Tascam BD-MP4K Professional-Grade 4K UHD Blu-ray Player

Big downgrade from players made 4 or 5 years ago

Great product for my purpose.

Big downgrade from players made 4 or 5 years ago

Overall:It's a shame, this unit could have been a big seller, replacing the Oppo UDP-203 for those who wanted a second unit and for those who never had the chance to purchase one before they sold out. I assumed since the Tascam BD-MP4K is labeled as "professional" it would at least be able to do everything that the Oppo (standard/for average home user) was able to do. Unfortunately, it can't. Not sure why they labeled it as professional other than it comes with two ears that screw on so it can be rack mounted.(1) A-B Repeat and Slow Motion do not work in tandem with each other. The unit can not do a A-B Repeat loop in Slow Motion. When the loop ends at point "B" and then begins again at point "A" the unit can not hold the Slow Motion rate, it automatically reverts ... MoreOverall:It's a shame, this unit could have been a big seller, replacing the Oppo UDP-203 for those who wanted a second unit and for those who never had the chance to purchase one before they sold out. I assumed since the Tascam BD-MP4K is labeled as "professional" it would at least be able to do everything that the Oppo (standard/for average home user) was able to do. Unfortunately, it can't. Not sure why they labeled it as professional other than it comes with two ears that screw on so it can be rack mounted.(1) A-B Repeat and Slow Motion do not work in tandem with each other. The unit can not do a A-B Repeat loop in Slow Motion. When the loop ends at point "B" and then begins again at point "A" the unit can not hold the Slow Motion rate, it automatically reverts back to normal play speed? We were originally looking to purchase two of these units for our Movie/Video Game stores, (two locations). We have a big TV in our store front that we loop new product ads and sale specials on. We are currently using the Oppo UDP-203 to loop this content in Slow Motion, giving customers more time to read everything the first time without having to stand there waiting for the loop to start over to finish reading what they may have missed the first time. Since we only have one Oppo and it's getting old, we were going to buy two, one to replace the Oppo (So I could use it at home again) and one for our second store this time. I was also in the process of getting the high school where I coach football to invest in one for training purposes. Right now I always have to try and remember to pull the Oppo from our store front to bring to school with me, real pain in the butt. I use it show the guys what they are doing wrong or sometimes right. I set up a A-B Repeat loop of a play from a prior game and then drop it down to slow motion and just let it loop over and over again in slow motion while I point out things that could be done differently and how. However, because this unit can not hold the Slow Motion rate it would become a real distraction. I would have to constantly put down my pointer stick and play with the remote to get the right Slow Motion speed going again and by that time the guys would loose interest and start talking.(2) These is no option to turn off the OSD. So, if your using A-B Repeat, the letters AB will be stuck on the screen and in the way of what your trying to watch.(3) It's recommended you only use SSD/flash external drives with this unit, no HDD. (Solid-state/flash drives can lose data if left without power, sometimes for just a couple months or even a couple weeks depending on temperature.) (4) There is a 2TB limit on external drives connected thru the USB port. In 2021 the norm is already at least 4TB (For Solid State) and increasing all the time. In our case we would end up having a couple different 2TB drives laying around instead of just having all our content on one big drive like we do right now. Not sure why they would handicap the unit right from the starting gate.(5) This unit is suppose to support AVI file playback. It does not, when I select the file it shows that the file is an AVI, shows Total Time, Resolution and Frame Rate. When I press Enter to play I get an error message (Video Format not supported).(6) When you select a video the only details you'll be shown are: Type, Total Time, Resolution and Frame Rate. On some instances, the Frame Rate information was incorrect. On many of my video files even those minor details were blank, no details given. On the Oppo, if you hold down the Info button for three seconds while a video is playing it would show you: Name of Video, Type, Total Time, Time Remaining, Resolution, Color Space, Color Depth and most importantly whether the video is Interlaced or Progressive. If you just leave the Resolution set to Auto the unit plays everything in Progressive. You need to know if your video is say 1080i so you can go in and change the resolution to interlaced to get the best/correct picture quality.(7) There is no option for "Source Direct" in the resolution setting. This option comes in very handy if you're not liking the way the unit is handling the processing of a particular video. Using Source Direct bypasses the units processing and lets the TV take care of it.(8) This unit does have 4 Slow Motions speeds like the Oppo: 1/16, 1/8, 1/4, and 1/2. However, the speeds are not correct, all slower that posted numbers.(9) This unit only has one FF and RR speed and that speed is way too fast. The Oppo has 1 thru 5 speed options.(10) Zoom function is only 2X, 3X and 4X which is way too much. The Oppo had 1.2X, 1.3X,1.5X, and 2X.(11) Software for getting around within the unit is horrible and very limited. It was obviously done very quickly because they are formatting issues. On review website that allow me to post photos , I will.You will not be able to speak directly to technical support. You ask support a question, then they go ask technical support and come back with an answer. When I asked questions all I got was;"I think & It should work". In fact, I asked if OSD could be turned off and was told that it could be which turned out to be wrong information. When I pressed further with questions I was told to write them out in an email and send them to him. I was assuming that technical support would reply directly to me, but they didn't. Instead, he just went and asked them, then replied back to me. I had a response to their answer that I was given, but just gave up trying to deal with a middle man. I did reply back once asking if the issues that I mentioned would be addressed in a future firmware update, but that was back on May, 20th and haven't heard anything back.If Tascam were smart they would buy the rights to produce the Oppo again and manufacture it exactly as it was, not changing anything, other than adding a few updated features. When you have a unit that was being sold for $549.00 brand new and is now selling for over a thousand used, it's a no-brainer, the demand is still there.

