What price's are we talking about for hardware(high end and low end) and software?

When should we expect the first players too be available?

How many studios are onboard with the new format?

What music(concerts) should we see within the first year?

You would have had to have been around in the early days to appreciate this.

Hi, I'm new here. Anyone know when Back To The Future, Jurassic Park, The Godfather or Men In Black will be released?

4K can't take off until they release these titles and I'm really tired of waiting.

You missed Star Wars...



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For myself, Ultra HD will be extremely conditional. My wife is already pushing us to move to digital only. We have Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, etc for most watching. We've bought a few special series via iTunes (Doctor Who starting with Capaldi, Star Wars: Rebels), but buying physical copies on disc we're trying to restrict to "collectible" series. I have every MST3K episode on disc and will continue to buy those. I buy the occasional Criterion disc and Kaiju movies but anything else can be streaming.

We did make our recent new TV purchase a 4K model, so when the streaming services go 4K, we'll be ready there. But I can't see doing another disc format (unless they release the original unaltered SW trilogy, then I'll eat ramen and beans for a month to buy a player on day 1).

lol

No specific numbers yet.

Ron Martin, vice president of Panasonic Hollywood Laboratory, sez that prices for players "will be high to start with, relatively speaking, but it won't be as severe as some launches in the past. We won't be seeing thousand dollar machines. Maybe two to three times the cost of equivalent HD players, but that will drop over time." I assume that means somewhere between $399 (on the low and maybe unrealistic end) and $499-$599 for a more traditional model.

He goes on to say that "media will be very price comparable to existing Blu-rays", which I take to mean a $5 or (more likely) $10 premium over regular releases.

Holiday season. So, 4K in Q4!

I don't think any studio has straight-up said "we're supporting Ultra HD Blu-ray". Fox sure does seem to be moving in that direction, and I'm sure Sony will dive in as well.

No specific titles have been announced yet. It might be a few more months until we know anything. It looks like the big reveal will be at IFA in Berlin this September.

I don't know how realistic it'll be for me to buy in on day one. I really want a 4K OLED display that supports HDR and is at least 60" in size (ideally 65"), and that...well, doesn't exist and probably won't exist commercially before the format's launch. (LG is doing some firmware updates to support HDR in some -- but not all -- of their 4K OLED displays, but it reportedly won't be compatible with Ultra HD Blu-ray players. It's an HDMI deal.) Plus I'm married and have to be semi-responsible now, and considering that I'd need to buy a new display (which, considering the tech I want, will come at a huge premium), a new receiver, and a new player...I mean, that's a pretty staggering amount of money.

My hope is that UHD BDs come in combo packs with regular BDs, and that way I can build a little bit of a library as I go...or at least I know what not to buy in 1080p until 4K is more within my reach.

Another interview with Ron Martin. If you're interested in the very nitty gritty technical stuff, it's well-worth a read. There are also some comments about why 4K 3D isn't a thing on UHD BD.

Still targeted for the end of the year!

I'll just be happy if they can do high frame-rate 3D- I won't buy the Hobbit movies until they can. Right now you can only do 30fps 3D in 720, not 1080. At least he didn't say "3D is dead, nobody likes it, 4K is the future, blah blah blah."

It seems that the upcoming Vizio set will be the first TVs equipped with Dolby Vision.

http://www.vizio.com/r-series

http://www.dolby.com/us/en/technolog...by-vision.html

Reading up on 4K, one thing I noticed is that none of the upcoming sets conform 100% to the Rec. 2020 color space. I had originally read that sets developed with Dolby Vision would adhere to Rec. 2020 but it seems that Dolby Vision (which is just an optimization algorythm) is merely compatible with Rec. 2020 but does not require a Rec. 2020 display.

Basically, even with the format specs technically ironed out, you could still end up with a brand new yet obsolete 4K TV.

Although 3M claims that quantum dot technology solves the color space limitation problems of existing LED panels: http://hdguru.com/3m-says-rec-2020-c...hievable-soon/

Announced this morning: Blu-ray Disc Association to Commence Licensing of Ultra HD Blu-ray

Errr...kinda crazy that they're only starting licensing in August for products due in a couple of months (although I'm sure these products are already on the assembly line and this is just dotting the "i"s), but:

Although I originally disliked BD/DVD combo packs, I hope we get BD/UHDBD combo packs so I can build my library as the hardware prices drop.

Here's what you really need to know about UltraHD Blu-ray:

http://www.highdefdigest.com/blog/ul...tions-answers/

Ha! That's all about right, at least in terms of info given. How can this not fail...

Jurassic World was actually shot in 35mm and 65mm - too bad that Universal in order for it to be converted and released in 3D downrezzed the image to 2K - idiots!

