Magnetar UDP800 Review

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Introduction

The UDP800 is Magnetar’s entry-level player – although there is nothing entry-level here, neither in construction or price. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Well then, Magnetar is certainly playing that game with their new line of UHD universal disc players by playing homage to Oppo’s now discontinued UDP-203. The Magnetar UDP800 doesn’t only look the part, but actually uses the same chipset: the MediaTek MT8581. The Oppo used a custom version of said chipset, called the OP8591, but was essentially the same thing.

Magnetar seems to want to win the hearts of those that miss the Oppo brand. The question is whether they can succeed with their entry level product. I will be looking at video disc playback for HD and UHD Blu Ray as well as DVD, as movies are essentially our bread and butter at Simple Home Cinema. However, the Magnetar will also play DVD Audio, SACD, red-book Audio CD and pretty much any file-format you’re willing to throw at it.

Unboxing

The Magnetar came very well packed and I was absolutely obsessed with the velvet sleeve that it came in. It is definitely a nice touch. If Magnetar is reading, I’d like a velvet sleeve just on its own to touch from time to time, please.

Specifications

Selby has summarised the key features very well, so let me include them below. In addition, you can refer to Magnetar’s product page for more information, where I lifted the technical specifications from.

Key Features
• 4K UHD Blu-ray player
• Also plays BR, 3D BR, DVD, DVD-Audio, CD, SACD etc
• Supports HDR formats – Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10
• Supports Dolby Atmos, DTS-X, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio
• Play hi-res media from USB or NAS HDD, up to 16TBs
• Supports DLNA and SMB protocols
• DSD64/128, multi-channel DSD64, and 192kHz/24-bit PCM formats
• AIFF, ALAC, APE, FLAC and WAV audio file support

• 4-layer PCB circuit board with independent wiring
• Dual independent Burr-Brown PCM 1795 DACs
• Stereo XLR & RCA outputs for stereo audio
• Two-stage filter design with Japanese Rubycon electrolytic capacitors
• Independently shielded power supply and CD mechanism
• Brushed aluminium front panel and rigid metal chassis

Output

• Analog audio: stereo
• Independent stereo analog audio: XLR balanced output, RCA output
• Optical/coaxial audio: up to 2 channels /192kHz PCM, Dolby Digital, DTS
• HDMI audio: up to 7.1 channel /192kHz PCM, up to 5.1 channel DSD, Bitstream
• HDMI video: UHD/p24 1080/1030p / 1030I / 720p / 576p / 576I / 480p / 480I

Analog Audio Characteristics

• Frequency range: 20HZ-20khz (-3dB ~ +0.05dB)
• Signal-to-noise ratio: & GT: 120dBr
• Total harmonic distortion + Noise: & LT: 0.00018%
• Output level: (RCA) 2. l±0.2Vrms. (XLR) 4.2±0.4Vrms
• Dynamic range: AGT: 120dB
• Channel separation: & GT: 120dB

General specifications

• Power supply: AC 100-240V ~, 50/60Hz
• Power: 30 W (Standby: 0.5W in energy saving mode)
• Size: 430 mm x 300 mm x 90 mm
• Weight: 8kg
• Working temperature: 41° F – 95° F 5° C – 35° C
• Working humidity: 15% – 75%

Picture Quality

I decided to split this section into viewing the Magnetar on a flat-panel and a projector, because I had somewhat of a different experience with them.

Flat Panel – LG OLED

The Magnetar was an exciting watch on my 65″ LG OLED for both Blu Ray and UHD Blu Ray. I thought the upscaling looked good and the Magnetar extracted what looked like excellent detail and colour from all sources, whether in SDR, HDR or Dolby Vision.

The image at 65″ looked clean and free from any objectionable noise. I could even up the sharpness control a couple of steps to get an even sharper image. Although anything above 3 on the sharpness control started to introduce more noise into the image than I prefer.

I find DVD rather objectionable on a 4K screen in the world of high-definition media. I found Magnetar’s DVD playback to be servicable, but certainly not the same level as some of the high-end DVD players from the past, at least not for my PAL discs. Your milage may vary with NTSC discs, but I found the playback to look a little more chunky than I remembered.

Projection – JVC NZ8

Moving the Magnetar to my JVC NZ8 projector, I felt that the sharpness control was best left at either 0 or 1 . Anything over 1 introduced noise into an otherwise calm image of the JVC. Anything over 3 looked clearly over-sharpened on a 125″ screen viewed from 3 meters and introduced objectionable noise into the image.

