4K Blu-ray Confirmed, Coming in

[Robert Zohn]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

It's an android app is it not?

Yes, I just confirmed the following:

Sony Pictures 4K movies with HDR can be streamed to all Sony 2016 XBR 4K TVs through the built-in Android app. It will also allow viewing of your owned UltraViolet movies and TV shows.

I'll ask if Sony's 2015 4K HDR capable TVs will get the upgrade Android app.

-Robert

[elwaylite]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

Samsung player will ship for $500.00 in March, save $100 if preordered.

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php...1452039456&rss

I think it will be $399 all the time any time to start.

Originally Posted by raygendreau

"Panasonic says that it has developed a new “4K High-Precision Chroma” processor in collaboration with its Hollywood lab. Even though the UHD Blu-ray standard brings improvements on several fronts it still uses chroma subsampling to compress color information. The processor converts movies from 4:2:0 chroma to 4:4:4 (full RGB) before the signal leaves the player instead of leaving the process to the TV. UB900 is also THX certified"

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php...453TRTo628l.99

Kinda how I figured, they have a new version of the PHL Uniphier they discontinued around 2013. That was always a great chip.

Originally Posted by m3racer123

I think it's an exact replica, otherwise it wouldn't be called lossless. The master spec will be completely uncompressed, but Blu-rays use lossless compression which reduces the size while still being identical to the original when decoded.

Makes sense, I just knew lossless could also be a marketing term.

Originally Posted by atlantajoseph

People are saying in the comments that this isn't really a UHD player and that the headline is misleading.

It is not a UHD player, only a blu player with hi res audio.

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by Robert Zohn

Yes, I just confirmed the following:

Sony Pictures 4K movies with HDR can be streamed to all Sony 2016 XBR 4K TVs through the built-in Android app. It will also allow viewing of your owned UltraViolet movies and TV shows.

I'll ask if Sony's 2015 4K HDR capable TVs will get the upgrade Android app.

-Robert

And the z5 premium!!!

[ray0414]

Originally Posted by dvdmike

XBR-X850D is super thin? Cool thanks for making my mind up Sony the C it is then!

At this point in the game, I would avoid the 850c. It has dimming similar to frame dimming so if you want black performance, it would be average at best. What size are you looking at?

[bailey1987]

100 titles coming from FOX

http://www.myce.com/news/20th-centur...-movies-78304/

[m3racer123]

Originally Posted by bailey1987

100 titles coming from FOX

http://www.myce.com/news/20th-centur...-movies-78304/

Doesn't specify a time period though - are they all this year, or is that the total number of films currently planned for the format, to be released over a number of years?

[dvdmike]

Originally Posted by ray0414

At this point in the game, I would avoid the 850c. It has dimming similar to frame dimming so if you want black performance, it would be average at best. What size are you looking at?

I am more than happy with the dimming on it and I am a plasma die hard.
I will have bias lighting also due to having to live with LCD

And its one of the higher rated rom the Sony line, so not sure why average

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

I guess my curiosity is an expanded gamut already, with HDR, does deep color even serve a purpose now? Or was it just a lame duck?

Ive always found ycbcr 444 to produce less banding than 422, but I always left the optional DC setting off.

You're kinda confusing the issue I think. Bit depth doesn't give you x amount of extra colours, it gives extra gradations within whichever colour gamut is being encoded at source. 'Deep Colour' never had any effect with Blu-ray because it was applied in-player after the format was encoded at 8-bit to begin with, so 'upscaling' the bit depth to 10, 12 or even 14 (like some Sony players) was virtually useless. But if you've actually got a 10-bit source, then why wouldn't you want that to be output at 10-bit?

You can encode a wide colour gamut in 8-bit and you'll still get the lowest and highest points that the gamut can offer, but the gradations in-between will be curtailed compared to a true 10-bit source, so the potential for banding would be much higher if not encoded optimally, especially when dealing with the extremes of HDR. (Dolby Vision don't even recommend 10-bit, their HDR system is designed around a 12-bit encode.)

