4K Blu-ray Confirmed, Coming in

[bailey1987]

4K Blu-ray is officially on the way. According to Victor Matsuda, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee, the BDA expects the specs for 4K Blu-ray to be finalized in the first half of 2015, paving the way for commercial availability by the end of the year. This means we can expect to see actual 4K Blu-ray movies and players available in stores by Christmas next year.*

Apart from the jump to 4K resolution (3,840×2,160) we can also expect 4K Blu-ray to support higher frame rates (up to 60fps), an expanded color gamut along with high dynamic range (HDR), as well as HEVC/H.265 encoding to compress 4K movies more efficiently and allow for higher bit rates. The group is currently exploring the possibility of increasing the disc capacity to 66GB or 100GB.*

The news was confirmed by representatives on the show floor at IFA 2014 in Berlin, which opened its doors to visitors today.

https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=14923

http://www.uhdbdinnumbers.com/




Spec to be finalised by Summer 2015 and Players to follow in early 2016

[atlantajoseph]

Nice to hear physical media will live another day. Thanks for the update!

[lagunaseca]

Great news! I'll be buying a 4k TV after the 4k blurays are released.

[bailey1987]

Originally Posted by lagunaseca

Great news! I'll be buying a 4k TV after the 4k blurays are released.

Me too.

[MechaGodzilla]

It will be most interesting to see how this develops. I can't help but feel it'll be very niche, but hopefully some cool movies make it out on the format.

[JNatoli01]

hope the ps4 can eventually support the 4K discs and also hope that the 4K discs are playable on 1080P sets much like how blu-ray can be watched on a sd TV. This would be ideal for me so I could just buy new releases in 4K while I decide on getting a new set.

[Adam_ME]

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to eventually cave and get a 4K TV and Blu-ray player. But I don't see myself upgrading my entire collection. There are some titles where the difference simply won't be noticeable(at least on a 65-75" screen).

[DoctorDan860]

Originally Posted by bailey1987

http://www.avforums.com/news/4k-ultr...med-2015.10665

Spec to be finalised by Summer 2015 and Players to follow by Christmas

Also reported by TechRadar here" http://www.techradar.com/news/televi...s-2015-1264317

The good news is that it seems like existing Blu-ray players, such as the PlayStation 4, will be able to play these disks, if only with a downsampled to 1080p image (such as when you play those "Mastered in 4K" discs).

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by Adam_ME

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't going to eventually cave and get a 4K TV and Blu-ray player. But I don't see myself upgrading my entire collection. There are some titles where the difference simply won't be noticeable(at least on a 65-75" screen).

I don't think you have to worry about even getting the choice of upgrading your entire collection. Considering how many people are still fine with DVD, how many movies and shows still haven't been released on BD, and that many companies still only release certain movies and shows on DVD because HD masters aren't available or because of the added cost, there'll be even fewer 4K releases.

We'll probably mostly be seeing beloved classics and recent blockbusters on 4K BD, at least for a long while.

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

We'll probably mostly be seeing beloved classics and recent blockbusters on 4K BD, at least for a long while.

Fine by me. Those are the movies I'd want to pick up on 4K anyway.

[BozQ]

Oh please. I hope to see HFR 3D, even if it's 2K, making it to this new 4KBD.
As well as leaving room for audio channels beyond 7.1

[Tech-UK]

Not exactly confirmed, until specs are finally released, which as per the news on this site, should be early next year.

[tob]

What about the price of 4k tv's and 4k players we still have to wait a long while for them to come down in price for everyone.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

I don't think you have to worry about even getting the choice of upgrading your entire collection. Considering how many people are still fine with DVD, how many movies and shows still haven't been released on BD, and that many companies still only release certain movies and shows on DVD because HD masters aren't available or because of the added cost, there'll be even fewer 4K releases.

We'll probably mostly be seeing beloved classics and recent blockbusters on 4K BD, at least for a long while.

I'm inclined to think that 4K Blu-ray discs will mostly be a "from here on out" phenomenon, featuring newer films and upcoming films, like the Avatar sequels, future Marvel movies, and such.

I'm sure that quite a few flagship older titles will be released in the format, like The Wizard of Oz, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and such, but I somehow doubt that I'll need to worry about replacing most of my existing Blu-ray collection. My classic film noir Blu-rays, my Fritz Lang Blu-rays, my Alfred Hitchcock Blu-rays, and my Akira Kurosawa Blu-rays are probably pretty safe from becoming obsolete.

I could be wrong, but I sort of hope that I'm not.

[Steedeel]

::

[BozQ]

Originally Posted by tob

What about the price of 4k tv's and 4k players we still have to wait a long while for them to come down in price for everyone.

It's the same with Blu-ray years ago.

[Penton-Man]

Originally Posted by bailey1987

Spec to be finalised by Summer 2015 and Players to follow by Christmas

Change of strategy for all various internet forum and website ‘video expert’ 4K Blu-ray prediction killjoys….Must now pivot shift debate from *naysaying* (it’ll never happen) to *niche saying* regarding its adoption in order to marginalize the whole technological achievement.

Ah , they do enjoy moving the goalposts further and further back for something they either personally don’t want or don’t believe in.

[Steedeel]

Originally Posted by Penton-Man

Change of strategy for all various internet forum and website ‘video expert’ 4K Blu-ray prediction killjoys….Must now pivot shift debate from *naysaying* (it’ll never happen) to *niche saying* regarding its adoption in order to marginalize the whole technological achievement.

Ah , they do enjoy moving the goalposts further and further back for something they either personally don’t want or don’t believe in.

Colour me blue!

[Richard Paul]

http://www.cnet.com/news/4k-blu-ray-...reaming-media/

The CNET article gives a few more details and says that 4K Blu-ray will be capable of 10-bit video, the BT.2020 color space, a data rate of 50 to 60 Mbps, and 100 percent more signal range for HDR (which might be 100 times more though they don't mention which HDR system they are going to use). Overall it sounds very nice.

[KRW1]

This is how it'll play out, as it did with Bluray.

"You'll only get the new Hollywood releases, never cult/obscurities"
"B&W/Animation won't benefit at all"
"Not as big as DVD etc"

Quite excited. I suspect companies like Criterion/Arrow etc will be on board a lot sooner this time around with no competition from a rival format so that new player/projector might come sooner rather than later.