Hi All
I am finding myself increasingly curious about what 4K devices we are likely to see coming in the near future...........rather like many others I am loathe to upgrade now knowing that 4K 'may' be just around the corner plus other possible improvements like LED or laser light sources.
It is 4K that I find most intriguing though, 3 years ago when I bought my HD350 I thought it was razor sharp and that home video just couldn't get much better, but over the past year or so I've started to find the picture kind of soft looking. Adding a Darblet had a big impact and I was happy with it set at HD45%, but gradually I've become tolerant to it at higher settings.....last night I watched The Avengers at Gaming 60% and liked what I saw......yet still I am increasingly curious as to what 4K will bring.
I think the only thing that really concerns me is that we may end up with 4K-lite. I am hearing that they may deliver 4K movies via our existing 50GB Blu-Rays using a new codec....and this worries me. The move to 1080p saw seen us with 2 new video codecs, a brand new technology with 6x the capacity of DVD and capable of many times the bitrate. I can't help but think that if 4K relies on 50GB Blu-Ray as a delivery medium then we are going to get 4K for 4K's sake.
Certainly one of the weaknesses of Blu-Ray (or so I used to read a lot) is that it is still based around 8 bit colour. I would have thought that going beyond Blu-Ray1080p is about more than just simple resolution, that 10 or 12 bit colour was an obvious requirement and that this amongst other things would necessitate more capacity and higher bitrates. I remember reading years back about 8 layer Blu-Rays, surely 4 layers and 100GB could be made a reality in this day and age?
Obviously not much is yet known so all of this may become a reality, I just can't help worrying that 4K is the only headline that will concern people and that in actual fact we'll miss out on a whole load of other poential improvements.
I'm also hoping that they don't think they can get away with charging £1k for 4K players once they appear like they tried with the early Blu-Ray players!
I am finding myself increasingly curious about what 4K devices we are likely to see coming in the near future...........rather like many others I am loathe to upgrade now knowing that 4K 'may' be just around the corner plus other possible improvements like LED or laser light sources.
It is 4K that I find most intriguing though, 3 years ago when I bought my HD350 I thought it was razor sharp and that home video just couldn't get much better, but over the past year or so I've started to find the picture kind of soft looking. Adding a Darblet had a big impact and I was happy with it set at HD45%, but gradually I've become tolerant to it at higher settings.....last night I watched The Avengers at Gaming 60% and liked what I saw......yet still I am increasingly curious as to what 4K will bring.
I think the only thing that really concerns me is that we may end up with 4K-lite. I am hearing that they may deliver 4K movies via our existing 50GB Blu-Rays using a new codec....and this worries me. The move to 1080p saw seen us with 2 new video codecs, a brand new technology with 6x the capacity of DVD and capable of many times the bitrate. I can't help but think that if 4K relies on 50GB Blu-Ray as a delivery medium then we are going to get 4K for 4K's sake.
Certainly one of the weaknesses of Blu-Ray (or so I used to read a lot) is that it is still based around 8 bit colour. I would have thought that going beyond Blu-Ray1080p is about more than just simple resolution, that 10 or 12 bit colour was an obvious requirement and that this amongst other things would necessitate more capacity and higher bitrates. I remember reading years back about 8 layer Blu-Rays, surely 4 layers and 100GB could be made a reality in this day and age?
Obviously not much is yet known so all of this may become a reality, I just can't help worrying that 4K is the only headline that will concern people and that in actual fact we'll miss out on a whole load of other poential improvements.
I'm also hoping that they don't think they can get away with charging £1k for 4K players once they appear like they tried with the early Blu-Ray players!