4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Somewhat talked about before, but if this happens, I'm guessing Blu ray will stay around just a wee bit longer. I'm also guessing most of our current Blu ray players (save for the PS3 and 4 and Samsung apparently) will have a firmware upgrade to play these new discs.


http://www.theaustralian.com.au/tech...-1226797125793

Samsung says 125 gigabyte Blu-ray disks are on the way

BLU-RAY disks with a huge 100-125 gigabyte capacity for storing ultra-high definition movies are likely to be available this year, Samsung has revealed.

At the Consumer Electronics Show this year, manufacturers including Samsung, Sony and LG have been showing off their latest ultra-high definition TVs.

These TVs have razor-sharp screens with four times the resolution of typical 1080p high definition, flat screen TVs in Australian homes. However problems remain before the so-called 4K format is viable.

One is the lack of movie content in the new ultra-high definition or 4K format; another is not having a way of conveying 4k content to users: 4K movies can require more than 100GB of storage - which is far in excess of the 25 GB capacity of a single layer Blu-ray disk and the 4.7GB available on a DVD.

Streaming content is one option, and manufacturers are forging agreements with movie houses to offer it over the internet. Successfully streaming 4K content however will depend on the quality of internet connections, available bandwidth and domestic account download limits.

Another way is for movie rental stores and 4K TV manufacturers to make content available the old fashioned way - on Blu-ray disks.

Vice-president for consumer electronics at Samsung Australia Philip Newton told The Australian today that Samsung had the technology in place to produce high-capacity four-layer Blu-ray disks for distributing 4K movies.

Mr Newton said he expected theses disks would become available "by the end of the year". He said it also would not be a problem for Samsung to make available players than can read four-layer Blu-ray disks.

Mr Newton said the optical technology needed for making and reading four-layer disks had been available "for years". He said the hold-up was over manufacturers settling on standards for storing electronic content.

He said industry was keen to avoid another Betamax-VHS style format fracas. In the late 1970s and 1980s Sony, the proponent of Betamax, and JVC, which promoted VHS, went head-to-head in a bruising format battle that ended in 1988 when Sony conceded defeat.

In the case of 4K content, issues such as the preferred codes used for compressing movies needed to be sorted out wit H265 and Google's VP9 rival contenders.

Mr Newton said the 4k format standard "is still in a state of flux" but four-layer Blu-ray disks would emerge "once everyone is on the same page".

"Except for the standard, it's good to go," Mr Newton told The Australian.

Each layer of a BluRay disk typically holds 25GB of content, so a four-layer disk should hold a 100GB movie.

In the meantime, Samsung this year will offer 5 4K-format Hollywood movies and 3 4K documentaries to customers who buy new ultra-high definition TVs to be available in Australia from April-May this year.

By year's end, Samsung will have supplied customers with 20 4K movies and 30 documentaries provided on 3.5-inch hard drives.

Other TV manufacturers are understood to be gearing to supply four-layer BlueRay disks also. In Germany, Singulus Technologies last year said it had production-tested Blu-ray disks with a 100GB capacity.

Blu-ray format standards are established by the Blu-ray Disk Association.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

No one will care.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

I doubt that will stop them.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

I predict there will be way less 4k releases than regular BD releases, and if I have to buy a new receiver to pass the image through, I'm out (until my receiver needs to be replaced for some other reason).

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Who will carry the discs? Best Buy with it's rapidly shrinking space for discs?

Maybe Twilight Time....

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

And you (and I) have got a great receiver so yeah, no rush.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

The manufacturers want the format more than the Hollywood studios, though Sony is obviously both.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Even though disks will be far superior then some compressed digital download or streaming version of any given content I'm not sure how many people are going to care enough. There will always be people that will care yet whatever is done online will likely be good enough for most people.

It does not sound remotely fun waiting for releases all over again.

If current players could relay the information to a newer 4K set along new releases could do okay unless they cost a fortune.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

You can master a disc in 4k, but you're still going to need a Blu-ray player that will output in native 4k (in addition to the 4k TV). Otherwise, you're still going to get upscaled 1080p. I'm not sure that the few upscaling 4k Blu-ray players on the market so far are designed for native 4k.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

BD 4.0?

They still do profiles anymore?

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

So if Best Buy doesn't sell it, the whole thing fails. Good to know. I doubt places like Amazon, Fry's, all of Europe and Asia will sell it either.....

I'm not saying it'll be a success, in fact I don't. I think they need to worry more about how many people will even buy a 4k TV. All of this is worthless unless it's put to its full use. I for one won't be buying one unless a 70" is $3k and under, which won't happen for a very long time. So for me, having a 4k Blu ray is worthless until then.

Haven't you guys learned Best Buy's shelf space is the harbinger of doom? DOOOOOOOOM!!!!

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

It sounds to me like it requires new hardware, not just a firmware update. Note this quote "He said it also would not be a problem for Samsung to make available players than can read four-layer Blu-ray disks."

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

That's addressed in the original article:Basically, there's a method of producing discs believed to provide enough capacity, but nothing else has been standardized. No standard, no way for existing 4K upscaling players to be forward looking enough to handle future 4K discs.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Think I need to have a 100" screen to notice the difference. I'm fine with my 50" screen, more then that would be ostentatious.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

I doubt that the studios are very enthused. It took Blu-ray 7 1/2 years just to get to 30% of DVD, and DVD sales are less than 40% of what they were during its peak. 4K will be even more niche. So if projected out proportionately, than 4k would sell perhaps 10% of what DVD does in another 8 years, which will be less than half of what it is now. That would come to about $250 million a year?

