nofilmschool » hometheater

Sony to Make 4K Affordable with 55-Inch UHD TV, Media Hub & Distribution Service to Match

Dave Kendricken — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 14:58:19 +0000

Until more recently, the home theater/consumer side of 4K has been a bit beyond the reach of the average consumer. The $25,000 pricing of Sony’s 84-inch Bravia 4K TV, for instance, is simply prohibitive to all but the most enthusiastic home viewers — but Sony’s newly price-pointed 55 and 65-inch screens are poised to address that point, set to go for $5,000 and $7,000, respectively. And just in case you were wondering what (and how) Sony expects you to actually watch on such a thing, the company’s also unveiled its $699 FMP-X1 4K media player, plus an eventual distribution service, to go along with them cheap(er) UHD TV screens. Check out some more details below. (more…)

Come Development Hell or High Water, Sony PS4K is Coming (But with 100GB Downloads?)

Dave Kendricken — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 11:30:50 +0000

It’s a safe bet Sony will not be left behind in the 4K home media arms race, but that’s about the only thing clear regarding the topic at this point, because Sony does not yet seem to have a clear strategy for 4K home delivery. Do you need Sony’s 4K TV to access it, or don’t you? It’s now looking like either will be answered “yes.” This is because another platform for a 4K delivery service will be the upcoming Playstation 4 video game console (which was strangely left out of their PS4 announcement, probably because 4K is only planned for video, not games, at the moment). While we don’t know too much about their 4K home delivery service yet, there’s talk about downloads up to 100 gigabytes or greater. But will this really happen, and more to the point, are 100GB downloads the only option for 4K? (more…)

Speaking of 4K Broadcast, Japan is Flying off the Handle: TV is 4K in 2014. Plus, an 8K Future?

Dave Kendricken — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 00:46:12 +0000

Several recent developments are helping to bring more 4K (or “more-K“) to your television screen than many of us might have anticipated, even a year ago. RED has big ideas for your home theater (pictured left), consumer electronics companies are starting to roll out some screens with very high pixel densities, media mega-vendors YouTube and Netflix will (or already do) support 4K, and to bring just about everything together, H.265 will be dilating streaming efficiency on 1 billion devices near you. 4K will likely find its way to you via the web a lot sooner than it will through your cable subscription — unless, of course, you live in Japan. To reinvigorate the country’s (somehow) floundering consumer electronics economy, its ministry of communications will be making 2014 the year of 4K in Japan. And perhaps beyond, not long after that. (more…)

H.265 is Now Officially Approved, is 4K Streaming and Broadcast Just Around the Corner?

Dave Kendricken — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 02:25:25 +0000

Technology’s progression sometimes moves with consistent momentum, and sometime comes in spurts. For instance, processors of mobile devices regularly decrease in size and price with relation to power — while, at the same time, the speed of your internet connection may not change much at all for several years, and make a great leap whenever it does. Both of these tendencies of advancement seem to inform High Efficiency Video Coding, A.K.A. H.265 — the successor to that other codec with which we’re all quite familiar (H.264). Improving efficiency by around double, H.265 aims to set the standard for the next decade in video streaming and encoding — and it’s going to ease mobile data congestion and likely make 4K a reality much sooner than many would have anticipated. (more…)

Sony to Release 4K Home Theater Projector for $25,000. Is 4K at Home Overkill?

Ryan Koo — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 18:17:36 +0000

Sony plans to ship a 4K home theater projector, the catchily-named VPL-VW1000ES, for 25 grand in early 2012. Given the $13.50-a-ticket price to see a movie here in New York City, I’ve found myself disappointed at a few recent films where the image felt soft. Sony is on the record about 4K in theaters (PDF link), and I’m convinced that it is indeed the future for the big screen. But at home? I have a 720p projector in my apartment, and it looks pretty damn good. I can only imagine that 1080p would look better, and I don’t know that I could ever tell the difference between 1080p and 4K. Still, that’s not stopping Sony — and RED — from pushing 4K projection in the home. (more…)