What’s the point of having a TV with four times the resolution of HDTV if you don’t have 4K content to watch? Sony gets it. They’re unleashing 4K films and TV episodes on Video Unlimited.
Thanks to a new video codec, Sony thinks they can pack more movie into a smaller data footprint and claims the upper limit download should be around 60GB. That’s still a terrifically large file however as most of the country struggles to adopt faster broadband. To stream a 4K film, you’d probably need a sustained 15+Mbps connection, which my “50 megs innernet” can sometimes struggle to provide. Damn you lucky people who live in a Google Fiber zone.
Individual TV episodes should run $3.99, movie rentals around $7.99, and $29.99 to buy the films outright. You’ll need to put a Sony 4K Ultra HD Media Player under your TV. This large puck will house 2TB worth of content, which at 60GB per film might not be as many films as we’re used to storing. The FMP-X1 is going to sell for a hefty $700, making it a somewhat pricey home media server. I’m really hoping, for the sake of Sony’s ecosystem, that the PS4 will be able to engage with this content. I don’t want any more boxes under my TV than I need.
That said, I think 4K looks gorgeous, and hopefully we see some good transfers of our fave films. I’ll be much more inclined to give 4K a try than I was during the fight between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.
Of course what fun is talking about 4K content without a 4K TV to watch it on?
Sony took the wraps off of theirX850A series 65″& 55″ XBR Ultra HD TVs. Not only featuring an insane screen resolution, this WiFi enabled set will also come with one year of Netflix and Hulu Plus out of the box. Not a bad little perk for a premium TV. Plus with all those pixels, gamers may appreciate local multi-player without having to go split screen.
The 55″ XBR is expected to ship this October, and you can pre-order now for $3499.99, which really isn’t too bad in terms of high end TV’s.
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We’ve seen the beginning of flexible screen tech with phones like the G Flex and TV’s which can bend from flat to curved cinema displays. Now LG is showing off the next phase of OLED tech.
The other 18″ panel uses their new transparent pixel technology for a see-through screen. Perfect for all kinds of applications, I saw a similar display at CES being used as an interactive vending machine, but many consumer electronics like microwaves or refrigerators could benefit. Eventually we might even see this kind of tech show up in automobiles providing heads up display capabilities. It’s exciting to see where it could lead.
