UHD What is holding back UHD and what can be done to fix it? (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Look at music, videogames, TV. “Cordcutting” is rising; cable TV subscriptions are in decline.

Discs are dead-man walking. Streaming is the future.

 

[Dave H]

UHD BD has been doing rather well. Better than I ever expected. I think the main reason is, there is a larger video enthusiast market than there used to be with larger, better performing displays and projectors - consumers who are demanding the very highest quality content. Anyone with good eyes and sitting close enough realizes the compromises associated with streaming. The fact I am seeing UHD BDs at grocery stores, Target, Meyer (for those in the midwest) I would have never believed it several years ago.

https://www.flatpanelshd.com/news.php?subaction=showfull&id=1505110408

 

[sleroi]

One point I want to make about streaming is that unless you're living in a major metropolitan area or are willing to spend more than top dollar on your internet connection, you will probably never have close to enough of a bitrate to stream 4k content for more than 10-15 seconds. At best it'll be 1080p with HDR applied.

That's the dirty secret nobody at Netflix is willing to tell you.

I live in a suburb of Dallas and have 100m internet.

Most of Netflix' original programming in Dolby Vision looks great, definitely better than 1080. But with a lot of their stuff that just says ultra hd 4k and doesn't have HDR, the difference is minimal. Earth 2 looks nice on Netflix, but not near as nice as the uhd bluray disc.

Amazon is actually worse. I streamed the big sick in uhd and hd and couldn't tell the difference, and it did not look like uhd.

As for what's holding UHD back? I don't think its being held back. Are people upset because there's not more content available? Not more catalog titles on disc? Not enough hardware household penetration?

Right now I buy 4-6 discs per month. I recently bought Die Hard and the Matrix and they look spectacular. If the studios released any more titles I wouldn't be able to keep up, and low sales vs high expectations might doom uhd to a similar fate like 3d blu ray.

TV manufacturers have ensured that 4k is here to stay. It currently is a high end niche product, but eventually, once broadcasting joins the 4k ranks, it will become more mainstream. Even if the average viewer, like my wife, can't see or appreciate the uptick in quality.

Until that time, which is admittedly years away, I'm happy with the uhd status quo, slowly growing steam. (The digital bits is reporting a possible Predator 4k disc to coincide with the upcoming reboot.) I'd rather this path, then one of unrealistic expectations by studios killing it like it did 3d.

 

[Bob Cashill]

Never say never, but Blu-ray is my last format. (I have an all-regions player and 3D.) If you lose veteran home theater enthusiasts like me, you're not going to get very far, as the younger generation adopts streaming. Nothing against the format, but in my Blu bubble there's still lots of activity in "dying" physical media with titles I've never owned, and I've got the credit card bills to prove it. I don't need more to obtain films that have been done to death, greater resolution or not. But continue the revolution without me. (It's interesting to read about from the sidelines.)

 

[Lord Dalek]

You missed the big two:
Price
Additional hardware required.

More like software price. A wired Samsung player is cheaper than a regular BD was at this point in its lifespan.

 

[Keith Cobby]

I think it would help if the smaller distributors (Criterion, TT, Eureka, Arrow etc) started putting out UHD. Otherwise the market will be DC, Marvel, Disney etc and most of these titles don't interest me as a disc collector.

 

[Keith Cobby]

Looking at The Big Country thread, perhaps an opportunity has been missed in not releasing this on UHD. I will buy the new blu-ray but would prefer a UHD disc for this great film. How many people would want to buy it again in UHD.

 

[Thomas T]

We at HTF live in a bubble, not the real world. What to do to "fix" UHD? Is it broken? No, it's just that nobody outside of home theater geeks want it. I'm actually the only one among my friends and family who -are you ready for this?- owns a blu ray player. The rest of them all own DVD players and in some cases (like my sister) don't even use their DVD player anymore. She's moved on to streaming, downloading, VOD etc. Am I misunderstanding your question or am I correct in assuming that by "fixing" UHD you mean more palatable to the masses. If that's your intention, the horse has already fled the barn.