Outstanding Blu-Ray Player

The TASCAM BD-MP4K is an outstanding, excellent blu-ray player. Sharp, vivid images, spectacular color reproduction, excellent audio (but does not play SACD's). Very easy to set up. I had a problem with audio set-up, not realizing that, if you disable variable output, the player does not then default to a pre-set output level. Oh, well, that was my fault -- not the fault of the player.One really good feature: IT HAS A DISPLAY PANEL (remember those? Apparently Samsung, Sony, LG and the rest of the player manufacturers [assuming there are any] seem to have forgotten about display panels.) Display panels are really great - chapter number, track number, elapsed time. Display panels are definitely necessary for playing CD's. Without the display panel, you have no ... MoreThe TASCAM BD-MP4K is an outstanding, excellent blu-ray player. Sharp, vivid images, spectacular color reproduction, excellent audio (but does not play SACD's). Very easy to set up. I had a problem with audio set-up, not realizing that, if you disable variable output, the player does not then default to a pre-set output level. Oh, well, that was my fault -- not the fault of the player.One really good feature: IT HAS A DISPLAY PANEL (remember those? Apparently Samsung, Sony, LG and the rest of the player manufacturers [assuming there are any] seem to have forgotten about display panels.) Display panels are really great - chapter number, track number, elapsed time. Display panels are definitely necessary for playing CD's. Without the display panel, you have no earthly idea where you are on the CD.Also, the player has analogue audio outputs. Something very few, if any, blu-ray players have these days.Excellent video and audio, display panel, analogue audio outputs, solid build--not cheap. lightweight and flimsy. The TASCAM has it all!There are really no faults to find with the TASCAM player. It's outstanding. Well, worth the money.

The Ultimate blu ray player!

Overall:It took 3 months to get this thing but it was worth the wait. Haven't really delved into most features yet but I at least can cover some of the basics. No HD DVD support, would have been nice as I have some but no biggie. It is quick to get around menues, not the fastest out there but pretty damn close. does not state 3D support but when I tried a disc it just said to conect to 3D compatible TV. Mine is not, So take it for that at least. Playback on everything I've tried is butter smooth. 4K looks fantastic! rack ears come detached with rubber feet on bottom. So perfect for intergration in home theater. Mine is rack mounted. And this thing does feel solid as a rock, def has some weight to it. Remote is huge, almost the size of my forarm! No region encoding, ... MoreOverall:It took 3 months to get this thing but it was worth the wait. Haven't really delved into most features yet but I at least can cover some of the basics. No HD DVD support, would have been nice as I have some but no biggie. It is quick to get around menues, not the fastest out there but pretty damn close. does not state 3D support but when I tried a disc it just said to conect to 3D compatible TV. Mine is not, So take it for that at least. Playback on everything I've tried is butter smooth. 4K looks fantastic! rack ears come detached with rubber feet on bottom. So perfect for intergration in home theater. Mine is rack mounted. And this thing does feel solid as a rock, def has some weight to it. Remote is huge, almost the size of my forarm! No region encoding, (which is great and the norm now), Plays everything you can throw at it, except for HD DVD, Would be nice to see a firmware upgrade in future for this though. USB in the rear, can conect to large usb drives or USB NAS and Samba I belive. Is a bit expensive, The lack of HD DVD support is the only thing preventing all 5 stars across the board.