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Samsung and Fox have teamed upward to launch the world'south first 4K Blu-ray histrion at IFA today, with back up for a number of cutting-border features and the H.265 / HEVC codec. The new player will offer 10-bit colour support, 4K motion-picture show playback, and supports both HDMI two.0a and HDR. Play tricks appeared on stage with Samsung to launch the show, and Fox Habitation Entertainment president Mike Dunn told the crowd, "When my colleagues and I at Fox first saw the side-past-side comparison of Ultra HD with Loftier Dynamic Range vs. HD, it was reminiscent of the deviation between standard def and loftier def. This is a massive leap forward for the consumer experience."

The accuracy of Dunn's comments, however, are going to depend a great deal on what kind of content you own and the type of Boob tube you display it on. We've previously discussed how pixels become indistinguishable depending on how big your screen is and how far you sit from it. If yous own a small Television receiver and sit down at some altitude, upgrading to 4K may not amend your experience. If you lot accept a 65-inch TV half dozen anxiety abroad, on the other hand, upgrading is probably worth it.

Resolution, however, is but one variable. HEVC also supports 10-bit color (ten-bit back up is mandatory for 4K transcoding), and while 10-flake televisions are starting to roll into the market, many manufacturers don't distinguish betwixt 8-flake and 10-flake support in their own documentation. Sort of identifying the chips used in any given TV, it'due south not necessarily possible to determine which output modes information technology can handle.

Blu-ray 8-bit on the left, HEVC 10-bit on the right.

Blu-ray viii-bit on the left, HEVC 10-chip on the right.

The charts higher up show the relative color spaces in the old 8-bit and newer 10-bit standards. The differences may not be huge, but at that place are improvements to moving to ten-fleck, and it's ane of the HEVC features that studios are depending on to spur consumers to upgrade. Similarly, the television manufacture is badly hoping that the appearance of 4K will spur a buying blast not seen since the early on days of 720 and 1080p. 3D movies and television were supposed to drive adoption once 1080p became the norm, but that boom never materialized.

The good news for anyone who already bought an expensive 4K tv set is that an viii-bit panel can still see some benefit from a x-bit format. Because the colors are withal initially sampled from a wider, more accurate palette, the final output on an viii-fleck panel tin be slightly better than what you'd go from an viii-bit stream.

The advent of UHD Blu-ray volition be a significant exam of the physical content ecosystem. Blu-ray is a assisting format, but it never accomplished the aforementioned popularity every bit DVD or VHS, thanks in part to the growth of digital options that obviated the need for an expensive film drove or physical players. At the same time, yet, Blu-ray has always offered higher absolute quality than any streaming service, though the exact particulars of that comparison depend on the film, how well it was mastered (or remastered), and the customer's bandwidth performance.

It's also unclear if Microsoft or Sony volition release new consoles that include support for UHD playback. This volition be the showtime physical format to launch in decades that didn't accept at least one major game console supporting playback. Both the PS2 and PS3 debuted in office as multimedia centers, simply the PS4 lacks HDMI 2.0 (required for 60p playback in 4K) and near certainly lacks any form of dedicated hardware for H.265 decode. While it'due south possible that Sony has been hiding such options under its chapeau, it makes little sense to do so — the company would've gotten more marketing traction out of selling the PS4 as "4K Blu-ray set" from mean solar day one.

As with the HDTV transition, at that place are going to exist bumps in the road, poor manufacturer communication, variable film quality, and a cracking many of moving parts that occasionally neglect to interlock. The stop result, however, should withal be a best-in-class video format that offers a number of advantages over H.264, non just a resolution upgrade.

Among the first batch of movies that volition appear on 4K Blu-ray discs are Fantastic Iv, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Kingsman: The Secret Service, and Life of Pi. The player should striking US shores in early on 2022 and cost "under $500," though we don't have an exact price yet.