That could definitely be it. Does it have Wi-Fi?

Like you, I don't need the Smart Apps, as I have a Roku.

Nope, just an ethernet port. It does have dual HDMI ports which is crucial if you don’t have a 4K receiver.

Good to know! Currently, I'm only rocking a lowly Vizio Sound Bar.

If my 4K TV supports Dolby Vision & HDR10, should I go with a player that supports Dolby Vision?

The Sony UBPX700 supports Dolby Vision and is $199.99 at Best Buy (or $179.99 at Walmart).

The Panasonic DP-UB420-K does not support Dolby Vision but is currently on-sale for $219.99 at Best Buy and comes with a free 4K BD.

^ I would say yes. DV is generally understood to be better than HDR10, for... reasons. I actually don't know the specifics, but something about DV having more zones or more dynamic HDR processing than HDR10 (or something like that) which is, for lack of a better term, 'simpler' in its underlying function. I haven't been able to do any kind of legitimate side-by-side comparison, as I only have an XBox which does DV or HDR10 with apps (if they support it), but only HDR10 with discs.
Maybe I'll spring for that UBPX700 with my tax money... hmmm...

I'm sure someone else will have a better, more technical answer. But... I'd say go with the player that supports DV.

Sony ubp x800m2 is my weapon of choice.

Thanks to everyone who helped out with recommendations! Appreciate it greatly!

I ended up picking up the Sony UBPX700 at my local Walmart for $179.99 for the Dolby Vision support.

Just know that with the x700, Dolby Vision must manually be turned on and off. You must find out if the disc you are playing supports DV and if so, go into the menus and turn it on. Don't forget to go back into the menu after the movie is finished and shut it off. If you don't, it will enable DV on non DV content (HDR & SDR) and will look like complete shit. A bit of a hassle but I do believe it is the cheapest player with DV.

Thank you for the heads up!

That's not too bad. I was definitely happy with the price.

Oops! I took way too long to reply to your PM and missed that you'd made a decision. Sorry I didn't turn that around faster. Still, I'm sure you'll be really happy with the Sony. In the other forums I read, there are basically two players everyone seems to swear by, and the Sony is one of 'em.

Not a problem! All the recommendations you all gave here helped my research tremendously.

Went with the Sony for the Dolby Vision and the price (at Walmart).

Dolby Vision has true 12-bit color processing, making it better with the top displays.

While this is true, there are almost no devices out there that can take advantage of it. Even the top OLEDs are 10 bit panels. I suppose it's possible that the 12 bit DV signal MIGHT give slightly better results in gradation, with less banding.

Where DV truly shines over HDR10, is the dynamic metadata.

The 4K TV I ordered was delivered today, so I'm now getting a chance to tinker around with it and the Sony UBPX7000 I bought with it.

So far, I've used linked Calibrated Settings to check out The Dark Knight (4K BD) & Parasite (BD).

Is there a reason an Upscaled (Standard) BD would look odd or worse on a 4K BD Player on a 4K TV?

I remember Inception looking great on BD but as I'm currently watching it, skin textures look smeared out and everything looks a bit blurry.

I don't have any sort of DNR or Motion Processing things turned on anywhere.

This is the first BD I've played on this setup that I thought looked very odd. Everything else I've thrown at it looks great.

It might be worth trying it on another player on the same TV. I haven't watched my Inception BD on my setup, but I could imagine some of what was going on here -- transferred from an interpositive rather than the negative or a digital intermediate; no IMAX segments; an older Blu-ray release -- not holding up super-well to today's standards.

Personally, I did not feel that the x700 did a very good job upscaling 1080p to 4K, so while I had that player, I turned upscaling off and let the TV handle the upscaling.

I tried it on my Region-Free BD Player that is only capable of 1080p after my initial issue.

Then I tried it again on my 4K BD Player, turning off HDR on my TV and/or anything else that I thought might have been worsening the issue.

Left the Upscaling on the BD Player on but changed to one of the Calibrated Dark Presets, which seemed to make the image more tolerable than before.

I don't know why but I completely forgot that this was an older Blu-Ray release, having been released almost 10 years ago. Makes a lot of sense!

Apologies for my ignorance but do 4K naturally upscale, non-4K material or is there a specific setting I need to look for in the menus?

All 4K TVs have an internal processor to handle displaying non-4K content, and a good TV's processor will usually outperform the upscaling on a player (especially if the player's on the cheaper side). There's nothing needing to be toggled in the TV menu... this is done automatically. If you were using a regular old 1080p bluray player hooked to your TV via HDMI, the TV is converting the image to be displayed on the 4K panel.

Thank you again for the info!

Will be tinkering around with this hopefully tonight.

Trying to decide what kind of 4K player to get, or if I even decide to get just a dedicated player versus one one of the next gen consoles.

I’m assuming none of the current uhd players have the region free trick that some Panasonic bd players have. I’m trying to decide if I should seek out a modded Sony 700 or 800 or just keep both players hooked up.

That'd be awesome if they do. I have the Panasonic UB820... I might have to look into this. What's the trick?

If I remember correctly you open the tray and bring up the players main menu. You close the tray and play it from there. I’ll try to re-enact it when I get home from work on my Panasonic bd player.

Ok I did it again.
Put in the disc. A message pops up that says this is a region B disc.
Press the stop button on the remote. Then press sub menu and select top menu. Please let me know if this works for a Blu-ray on your uhd player.