A competent compressionist will do all the tricks in the book (dithering, over-sampling like Sony's Super Bit Mapping etc) to try and smooth the gradations as best they can, and it's to their credit that it's largely a non-issue with standard Blu-ray, admittedly. But it's all too easy to not give a shit (see Lionsgate, their encodes are atrocious for banding) so it's my hope that 10-bit will make banding a thing of the past, even for numbskulls like Lionsgate.

[Ben_R]

Bit of a daft question.

I'm going to upgrade my AVR this year as it's long overdue. Am I going to notice any difference in picture with a 4K AVR and a 4K player as i'm not ready to give up the Panny just yet.

[elwaylite]

Originally Posted by Ben_R

Bit of a daft question.

I'm going to upgrade my AVR this year as it's long overdue. Am I going to notice any difference in picture with a 4K AVR and a 4K player as i'm not ready to give up the Panny just yet.

All would depend on if you were using the AVR as a vid processor, if not then likely no. I have always cut all my AVR VP features OFF so it just passes thru.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by bailey1987

100 titles coming from FOX

http://www.myce.com/news/20th-centur...-movies-78304/

My biggest question is where are Disney, Universal, and Paramount?

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Esox50

My biggest question is where are Disney, Universal, and Paramount?

They tend to be some of the last studios at the party. I would assume there will be announcements within a few months time as has been hinted at before.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by elwaylite

All would depend on if you were using the AVR as a vid processor, if not then likely no. I have always cut all my AVR VP features OFF so it just passes thru.

The Samsung UHD Blu-ray player manual states it will downconvert UHD signals to 1080p if your equipment is not fully compliant.

Also, it and a couple others have been announced with dual HDMI ports. One fully HDMI 2.0a compliant and the other HDMI 1.4 compliant. This is helpful if your display is UHD ready and your surround receiver is not.

[Paul.R.S]

Originally Posted by raygendreau

Samsung player will ship for $500.00 in March, save $100 if preordered.

http://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php...1452039456&rss

Originally Posted by Esox50

My biggest question is where are Disney, Universal, and Paramount?

Yes. I'm not surprised by lazy Par's absence. Mouse House is likely still coming up with proprietary logos/branding. Thinking UHDisney BD. But yeah, Universal not being there and announcing a Jurassic World UHD BD is a little annoying but, again, not entirely surprising.

I knew we'd have Warner, Sony and Fox. For everyone else, there's general precedent for not being at the forefront in these regards.

[Dreamliner330]

I just saw MSRP pricing on 4K discs is $40. Blu-ray MSRP is $30, right? That probably means when 4K hits shelves they'll be $30ish on release week normally, probably by the end of the year.

I remember a couple years ago talking with someone who still bought DVD's because they didn't think the extra $5 was worth it to get the Blu-ray and Digital Copy and I thought they were crazy.

With 4K, its $20 more (at $40). The only thing that will bum me out is if they come with sweet slipcovers and I miss out on them. As it is, I sell the Blu-ray extras and end up paying $5 or so per title I keep, so to jump to 4K, and have to keep the Blu-ray to play it probably makes more sense for me to wait too.

I use a projector and the only quality 4K projectors are currently over $10 grand. I will no doubt have to wait 3-4 years before I can even use a 4K disc so it doesn't make sense for me to buy now when they'll probably be $10 for titles released this year by then.

Although I just had the thought...

Will 4K BD players will downrez to 1080 for playback on 1080 receivers and TV's?

If they do, I suppose I could get 4K BD's and sell off the Blu-rays. That would only have a small premium over what I'm currently paying...depending on the final shelf price on release week 4KBD's...if its possible to downrez. Is it?

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Ben_R

Bit of a daft question.

