Xbox One and PS4 say they support 4k (streaming?). How is that possible without HDMI 2.0?

I wonder if those consoles will get a refresh like same CPU/RAM but with HDMI 2.0 and a new BD-XL drive.

Did you read about this recently? I check every once in a while, but I haven't heard anything beyond speculation that PS4 will be supporting 4k.

I read that the PS4 will get a re-release at some point and will have 4k support, which means they may have that HDMI 2.0, but again all just speculation.

I'm not really a fan of the UHD thing. I don't think it's necessary. A lot of people watch at 50" or less and the gain they'd receive from their size sets with their viewing distances taken into account... doesn't seem like it's warranted. Don't really know how many people will want to upgrade their HDTV's, A/V receivers, and players for yet another new format. It will be a niche product.

Well that's going to have a polarizing effect if they do that.

Considering how terrible the sales of 3D Blu-rays have been, it probably won't be too polarizing.

Disney dropped support for 3D entirely. While you might hear a little bit of grumbling about that in forums like this, the public at large didn't even notice.

They're what I coin "forgettable hits" - titles that made a lot of money at the box office, served their purpose and then were quickly forgotten.

What six Sony/Columbia titles would I have chosen?

Easy Rider

Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Starship Troopers

The Fifth Element

Fury

Spiderman 2 (Sam Raimi)

A mix of new and old that all have some substance in popular culture and titles that might benefit from the upgrade.

^

Das Boot

Air Force One

Black Hawk Down



I'd kill to see a new 4K scan/transfer of CE3K.

It would be cool if they could coordinate with other studios and put out a really great line-up of catalog titles for the launch:

Alien
Blade Runner
2001 A Space Odyssey
Jaws
Aopcalypse Now
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
Pulp Fiction
Terminator
Fifth Element
Bram Stoker's Dracula
CE3K
Avengers

That's he kind of thing that could convince me to be an early adopter.

So is UHD not going to do 3D at all? Is 3D just going to die with BD?

I thought the whole thing about home 3D was that it was going to get better with higher resolutions such as UHD?

It could conceivably be added down the road, similar to how BD didn't launch with 3D support either.

3D support for regular BDs isn't mandated for Ultra HD Blu-ray players either. (Players can include it but don't have to.)

As Adam says, it's possible that 3D could be added to the format at a later date. However, at present, the Blu-ray Disc Association has been very clear that UHD Blu-ray does not support 3D and there's no current plan to change that.

Right now, there is no venue for 3D in true 4k. Cinemas project 3D in 2k. All 3D movies are produced in 2k. Even movies that are shot with higher resolution cameras (like the Hobbit trilogy with 5k cameras) are downgraded to 2k during post-production.

True stereoscopic 4k would require a tremendous increase in bandwidth at every stage of post-production, from visual effects to color grading. The current production pipeline has no resources for that now.

With 3D's popularity in cinemas declining and the format being nearly a total failure at home, the entire industry has decided that there's no need to push for 4k 3D.

Well UHD BD won't be selling like gangbusters either. They would make good company. Sometimes the sum is greater than the parts. I think this is one of those cases.

Disney hasn't "dropped support for 3D entirely"- they just released Inside Out in 3D and have consistently put out the Marvel titles. They have had 4 titles that didn't come out in the US but can be ordered from overseas- not ideal but not dropping support entirely. I sent them a printed letter a few months ago expressing my disgust with them about that. 3D may never reach the desired market level but there's plenty of people out there who love it, and giving it time will let more people catch onto it. How long did it take home surround sound to be at least somewhat commonplace? What about Dolby Atmos- I don't have that yet, but appreciate discs having it so that I'll be able to play it when I DO get it. What about D-Box? That's hardly been pushed at all on the mainstream market- I'd love to have that but the price is just ridiculously out of my range. Still I'm conscious of discs that are coded for that and I'd like to see equipment prices come down before anyone "drops support for it entirely".

One advantage of 4K TVs is that they supposedly can use passive (polarized, non-electronic) glasses without the loss of resolution that they showed on initial 3D TVs. Of course the electronics stores won't put any of those on display so I can see for sure. While 4K 3D discs might not be "necessary", why are they releasing so many 3D titles on it? There does need to be a way to show high-frame-rate 3D movies like The Hobbit at home properly.

And Star Wars The Force Awakens is going to be in 3D. Hard to say if the other new Star Wars movies will be in 3D too.

It seems much easier for studios to make UHD BDs than 3D BDs. Though does Amazon sell any UHD BDs yet?

^ as much as they are maligned - I really want to see the 3D conversions of Episode II and III

I gotta say that I was never a believer in home 3D but I just bought a new projector to tied me over until an affordable 4K projector comes out. The new projector does 3D extremely well. I was astonished at how good Tron Legacy and The Avengers looked in 3D. And those are the only two I have tried so far. I liked it so much that I plan to definitely search out more 3D titles and probably re-buy many I already have on BD.

...though not in 4K. There's still resolution loss, but it's just that halving the vertical resolution still leaves you with 1080 lines.

3D-in-4K doesn't really exist, although you could make the argument that including it would've been forward-looking, or at least they could've support 2K 3D with some of the other benefits of UHD BD.

What's your point? Alan was referring to the present tense and even in the best case scenario we won't see any 4K 3D for at least several more years (probably beyond normal upgrade period of that precious 4K passive set that provides the best of both worlds regarding 3D home video).

That a 4K format is being admonished for not supporting 3D when 4K-in-3D has neither the content nor the displays to support it.

Whatever their native resolution, several movies that WERE shown in 3D (some even natively shot and not conversion jobs) will be on this new 4K disc format in 2D. Doesn't make sense.

If you want to watch 2K movies in 3D, there's already a format for that.

Yes, it's dumb that Fox is releasing a bunch of 2K 2D movies in 4K. Yes, Ultra HD Blu-ray is in many ways not the most forward-thinking format, apparently not even supporting the 48fps that The Hobbit movies were shot in. Yes, Ultra HD Blu-ray has more to offer than strictly resolution. But if your goal is to watch 2K movies in 3D, I don't understand being so up in arms about a 4K format not supporting 3D, especially given the near-total (perhaps complete?) lack of true 4K-3D TVs in existence. The overwhelming majority -- perhaps all -- of the 4K TVs on the market halve the vertical resolution to support 3D, bringing you more or less to where we already are today. Maybe that content and technology will exist one day, but it doesn't really exist now. When it exists, 3D can be added in, similar to how it was with traditional BD.

Sony announced they will stop selling Betamax in March. In those three months they will still sell more than they do of Ultra HD BD the entire year.

I think I'll only adopt to 4K if I see hot wanted titles that wasn't on Blu-ray like The Abyss, True Lies etc.. Otherwise I'll just wait this shit out or not even pick it up at all.

Are people "up in arms?"

The 0.5 % who are interested in this, probably so. Either way, 3D isn't happening with 4K right now, so I'm not sure what the point is in arguing about it.