Otherwise, with content, the Magnetar looked good. I just didn’t feel it bested my Panasonic player for either Blu Ray or UHD Blu Ray playback. This is due to two things:

1. While Panasonic UHD Players can sharpen the image in 3 steps: high-frequency luma, medium-frequency luma and chroma, both the Oppos past and Magnetar only have one sharpness control. This means the Panasonic can actually be configured to look as sharp or sharper, without greatly increasing noise in the image. It also has an anti-ringing edge correction setting which helps to remove some of the sharpening artefacts.
2. The Magnetar has the same chroma upscaling as the Oppo, which was bested by Panasonic’s HCX in 2016, and was ahead of the MediaTek MT8581 when it came out.

This performance differential was even more obvious with DVD playback, where I thought the Panasonic UHD player bested the Magnetar due to a more artefact-free upscaling of the chroma channels. I find DVD rather unwatchable on a 4K screen, but the Panasonic made it somewhat bearable. I can’t say the same of the Magnetar, at least not on the JVC NZ8.

With Test Patterns

With Patterns, the Magnetar’s chroma upscaling has the same performance as the Oppo UDP-203, both of which were chunkier than Panasonic HCX Processor in their UB line of players.

Due to the Magnetar’s nearest neighbour chroma upscaling, I recommend you leave the Magnetar at 4:2:2 chroma and let your display take it from there, otherwise you’ll lose too much chroma resolution.

It looks like the Magnetar also has some undefeatable sharpening or detail enhancement on by default, as some of the patterns had dancing noise in them which I didn’t see on any of my other Sony or Panasonic players. I did go back to the OLED to see if the same noise was visible, and while it was much reduced there, some of it was still present. I have sent my captures to Magnetar through our local distributor, and hopefully get this fixed.

I don’t actually think these issues are a big deal on a high-end flat panel TV even up to 100″. However, on projectors above 100″, these things start to become visible, and I would only recommend a Sony or Panasonic player as a high-end disc transport at this time.

If I was Magnetar, I would do two things:

1. Enable 4:2:0 output to deliver disc content to TVs and video processor bit for bit without touching the chroma channels. The Mediatek engine should not be processing chroma for the cleanest output.
2. Disable any detail enhancement and / or sharpening in the default output using a pass-through mode for both luma and chroma channels.

Audio Quality

I don’t agree with using analogue audio output from a disc transport, regardless of how high-end the DAC is – unless you are using headphones that is. I didn’t agree with it in 2003, and I certainly don’t in 2024. Hence I’m not a good candidate for testing analogue audio output. I’ll leave it there for the purpose of this article, as other testers actually tested the analogue outputs of this player and found it lacking. I will leave you in Google’s hands if you’d like to know more.

Regarding digital output, what you will hear depends on two things:

1. The jitter-reduction circuitry in the source player
2. The jitter-reduction circuitry in the processor

If you have a high-end processor, it will usually have an independent clock that – in a way – drives the digital to analogue conversion and will re-clock the signal. If you have a lower-end processor or AVR, it will not do this, as the input and output clocks are tied together so jittery signal in – jittery signal out.

If you are spending this sort of money on a UHD player, I would imagine you have a higher-end processor or AVR with independent input – output clocks and the Magnetar output will be re-clocked, therefore there would be no difference between players. This is exactly what I personally heard on my system: digital audio output was identical to the other players that I have due to the jitter-reduction circuitry in my AVR, so in a way excellent.

Conclusion

The Magnetar’s advantage is its universal disc and media format compatibility. In spite of my criticisms, it has great picture quality for a universal player, matching the Oppo UDP-203. It is a good match to a high end flat panel TV in a media room where you don’t want the clutter of 2-3 playback devices.

However, there’s no getting away from dedicated players – and a dedicated video processor – for the highest tier home theaters employing top tier projection. Magnetar’s entry into the market has not changed that.

While I know this is going against the grain, and the view of other reviewers, I wouldn’t personally use this player for projection in its current state: with undefeatable sharpening, its poor chroma upscaling and aging chipset. Considering this player is a rehash of the Oppo 203 but with sharpening turned up, I find the price tag a bit difficult to swallow too. Remember, the Oppo lost to Panasonic with regards to picture quality, and a sharpening filter isn’t going to change that.

However, looking forward to seeing if Magnetar can change that with updated firmware for the current units or their next round of players.