Last month at CES in Las Vegas the new Blu-Ray format was announced. It’s call Ultra HD Blu-Ray and it’s coming in March along with Ultra HD discs. I’m continually dumbfounded by these manufacturers that make things so difficult with the silly naming. To keep it simple, in our living rooms 4K and UHD are the same. These new Ultra HD Blu-Ray’s will play perfectly on your new 4K tv. Keep in mind a new Ultra HD Blu-ray player will still play your existing Blu-Ray and DVD collection.
Mere months before CES, the UHD Alliance came out with all the specifications for UltraHD discs. This means that not all of the 4K TVs sold before today have all the requirements for “full” 4K. Since the standards are new, there’s a chance your 4K TV will not work with every feature (HDCP, HDR, HDMI 2.0a, you get the idea). The logo above is what to look for on your TV to be sure you are getting the newest technology.
So what can you watch today in full 4K? Last month we talked about the Kaleidescape movie server and as of last week they are selling digital downloads of full 4K movies on their new Strato. Remember these are full bit for bit copies of Blu-Ray and Ultra HD Blu-Ray, not streaming like Netflix 4K. You can see the Strato has all the specs for Ultra HD Premium, HDMI 2.0a and HDCP 2.2. These are the technologies currently used, available today, and will be future proof for years to come. These movies will continue to come out well ahead of their disc counterparts. Only time will tell how the new disc format will go but it’s clear that digital downloads and streaming are here to stay.
Contact us now to discuss how you can take advantage of these new developments.
Phil Giordano, The Big Picture Media Systems
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