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UHD Spec Stomps on Current Blu-ray Spec, But Will Consumers Notice?

Posted by timothy on from the is-your-nose-on-the-glass? dept.

An anonymous reader writes Details have emerged on the new UHD Blu-ray spec and players set to start shipping this summer. UHD promises resolutions 4X greater than Blu-ray 1080p as well as much higher data rates, enhanced color space and more audio options. But, will consumers care, and will they be willing to upgrade their HDTV's, AV Receivers, and Blu-ray players to adopt a new format whose benefits may only be realized on ultra large displays or close viewing distances? The article makes the interesting point that UHD isn't synonymous with 4K, even if both handily beat the resolution of most household displays.

8 of 332 comments (clear)

  1. I won't notice by itzly · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't even have a Blu-ray player. :)

    1. Re:I won't notice by Echo_Hotel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On the other hand, the color space of current TV grade LCDs is absolutely atrocious and any improvement is going to be noticeable.

    2. Re:I won't notice by StarFace · · Score: 5, Informative

      Try VLC. It is the only thing I will use to watch DVDs these days. For one thing you can start playing the film immediately for most discs, just stick it in and load with menus skipped. For those discs that put other crap in the 1-1 position, loading to the menu means just that. No preview bullshit, no restricted navigation, no tedious animated menu effects, just straight to the navigation point, click play and the film starts without every other authoritative government's angry and unskippable piracy warnings.

      --
      V
    3. Re:I won't notice by Tough+Love · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, if Sony and their idiot partners had not made such an absolute hash of the Blu ray experience by excessive DRM, offensive warnings that can't be skipped and crass shovelware loading of endless previews that are opt out (and sometimes, randomly either can't be fast forwarded or can't be skipped) and super slow clumsy content menus due to the braindamaged Java tie then consumers might actually care about the next Blu Ray standard. But Sony did make a hash of it and delivered an experience that makes you want to throw a shoe at the TV every time. The kick in the face that just keeps kicking. Sorry, no more crappy optical disks rubbing my face in whatever a content provider wants to rub my face in. Solid state, hard disk or streaming for me, Blu Ray can fuck off and die, and so can Sony.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  2. Too late! by namgge · · Score: 5, Funny

    Anybody able to afford this upgrade is probably too old to be have eyesight good enough to see it.

  3. I didn't even need HD ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... I've often thought "I wish the content/story were better", but never "I need to see more pores".

  4. Article leaves out the new DRM on the output by LamaBrew · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The content providers have threatened to require the new HDCP 2.x DRM system on the HDMI outputs instead of the existing HDCP 1.x. HDCP 2.x has required all of the IC providers to design new chips, and the standard is much more restrictive and much more fragile than the existing HDCP 1.x.

    HDCP 1.x took several generations of product to get to function ( most people's problems with HDMI in the first few years was due to the HDCP DRM failing, not HDMI, which only specs how to send data).

    Given the past history of HDCP it could be years before you can reasonably expect multiple pieces of consumer electronics from different vendors to play together well. I'm sure the message "HDCP violation" will look much nicer in 4K.

  5. As an audio-visuophile, It's not about resolution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    As an audio-visuophile, all I can say is, seriously, just like the megapixel war in digital cameras, we're now having a megapixel war in TVs. But, what most people realize is that these new, super high resolutions are useless to most people, because while they may have the 4K TV, all of the equipment around it fails to deliver the content to the TV properly.

    Cables are a simple example of this. Your run of the mill $10 HDMI cable from Walmart is not going to faithfully reproduce the digital signal between a UHD Bluray player and a 4K TV. No oxygen-free copper. No gold plating (or maybe just a few microinches of it). No super high twists per inch. The bits are just going to get fuzzy between the source and the TV and this makes it impossible to reproduce 4K content accurately.

    Even more jitter and fuzz is introduced by poor power conditioning, inadequate and noisy power cables, and lack of solar irradiance dampers (lab tests have shown that even having the sun shine on equipment introduces noise and inaccurate pixels).

    It's nearly impossible for a home A/V setup consisting of crap you get from Walmart or Bestbuy to do a good job of presenting UHD or 4K content in the truest, deepest form and with the most clarity.