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With TV manufacturers giving 4K TVs a huge push to consumers right now it is about time we started actually getting some ultra-HD content available. Several studios have plans to launch UHD Blu-rays this year but it looks like we can expect prices of UHD movies to be fairly high for the time being.
According to prices from LionsGate, we can expect older UHD movies to cost $22.99 in the US, which will likely end up equating to somewhere around the £20 price point here in the UK per film. However, the price of new movies is going to be even higher, with movies like The Last Witch Hunter to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $42.99 per movie in the US, which converts to just under £30 in the UK though that is unlikely to be the final price here once VAT is factored in.
Obviously, this is just the pricing of one movie studio so we don't know if others will follow suit with similar pricing for new and older movies on Ultra-HD Blu-Ray. However, this does seem like a good indication of where things are starting off, DVD and Blu-Ray also faced high pricing when they first launched so things will settle down eventually.
KitGuru Says: A lot of people have been buying 4K TVs over the last two years now that they have lowered significantly in price but the content has been pretty slow to arrive. It seems that physical UHD Blu-rays will be fairly expensive at launch but hopefully, things will settle down a bit as the year goes on.
If they keep anywhere near that price, it will fail big time.
Movie Studio Greed. They just don’t get it.
Any news on UHD PC disc drives?
They’ll work just fine; 4K just needs more powerful hardware and a firmware update. Supposedly even current-gen consoles can support 4K blu ray with a firmware update.
I don’t think so. Where did you find that information? Give us a link, or stop guessing.
If you have a blu ray player that upconverts to 4k its entirely possible that it could work with a firmware update, as its already capable of displaying 4k content. Just need to add software support for the new codec. But even if this did work I don’t see it happening when manufactures can sell you a new one instead. As far as the pc drives, all you need is support for at least a tri layer disk, which is as simple as a firmware update. Its not guessing if you know how this stuff works.
That’s not how it works. It wont work.
Care to explain why?
Simple, there is not a firmware for old Blu- Ray Players to enable you to play new movies encoded on the new High Def codec HEVC (H.265). Only New 4K TV’s and the new UHD 4K Blu-Ray Disk Player include the HEVC (H.265) codec. If it was possible, nobody would have the need to upgrade to the new 4K Blu-ray Players, and the manufacturers would not need to build it. Do you think that manufacturers are stupid. By the way, check your tech news, today Samsung release the first UHD 4K Blu-Ray Player.
You just said the same thing I did. It is possible for old blu ray players (that’s capable of 4k playback) to play the content provided there is a firmware update, but I would be surprised if that ever happens. manufacturers would need to pay programmers to add that functionality, when they could just sell you a knew one at $400 and make a ton of money.
So, I don’t understand you, first you say that is possible to play new Blu-Rays on old players, now you’re saying what I said, that’s not possible. It’s okay, forget about it.
Ok i’ll rephrase what I have been saying to make it easier to understand. Old blu ray players with the ability to upscale to 4k can play uhd blu rays WITH A FIRMWARE UPDATE. However its very unlikely that these firmware updates will ever be available.
But to be honest I don’t care, because I will never buy another blu ray player. I have a HTPC with a i7-6700k and a 980Ti kingpin with a blu ray drive capable of reading quad layer blu rays. All I have to do is wait for software with support for h.265 codec and I’m set.
That support for the H.265 codec will never be available. Only new ones will support it.
You obviously have no idea what I’m talking about.
You will still need the hardware. The hardware is available by buying the new UHD 4K Blu-Ray Player. There’s no way the old Blu-Ray players are going to play the new UHD 4K Blu-Ray disks.
Nothing in the hardware has to change. So a computer with a Blu-Ray disk drive will be able to read the disks, and since H.265 support has been out for PC’s for a long time we will have no problem playing them. The media isn’t changing just the encoding on the disk. So, old blu-ray players could potentially be updated, but it would be a shitty business move. This is because the media remains the same but the codec changes. There is no hardware change required. In the same way that your could reprogram old DVD players to have the DivX codec to play burned DVD .avi files in the early 2000’s
Actual PC Blu-Ray Player/Burner will not read 3 layer Blu-Ray disks. Only new ones will.
By the way, I checked my Sony BDP-S580 3D Blu-ray Disc Home player and it does not support the new 3 layer disk, that’s the new BDXL 100 gb Blu-Ray disk, neither my PC LG WH10LS30 Blu-Ray player/Burner supports it. So, you see the hardware is important if you want to play these new Blu-Ray Disks. These new 3 layer and quad layers disks will be only supported on the new UHD 4K Blu-ray Disk players.
Another thing I will like to mention is, my Sony BDP-S580 3D Blu-ray Disc Home player has WIFI, that means I can play videos, music, and picture files from my PC to this Blu-Ray home player using my home network. I’ve downloaded HEVC (H.265) videos and I can play them on my PC, because I have the codec installed, but they would not play on my Sony BDP-S580 3D Blu-ray Disc Home player. There’s no way, I tried to play them using a USB thumb drive, or a USB portable HDD, they just don’t play because the player doesn’t have the codec. I can play MKV, MP4, AVI, MT2TS, AVCHD, and WMV, it doesn’t play H.265. To play the H.265 files I will need a new 4K TV, or a new UHD 4K Blu-Ray Player that have factory support for the H.265. I don’t think that Sony, or LG are planning to make a Firmware available to support the H.265 codec. By the way, both, my home and PC Blu-ray players have installed the last firmware. From Sony is version M07.R.0631 with Release Date: 12/24/2014. From my PC is LG version WH10LS30_1.02 released on 11/20/2013.
Actually no, you just need a drive that supports BDXL, which supports 3 layer and 4 layer Blu-Ray of not only 100GB like 3 layer but 128 GB as quad layer. As seen here:
https://www.pioneerelectronics.ca/PUSA/Computer/Computer+Drives/BDR-2209
Released in 2014 by the way, so not really new.
Those are for PC, and are writer/players. There are no home players in the market that will play three layer or quad layer disk. Only the new one that’s coming out will play the new three layer- UHD 4K Blu-Ray movie discs. This are the new Hollywood UHD 4K Blu-Ray format.
Here’s another PC Blu-ray burner that’s been in the market for a while: http://www.lg.com/us/burners-drives/lg-WH16NS40-internal-blu-ray-dvd-drive. But, I’m talking about a home Blu-ray Player that plays BDXL’s, there isn’t one. By the way, I don’t know if these PC Blu-Ray BDXL’s burner that have been in the market for a while, will play the new Hollywood Blu-Ray UHD 4K movie discs.
That’s fine, I would never spend money on a dedicated home player when my HTPC can play blu-rays and pretty much anything else I throw at it.