR TV for "the best picture possible".

The three high-end players from Sony announced recently share the same design forged by the "premium" 1080p UHP-H1 player, with a squat, blocky and yet attractive look.

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The player will also playback digital music with support for high-res audio up to 192 kHz/24-bit and DSD 11.2MHz in addition to streaming Bluetooth to headphones for private listening.

Sony already announced the high-end UBP-X1000ES last year for release at the same time, but that model is designed to be only sold through custom installers -- you won't be able to barrel up to your local Best Buy and expect to walk off with one. The differences between the 800 and 1000 aren't yet known, we have asked Sony for clarification.

4K Ultra HD Blu-ray is the latest disc-based standard and includes features such as a 4K resolution (3,840x2,160 pixels), high dynamic range (HDR) and better color depth (BT.2020).