4K Blu-ray Confirmed, Coming in

[dvdmike]

Technically my phone can kinda support HDR and 4k but Netflix don't care
Wonder how long it will take to rollout to TV apps and boxes

[Pieter V]

https://twitter.com/videoeta

[elwaylite]

Wow disney...

[Geoff D]

Wow? It's no surprise at all to me, this is the same company that stopped doing 3D BD (for their own Disney movies, anyway) in North America a couple of years ago. They'll do these specialist BD formats on their own terms, and not before.

[spectre08]

Disney will come around once UltraHD is established. They aren't a trend leader, never really have been. They prefer safety and stability.

[aronm]

So I assume (as the rest of You) that we must wait for the next anniversary. If they're not stupid, maybe there's a very little chance and light in the tunnel, that we will see in next 2017 year the 4K Ultra BD of I assume ONLY "STAR WARS" (aka New Hope, 1977). It could be a very strange move for them, because they always had released them bundled altogether in box sets. But I no give any high hopes to that. That would be fantastic, because this could do a lot of to the new 4K blu-rays and all the chain. But after latest news about hard working in Lucasfilm and ILM on 3D versions of all 6 episodes, I doubt about 4K blu-ray editions released in 2017. This greedy company wants another few times to double dip us. First we see 3D 1080p Blu-rays released, then new episodes on 1080p blu-ray (2D or with 3D if they continue the trend from Episode VII) and finally the big box sets of all 9 episodes (2D,3D) somewhere in 2020 (maybe they will then test the audience with the Mastered in 4 K , but still 1080p blu-rays). And finally after 2020 we will see the real, true Ultra 4K Blu-rays of all of them. Maybe then they will remix the audio of all six episodes to Dolby Atmos (or DTS counterpart) , scan the negatives with something higher than 4K and release this with all the whistles HDR and so on (and that's the most incredible - maybe they will redo all the SFX at higher resolution. But I doubt that). All of this above is about Prequels, original trilogy (of course SE's versions with the new recent changes by Lucas done in 2016-2020, and newest Trilogy - Episodes VII-IX) Maybe some down the road the Original Theatrical (with no changes at all - just as You seen it for the first time in cinemas in 1977, 1980 and 1983) will be released on blu-ray 1080p or Ultra HD Blu-ray 4K. But I rather doubt that. Maybe after 2020 Why I'm saying this all? Because I am a big fan of this, and all started in 1996 (maybe even earlier). What I want - just preserve the theatrical versions of them all (the deleted, extended, changed scenes and versions of scenes I would like to have as a bonus on additional disc). Original Trilogy I would like to have with Uncompressed PCM or DTS HD Master in pure STEREO (2 channels) - just as it was in the cinemas in end of 70's and beginning of the 80's. The remixed 6.1 or maybe the new Dolby Atmos versions of 6 episodes could be as a bonus track with movies. Commentary tracks - not necessary but it would be nice. Just make the menus and cases/boxset artwork from original versions from cinema posters, and I never again ask for new edition of Star Wars. Until today day after 3 releases in Poland (starting from 2011) we don't have these movies with HD sound. The english track is in lossy DTS ES Discrete 6.1, because Germans put their dubbing in DTS HD Master Audio 5.1. I don't know who is responsible for this, but is not fair. From 2011 each release is the same. If the rumours are true, and the steelbooks was the last release from 20th Century Fox, maybe Disney will finally repair this. They always released their discs with HD audio in Poland. But as I said above - I don't really care about changed to death multiple versions. Now for the last time in my life I will buy only one of the two versions: the Unaltered (theatrical) Original trilogy (on 1080p blu or 4K blu) and the cinemas (theatrical) versions of the rest of the films. And never again Lucasfilm will see my money. I bought the VHS, skip DVD's (but after blu-ray bought the 2006's DVD's with Laserdisc sourced Theatrical editions). I can only say that there's one thing on which I have reserved money and I would not regret buy - the complete soundtracks from all films on 2CDs for each episode (maybe even more). This is the only department with green light for spending approved by myself.

Now I apologize - Sony know how to do things (I cross fingers to them for information about worldwide release - not only as now in one country - still unconfirmed for 100%): Part 1 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=274301, Part2 https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=274302

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by spectre08

Disney will come around once UltraHD is established. They aren't a trend leader, never really have been. They prefer safety and stability.

Yes. That also speaks to the franchise movies they churn out... safe, stable, and really, really mediocre.

[bbwiscfan]

Doesn't mean I'm not disappointed though. I told my wife the other day I'm going to be really stingy with what titles I purchase, but I also know it will take some time before all the studios are on board. Its just the way it works. For Disney, the one title coming this year I would probably still get on regular blu ray would be Star Wars, but I'm teaching myself to be far more patient than in the past. Other than Classic Animated films we are currently trying to collect on blu ray, I'll just have to hold off on buying any of their titles unless I REALLY REALLY want the movie. VUDU or redbox will have to do in the interim, plus I'm not buying movies twice when they will most likely include a blu ray with the UHD release.

You'd think Disney would want to take advantage of the potential sales of an additional format ( a lot is said of the greed of Disney). However, being the studio that currently has the rights to Star Wars and the Marvel films among others they just aren't hurting for cash and won't be any time soon. Any incentive to bring UHD out sooner than normal just won't be there.

