Panasonic UB700 4K HDR Ultra HD Blu-ray player takes on Samsung UBD-K8500 in price wars

Panasonic has announced a new, cheaper 4K HDR capable Blu-ray player at its press conference at IFA in Berlin, Germany.

The new model, which will be dubbed the UB700 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player will come with many of the same, but not all, the features found in the BU900 player already on the market.

Panasonic has confirmed though that the cheaper player, which is expected to cost around 500 euro, won’t feature 7.1 surround sound support, or be THX certified.

It will however come with twin HDMI outputs support for high-resolution audio formats such as DSD and ALAC.

The player will remain DLNA compatible for media streaming, offer Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity, and come with the company’s smart platform for VOD services and 4K content sharing mobile devices using Miracast.

“The DMP-UB700 incorporates a newly developed 4K-ready engine: the 4K High-Precision Chroma Processor,” says Panasonic in a statement. “By using an original, highly accurate multi-tap process, it delivers beautiful, natural pictures with life-like depth, vivid colours and high-contrast dynamics. The DMP-UB700 also has an original 4K Direct Chroma up-scaling function so that it can deliver 4K-quality pictures with high resolution and beautiful colours from 2K content.”

The new model and new price puts it in direct competition with the Samsung Blu-ray player already on the market giving consumers even more choice beyond streaming to access 4K HDR Ultra HD content.