Laser BLU-BD4000
VerifiedMPN: BLU-BD40003 reviews
- See all
I do not recommend this player it is the worst I have ever purchased. The remote is unresponsive requiring several presses of the very small buttons even after replacing the batteries. The programming is difficult especially exiting sleep mode. Show details
Great upscaling of DVDs – I bought this player for DVD playback. My main concern is with picture quality as DVDs are low resolution and use interlacing, therefore the upscaling and deinterlacing to 1080p for its HDMI output is critical in terms of making DVDs look acceptable on larger TVs. I was delighted to find the upscaling on this model is very competent. I don't… Read more
know what model chipset it uses but it does a great job. I have tested it with various NTSC and PAL discs which are mastered in various ways at various field cadences such as 3:2, 2:2, 1:1, 4:4, 8:7, and I can see that it is correctly performing "inverse telecine" whenever possible. This is where the video processor performs field matching to determine for which frames the top field (odd lines) can be weaved with the bottom field (even lines). This effectively doubles the vertical resolution and gives you true 480p and 576p from NTSC and PAL discs respectively. Keep in mind that this will not make badly mastered discs look good - rubbish in, rubbish out.
The colours appear accurate in terms of using the correct matrix conversion from Rec.601 to Rec.709 as I compared them visually with a reference output from my MadVR-based HTPC on the 75% colour bars test pattern.
To get correct colourimetry I had to set the colour space to "YCbCr" and also the TV System set to "MULTI" so that it auto-switches between 1080p50 for PAL discs and 1080p60 for NTSC discs. The Aspect Ratio setting should also be set to "16:9 normal" in order to output 4:3 DVDs at the correct aspect ratio without stretching the image. So out of the box the settings are not optimal and needed some tweaking, but no big deal.
Some of the settings appear to do nothing, such as the video sharpness control and the audio equaliser presets. I could not find any change in image quality or audio quality when changing these settings. There are also controls for contrast, brightness, colour saturation etc. but I would leave those alone as they introduced banding artefacts on a grey ramp test pattern, indicating that part of the video processor doesn't use dithering.
As far as the video scaling algorithm goes, I find it quite clean without ringing artefacts or chroma artefacts. If you want to add some sharpening to some softer DVDs then you would need to increase the sharpness control on your TV.
The drive motor is not loud when playing discs, thank goodness.
The remote is not great, the buttons are all tiny and impossible to feel your way around without looking down at the remote. Therefore I purchased a OneForAll URC-7955 universal remote to replace it with, which I have written a review here recently.
I have briefly tested bluray playback and did not find any issues, but my testing was not extensive as I will not be watching any blurays on it, only DVDs. The multi region bluray capability is quite rare though so that's a big plus if you have bought discs online from other regions. It's amazing that this cheap little player can play all discs while Sony and Panasonic offerings do not.
There is also media player functionality through the USB port which I tested out. Firstly I tested it with my own DVD remux rips which I made with MakeMKV, and can confirm you get the same excellent upscaling and inverse telecine quality that you do when playing discs. This opens up the possibility of remuxing all your discs to mkv files and putting them on a hard drive for convenience. Although this takes a long time - ripping DVDs is slow, and you have to manually name every file so this may not be worth the effort. It's probably easier to just keep using discs unless you are worried about disc rot or prefer the convenience of having all your content accessible through menus. The menu for browsing media files is not great - quite small, doesn't make good use of the screen real estate, so keep your file names short. It only remembers playback position until the next reboot. And I don't think there is a way to flag a file as "watched" to keep track of which episode in a series you are up to.
Also tested the media player with x264 files and they played fine, but would not properly play files more than 30 frames per second. i.e 50fps and 60fps files either play incorrectly or not at all. The x265 format is not supported at all, which is to be expected at this price point.
Overall I can easily recommend this player at $139, four stars, best entry level player on the market in my opinion. And hey if you're not satisfied, it's an easy return to BigW.
Update: just wanted to add an issue regarding the upscaling picture quality. On the remote control there is a button labelled "HDMI" which cycles the HDMI output resolution mode between standard definition and high definition. This HDMI button is placed directly below the often used "return" button and also the numpad. This means for the average user they will probably end up pressing it by accident at some point since the buttons are all very small and cramped together. Thus, at some point you can bet the output will be inadvertently changed to a lower quality standard definition output unbeknownst to the user, thus disabling/bypassing the Laser's excellent upscaling, resulting in worse image quality. My solution to this was to crack open the remote with a credit card along the seam and put some electrical tape over the contact pad for the HDMI button. That way when the button is accidentally pressed it does nothing. HDMI resolution can still be changed via the on screen menu. Just something to consider if you plan on giving this player to non tech savvy users or older users who you can be sure will press the HDMI button accidentally at some stage.
