Marantz UD8004

Universal media players are a great addition to any home theater system especially when there is limited space. It is the one solution for keeping past and present technologies wrapped in a single device that may not look compact, but is far better than having multiple systems installed. The latest media players which are the Blu-ray players may offer some backwards compatibility with ordinary DVD formats, but some companies like Marantz are really trying to make sure that no format is left behind.

Marantz has already done that when they released the UD9004, but costing around $6,000, some people may just end up getting a decent home theater system with a large TV. The BD7004 is a nice affordable universal media player as well costing only $800, but the gap of features between that and the flagship UD9004 is vast. Fortunately, the Marantz UD8004 Blu-ray Player aims to bridge that gap offering a nice set of features without going overboard with the price.

Latest Update: The Marantz UD8004 is now on sale at Amazon.com

Marantz UD8004 Blu-ray Player

Marantz UD8004 Blu-ray Player

When it comes to the player’s height, the Marantz UD8004 Blu-ray Player falls nicely in between the BD7004 and the UD9004. Once again, Marantz finishes the player with a nice brushed metal aluminum design that is durable and matches well with other black components. All of the buttons are found on the center of the player except for the “Power” button which is on the left side.

Marantz also keeps the center of the UD 8004 minimalistic just like the other models where the “Open” and “Pause” button are left of the centered tray while the “Play” and “Stop” buttons are found on the opposite end. Six other buttons are found on both sides of the info panel including the seek buttons found on the right side along with familiar functions normally found in Marantz models like the “Sound Mode” and “Pure Direct” buttons on the left side.

The info panel is found just below the tray and the SD card slot is positioned nicely below that. The tray itself has some special properties including a mechanism that emphasizes rotational accuracy so Blu-ray discs play back in optimal performance. The design certainly doesn’t show that it has the power of a universal player because of its minimalistic look, but the finish surely makes it valuable.

Actual user review:
“I am not familiar with anything comparable to this dream machine: my two previous CD/DVD players were the Toshiba’s HD-A2KU and the Onkyo’s DV-CP701. The Marantz UD8004 is one notch below their flagship, the UD9004, at more than twice the price. Is the sound/picture quality of the 9004 worth an additional $3,0000? I will probably never know. I walked into a high-end stereo store, and this is the machine they had hooked up. The UD 8004 is a hefty, serious and stylish machine. This a Universal Disk Player, which means you have it all in one machine. It plays everything, except HD DVDs. If you are reading this review, you must be serious about the quality of sound & video. Press the “pure” direct button on the remote control, or on the deck, to turn off the video signal and enjoy the audio signal only. The image resolution, color saturation and sharp, detailed definition in Blu-ray are simply amazing. You will be amazed at how this machine “improves” the quality of the picture and sound of your “regular” DVDs. There are a myriad of choices and options to fine-tune your machine in an easy to follow menu in your TV. I have mine set to “normal”, so that it adjusts automatically to the kind of movie format we are watching. There are 3 minor annoying points: 1)the disk tray slams shut, 2)it takes longer to load music cd or a dvd than in my other players, and 3)it makes a scrapping sound when loading music. NOTE: Under the guarantee, I took my unit to a Marantz authorized repair shop. After 10 days of tests, they could not find anything wrong with the unit. The scrapping sound has just about disappeared. It never interfered with the quality of the audio or video. My wife says I am too picky, and maybe she’s right. If these inconveniences do not bother you, then I strongly recommend you get this machine.” – E.Infante (CA,USA)

 

Features

The Marantz UD8004 Blu-ray Player has all the modern necessities that other Blu-ray players have including full support for BD Video Profile 2.0 along with Bonus View support. An advanced form of Bonus View called BD-Java is supported as well. This specification allows any Internet content linked by the Blu-ray title to be viewed. A minor downside for its price tag is its lack of Wi-Fi support, but connectivity is still possible by connecting an Ethernet port to the back of the player. Connectivity to the Internet also allows firmware updates to be downloaded.

There are no USB ports either, but people can insert an SD card containing common image and audio formats so that they can be displayed on the screen or played back like a standard audio player. Supported formats include JPEG, MP3, and WMA file types. Compatibility is further expanded upon with support for DivX version 6 formats and AVCHD files. Other formats that are not commonly supported in other players include DVD-V, SA-CD and Kodak picture CD discs. Finally, playback of CD and DVD formats of various kinds play just fine in the Marantz UD8004 Blu-ray Player.

Performance

The UD8004 has a built-in HD Audio Decoder for both dts-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD. While these audio decoders are considered a standard for modern Blu-ray players, Marantz goes beyond by featuring a 32-bit floating point SHARC processor which decodes the latest high-bit formats with great accuracy.

The video quality gets its own dedicated processor known as the Anchor Bay Video Reference processor. In addition, DVDs can upscale to the maximum 1080p resolution through HDMI. The latest HDMI 1.3a technology is used to allow HD audio bit stream outputs and 32-bit Deep Color.

Bottom Line

The Marantz UD8004 Blu-ray Player successfully carries some nice features present in Marantz’s flagship model. The price is a lot less at $2,300 and adds some nice universal features that the BD7004 lacks. Those that do not have a Blu-ray player or DVD player can save some money and space by getting this and play some of the older formats, too.

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