Want to hear something hilariously sad? If Star Wars was still owned by Fox, we would probably have a UHD release of The Force Awakens to look forward to in a few short months. Ironies.....

[Uncanny]

Originally Posted by Pieter V

https://twitter.com/videoeta

Too bad about Disney. So MARVEL still can't bring out any of their movies on a 4K disc? Are we sure?But Marvel can still bring out 3D disks even though Disney do not with their movies.

[Dex Robinson]

Originally Posted by bbwiscfan

..

You'd think Disney would want to take advantage of the potential sales of an additional format ( a lot is said of the greed of Disney). ...

What scares me about Disney is that they seem increasingly interested only in high volume titles in the normal retail chain. Note the discussion in the BD forum about their live action classics being offered only as Disney Movie Club exclusives. And note their increasing softness on 3D.

Disney looks to be moving to a model that involves retail releases of movies that will sell in large volume at a wide range of vendors. Smaller or specialized releases aren't making it to stores (THE ABSENT MINDED PROFESSOR having once been announced as a wide release now being a DMC exclusive).

This begs the question: If Disney can't sell 50,000 copies of something at Walmart, will they be interested in releasing it at all?

[JJ]

Originally Posted by Pieter V

https://twitter.com/videoeta

It's a real shame about Disney, since they control a lot of properties that could be big movers for the 4K format - all those animated features, Marvel, Star Wars.

But it would involve a lot of work on their part, and if they've already said they dont want to upconvert 2K masters, then, well - what can I do?

Nobody's buying "Tomorrowland".

[Opips3]

Originally Posted by JJ

It's a real shame about Disney, since they control a lot of properties that could be big movers for the 4K format - all those animated features, Marvel, Star Wars.

But it would involve a lot of work on their part, and if they've already said they dont want to upconvert 2K masters, then, well - what can I do?

Nobody's buying "Tomorrowland".

I'm screw up to bought Tomorrowland BDs. I won't buy again it on Disney any BDs until in UltraHD 4K. Period it.

[reanimator]

Under the "glass is half full" category -- glad to see Universal will be in the game this year. Some of their recent catalog releases have 4K masters and look really terrific.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by reanimator

Under the "glass is half full" category -- glad to see Universal will be in the game this year. Some of their recent catalog releases have 4K masters and look really terrific.

I would gladly buy Spartacus and Apollo 13 again so soon after the gorgeous remastered BDs. The former will look the nuts because of the Technirama acquisition, the latter I love to bits and is one of my all-time favourite movies SO I MUST HAVE IT.

[Doctorossi]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Technirama acquisition

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by spectre08

Disney will come around once UltraHD is established.

Assuming that even really happens. They'll wait to see sales numbers, which might be embarrassingly low. We shall see.

[Pieter V]

May 11th in France: Sony's 4K Blu-rays.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by MisterXDTV

There's another reason: when the same disc comes to Europe they have to add all the foreign audio dubs so they need to save some space in the american version.

In this case they have like 13 GB of space left....

an other reason could also partially be ignorance (depending on where the numbers come from). When BD says their disk is 50GB they mean 50GB, if you look at it in something like windows explorer even though it might say GB what it is actually giving is the GiB number and 50GB~ 46.6 GiB so if you see in windows explorer 40GB you can't say there is 10GB unused it would be ~6.6GiB or ~7GB and not ~10GB you need to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Anthony P

an other reason could also partially be ignorance (depending on where the numbers come from). When BD says their disk is 50GB they mean 50GB, if you look at it in something like windows explorer even though it might say GB what it is actually giving is the GiB number and 50GB~ 46.6 GiB so if you see in windows explorer 40GB you can't say there is 10GB unused it would be ~6.6GiB or ~7GB and not ~10GB you need to compare apples to apples and oranges to oranges

Also, with UHD Blu-ray media, max bitrates are determined by the area of the disc the data happens to be on due to variable spin rates. There are only certain sectors that can meet the maximum spec.

There must be something in the authoring software that takes the disc design into account when setting video bitrates.

[Geoff D]

It's only the inner 8% of each 33GB layer that has to spin slower and thus uses slightly less bitrate, the other 92% can use the max 127.9 Mb/s for the transport stream.

As you say Freaky, the encodes will need to take this into account but seeing as none of the movies released so far seem to have anything close to that sort of max bitrate I don't think folks needs to worry about that 8% at the head of each layer.

Yes, this is only the start of the format and things will only get biggerer and betterer from here on out, I fully appreciate that, but still: they wouldn't have put this in the spec if it was going to be a problem later on down the line, and I'm glad they decided to include the two-zone system instead of curbing the TS bitrate at single-zoned 109 Mb/s (which would've made life easier for the encoders for sure).

[edit] Speaking of which, they decided on the two-zone implementation partly to avoid excessive drive noise from the faster read speeds being utilised for UHD Blu (i.e. it would get too fast and thus too noisy if the entire layer was read at the max 127.9 Mb/s rate, same reason why current BDs sometimes start off screeching like banshees (depending on player ) but quieten down as the laser moves from inner to outer), but I don't recall seeing much discussion about any noise that the Samsung makes. Which is a good thing, I guess!