Netflix has begun streaming content in 4K. Amazon's getting ready to start doing the same. Samsung is partnering with practically everyone to stream Ultra High-Def (UHD) via its products, writes Chris Tribbey, from the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA), but Victor Matsuda, global promotions chair for the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), wants to remind everyone: physical media isn't going anywhere, and Blu-ray is going to be the best way to deliver 4K. And Blu-ray discs capable of carrying 4K are closer than you think.

"The more information you're trying to stream, it becomes more of a challenge for Internet-based services," Matsuda said, speaking ahead of the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin. "One of the advantages Blu-ray and packaged media formats have is having its own, enclosed, stable environment. We don't have to worry about how many neighbors are trying to stream the same information, how big the pipeline is from the service provider, whether your monthly data plan is going to affected by the 4K products rolling out."

While a 4K Blu-ray standard had been promised by the end of 2014, the timeline now has the BDA licensing out the technology by as early as next spring, with Blu-ray 4K discs hitting retail by Christmas 2015. With all the 4K streaming news coming out, Matsuda said the BDA wanted to remind consumers and content owners that physical disc will still be playing its part.

"I think it's very much in line with what we've experienced in the past: packaged media offers a very controlled, stable, known environment, that's fundamentally an advantage, compared to streaming services," he said. "One thing that's been a very big part of that conversation is that, as much as possible, this allows the more aggressive companies to get product out in time for Christmas 2015."

While specifics for the standard are still being hammered out, a few details are known: discs will be available at 50GB, 66GB and 100GB and will support a range of frame rates, up to 60 frames per second; the video compression technology used will likely be H.265/HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding); and both high-dynamic range and a wider color gamut will be used.

"We've always tried to promote Blu-ray as the best of the best, and that's not only talking about resolution," Matsuda said. "There are a lot of things that will continue to separate Blu-ray from other products and services that continue to talk about 4K."

Replicators will need to make 'additional investments' to produce the discs, he added. While replicating 4K Blu-ray hasn't been something Sony DADC, Technicolor or Cinram have had to worry about yet, both Sony and Technicolor are BDA board members, and involved in establishing a 4K Blu-ray standard. "They're completely engaged in these discussions," Matsuda said. "What they decide as a company."

And content shouldn't be an issue: several major studios sit on the committee working on the 4K Blu-ray standard, and with Hollywood looking for new ways to continue the life of physical disc, there's incentive to get 4K Blu-ray content to market.

"We're certainly hopeful that, just as what was the case with Blu-ray, that the hardware and software companies are motivating each other," Matsuda said. "The work by the BDA is only going to provide the hardware and software companies the business opportunity. At the end of the day, in the past there have been enough devices and enough software at launch to make people interested. We're hopeful for the same going forward with this one."

(Source: MESA/MESA Daily).

Story filed 06.09.14