- +5
Good features. Better than some Sony & Panasonic (for the low price range) – This is my review of the LASER blu-ray player model BLU-BD4000. I've purchased this player in store in Australia and I've paid $139 for it. Overall this is a good Blu-ray player for this price range. This is a blu-ray player with Full HD 1080 (i.e. not Ultra HD or 4K). The reason I purchased this LASER blu-ray player is that I did not want 4k… Read more
Ultra HD and because the range of 4K discs available to Australia is very poor. And I did not want the latest SONY player again. I've purchased this LASER player as a replacement to the latest SONY BDP-S3500 Blu-ray player which died after 27 months ( SONY later models Blu-ray players are known to have various faults ).
But my main reason for purchasing this LASER blu-ray player is that it can play standard DVD and Blu-Ray discs locked to other regions. It can also play PAL and NTSC including DVD and Blu-ray discs and my own MPEG-4 video files recorded on DVD-R discs and USB flash drive and my music tracks recorded on CD-R discs.
• The LASER BLU-BD4000 is the only factory made blu-ray player in the current Australian market which can do all of the above functions.
(Sure there are other blu-ray players which are advertised and selling as "region code free" on Amazon however those are not factory made because they are modified by some individual hence the SONY manufacturer warranty is void. eg. SONY X700 or SONY S1700 because they've been tampered with by some individual and users reported to have experienced a variety of playback issues).
I'm doing an in depth review of this BD4000 and I'm also comparing it to other contemporary blu-ray players on the market.
I previously used and reviewed the pricy contemporary SONY UBP-X700/BM Ultra HD and I was disappointed with it and I've had to return it. The main thing to know here is that I've been advised that SONY have stopped manufacturing all blu-ray players and that none of their current players support DVD nor Blu-ray discs locked to other regions. So with this knowledge in mind I set out to find an alternative Blu-ray player by some other manufacturer. The blu-ray player most suitable for my needs was this LASER BLU-BD4000.
First of all, the BLU-BD4000 out of the box came with System Information 'Machine Type: BD V1.6.31.4' and 'Revision: 206.1788'. This System will need a firmware update because it may experience audio issues when playing MPEG-4 video files i.e. no sound while you can see the video playing. I contacted LASER Support by email about this audio issue and I had a reply the next day advising me to update the firmware. So this was a fast response from LASER and useful bit of advice.
To do the update of the firmware requires the use of a Windows computer. I used a USB flash drive (MS-FAT32) to store the UPG_ALL' folder on it so it can be installed. I plugged this flash drive into the LASER USB interface and installed the System update. It fixed the audio issue. The firmware update was successful. The System Information changed and showed the new 'Machine Type: BD V1.6.31.5' and 'Revision: 206.2023'.
BLU-BD4000: How to Install the BD4000 Firmware. Here is the link: https://laserco.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/51000398376-blu-bd4000-how-to-install-the-bd4000-firmware
Even the Sony and Panasonic blu-ray players I've used required firmware updates. So with the firmware update done on the LASER player I will go on with the rest of this review. This blu-ray player does not have built-in wi-fi. That's ok, because for my budget I was not looking for built-in wi-fi. This player has an attached power lead (without a power adapter thank goodness) as I didn't want any more power adapters on my audio visual equipment.
The remote control was included with batteries. (There's no HDMI cable included). The buttons on the remote control are very small. I had to be very careful and feel around for the correct button. I wonder if there's a universal remote control out there which is compatible and has large buttons to use as a replacement ?
The disc tray is thin and the disc recess is shallow so you will need to be careful of any discs that have adhesive labels on them.
For connection to a TV set the LASER BD4000 player only has a HDMI output in the rear. That's all it has. ( It does not have Coaxial, Optical nor Component Video Output ). That's fine for my use because I've connected the LASER BD4000 (with Bitstream setting) to my contemporary PIONEER AV Receiver (7.1 surround system) using my own High Speed HDMI cable. It plays surround sound in DOLBY or PCM. I've played a DVD disc with NTSC Region 1 ( whereas none of the current or latest Australian model SONY blu-ray players would play any DVD discs locked to other regions). I've also used another latest model standard blu-ray player, SONY BDPS3500.