I'm going to upgrade my AVR this year as it's long overdue. Am I going to notice any difference in picture with a 4K AVR and a 4K player as i'm not ready to give up the Panny just yet.

The Samsung UHD Blu-ray player will downconvert UHD video signals to 1080p if 1) anything in your chain is not fully compliant to HDMI and HDCP 2.2 protocols, and 2) if your display is only 1080p.

UHD discs will look like really good Blu-ray discs on a 1080p display... and they're more likely to carry immersive surround tracks from Dolby or DTS.

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by Dreamliner330

I just saw MSRP pricing on 4K discs is $40. Blu-rays are $30, right? That probably means when 4K hits shelves they'll be $30ish on release week normally, probably by the end of the year.

I remember a couple years ago talking with someone who still bought DVD's because they didn't think the extra $5 was worth it to get the Blu-ray and Digital Copy and I thought they were crazy.

With 4K, its $20 more (at $40). The only thing that will bum me out is if they come with sweet slipcovers and I miss out on them. As it is, I sell the Blu-ray extras and end up paying $5 or so per title I keep, so to jump to 4K, and have to keep the Blu-ray to play it probably makes more sense for me to wait too.

I use a projector and the only quality 4K projectors are currently over $10 grand. I will no doubt have to wait 3-4 years before I can even use a 4K disc so it doesn't make sense for me to buy now when they'll probably be $10 for titles released this year by then.

Although I just had the thought...

Will 4K BD players will downrez to 1080 for playback on 1080 receivers and TV's?

If they do, I suppose I could get 4K BD's and sell off the Blu-rays. That would only have a small premium over what I'm currently paying...depending on the final shelf price on release week 4KBD's...if its possible to downrez. Is it?

The Samsung player already states it will downconvert to 1080p if necessary.

The first UHD disc titles for pre-order from Fox are going for $25 as a UHD/1080p Blu-ray bundle at Best Buy. Most studios are hedging at MSRP's being close to the same as 3D Blu-ray with lower street pricing (again, probably like 3D Blu-ray title price points). Disney titles, especially animated features, will probably be a bit more.

Texas Instruments has announced a "lower cost" wobbulating-type 4k DLP chip based on their commercial cinema designs for a wide variety of projector price points. How much "lower"...? Hard to say.

[Esox50]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

They tend to be some of the last studios at the party. I would assume there will be announcements within a few months time as has been hinted at before.

Universal literally just announced collaboration with Dolby Vision for Ultra HD distribution through their "home entertainment distribution partners". Not a peep about Ultra HD Blu-ray...

http://www.homemediamagazine.com/con...ultra-hd-37313

[raygendreau]

Philips will support its new HDR 4K UHD TVs by introducing this spring a Ultra HD Blu-ray player. Model BDP7501, pictured above, is said to feature a compact design and to offer HDMI 2.0a outputs with HDCP 2.2 for 4K HDR support, Wi-Fi connectivity to allow streaming from built-in Netflix and YouTube apps, and 4K UHD upscaling of lower-resolution Full HD, HD and SD content.

http://hdguru.com/philips-expand-4k-...lu-ray-player/

http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-th...-4k-tv-lineup/

[Dreamliner330]

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

The Samsung player already states it will downconvert to 1080p if necessary.

The first UHD disc titles for pre-order from Fox are going for $25 as a UHD/1080p Blu-ray bundle at Best Buy.

Yeah, if that's true and the 4K disc has the bonus content and junk on there then I could just sell off the regular Blu-rays like I do with the DVD's now and the math will work out to be about the same.

Hmm...

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

UHD discs will look like really good Blu-ray discs on a 1080p display... and they're more likely to carry immersive surround tracks from Dolby or DTS.

I'm curious as to how that will work. With 1080 uprez its just 4X so its probably pixel doubling. On the downscale, they are taking 4 pixels and merging them to 1. I wonder if they will just take a blended average.

It'll be interesting to see the BD vs UHD on 1080 TV comparison pics.