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Does this mean I need to hurry up and buy all of my favorite films and TV shows that are already out now before DVD and BD is obsolete and they stop making them?

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Yeah. their own doom... We should start hearing about more store closures the next time they issue a fiscal report. Come 2016 or 2017, Best Buy will have joined Circuit City in the grand Electronic Stores in the sky.

fitprod

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Technically, Blu-ray 3D was Profile 5.0:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ra...layer_profiles
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/...ing_blu-ray_3d

However, it will take more changes than what I think a new Profile will allow. When a new profile was introduced, the discs were still playable on older BD players, just with less features. Jumping to 4K will require more storage, new codecs, and a higher resolution.

The already announced BDXL disc format for 100GB and 128GB discs is not backwards compatible with existing players:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc#BDXL


"Blu-ray 4K", or whatever they call it will be to Blu-ray what "HD DVD" was to DVD: A new format using the same basic branding.

If they go with a new format, they should add some other features that Blu-ray is lacking, like support for 30p/48p/50p/60p in 1080p/4K and 3D.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

The whole morass is becoming so complicated now, that the average consumer, let alone the high-end one, won't care to upgrade. The point of diminishing returns is rapidly approaching. Unless good money is spent on the encode, 4k likely won't look better. It may even look worse, due to compression artifacts, if Sony or others tries to cram too many bits at the expense of film size.

I'm out. It is certain that very, very few catalog titles will be released in 4k anyway. Way too expensive to do them right.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

I'm out. BD was it for me. I don't care about no damn 4K.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

I just threw away all my blu-rays. tell me where i can buy the new and greatest 4k discs

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Best Buy.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

I'm hoping you are joking.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Yeah, actually having a copy of a movie is so old-fashioned- I prefer to let the studios keep them for me, and if they ever take them away I don't need to watch them anyways. ;) <--- for the sarcasm impaired

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

With the huge selection of the top 40 films!

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

But I bet they'll have tons of 4K content on CinemaNow- their stuff is already spectacular as it is! ;) (Sarcasm again!)

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Don't worry Gimzo, Paul Blart (and upcoming sequel!) and all the classic Kevin James films will be part of that Top 40!

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Here comes the Boom Extended Cut?!?!

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

If they were smart, they would bundle 4k capable players and discs in with 4k TV purchases. Of course, with no standard, there are no discs to be made at the moment.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

I'm in for 4K, especially on my 10 foot screen. I was thinking about upgrading to the Sony VW600 projector, but the $15K msrp has made me wait another year. Hopefully by then, there will be some 4K content that isn't that proprietary Sony hard drive server. Netflix streaming 4K content already is pretty cool.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

I have watched 4K on several different 4K HDTV (Best Buy and other stores), it look good...but not that much better than BR movies that have been mastered correctly with a high bandwidth.

Now, 4K gives you the abiltiy to have larger TVs, but a 85 inch 4K HDTV will not fit will my man cave. I am better a ton of people are not looking to put a 85/100 inch HDTV in their house.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

That's good point. With DVD, the quality peters out at (arguably) a 37"-40" TV compared to Blu-ray whereas Blu-ray probably peters out at maybe 80"?

Will there be a huge demand for 80"+ screens to utilize the better quality? The national trend is that most people are being cramped into smaller and smaller homes and apartments.

On the other hand, if 4K TVs are available is all sizes at today's prices, I guess it will be a non-issue anyway.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

woohoo - my life's complete!

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

I think 75" will be the popular size much like 60" is now (and 46" used to be), but it'll be awhile before that happens. I just got a 65" and it'll serve me well for 5+yrs. It's getting to that point where the size looks normal to me now...lol...

If 4K content is offered I'll go for it, but it's hard to see it gaining much traction with anyone other than an A/V enthusiast. Even here you see examples of people owning hundreds of movies, yet not really caring about the equipment they watch it on.... the "good enough" attitude.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Nope. Trash guy just took them away yesterday. So, where can I buy them? Do you know?

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

What about bandwidth? Will it have the same bandwidth but the new codec will allow typical BD quality in 4k, or will they spin the discs faster?

And if the codec will handle it, is it possible we could see 1080p titles using it with more material and/or even better quality?

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

There are no answers yet.

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

Might not be that long: http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/07/c...pseries-price/

Re: 4K Blu ray coming soon
 

[QUOTE=Drexl;11974011]What about bandwidth? Will it have the same bandwidth but the new codec will allow typical BD quality in 4k, or will they spin the discs faster?[/quote
As Adam Tyner says, nobody knows yet. However, the conjecture is that a 4K disc format would use a combination of larger capacity discs and new codec.

It's possible, but unlikely. A new video codec means it won't be backwards compatible with existing Blu-ray, so such content would have to be released on the new discs. It'd be like the idea of cramming an entire TV season in SD onto a Blu-ray disc: Certainly possible, but no studio has done so yet. Certainly 1080p extra content will appear on the new format, similar to SD extras on Blu-ray discs, but as for 1080p feature content, that'll likely stick to Blu-ray due to the larger market for them.