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Ultra HD Blu-ray specification finalised

by Mark Tyson on 13 May 2015, 12:46

Tags: Blu-ray Disc Association

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qacrfs

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The Blu-ray Disc Association has completed the specification for Ultra HD Blu-ray and published the logo which will signify this 4K content. We should start to see the first Ultra HD Blu-ray licenses from this summer onwards. This may well be the last major disc-based movie format, thinks CNet.

Ultra HD Blu-ray will set the standard for UHD home entertainment according to Victor Matsuda, chair, BDA Promotions Committee. "The technical capabilities of Blu-ray Disc, in particular its significant storage capacity and high data transfer rates, will enable the delivery of an unparalleled, consistent and repeatable UHD experience," claims the BDA exec.

The new specification isn't just about boosting the visual content to display "up-to 3840 x 2160 resolution". There are other enhancements to both image and sound within the standard. With regard to the visuals the Ultra HD Blu-ray specification "enables delivery of a significantly expanded colour range and allows for the delivery of high dynamic range (HDR) and high frame rate content," says the official press release. Sound is enhanced with the use of next-generation immersive, object-based sound formats such as DTS:X and Dolby Atmos, as part of the specification.

People wanting to watch their content across devices haven't been ignored by the BDA. An optional digital bridge feature will allow Ultra HD Blu-ray disc owners to view the purchased content across a range of home and mobile devices.

With the first Ultra HD Blu-ray licenses available this summer it shouldn't be too long before discs and players start to proliferate. The BDA says that new players will be backwards compatible with the 10,000+ titles currently available on Blu-ray Disc.

New ULTRA HD Blu-ray discs hold up to 66GB and 100GB of data on dual and triple layer discs respectively. That compares with current Blu-ray media which offer between 25GB and 50GB of storage. As noted by CNet, Panasonic showed off a prototype Ultra HD Blu-ray player at CES in January.



HEXUS Forums :: 29 Comments

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I hope it isn't the last format……100GB discs is not enough to keep all future releases on a single disc.

Hell, each of my 1080p LOTR rips is 60GB-70GB……how large are they going to be at 4K, 48hz, stereoscopic with HDR and ATMOS?
shaithis
….how large are they going to be at 4K, 48hz, stereoscopic with HDR and ATMOS?

Depends on the compression methods used: it could well be that the next target will be more efficient compression rather than bigger and bigger storage, particularly with streaming likely to make up an increasing proportion of the market.
lol, so in theory that could be bdxl dual (66GB), triple (100GB) and later quad layer (128GB) blu rays being used.. got to love the way they want to keep making us waste money on another device because you know the old devices won't be compatible, they'll likley force ANOTHER upgrade on us when they decide they want to use the quad layer discs…
I've got to be honest I rarely bother with blu-rays despite being an early-ish adopter (I was also a fairly early adopter of DVD). For most films compressed 1080p streaming or DVD quality is good enough. Sure 1080p bluray looks nice but is it worth the 50% price premium? Not to me. It probably doesn't help I'm cash strapped and although I have a 1080p TV its only a 6 year old budget sony. I can see streaming only improving so I really don't see much of a future for purchased media (after all most films you buy and watch once).
“each of my 1080p LOTR rips is 60GB-70GB”

Mine are only 30Gb per film and that is without compression, are you simply copying whole disc rather than main film only?

In my, limited experience, size of the file is heavily effected by sound track file - 5:1 best quality sound takes up a lot more space than 2.0 at MP3 quality.

My, uneducated,guess is that uncompressed copy of 4k film at 5:1 sound will be around 70GB, just beyond capacity of dual layer disks. Of course if upscaling from 1080p to 4k is very good the obvious question is going to be why bother upgrading your Blu-ray collection