CES 2016 marked the official launch of the Ultra HD Blu-ray format, with three companies showing players slated for deliveries later this year and top-level Hollywood studios announcing plans for supporting the new hardware with Ultra HD Blu-ray titles totaling at least 100 discs by year’s end.
Hardware companies that showed Ultra HD Blu-ray players included: Samsung, Panasonic and Funai’s Philips brand. As well, Sony and LG acknowledged plans to add Ultra HD Blu-ray players of their own later in the year but didn’t show any actual products in their booths.
As outlined in the Blu-ray Disc Association’s Ultra HD Blu-ray specifications, all players will support up to 4K Ultra HD (3840×2160) resolution; will be equipped to play and output baseline SMPTE ST.2084/2086 HDR formats with HDR 10 listed as mandatory and other formats compatible with ST.2084 EOTF such as Dolby Vision, listed as “voluntary” for inclusion by the player makers and disc replicators. EOTF is the process of translating digital code into visible light. The format calls for a color gamut container supporting up to the BT.2020 color gamut, which TVs will remap to the maximum levels each model is designed to support.
Although new 4K Ultra HD TV purchasers will have a range of content sources they can use to view 4K Ultra HD movies and TV shows, the disc-based Ultra HD Blu-ray platform is expected to offer the gold standard for picture and sound quality capability. This is due largely to the fact that Ultra HD Blu-ray supports a bit rate of up to 100 Mbps, where most typical 4K streaming services or cable/satellite pay-TV providers support up to 6 to 7 Mbps.
Ultra HD Blu-ray will also support higher frame rates of up to 60 fps compared to the 24/30 fps available through most streaming and pay-TV services.
Read more about the first Ultra HD Blu-ray players and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray titles after the jump:
Of all the Ultra HD Blu-ray player announcements, Samsung’s UBD-K8500/ZA (pictured at top) appears closest to market launch. In fact, the company is already offering its player for $399.99 on pre-sale now, with fulfillment expected on Feb. 14, 2016, according to a listing on Amazon.
