4K Blu-ray. Any early adopters out there?

honestaquarian

I'm glad TiVo updated the BOLT though and made it available in black.
I too am waiting for Oppo.

honestaquarian

http://hometheaterreview.com/oppo-gives-official-description-of-udp-203-ultra-hd-blu-ray-player/

tophatjohnny

We got the first Samsung 4K player when the first Samsung 4K TV. Both are amazing. Still not a huge amt of rentals at our video store but they are trickling in sure enough. That and so many shows are shot in 4K now, so having the set is a treat. Like the best of the Plasma sets on steroids. For real!!

tonyb

Broadcasting in 8k ?? Did someone tell them that most broadcasting is still stuck in 1080i ? Some are just getting into 1080p, 4k standard broadcasting won't even happen in our lifetimes.

An 8K tuner is putting the cart before the horse if you ask me. Even Google has pulled back on installing their fiber. Gets expensive laying new cables, especially in big cities.

Technology is moving so fast, I think they want to wait it out a bit before investing big coin in laying cable. Wireless fiber is the new kid on the block I hear, who knows what tomorrows will be.

honestaquarian

One of the satellite providers is offering 4K capable boxes and showing live broadcasts of some sporting events in 4K.

tonyb

Some sporting events....means usually the ones you don't watch. lol Not very good to me as a Chicago fan to watch Buffalo in 4k, or womens javelin throwing at the Olympics , know what I'm sayin' ?

Technology is coming up with all these new things only we don't have a delivery system for it and I don't see anyone going guns a blazzin' to build one.

honestaquarian

It's AT&T/Direct TV

Thorton

tonyb wrote: »

4k standard broadcasting won't even happen in our lifetimes.

How old are you? I bet in 2-4 years most stations (network, espn, History, tnt, hbo, etc.) will be broadcasting 4K.

As far as the sporting events (your other post), I believe the Superbowl, Masters and a number of baseball games a week were already broadcast in 4K. The MSU / Notre Dame (NCAAF) game was broadcast in 4K which I had a full house watching.

honestaquarian

@Thorton
Who was broadcasting the events in 4K?

Thorton

DirecTV

honestaquarian

Thorton wrote: »

tonyb wrote: »

4k standard broadcasting won't even happen in our lifetimes.

How old are you? I bet in 2-4 years most stations (network, espn, History, tnt, hbo, etc.) will be broadcasting 4K.

As far as the sporting events (your other post), I believe the Superbowl, Masters and a number of baseball games a week were already broadcast in 4K. The MSU / Notre Dame (NCAAF) game was broadcast in 4K which I had a full house watching.

Didya charge at the door?

Emlyn

So after owning a 4K player for about six months I am up to a grand total of 5 movies in the 4K format. The price differential is too large to justify buying any more of the few good movies the studios have released in the last several months. For example, the movie Oblivion is now available for $38 on Amazon in the 4K format and about $9 on Blu Ray.

Unless someone has an HDR capable TV set, I can't recommend anyone buy a 4K player at this time. The minor improvement over standard Blu Ray just doesn't justify the added expense to me when watching 4K movies on a non-HDR 4K TV that's just two years old. Maybe the value proposition will change next year, but it may be further out than that.

gudnoyez

Emlyn wrote: »

So after owning a 4K player for about six months I am up to a grand total of 5 movies in the 4K format. The price differential is too large to justify buying any more of the few good movies the studios have released in the last several months. For example, the movie Oblivion is now available for $38 on Amazon in the 4K format and about $9 on Blu Ray.

Unless someone has an HDR capable TV set, I can't recommend anyone buy a 4K player at this time. The minor improvement over standard Blu Ray just doesn't justify the added expense to me when watching 4K movies on a non-HDR 4K TV that's just two years old. Maybe the value proposition will change next year, but it may be further out than that.

Just bought my first UHD 4k bluray disc today not because I wanted two but because they are somewhat forcing you to. I wanted the 3d bluray of Ghostbusters, they did not include it in the bluray package, they put it in the UHD 4k package along with the 3D disc the regular 1080P bluray, and the digital download.

I don't need 3 discs and a digital copy and only wanted a 1080P bluray and the 3D version disc as far as I'm concerned they are shoving the format down our throats. I won't be replacing my Oppo 105D with the new Oppo UHD player but will probably buy a basic UHD player that will play the UHD discs I will be forced to buy.

honestaquarian

I guess it depends on where you are and where you shop. Here in DC the 4K Blu-rays used to have their own section at Best Buy.Now they mix them in with the regular Blu-rays. I just got X-men Apocalypse 4K Blu-ray bundle for $24.99. Same price as I got the regular Blu-ray of Captain America Civil War same day,same store.

honestaquarian

They're probably not going to do a UHD/DVD combo since technically DVD is now a dinosaur format like my Laserdisc
DVD is SOOOO two formats ago
Think Windows Vista

gudnoyez

They should offer the UHD 4ks with an additional 3D disc and a Digital download, and continue to offer the Blu Ray, with the additional 3D disc, Dvd, and digital download and keep everyone happy. I do doubt they who manufacture, think the same as us consumers do.