Well now that was fast. And check out the size of that 1 episode. Whether or not you download or stream, that some big ass sizes we'll be seeing once this format is out.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/netfli...QDBHNlYwNzYw--

Netflix Ultra HD Copy of ‘Breaking Bad’ Hacked, Pirated

Netflix’s security technology for Ultra HD content has reportedly been hacked, with a 4K version of the pilot episode of “Breaking Bad” pilfered from the streaming service popping up on pirate sites.

A 17.7-Gigabyte copy of “Breaking Bad” season one, episode one encoded in 4K format showed up on private torrent trackers Thursday, according to a report by piracy news site TorrentFreak. Variety could not confirm whether it is still available to download or verify the authenticity of the pirated copy.

Netflix did not respond to requests for comment. The company said it is investigating the “Breaking Bad” leak, according to TorrentFreak.

“Breaking Bad,” produced by Sony Pictures Television, is one of the few titles Netflix offers in Ultra HD, which provides four times the resolution of standard 1080p HD and a richer color palette. Netflix last year added all 62 episodes in Ultra HD of the critically acclaimed drama starring Bryan Cranston as a chemistry teacher turned crystal-meth kingpin.

Netflix secures Ultra HD using the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) standard, which encrypts content between a device and TV generally through HDMI or DVI connections. If the “Breaking Bad” file is legit, that indicates hackers figured out a way to defeat Netflix’s implementation of HDCP.

To access Ultra HD content on Netflix, customers must sign up for the “family” plan at $11.99 monthly, which allows simultaneous streaming of up to four programs. The streamer’s limited selection of 4K titles also includes “House of Cards” and “The Blacklist” and as well as Sony movies “Smurfs 2,” “Ghostbusters” and “Ghostbusters 2.”

Netflix’s 4K content is available through select models of Ultra HD TVs, including those from LG, Samsung, Sony and Vizio.

Interesting. That file size is larger than what is being streamed. Streaming total bit rate is around 15 mbps, but that file size corresponds to a bit rate of 41.7 mbps. Maybe that's the Sony 4K download file and Netflix is just adding more compression.

I think the 3D thing might be faulty causation. The number of modern-era effects-driven movies with 4K DIs is approaching zero. Even those that do, such as Amazing Spider-Man, have effects done partially/entirely in 2K. It wouldn't surprise me if most/all of the effects in Jurassic World were 2K as well, and it would've been that way with or without 3D.

Now the question becomes did Netflix themselves "hack" it and secretly release it as publicity for their 4K content service. I would guess so in this day and age of viral marketing.

I certainly wouldn't put it past Netflix to "leak" this. But, that still doesn't explain the discrepancy in file size. 17 GB and 41 mbps is probably the raw, unrecoded file as received from Sony. Even 41 mbps is pushing the low-end for quality 4k content. ASFAIK, Netflix will *re-encode* it to either 15 mbps or 25 mbps to suit their end purpose. 25 mbps is very paltry when it comes to 4k (= 4x as many bits to encode as 1080p content). If Netflix wasn't lowering the bar, they would require a 50 mbps connection for their lowest tier "ultra" HD, and 100 mbps for highest quality tier. Those bitrates would provide maximum quality for 4k content.

Do we actually know the hacked version is from Netflix at all? Breaking Bad is also available in 4K from Sony Video Unlimited, which is a download (rather than streaming) service.

I believe the Sony files are H.264, while Netflix reencodes them in H.265 (which is almost twice as efficient). Maybe someone could check to see how that file is encoded?

It's even worse when you re-encode an already lossy compressed source. Ever try to re-encode an MP3 to another MP3? Sounds like garbage due to digital artifacting. So this doesn't bode well for Netflix's touted ultra-HD streaming service.

All of this is academic anyway, since I can't be bothered to support *any* streaming model, period. Physical media all the way. DRM-free. In a form where *I'm* the one in control, not at the mercy of Netflix or any other entity who only cares about the bottom line.

Netflix 4K PQ has been getting a lot of praise, which bodes a lot better than somebody speculating based on specs. Quality is just as good or slightly better than Blu-ray.

Keep in mind that you really can't compared Netflix, which is a subscription rental-based model, to an ownership model like physical. Netflix is cheaper than a premium movie channel (which also rotates content, but far less of it, and it's not 'on demand'). A decent sized physical collection probably has many thousands of dollars invested in it, which is quite a lot to have 'control'.

Well, how did it look?

The user has never fully been in control. Even with physical media, if a disc rots or gets eaten by your dog, the studio has no obligation to give you another copy.

I admit I still collect certain titles because of the extras and past rights issues (Godzilla films and MST3K sets), but streaming is really, really nice to have.

Good lord, enough with the disc rot argument. I have over 2k blu rays and have yet to run into one single copy that has been rotted. And this dates back to when I started collecting blu's back in 2007, and I've been watching 3-5 discs per week. If you buy the blu-ray, plain and simple, you control every aspect of the movie without any further studio involvement.