The little brother, as is well known, often finds it difficult to do the same. Is Panasonic still a convincing second serve? The Panasonic UB704 will initially appeal to a larger audience than the UB900. Those who, at a price point of 800 euros, were not willing to invest in the brand new UHD Blu-ray technology.
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Significant differences to the great model, which came on the market in April, are initially visible: standard remote control instead of illuminated luxury version, no vibration-absorbing feet, no analogue audio connections and no attached HDMI cable. All this and the THX certification, which is missing in comparison (and expensive for the manufacturer), makes the device first and foremost more affordable.
4K streaming without HDR
But how does Panasonics diet program affect the technology? During commissioning, on-screen menu and operation, the UB704 has enjoyed the best of breeding. Also the two separate HDMI inputs, which enable loss-free audio signal transmission, as well as the USB and SD card slot a "Ultra HD Premium" -certified sibling pair. It is a pity that the UB704 does not play any HEVC-coded contents over the last two connections, which makes it unsuitable for 4K and HDR over this receive path.
Lesetipp
In the qualitative top league plays however the performance when playing Ultra HD Blu-rays. In our test film "Exodus", for example, the player is waiting with 4K with high contrast high dynamic range (HDR) and the extended color spectrum BT.2020. In terms of color reproduction and sharpness, the UB704 is almost inferior to its brother heart. The Chroma processor, which is also already installed in the UB900, ensures that the image of the disc can be reproduced as a 4: 4: 4 signal as best as possible.
Conclusion
According to our measurements, the data transmission of contents of the "Best of 4K" (Busch Media) has increased to a capacity of up to 17 gigabytes per second, meaning that the latest HDMI high-speed cables are necessary to transfer these data without errors. If the UB900 had still serious jerky problems when playing 25p and 60p content at the initial delivery, Panasonic could avoid this at the UB704 from the start (the UB900 was retrofitted by firmware update)
All IFA's latest image processing processes the IFA novelty perfectly. Also the upscaling of full-HD content of a conventional Blu-ray delivers as expected a considerable 4K-close picture experience.
And how are the streaming services on the new Panasonic player? With maxdome, Netflix and Amazon as well as YouTube, the relevant services are available on the Smart TV platform. The UB704 currently plays only in UHD on the programs in 4K and HDR or even DolbyVision (eg "Breaking Bad", "Mozart In The Jungle")
A pity in terms of HDR. The Dolby format (extended HDR) can not play so far a UHD player. Access to this is currently only possible directly on DolbyVision-enabled apps of the services.
In order to see at least the 4K content in the best transmission quality, it is always recommended the wired connection, even if the reception by WLAN is of course possible.
The UB704 is also a sound friend and works with WAV, WMA, AAC and MP3 as well as FLAC, DSD and ALAC formats, despite the lack of analogue audio outputs.
"I'm going to the festival", could be the plan of many home cinema films, which want to invest safely in a high-quality Blu-ray player. The deficits on the USB and SD front are likely to be a problem for many. In the meantime, all sorts of childhood diseases that the big brother had yet to contend with were eliminated. A classic shopping tip for UHD beginners.
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