I did only pay $26 and change plus tax for the one I got today, as long as you get them when they first come out before they raise the price, which leads me to believe I will be adding a separate UHD player to the HT down the road Avatar and the Sequel will be must haves along with a few others.

Thorton

Prices are coming down. Newer 4K movies are around $25 at Amazon. I don't think that's bad but hope it continues to come down and I believe it will.

honestaquarian

http://oppodigital.com/uhd/

honestaquarian

http://hometheaterreview.com/how-hollywood-blew-the-launch-of-ultra-hd-blu-ray/

StantonZ

Now that I've settled on a decent UHD player (see sig), I can say that UHD/4K/HDR/WCG is definitely worth the upgrade. The key is having an HDR/WCG capable TV (isn't that obvious?). Combined with immersive audio, I can be happy with this level of technology for years. Even the 4K/HDR streaming sources look amazing (and they don't have the bit-rates of UHD BD).

trj

I am thinking of retiring my xbox 360 and 1080p TV and get xbox one S and 4k TV so it does double duty as a UHD blu ray player and gaming console. Knowing the fact that xbox one S doesnt do atmos(yet). Good idea?
Hopefully black friday/cyber monday will bring some good deals on the console and TV.

StantonZ

trj wrote: »

I am thinking of retiring my xbox 360 and 1080p TV and get xbox one S and 4k TV so it does double duty as a UHD blu ray player and gaming console. Knowing the fact that xbox one S doesnt do atmos(yet). Good idea?
Hopefully black friday/cyber monday will bring some good deals on the console and TV.

Not only does it not do Atmos (or DTS:X), it doesn't do any lossless format (no bitstream). I don't know if/when it can be updated to bitstream, but your decision depends on whether or not you care about immersive audio (it's a big deal for me).

honestaquarian

@StantonZ
When did the Panasonic player come out?
I haven't seen ANY information about it.

trj

StantonZ wrote: »

Not only does it not do Atmos (or DTS:X), it doesn't do any lossless format (no bitstream). I don't know if/when it can be updated to bitstream, but your decision depends on whether or not you care about immersive audio (it's a big deal for me).

I do care about it, but my current receiver is only capable of 7.2 and it will be at least a year till I upgrade to atmos (after the move dust has settled). By then, I hope the standalone UHD players which have all the features will be mainstream/or xbox one s will have firmware upgrade for bitstream/atmos/DTS:X and hopefully 4k projectors will be cheaper too.

This thought of going for xbox one s came to my mind because I dont use my xbox 360 at all and I am upgrading to a 4K TV soon. I am trying to cut as many components and cables as possible. So, all in one blu ray player/gaming console would be great. I can get rid of my bluray player and xbox 360 and just have a xbox one S. And no ghastly power brick of xbox 360. Sometimes when we have friend's or their kids over, we have game nights and good old wii is getting really boring (in terms of graphics). May be a little bit of kinect gaming and double it up as a 4k disc player for a time being. I wish it did SACD too (can dream) so I could get the SACD player out of the loop as well.
Just doing initial research and trying to gauge if I want a standalone uhd player right now or not.

honestaquarian

The Oppo comes out later this year supposedly or early next year worst case. The only thing that it wouldn't do is gaming.

StantonZ

honestaquarian wrote: »

@StantonZ
When did the Panasonic player come out?
I haven't seen ANY information about it.

It has been out in the US since September (I had one of the first ones from Value Electronics). It's a "flagship" player with the price to match, but it definitely delivers on both audio+video quality (and I have seen all 3 UHD players available to date).

Emlyn

I wasn't aware of the Panasonic DMP-UB900, and have seen no advertising on it. Looks good. Not sure if it's $700 worth of good though! On the other hand, it does have full analog outs and dual HDMI outs. Panasonic usually does over price on their players that are early in the new product cycle, but I have bought a few of them anyway over the years. Thanks for the heads-up on it.

Looks like there are a few good movie releases coming in December in the format.

honestaquarian

@Emlyn what titles?

Emlyn

All of the Bourne movies, Goodfellas, Argo, The Town, Sully, I am Legend.

polrbehr

Good news for us dinosaurs "stuck" with 1080p max, I guess; cost of regular BD titles should be getting even lower as time goes on!