Sony UBP-X800 UHD 4K Universal Player Target $90 Clearance

Discussion in 'Coupons, Discounts & Sales' started by Chris Gerhard, Oct 24, 2018.

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  1. Dan

    Dan Senior Member

    Location:
    WNY
    I had the same experience with pricing. The Target near my house had three @$89.99 and the one I work next to had them for $149 in the closeout section. After I made a special trip to the one near my house they lowered the other ones from $149 to $89.
     
  2. The Elephant Man

    The Elephant Man Forum Resident

    Sometimes I think that it's whenever the staff gets to the project at hand. A few years ago when Target had put most of their vinyl on clearance, I found out about it too late. Most of the Targets near me had been raided and all of the clearance titles were gone. So I decided to call my niece who was a manager at a store in Cleveland. Turns out that this store never even put their vinyl out. Everything was in back. She told me what they had, I placed my order and got about 15 albums for around $7 apiece (with her discount, of course)!
    Sorry to digress...
     
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  3. googlymoogly

    googlymoogly Forum Resident

    I just saw this - you guys who were able to pick this player up at around $90 got a great deal!
     
  4. Reese

    Reese Just because some watery tart threw a sword!

    Have you tried cleaning the lens? This is a classic symptom of a dirty lens. All of my players have eventually done this. A lens cleaning disc might work or you may have to open the case and use a q-tip to gently remove airborne gunk that has accumulated.
     
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  5. deadcoldfish

    deadcoldfish Senior Member

    Location:
    Santa Rosa, CA
    price finally dropped at Santa Rosa, CA Target North, and there is now 1 left on the shelf.
     
    Engineer X likes this.
  6. In SACD players it's usually a sign of the laser's output dying.
     
    Beyond Salvation and marcb like this.
  7. Engineer X

    Engineer X Forum Resident

    Thanks Paul for the heads up - just picked up the last one
     
    deadcoldfish likes this.
  8. Reese

    Reese Just because some watery tart threw a sword!

    It could be a sign. A dirty lens is much more likely and has the same impact as a failing laser. You'll also likely have trouble with blu-rays. I've only had to replace one laser sled over the last 15 years - from my Oppo BDP-83 - and that was a $30 part and a 20 minute job. It's easy enough to clean the lens and, if that doesn't work, then suspect the laser.

    As I wrote, a lens cleaning disc may solve the problem, at least at first. Unfortunately, cleaning discs tend to only partially clean a little patch in the center of the lens. Eventually, the contaminates on the lens will build up to the point that the disc doesn't have much effect. Opening the case and cleaning the lens with a Q-tip works best. It also gives you the opportunity to clean the sled rails, remove gunk from the gears, and blow accumulated dust out of the case.
     
  9. DigMyGroove

    DigMyGroove Forum Resident

    Those one star reviews on Amazon certainly don't make me want to buy this!
     
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  10. live evil

    live evil Senior Member

    Location:
    ohio
    I agree. I found one near me for $90, and then I checked Amazon. I decided to pass.
     
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  11. tingly

    tingly Forum Resident

    I usually ignore 1-star reviews since they're often unreasonable, but higher-starred reviews have the same issues on this. I'm going to have to pass, too. A Target near me hasn't dropped its price yet.
     
  12. Chris Gerhard

    Chris Gerhard Senior Member Thread Starter

    I have extensive experience with universal players, own Oppo and Yamaha in addition to Sony, and I can state without reservation this is not a 1-star player. Most of the nonsense negative reviews are from people that don't know what they are talking about, period. There are some small percentage that have had issues with freezing during playback requiring unplugging and plugging it back in. I have never had that issue and have not posted a 5-star review stating my player doesn't have that issue, neither have most of the other users without any issues, a huge majority of the owners is the way it appears to me. I haven't felt like posting an Amazon review since I didn't buy the player from Amazon.

    As with any Sony product, there are biased negative reviews resulting from some perceived mistreatment in the past. The main Amazon page for this player indicates 3.7/5 with some negative reviews not happy with the seller, which has nothing to do with the player. Of course if you want to base purchase decisions of a product like this on Amazon reviews, that is your right. Amazon reviews on this player and most purchase decisions I make are meaningless to me.
     
  13. marcb

    marcb Senior Member

    Location:
    DC area
    My experience with Sony SACD players has been the opposite. And that’s not a criticism...just an observation.
     
  14. tingly

    tingly Forum Resident

    People with Sony issues, nonsensical ravings, and the number of 1-star ratings didn't enter into why I passed. If it was 2% mentioning freezing and it was mostly nonsensical ravings, I'd dismiss them and haunt my Target. But it's 10% in often very reasonable reviews. It's still at $150 here, I have time to cave.

    Ah, this might help me cave. Apparently, wireless freezes and wired doesn't. It would be wired in my setup. I need to read more reviews.
     
  15. Chris Gerhard

    Chris Gerhard Senior Member Thread Starter

    I didn't catch the wired vs wireless issue, I have only been connected by ethernet and set up my first one in May and to my surprise, I see it was purchased at Amazon. My recollection was that I purchased a Sony UBP-X1000ES at Amazon, not the UBP-X800.

    In any event, a new player will of course be covered by Sony warranty and whatever Target's return policy is. I don't know what the second least expensive 4K universal player costs but I am sure it is a multiple of this crazy deal. If you don't need a universal player, something else might make more sense but if you need a universal player and can live without Dolby Vision, no front display and no analog output, I can't imagine passing this deal up.
     
