Hi, it's HandyAndy Tech Tips here, and it looks like, after forty years of different
home video formats, physical media is finally dead.
I mean, why would you go to the shops and buy a DVD or a Blu-Ray Disc when it's just
so much easier to stream movies off Netflix?
Well, in today's video, I'm going to be telling you about a new disc-based format which wants
to claw back some market share from streaming services.
Yes, I'm going to be telling you all you need to know about Ultra HD Blu-Ray.
So the first question that you might be asking is: how much better is the video quality?
Well, let's first talk about the resolution, which is the most obvious improvement.
So it's gone from 1920 x 1080 pixels, which represents a Full HD picture, to 3840 x 2160
pixels, which is Quad HD.
That essentially means that you'll be getting four times the pixel count, which will result
in drastically sharper images.
But not only will there be more pixels, they'll also move more smoothly, because this is the
first home video format with support for 60fps at the maximum resolution.
The fact that you'll be getting 60 individual frames, or pictures, per second of video,
is a big jump up from the 24fps that standard Blu-Ray offers.
And you want to know what else is a drastic improvement?
You'll be getting far richer and deeper colour on the new discs.
So current Blu-Ray offers 8 bits per channel.
That means, for the red, green and blue channels, you get 256 different levels of intensity,
or brightness.
And these can be combined to give a total of 16.7 million colours.
But with 4K Blu-Ray, you'll be getting 10 bits per channel.
Now, that doesn't seem like much of an improvement, does it?
You're going from 8 to 10.
But it means that instead of getting 256 different levels, you're going to get 1024.
And these can be combined to make a maximum of 1.07 billion colours.
Now, this all sounds pretty abstract.
I mean, you're probably thinking, "The colours on my existing Blu-Ray discs are fine!
Why would I need more?"
But, believe it or not, it actually translates into a real-world benefit.
More colours enables something called High Dynamic Range, which allows you to see scenes
just as they would have appeared with your own eyes.
So that means that, when you're looking at a picture of a sunset, for example, you won't
see a really bright, drastically overexposed sun, and then no detail in the rest of the
image.
Instead, the scenery in the shadows will be really clear and detailed, and you'll be able
to see all the information that the camera originally captured.
So that's all well and good, but you'll notice that I actually haven't mentioned the other
aspect of creating realistic pictures - that is, 3D.
Well, that's because 4K Blu-Ray actually won't support it.
I mean, if you think about it, 3D has always been a bit of a novelty every single time
it's been introduced.
And people have kind of lost interest in it, which is why you won't be seeing it in 4K.
But what else will we be seeing in the new format?
Well, one of the coolest new features is called "Digital Bridge".
Now, it's a little bit like Ultraviolet, which is on discs that you can buy at the moment,
but it has one crucial difference: it allows you to make a bit-for-bit identical copy of
your disc and watch it on other devices.
Now, the definition of "other devices" is very broad.
It includes external hard drives, so this means that you can plug one into your Ultra
HD Blu-Ray player and actually watch movies without having to insert any discs: you can
create your own little media library.
It also includes smartphones and tablets, so you can watch 4K movies on the go, which
does sound pretty good.
But, what are going to be the first movies that you can watch on the format?
Well, quite a few studios have already committed to it.
Sony Pictures has announced that its first wave of releases will come out early this
year, and they'll include "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" and "The Smurfs 2".
Now, who knows why we need The Smurfs in 4K, but anyway.
And very recently, Warner Home Video also pledged their support, announcing that their
first titles will include "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Man of Steel".
But of course, you're going to need a player to watch these movies on, and Samsung has
you covered.
At the IFA Trade Show in Berlin back in 2015, they became the first company to announce
a player, and it will be launched, as with the movies, early this year sometime, we don't
yet have an exact date.
So it has fantastic video quality, an awesome bonus feature in the form of Digital Bridge,
and it's launching very very soon.
Personally, I'm really impressed by Ultra HD Blu-Ray and I hope that it can survive
in this world of streaming and online content delivery.
Anyway, I'm HandyAndy and thank you so much for watching!
Please subscribe if you want more informative videos just like this one, and make sure to
tell me in the comments below what you think about the new generation of Blu-Ray!