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CES: Sony & Netflix team on 4K streaming video

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  • CES: Sony & Netflix team on 4K streaming video



    LAS VEGAS -- With a 4K Video Unlimited library launched in 2013, and since populated by 140 titles such as Sony Pictures' Elysium, Sony Electronics announced at CES that it had been working with Netflix to help create and deliver new 4K content

    Netflix CEO Reed Hastings took the stage to report that “Netflix is working with Sony to create a fabulous entertainment experience. When 4K started to be talked about, we saw the Internet as the natural medium to deliver it because most 4K content was going to be available online. We know that content creators are very excited about 4K because of the additional picture range they get to play with. All new original content from Netflix, including season two of House of Cards, will be shot, edited and produced in 4K…and we've been working with Sony to show Breaking Bad in 4K."

    He added that Netflix' 4K service will require 15Mb/s of in-home bandwidth compressed using HEVC. "This is very practical," said Hastings. "You can stream 4K over WiFi if you want to. It's testament to the work we've been doing on encoding and what Sony has been doing on decoding."

    “4K is not a science project for 10 years into the future -- this is happening now,” asserted Mike Fasulo, president and CEO of Sony Electronics, at a strangely low-key press conference.

    He rattled off a string of upcoming 4K-lensed features such as Spike Lee’s The Sweet Blood of Jesus, About Last Night and Think Like A Man 2; TV series such as Trophy Wife and The Blacklist; and sports including the upcoming FIFA World Cup final match.

    Other items of note: Sony's booth features two 4K projectors blended together to throw a huge video of a soccer pitch; it trumpeted a new 4K Handycam for the prosumer market costing $2,000; confirmed that YouTube's video decoder VP9 will be incorporated into future products; and teased that its 4K F55 cameras were being used by Hulu to produce an original 4K TV series.

    The company also is launching new 4K Bravia TV models with built-in HEVC codec and is working on a player enabling users, for example, to store video from their 4K Handycam and play it back on a 4K TV.
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    Dr. Mordrid
    ----------------------------
    An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

    I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

  • #2
    Just wondering... what is the point?

    I'm watching movies using a full HD (1080p) projector, giving an image that is approximately 2m wide. From 3-3.5m, this is gives an image size similar to sitting just rear of the middle in the cinemas.
    Full HD on that screen already looks fabulous. I don't even mind watching lower resolution movies: if the movie is good, you stop noticing the low resolution fast enough (compression artifacts are IMO more disturbing). I am projecting from a PC, so perhaps it does a an OK upscaling.

    I know bigger screen TVs are coming, but most people I know refrain from buying blurays as they don't have a bluray player. And they don't want one, because movies on bluray cost 4-5 times more. Granted, broadcasted movies are a different thing: you have the subscription, so you may as well watch in better quality. But I fail to see the point at this time of 4K. It is good that the material is coming (and I was surprise to see 4K TVs already in the shops), but what circumstances do you need to see a difference?
    An other argument is that I think it would make people wait again with buying disks: why would you buy a 1080p bluray now, if in 4-5 years time you could buy the same one in 4K resolution?
    pixar
    Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

    Comment


    • #3
      Blue Ray discs can hold 4K content, and in the US the decks are very cheap - many well under $100 and common. 4K TV's are also in the channel and you just KNOW the price curve is going to bend down rapidly as makers try to spur an upgrade cycle which hss been much delayed by the recession. 3D didn't work, so....

      Here BD movies have maybe a 50-100% price premium, not several times. Many go for $20-27, and after the rush sales they often drop to less than $20.

      Also: they'll have to sell off these before 8K hits in 3-4 years.
      Last edited by Dr Mordrid; 8 January 2014, 05:56.
      Dr. Mordrid
      ----------------------------
      An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications.

      I carry a gun because I can't throw a rock 1,250 fps

      Comment


      • #4
        There a several things that bug me...
        1.
        The price for full HD blue ray disks hasn't gone down much here, and the 4K ones are round the corner. And already it successor is planned. So you just know that in a few years time, your full hd blue ray disk will be surpassed.

        2.
        And that is assuming you want the higher resolution. Full HD on a 2m wide screen looks great to me, combine it with 5.1 sound, and I don't see what more I need. I must admit, I was amazed to see how fast 50"-60" displays went down in price, and they are still manageable in a normal interior. But how many people have room to put a 80+"?
        Perhaps I'm an exception, but I don't want a livingroom built around a TV...

        3.
        A crappy 4K movie is still a crappy movie... The resolution completely does not bother me if the movie is good...
        pixar
        Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow. (James Dean)

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