True 4k-blu-ray players/discs-coming to store shelves Christmas 2015

Victor Matsuda, Chairman of the Blu-ray Disc Association Global Promotions Committee confirmed this week officially that technical standards will be finalized in the first half of 2015 and that players and discs will be available from the major studios by Christmas of the same year. This information is available on a bulletin at: www.blu-ray.com
Been waiting THREE YEARS for official word of this news...now we have a set target date!!!

 

I know nothing about this format? But, I'd like to...so they are going to issue 4k BR discs? what about BR?

 

All the major manufacturers and studios will have players and discs on the shelves by Christmas of next year, according to the info provided at the link I gave above, Michael...the format is 4 times as sharp and colors WAY more accurate than current HD/blu-ray standards make possible...the discs themselves will easily hold 100+gigabytes of data in order to do this...

 

OK, thanks...I missed the link? Damn! anyway so now ppl will be buying another reissue of their favorite movies on 4K! O' man I do love this! LOL! Cool, now BR will be a buck a piece used...and even lower for used DVDs...heavenly baby! I can see it now! BR sucks 4 K is so much better...

 

Catalog blu-rays are already selling at big box stores and places like Best Buy for as little as $5-6 dollars a pop...this will eventually lower prices for the current format even more in the coming years...

 

General public wont be interested for a few years. Screen/player compatible/cost/disc availability.

 

Oh goody...another format.

 

Yeah I tend to agree and, aside from early adopters,I think this will be even more niche. Blu-ray took some time to find its footing and I honestly don't see an economy that will support these for a while. Add in the streaming option which is what interests most folks and I doubt we will see this fly off the shelves.

As much as I'd love this to succeed, I won't be buying into it and whatever I have on Blu is what I'm sticking to this time around.

 

PDenny is right: this is a whole new format disguised as Blu-ray. The UHD players will be downward-compatible, but the faux-4K UHD discs will only play on new players. I think the industry is terrified that people will realize that all their Blu-ray players are now obsolete.

As I've often said, the three things that lose value the fastest: 1) display devices (TV sets, computer monitors, projectors, etc.); 2) computers; and 3) media players (DVD, Blu-ray, even cassette, MiniDisc, DAT, etc.). For the longest time, we had two different $3000 standard-def DVD players lying around. They're not worth $50 today.

Note that the so-called "True 4K" standard is 3840×2160, not the real 4K standard of 4096x2160. The main reason they had to slide the spec down is because HDMI 2.0 couldn't handle the bandwidth, and nobody wanted to go for a bigger cable & connector or two standard cables.

 

Not necessarily - it depends on the source. If it's grainy, then the increased resolution will just give you better defined grain. And on 1080p screens, you won't notice any difference. In fact, it may look worse depending on your TV's downscaling prowess.

Theoretically. Today's 4k TVs may have the resolution, but most, if not all, do not implement the other part of the UHD spec, which is expanded color gamut (Rec. 2020). So until that happens, no, you will not see more accurate colors.

 

When's the anouncement for 16k happen?

 

I'm not biting, they can keep 4K as far as i'm concerned.

 

How is it possible that anyone sitting at a normal living-room viewing distance, in front of a 50-60" set, will notice the jump up in resolution? Will the frame rate and color differences amount to an actual visible difference?

I hereby swear and affirm I am not going to buy all over again all the movies I own in "Bluer ray," or whatever it is to be called.

 

That is awesome. Best example of Orwellian doublespeak I've ever heard from the tech world. The "true" is not the real.

 

I may eat my word many years from now but I think I'm good with my current blu-ray collection. How many times can I rebuy the same films over and over again.

Seriously, for normal home viewing conditions how much of an increase in quality are we taking here. Even one day if I have the space for a projector and with a reasonable screen size? Will the jump be as dramatic from DVD to Blu-ray?

 

Mathematically it will be as much of a difference from DVD to blu-ray but I'll only believe my eyes when I see it.

 

For the right sized screen.

 

Absolutely correct, it's all about viewing distance and screen size. Many will not notice. As it is, you have to sit ridiculously close to a normal (45" to 65" sized) 1080p set to perceive the improved resolution vs. 480p, or have a rear projection system with a screen measured in feet rather than inches. Keeping the screen sizes the same, you would need to be even closer to benefit from 4K resolution. No doubt some will be able to take advantage (I wish I could), but I would bet that many do not. In my average sized den, I have a 60" 1080p plasma, and my nose is about 12 feet from the screen. Last time I looked at a viewing distance calculator, I think I am somewhere near 2x the recommended distance.

Of course, the sets, players, and media will sell because 4k is a bigger number, but many will not gain any actual improvement.

Me, I am holding out for 4.1K.

BGL

 

Meh...Why even bother? The general public has gotten use to and prefers the convenience of streaming films from subscription services and/or the cloud to multiple devices - TV, smartphone, tablet, and personal computer. With ISP's providing greater bandwidth, the hurdles of streaming 4k are not an issue. In fact, Netflix is doing this now. I'm sorry but I just don't see a sustainable market for this new optical format and most likely it will experience a very short shelf life.

 

Not interested. Blu-ray is fine for me for now. I will be going from 1080p to downloading the film straight to my brain like Total Recall. Skipping everything in between.

 

You may be jesting, but Japanese public broadcaster NHK has been working on 8K since 1995, 16x the resolution of HDTV. They did demos during the Sochi Olympics. It will allegedly will offer greater resolution than the human eye can detect. That may be the endgame... until we start plugging things directly into our neural networks?

Learn more about 8K "Super Hi-Vision" here:
http://www.nhk.or.jp/8k/index_e.html

 

At least there won't be a UHD-Bluray vs UHD-DVD format war!

 

What's ridiculously close? I'm 8' from a 55" monitor, and the difference is easy to perceive.

 

Do you think 4k will be sticking around, or forgotten about like 3D?

 

3-D is still around. It just wasn't the savior they thought it would be. Same here with 4K, I'd guess.