It's been a long time since we wrote with excitement about a Blu-ray player, but that time is here once more with the first 4K Blu-ray player going on sale today.

Samsung has beaten the other manufacturers to the punch with the release of its UBD-K8500 4K Blu-ray player available today for $400, or about £275. The player wasn't supposed to be available until next month but at certain California Frys stores it's already on sale.

There is 4K UHD content already available to be streamed to 4K TVs using the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Instant Video and YouTube to name a few. But the use of a Blu-ray player means even more impressive results. Using a physical disc and mighty cable the quality is even higher with the likes of HDR included in the final picture. This is thanks to far fewer constraints brought about by bandwidth and consequent compression of files.

Following these apparent early releases at smaller stores, larger chains like Best Buy have moved their pre-order shipping dates up to 10 February.

The only issue that stops excitement getting even greater is content, or lack of it. There aren't a huge amount of 4K Blu-ray discs out there. In fact Frys has only listed The Martian as available right now. That said, the studios have stated there will be plenty arriving soon.

Expect the Samsung Blu-ray player and Panasonic's already announced offerings to arrive in Europe soon.

READ: Samsung UBD-K8500 4K UHD Blu-ray player now available for pre-order