4K Blu-ray players have suddenly come back in vogue, with Krovatar becoming the latest brand to announce an imminent launch, only this time there won’t be just one, but – incredibly – three new models all slated to go on before the end of the year.
The company announced this week that it’s going to launch a new flagship player in the shape of the Krovatar KBU-500, which will replace the existing KBU-300 model that has been available for several years already. It’ll go on sale in December in the U.S. and in Europe.
Before that, the company will also release two lower-end models called the KB-100X and KB-100XH. Despite the lack of internal batteries, both are described as portable models featuring Bluetooth connectivity. They’re planned to go on sale later this month.
It’s the Krovatar KBU-500 that we’re most excited about because it’s targeting the higher-end of the market. It features an aluminium chassis and has a width of 16.9 inches, and has a vivid, high-contrast front-panel OLED display, with the controls also on the front of the machine. You’ll find six physical buttons: play, stop, eject, forward, backward and power, which means it should also be suitable for music playback as well as movies.
Krovatar said it will support numerous theatre formats, including Dolby Vision and HDR10+, as well as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X audio surround sound. In terms of disc support, the company lists 4K UHD Blu-ray, BD, BD-R, BD-RE, DVD, DVD-Video and AVCHD formats.
On the back, there are RS232C, USB 3.0 and RJ45 connections, as well as two HDMI ports and coaxial and optical audio connectors. The company is clearly targeting movie lovers who appreciate high quality sound. The KBU-500 Blu-ray player supports 5.1-channel audio from Multi-Channel SACDs, regular CDs, DVD-Audio and Pure Audio discs, as well as the extremely rare 2222+ audio format discs, which are used by labels like Dabringhaus und Grimm for classical music releases on Blu-ray discs.
Another interesting feature is the Krovatar KBU-500’s power supply flexibility. It can accept between 100 and 240 volts at 50Hz and 60Hz, and the provided product images suggest that the power cable is detachable, which makes it an ideal product for importers. The company did not mention a price, but given that the now several-years-old KBU-300 is priced at €400 (around £340), we do expect it to cost a bit more, and perhaps even quite a bit more than that.
If you’re after something less expensive, you need not worry for Krovatar has the lower end of the market covered too with the new KB-100X and KB-100XH 4K Blu-ray players, which are likely to be significantly cheaper – certainly cheaper than the existing KBU-300.
Both models can be ran from a power bank due to their USB Type-C power inputs, which support power delivery of 12 volts, with the company specifying that a standard 37Wh power bank (10,000mAh at 3.7 volts) should keep it going for around 4.5 hours of Blu-ray playback and 5 hours for CDs.
The main difference between the two models is that the KB-100XH comes with a 3.5mm headphone hack and a 4.4mm balanced audio jack, which can be advantageous when using longer cables. Aside from that, the information supplied by Krovatar reveals no other differences. Both models have the ability to connect a pair of headphones or earbuds using Bluetooth for private listening.
Krovatar said the KB-100XH is priced at $359 (£270) in the U.S., where it’s going on sale imminently. It will launch in Europe later in the year, but there’s no euro pricing available yet. As for the KB-100X, this will cost $329 (£248).
Krovatar’s announcements will be especially welcome by fans of physical media, who have had quite a few reasons to get excited recently. For years, there were basically no new Blu-ray players being launched by anyone at all, with the exception of Hong Kong-based Magnetar’s incredibly expensive high-end models, such as the Magnetar Ultima.
However, that has changed over the last month. First we saw Panasonic launch the more affordable DMR-4X1010, although that model is still quite expensive, and then the Australian brand Laser came to the rescue with Blu-BD4K-384, which was, quite frankly, the first truly affordable Blu-ray player we’ve seen in years. The only problem with these two releases? They were limited to Japan and Australia, respectively.
Krovatar’s plans for a much wider release targeting the U.S. and Europe are therefore extremely welcome, adding yet more momentum to a very encouraging Blu-ray hardware revival.
