Those of you fortunate enough to have a 4K-capable television might well have found yourselves rueing the lack of Ultra HD content to show off your shiny new television. The news that the Blu-Ray Disc Association had finally confirmed it was licensing the specification for Ultra HD Blu-rays would therefore have been welcomed with open arms.
Now, while new Ultra HD Blu-ray discs are great news, you’ll still need an Ultra HD-capable Blu-ray player to play them. Your old Blu-ray player or PlayStation console simply isn’t going to cut it.
Enter the Samsung Ultra HD Blu-ray Player (UBD-K8500). This is Samsung’s first player to support the new Blu-ray format that promises 3,840x2,160 resolution, four times that of a standard Blu-ray. Storage capacity per Blu-ray is also up considerably from the original Blu-ray specification, increasing from 50GB to 66GB on dual-layer discs and 100GB for triple-layer discs.
Samsung’s player will also support HDR (High Dynamic Range) content, which is a feature many new televisions are supporting. The new player will also be able to display 64 times the colour expression and run up to 60fps. The player will also upscale non-Ultra HD content up to the higher resolution, a feature that has been included on Samsung’s players in the past including the BD-J7500.
Movie studios are all getting ready to support the new format, too, so there’ll be new releases ready for launch. Fox Home Entertainment is planning simultaneous Blu-Ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray releases for some of its big movies including Kingsman: The Secret Service and the newly-released Fantastic Four reboot.
While the leap from Full HD to Ultra HD might not pose as big a leap as standard definition to high definition was, it’s still an exciting prospect. Especially for anyone with a particularly large television. Aside from announcing an early 2016 release date, no price has been confirmed for the UBD-K8500, so start setting aside the pennies now. Especially as you might find yourself re-buying some of your older films in glorious 4K.