 

[Alan Tully]

Yeah, totally agree with Thomas. I have some friends & family that do have Blu-ray players, but they don't seem to buy Blu-rays anymore. It's going to become more & more of a niche market (& UHD a niche within a niche), but there's some great & interesting catalogue titles still being released by some small & enthusiastic companies. I suppose I'm from a generation that likes owning stuff, & I get as big a kick out of actually owning these films as I do from watching them (& the same with CDs). I'm 68 this year & I get the impression that the younger generation have less of a hang-up about owning things, which is probably a good thing.

 

[jcroy]

At this point, the only scenario I can think of for making dvd/bluray discs "relevant again" for the joe sixpack mass market, would be to build a time machine and travel back to the early/mid 2000s.

Once you've traveled back in time, do everything possible so that Netflix never introduces online streaming to the market (nor anybody else).

 

[Lord Dalek]

Am I misunderstanding your question or am I correct in assuming that by "fixing" UHD you mean more palatable to the masses. If that's your intention, the horse has already fled the barn.

You're more likely right about that. I will say that it probably would have helped if Sony had implemented full support for the format on one of their video game consoles out of the gate like the PS2 and 3. If just to get hardware into more people's houses.

 

[jcroy]

Another big technical reason why I haven't purchased any 4Kbluray discs yet, is that Sonopress/Arvato is purportedly a big player in manufacturing 4Kbluray discs. (Allegedly Warner and Universal have manufactured their 4Kbluray discs at Sonopress).

Apparently I do not trust anything manufactured by Sonopress.

Some folks here might remember back in 2014, when there were widespread reports of defective Criterion and WellGo bluray discs which went bad due to premature "bronzing". Apparently all these defective bluray discs which suffered premature "bronzing", were traced to Sonopress/Arvato manufacturing them.

The first time I heard Sonopress was a big manufacturer of 4Kbluray discs, it immediately "unsold" me on 4Kbluray (at the moment).

 

[jcroy]

Also back in January 2018, Sony closed down the cd/dvd/bluray production lines at their giant Terre Haute, Indiana optical disc manufacturing plant. (SonyDADC outsourced their remaining disc manufacturing clients to Technicolor).

It is not clear whether Sony is still manufacturing their own 4Kbluray discs, whether in Indiana or somewhere overseas (such as Japan or Austria).

(Allegedly Sony is still manufacturing their own PS4 discs at the Indiana plant).

 

[Sam Posten]

Outsourcing this stuff hasn't hurt Sony none. Their disks have been almost universally fantastic IMO.

 

[jcroy]

If Sony is still manufacturing their own 4Kbluray discs at their Indiana plant, most likely it will have IFPI QW** stamped into the first inner ring of the disc. (** are alphanumeric wildcards).

 

[John Dirk]

TV manufacturers have ensured that 4k is here to stay.

How so? As long as a 4K TV can still play 1080P, 480P, etc I don't see them really helping the sales of 4K discs.

 

[Lord Dalek]

How so? As long as a 4K TV can still play 1080P, 480P, etc I don't see them really helping the sales of 4K discs.

I think he's referring to the 3840x2160 resolution in general.

I do think Atmos is going to go the way of Dolby EX though.

 

[jcroy]

Outsourcing this stuff hasn't hurt Sony none. Their disks have been almost universally fantastic IMO.

So far I have only seen one of Sony's current clients' dvd/bluray discs being outsourced. This particular movie company was a long time client of Sony's Terre Haute, Indiana dvd/bluray manufacturing plant, where their recent dvd/bluray releases appear to be manufactured at Technicolor's giant mexico cd/dvd/bluray manufacturing plant. (Stuff made by Technicolor's mexico cd/dvd/bluray manufacturing plant, will typically have "made in mexico" printed on the plastic wrap over the back cover of the dvd/bluray package).

(Disney, Universal, Paramount, and Warner have been manufacturing their dvd/bluray discs at Technicolor's mexico plant for many years).

 

[Sam Posten]

I do think Atmos is going to go the way of Dolby EX though.

Not a chance in hell. Atmos is the present and the foreseeable future. Are you set up for true 7.1.4 Atmos? If not you haven't heard a fraction of what the format can do! It's in games now too.

 

[Sam Posten]

So far I have only seen one of Sony's current clients' dvd/bluray discs being outsourced.

I don't have any personal insight into any of this. I'm just saying I know when I get a sony disk it's going to be great. Regardless of their silly decision not to put UHD in PS4.