Blu-ray Player Reviews

Samsung UBD-M9500 Ultra HD Blu-ray Player Review Specs

Specs
Dimensions (WxHxD, Inches): 16 x 1.8 x 8.9
Weight (Pounds): 4.2
Video Outputs: HDMI 2.0a (1), HDMI Audio Only (1)
Audio Outputs: Optical digital (1)
Additional: Ethernet (1), USB 2.0 (1), Wi-Fi
Price: $400

Company Info
Samsung
(800) 726-7864
samsung.com/us

COMPANY INFO
Samsung
(800) 726-7864
samsung.com/us
ARTICLE CONTENTS

COMMENTS
pw's picture
Submitted by pw on November 13, 2017 - 4:32pm

No Dolby Vision no deal..
Already outdated..

brenro's picture
Submitted by brenro on November 13, 2017 - 5:29pm

Never happen. The jury's still out on DV.

jnemesh's picture
Submitted by jnemesh on November 14, 2017 - 8:27am

HDR10+ supports everything DV does, except for the 12 bit support, which no one is using. Samsung, the WORLDS LARGEST DISPLAY MANUFACTURER, refuses to support the format, AT ALL (even in their blu-ray players). It's not gonna happen, no matter how badly DV fanboys want it to happen. (Why are there even DV fanboys???) It's essentially DOA.

brenro's picture
Submitted by brenro on November 13, 2017 - 5:28pm

The UBD-8500 has had all the bugs worked out, is still for sale, and sells for a hundred bucks cheaper. This article fails to tell me what makes the new one better.

David Vaughn's picture
Submitted by David Vaughn on November 13, 2017 - 6:46pm
I have both players and prefer this generation. First, it's a bit faster to boot up and load discs. Second, the remote is improved (a non factor if you use a Universal remote). Third, I like how you can customize the main menu to the services you actually use (last year's model may do this now, but I haven't had it plugged in for nearly 6 months now). Is that worth $100? To me it would be.
brenro's picture
Submitted by brenro on November 14, 2017 - 6:35am

You should have written the review.

David Vaughn's picture
Submitted by David Vaughn on November 14, 2017 - 6:40am
I did write the review! For print you only have so many words. Also, it isn't a comparison to last year's model, it's a review about this particular unit. Also, if you read between the lines you'll see that I called these things out (except for the speed) in the review.
brenro's picture
Submitted by brenro on November 14, 2017 - 8:12am

I have the older model and was looking to see if there was a compelling reason to upgrade. Keep up the good work!

David Vaughn's picture
Submitted by David Vaughn on November 15, 2017 - 9:11am
Thanks for the kind words. It was an easy oversight! Have a great holiday season.
michaelalanlittrell@yahoo.com's picture
Submitted by michaelalanlitt... on November 14, 2017 - 8:20am

David...Thanks for the short review. I had the UBD-K8500 and demoed the UBD-M9500. I thought the build quality was the same between the two units. I think the remote on the M9500 is just as bad or worse than the K8500's. Still not backlit and the remote is all black (including the keys) which makes using the remote in a darkened remote difficult. The remote in your article is silver BTW. The user interface is improved for sure (not that the original was bad) and the on screen info displayed by the player is much better, but I did not see an improvement in picture quality over the predecessor. At $279 for the M9500, the Sony which is currently on sale at $150 is a better value in my opinion.

David Vaughn's picture
Submitted by David Vaughn on November 14, 2017 - 3:03pm
I'm not sure where the remote that is pictured came from because that's not the remote that came with the player. I'll inquire with the webmaster if the wrong image was uploaded. Regardless, I thought the spacing was better on this remote versus last year's player and I didn't misclick like I did last year. I haven't tested the Sony player, so I'm not sure how well it works. If it's a typical Sony, you may have to go through their service page to use Netflix, etc, which didn't work very well in the past for me personally.
David Vaughn's picture
Submitted by David Vaughn on November 14, 2017 - 3:08pm
If a UHD player (or Blu-ray player) is doing its job right, you won't see any difference in performance. Personally, I did see a slight improvement because there wasn't any red push in the image, which the UBD-K8500 had initially. I'm not sure they ever fixed that via firmware because once the Oppo came out, the K8500 was put back in its box and hasn't been used since. I still use the Oppo daily for disc playback, but I watch Netflix and Amazon using the M9500.
drny's picture
Submitted by drny on November 14, 2017 - 2:25pm

Whoopy for M9500 and its streaming prowess.
Samsung can keep it its streaming apps, just gives us back 3D playback.
I was also looking to upgrade to a second generation UHD player.
One with HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, along with good old 3D.
I don't get it.
Any TV that can take advantage of UHD blurays 4k and HDR already has a multitude of apps.
I stream Netflix 4k, Youtube, and Amazon Video directly to my Samsung JS9500 via a LAN connection.
Streaming via a direct hardwired LAN connection, to the display, gives the viewer the best possible quality.
In my opinion Samsung missed the boat with the M9500.
I guess I will have to wait for Oppo's second generation UHD player and pay through the nose.

David Vaughn's picture
Submitted by David Vaughn on November 14, 2017 - 3:05pm
For those of us with front projectors, we need devices that can stream. In my opinion, the Samsung blows the Roku 4K away in reliability--it just works versus the Roku that I returned to the store in less than a week because it was so unreliable. This player was released nearly 6 months ago and frankly, is already outdated. I'm sure their next player will have Dolby Vision (or it better!).
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