  16. Thesmellofvinyl

    Thesmellofvinyl Senior Member

    Location:
    Cohoes, NY USA
    I wonder if Brickcheck is ever wrong; showing "out of stock" when there really is one?
     
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  17. tingly

    tingly Forum Resident

    I've only heard of the opposite happening. You can try cross-checking with dccoapps.
     
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  18. Chris Gerhard

    Chris Gerhard Senior Member Thread Starter

    Anything is possible but that is something with such a slim chance, I sure wouldn't make a trip to the store to check. If you are going anyway, take a look. My significant other stopped in the Hattiesburg, MS Target yesterday, it was showing limited stock and either there was none or it couldn't be found by the sales person so the opposite is fairly common. Remaining inventory is so small at Target stores the chance of finding one now are not good.

    My local Best Buy has stock, maybe Best Buy will closeout their remaining inventory across the country this Black Friday.
     
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  19. tingly

    tingly Forum Resident

    Best Buy's black friday price is $150.

    I finished reading reviews. I'm in if my Target ever gets down to $90. There does seem to be a firmware bug that handles certain issues by freezing the box instead of dealing with them. 2 fixes were suggested and worked for some.
    cable fix - get an 18Gbps HDMI cable and connect it to the right HDMI port on the TV, ports 2 or 3 on a Sony TV
    wireless (and wired) fix - unplug ethernet and shut off all internet settings
    Neither are guaranteed to fix. People who got replacements never got a good one which sounds like it wasn't the box. I can't explain why Amazon has a much higher percentage of 1-star reviews than Best Buy other than maybe Amazon customers are more likely to use non-4K (18Gbps) cables.

    Only one reviewer thought that SACD/DVD-A surround sound only works through the HDMI port. Another thought that its stream apps don't do HDR.
     
  20. Chris Gerhard

    Chris Gerhard Senior Member Thread Starter

    Best Buy had refurbished UBP-X800s for $99 some months ago. I have always thought the wrong HDMI cable is a common cause of issues reported for 4K players. SACD and DVD-A surround does only work through the HDMI port and not through coaxial as far as I know, not unique for digital output with any player I have used.

    My son has three 4K UHD TVs in his house, has 2 UBP-X800s connected now and he is trying to find a third at $90 but I don't think it will happen, at least not new. His sisters have been on the lookout in the Tampa Bay and Dallas areas or I should I say we are on the lookout for an opportunity to send them to a store if one is available at a reasonable distance. I sent one daughter on a wild goose chase based on the Brickseek status. Since he doesn't have any SACDs or DVD-As, I have been trying to steer him towards a non-universal player with Dolby Vision but he seems to like the better built, heavier Sony UBP-X800. The cheap plastic players feel like toys compared to this player to me too but I guess time will tell if those cheap plastic players hold up over the long run.

    As far as the streaming apps, for whatever reason Sony hasn't gotten this model up to speed, I wouldn't recommend it for that purpose and I don't use it for that but I don't need it. I don't know the current status of the various apps. What I do know is I have no freezing issues, the player does great with the various digital disc formats. After six months of using this player exclusively for all Region 1 DVD, all CD, all SACD, all DVD-A, all Blu-ray 4K, and all Region A Blu-ray playback, I have not had any issues. My preference is to play discs so that is what I do and I play a lot of discs and I am doing this using a player somebody else returned probably claiming it was defective. I have let my other players sit idle for those formats, that is amazing to me at a giveaway price. If a simple way to achieve all-region playback is discovered, it will be perfect for me.
     
  21. tingly

    tingly Forum Resident

    Rowett and Tyler, Texas supposedly have 2 each at $90. Tyler is a bit of a drive.
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  22. hutlock

    hutlock Forever Breathing

    Location:
    Cleveland, OH, USA
    Well after scouring Northeast Ohio and some downright Herculean efforts from my man @SJP I am still STILL looking for one of these stupid things.

    If anyone has one to spare or bought an extra I will happily take it off your hands. PM me if you can help a brother in dire need of a universal player.
     
    tingly likes this.
  23. tingly

    tingly Forum Resident

    Did you hit these? They're all $90 if they aren't vapor stock. My Target didn't have any on the shelves, but I found 1 on the floor at the clearance end cap.
    1 Macedonia/Northfield
    2 University Heights
    1 Whitehall
     
    Last edited: Nov 10, 2018
  24. hutlock

    hutlock Forever Breathing

    Location:
    Cleveland, OH, USA
    I spent like two hours in University Heights. No one could find them even though it said they had 2. I scoured that place. I have NOT hit Macedonia and that one is near-ish my work... thanks!
     
    tingly likes this.
  25. SJP

    SJP Forum Resident

    Location:
    Anaheim
    Sending good vibes for your search. Sorry we couldn't turn my $149 unit into an $89 unit. Target makes that difficult and with tax and shipping, you could buy a $200 player when all is said and done if I had sent you the more expensive version.

    For those on the sidelines, I bought one for $149 but continued my search and found an $89 unit. I tried to return the expensive one at my home store which had it priced at $89, intending to go back and buy it for less the next day for señor Hutlock. The problem was that once it sold out, it purged from their system and they rendered the player defective and shipped it to gosh knows where.

    Good luck with your search. I'm sure something will turn up, even at a $149-ish price point this Black Friday.
     
    tingly likes this.
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