Sony has been working on getting more 4K resolution TVs onto the market under its Bravia brand for a long time. While some of its more recent 4K TVs came out of the box with support for 4K video streaming in HEVC H.265 standard, some of the older 4k sets from Sony didn’t. To remedy that issue, Sony has announced a new 4K media streaming box.
The streaming device is called the FMP-X5 and it is specifically designed to support HEVC. Sony’s new set top box is available for purchase now via the Sony online store for €399. It is designed to connect to Sony 4K TVs via an HDMI port that were built in 2012 and 2013.
From August this year, every BRAVIA™ 4K Ultra HD TV owner will be able to enjoy video content streamed with the increasingly popular HEVC (H.265) standard.
Available for purchase direct from Sony online at €399, a compact new 4K Media Player, the FMP-X5, plugs into an HDMI port on these existing 4K BRAVIA models (introduced in 2012/2013):
- KDL-84X9005
- KD-65X9005A / 55X9005A
Equipped with the new decoder, all 4K BRAVIA televisions can now play content encoded with the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) video codec. HEVC is becoming increasingly popular among the video streaming industry and being used in services such as Netflix. HEVC/H.265 has a better coding efficiency than that of H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, it makes HEVC ideal for online streaming of 4K video, requiring less bandwidth to deliver stunning-quality 4K images.
HEVC support is already featured as standard with all 2014 BRAVIA 4K TV models, including KD-X9500B/X9000B/X8500B, that do not require this decoder to play HEVC content.
Source: Sony.com