UltraHDBlu-ray
Latest
CES 2016: TVs are finally taking a backseat
Where are the TVs? In my ten years of attending CES I've never had to ask this question, and to be fair, this year they were still front and center in a few booths. But Sony pushed TVs and projectors to the fringe of its spacious CES booth (ceding space for headphones and... turntables?) while Panasonic could only spare a couple of tables for the latest Ultra HD TVs. In the same space where Darth Vader stood in front of dozens of flat panels to announce a Star Wars Blu-ray, now Spartan Race athletes wearing action cameras took on obstacles, and electric scooters showed off fast charging. Instead of riding high as the primary electronics device on show, TVs, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players are settling in with wearables, VR, drones and the rest as just another thing that look to your phone for advice.
Samsung's Ultra HD Blu-ray player is coming soon for $399
There aren't many Ultra HD Blu-ray players to choose from, but the first one you can buy is this one from Samsung. We'd seen it before at IFA last year, but this week Samsung announced the UBD-K8500 will go on sale in the US this March. Talking to reps from Samsung and the Ultra HD Association, I was told it could start selling as soon as February 22nd, and we expect to see the first Ultra HD discs arrive at the same time. Pre-orders are up on Samsung's website and Amazon.com now for $399.
Panasonic's 4K CES: OLED, LCD and Ultra HD Blu-ray
At Panasonic's CES press conference we focused on its new SL-1200 turntables, and now we've hit the company's booth to see some new 4K hardware. That includes the 65-inch OLED TV that's supposed to arrive later in the year, a DX900 Ultra HD LCD with Ultra HD Premium certification and there's even an Ultra HD Blu-ray player. While what it has to show is impressive enough, Panasonic squeezed all of its home theater offerings into a relatively small area of its booth -- not like previous years when TVs dominated. Now action cameras, electric vehicles, data storage and home automation are taking up most of the space.
'Mad Max: Fury Road' is an Ultra HD Blu-ray launch title
Ultra HD Blu-ray is finally coming in 2016, and while we'll hear more about its 4K movies this week at CES, Warner Bros. is kicking things off by announcing some of the first movies on the way. Right out of the gate, it's offering Mad Max: Fury Road, San Andreas, The Lego Movie and Pan. They're promised for the "initial launch" early this year, although there's no exact date mentioned. More movies will arrive later this year and Warner says it plans to release over 35 in 2016, although only Man of Steel and Pacific Rim have been named.
Here's the world's first Ultra HD Blu-ray player
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-519620{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-519620, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-519620{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-519620").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Samsung has announced the first (consumer ready) Ultra HD Blu-ray player, alongside word that movie studio Fox is already getting its releases ready for the new format. That means 4K movies, yes, but also compatibility for HDR video. Here's a closer look at the curved UBD-K8500 player -- perfect for that new curved Ultra HDTV, right?
Samsung jumps into Ultra HD Blu-ray, as Fox provides the movies
Today Samsung is the first company to announce an Ultra HD Blu-ray player, taking the lead in 4K and HDR video. Following up on its big Ultra HD push at CES and the movie-streaming/download tech that has arrived in the months since, Samsung is ready to push super-high-resolution movies (four times the resolution of Blu-ray, and 64 times as many colors) on discs too. There's not much detail available on its new player, although we expect it will cost less than the $1,000 price its first Blu-ray player commanded nearly a decade ago and it should launch early next year. Joining the tech company on its IFA 2015 stage are Fox execs, with President Mike Dunn proclaiming the studio is committed to releasing its slate of upcoming movies in Ultra HD with HDR day-and-date with the Blu-ray and Digital HD releases. That includes Fantastic Four, Maze Runner, Kingsman: The Secret Service and more.
Ultra HD Blu-ray will have 4K discs here in time for the holidays
After locking down a name, logo and spec, the Blu-ray Disc Association has announced it's just about ready to start licensing the Ultra HD Blu-ray technology. The group anticipates we'll hear about products for the 2015 holiday season (and naturally is revealing this right after Western Digital's 4K movie ready hard drive appeared). Coming around just about nine years after the first Blu-ray players arrived, this upgrade is about more than just high-res 4K (3,840 x 2,160) video -- it also includes support for high dynamic range (HDR), high framerate (HFR) and a "digital bridge" feature that should give viewers more ways to store and play their movies, even while keeping the disc on the shelf.
Ultra HD Blu-ray is bringing high-res movies home soon
After Blu-ray and HD DVD ushered in the age of HD and 1080p movies for the masses, discs were beaten to 4K by streaming services like Netflix, YouTube and Amazon. While the internet is still doing most of the heavy lifting for 4K, the Ultra HD Blu-ray specification is finally complete which means we should see movies and players arriving later this year. Besides being compatible with the 10,000~ Blu-ray discs already out, Ultra HD Blu-ray players will be ready for high-res 3,840 x 2,160 video, "next generation object-based sound formats" (think DTS: X and Dolby Atmos), more colors, high dynamic range (HDR) and even high frame rate video. That's a lot of buzzwords to say movies will have the capability to look and sound better at your home than they ever have before. The BDA also made vague reference to a "digital bridge" setup for extending your movie purchased on a disc to other devices like phones and tablets, but didn't say exactly how that will work, or if it's going to be any better than Ultraviolet.
4K movies are coming to Blu-ray discs and hard drives
Sure, there are plenty of Ultra HD televisions floating around the Las Vegas Convention Center, but how will you find anything suitably super high-res to play on them? Netflix, Amazon and a few others have started 4K internet delivery, while DirecTV and Comcast also have limited approaches, but sometimes you prefer media you can hold onto. Physical media fans have help on the way in two forms, but the bad news is neither one is ready to launch right now. The Blu-ray Disc Association has confirmed the name of its 4K format (Ultra HD Blu-ray) and many of its capabilities, while the Secure Content Storage Association has its own demo for Ultra HD movies you can download and transfer (almost) at will, with backing from Fox, Warner Bros., Samsung and others.
