The market for Ultra HD Blu-ray players is expected to heat up now that the Blu-ray specification for 4K is complete! Samsung has announced plans to bring players to market and Panasonic has demonstrated the technology. The [Blu-ray Disc Association] also made vague reference to a ‘digital bridge’! Lots coming on our way!
While the internet is still doing most of the heavy lifting for 4K (sites such as Netflix, YouTube and Amazon), the Ultra HD Blu-ray specification is finally complete which means we should see movies and players arriving later this year. Besides being compatible with the 10,000~ Blu-ray discs already out, Ultra HD Blu-ray players will be ready for high-res 3,840 x 2,160 video, “next generation object-based sound formats” (think DTS: X and Dolby Atmos), more colors, high dynamic range (HDR) and even high frame rate video.
The discs themselves are upgraded too, ready to hold 66GB or 100GB of data, up from the 25GB/50GB size of the current Blu-ray spec. According to the association licensing is expected to start this summer, and Samsung already announced it plans to release a player later this year.
What’s a digital bridge?
The official spec for the new Ultra HD Blu-ray standard doesn’t clearly state how the digital bridge feature will function. It says that consumers will be able to “”view their content across the range of in-home and mobile devices.” Fortunately, there’s supplementary information online, if you know where to look for it.
The new digital bridge feature is designed to give customers more flexibility in how they consume content. In 2015, simply having the content on a disc isn’t good enough — not when people are used to watching Netflix on a tablet, then transferring to a different device and picking up where they left off.
Source: Engadget