The front of this LASER unit does not have a digital display but neither does the Sony BDPS3500 nor the Sony UBPX700. Use the LASER remote control 'Display' button to see the media information on the TV screen.
The LASER BD4000 player has many useful features. After setting my DVD discs from other regions the discs did automatically play. With blu-ray discs from other regions you will need to manually change the region code.
Using this LASER BD4000, I was able to watch some old DVD disc set series I own including, 'The Golden Girls' (PAL Region 4, 2006) and The Nanny ( NTSC Region 1, 2015 ). These were studio recordings done in the 1980s and 1990s so they were old video transfers. I was able to watch these with the player's Sharpness set to 'Low'. They displayed ok because this LASER blu-ray player can upscale DVD discs. ( The picture quality was equal to my Sony blu-ray player ).
While using the LASER BLU-BD4000 I've also watched a much more recent movie 'Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop' on DVD disc ( PAL Region 4, 2022 ). This video transfer and recording displayed a really good picture quality and the resolution being high displaying beautiful colors, detail and very good smoothing.
Using the LASER BLU-BD4000 I've also played a Blu-ray disc of 'Spider-man 3' ( 1080, All Regions 2007 ). The picture quality displayed beautifully. I've carefully watched the action scenes and there wasn't any blurred motion. I didn't have any playback issues with this disc.
I did a picture quality comparison. I've played these DVD discs and Blu-ray Disc on an older 1080 Blu-ray player, SONY BDP-S360. The picture quality was equal to the SONY blu-ray player. I did not feel that there was any loss of picture quality while using the BD4000.
The LASER BLU-BD4000 has a simple interface and easy to navigate. ( The Set Up interface in the current Sony BDPS3500 wasn't any better ). The BD4000 also has some useful settings including various Resolutions to select with Interlaced or Progressive options. NTSC, PAL, Multi 24Hz. It also has settings for HDMI Deep Color 30 bits, 36 bits or 48 bits. It also includes Display Settings for Color Space RGB, YCbCr, YCbCr422, Full RGB. ( To match this Color Space with my TV set I set this player to Full RGB ). The fast forward can be 1, x2, x3 times fast. The picture Sharpness settings are Low, Medium, High; I opted for the Low setting because the Medium setting can be a little strong and show pixelated pictures on some older heavily compressed videos. The sound settings also offer a preset equaliser, of which I selected 'Rock' and this was good. It also offers 3 x options of Down Sampling including 48K, 96K, 192K. And offers Dolby Dynamic Range Compression or plain DRC. These are all good options to select from.
Using my large surround sound receiver and floor speakers I've played several different audio CDs including store bought ones and CD-R ( .aiff tracks ) I've recorded with my Apple Mac. The music sounded fine. I did not hear any loss of audio quality.
To play Blu-ray discs locked to other regions you will need to manually change the region code by going into the Settings menu and enter 8520 on the remote control. The TV screen will display the options for you to select the correct region code for the Blu-ray disc. When you're finished with watching this disc you will need to set the player back to the desired region code. ( I found the instructions for this online in the LASER website and the color Player Manual pdf ).
To understand the various settings I needed to refer to both of the above LASER BLU-BD4000 User Manuals.
Overall this LASER BLU-BD4000 performed well and was suitable with my TV set which has gamma settings. For its price range, I've given this LASER blu-ray player a good comparison; I did not feel that there was any loss of picture nor sound quality compared to the other models mentioned above. In some ways I think that the BD4000 has surpassed some Sony and Panasonic blu-ray players in its functionality, county region unlocking flexibility, optional settings and price. LASER offers a 3 year warranty ( whereas the latest Blu-ray players from Sony or Panasonic offer a 12 month warranty ). I was also able to watch my MPEG-4, H.264, AAC videos recorded onto DVD-R and USB flash drive. For $139 the LASER BLU-BD4000 was the better deal and if the design of the remote control was better I would've rated it more than 4 stars. ( I will not be buying nor using another current Sony blu-ray player model ever, not even if you gave it to me for free ). I've only had this LASER player for over 2 weeks. I'm pleased with it. So far so good. I don't know if this player will be trouble free or how long it will last.
ProductReview.com.au has affiliate partnerships. These do not influence our content moderation policies in any way, though ProductReview.com.au may earn commissions for products/services purchased via affiliate links.