Samsung’s Ultra HD Blu-ray player goes on sale early in USA

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The player was due to go on sale in March, but Best Buy stores in the US have listed it as shipping on 10th February.

The Samsung UBD-K8500 Ultra HD Blu-ray player was first announced at IFA in September 2015. We were treated to more information about it at CES 2016 in Las Vegas, Samsung announcing then that it would go on sale in March for $400.

It was available to pre-order from January, but now certain shops in the US, including Best Buy, have told customers they can expect to receive their player soon after 10th February. One shop in Santa Monica, California, Video & Audio Center, had stock in on 5th February and all of it quickly sold out.

Unfortunately for those customers, there aren’t yet any Ultra HD discs to play on it. Amazon has a range of films on its US site, but these are listed as pre-order only, and are expected to be available from 1st March.

However the K8500 can stream 4K content from on-demand video services Netflix and Amazon, and will play normal Blu-rays and DVDs. There’s still no word on when the player will make it to the UK, but we’ll bring you any news as soon as we have it.

MORE: Ultra HD Blu-ray - everything you need to know

Source: The Verge

Max Langridge

Max is a staff writer for What Hi-Fi?'s sister site, TechRadar, in Australia. But being the wonderful English guy he is, he helps out with content across a number of Future sites, including What Hi-Fi?. It wouldn't be his first exposure to the world of all things hi-fi and home cinema, as his first role in technology journalism was with What Hi-Fi? in the UK. Clearly he pined to return after making the move to Australia and the team have welcomed him back with arms wide open.