At Big Picture Big Sound, we're big fans of high quality audio and video. And to date the highest quality audio/video format has been Blu-ray Disc. And now, nine years after the format's introduction (the first batch of Blu-ray Discs hit stores in June of 2006), the Blu-ray Disc is finally evolving.
In Las Vegas this week, we met with Dan Schinasi (Samsung) and Victor Mastuda (Sony), both board members of the BDA (Blu-ray Disc Association). They shared with us that the final touches are being put on a new Blu-ray disc format to take advantage of the higher picture quality and resolution available on Ultra HD TV sets. The format will be called Ultra HD Blu-ray. It handles higher resolution content (up to 4K - 3840x2160 pixels), higher frames rates (up to 60 Frames/Second on 4K content), higher dynamic range and a wider color gamut than the current Blu-ray Disc format. BDA reps expect to finalize the official specs by midyear so that licensees can begin manufacturing hardware and software. If all goes well, we could see both the new players and software titles released before the end of 2015.
Current Blu-ray Discs are limited to full HD resolution (up to 1080p or 1920x1080 pixels) with a maximum storage capacity of 50 GB. The new Ultra HD Blu-ray discs can include content with full 4K (3840x2160 pixels) resolution. With four times the resolution of BD, the new format will need more space so there will be two options for that: a dual-layer disc that holds up to 66 GB or a triple-layer disc that can store up to 100 GB. And while that amount of picture detail is impressive, it's the other aspects of the format that may be even more interesting.
Ultra HD Blu-ray can support wider color gamuts than what you get with Blu-ray Disc, namely DCI (Digital Cinema Initiative)'s p3 color space and even the wider BT2020 color standard. Also, with 10-bit samples to play with (vs. Blu-ray's 8-bits), there's room for HDR (High Dynamic Range) content, which means a lot more more color detail and the ability to reproduce really bright high-contrast content such as a glowing sunset, a field of stars on a pitch black background or a streetlamp at night.
On the audio side, we were told that all of the current audio formats from Blu-ray Disc will be ported to the new format including lossless Dolby True HD, Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD Master Audio. I asked about support for Dolby's brand new AC4 audio codec, but the BDA reps weren't sure whether that would be part of the spec (I expect that it probably will be added as the format gets closer to being finalized). But even its exclusion may not matter: Dolby AC4 is a lossy but highly efficient version of the Dolby Digital Plus codec, developed specifically for UHD streaming and live broadcast platforms which may have extreme bandwidth limitations. Ultra HD Blu-ray releases are more likely to use the lossless audio formats to maintain the highest possible quality.
Even with the extra storage available, Ultra HD Blu-ray will need to store video data more efficiently than the current Blu-ray standard in order to hold a full length movie and bonus features on a single disc. To that end, UHD Blu-ray will employ High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC, aka H.265), a much more efficient video codec than those currently available on Blu-ray. Also, it's important to keep in mind that, although these features are all required in the hardware (the disc player itself), the content creators may choose to use only select features in their titles. We may see High Def 1080p releases that take advantage of HDR and wider color gamut or higher frame rates. And we may see 4K content that does not take advantage of the wider color space or higher frame rates. These choices will be up to the content creators in the studios and mastering houses.
The only thing conspicuously absent is 3D. While BDA reps assured us that the format (and new disc players) will be backwardly compatible to play current Blu-ray 3D Discs in 3D mode, there are not currently any plans to create or support a new 3D-capable native-4K option in the new format. I was personally a bit disappointed in this as I do occasionally enjoy 3D movies at home and would have loved the option of seeing "Avatar" or "Gravity" in 4K 3D.
In addition to the required components, Ultra HD Blu-ray will have optional extensions such as Dolby Vision (a flavor of HDR) and something called "Digital Bridge." A digital bridge is a way of copying Ultra HD Blu-ray content onto a server or portable storage device so you don't necessarily have to have the disc in the player in order to play it, and yet you also won't have to lose any of the quality or features of the disc by ripping it to another storage format. This feature could allow collectors to store their entire movie collections on a massive networked hard drive and play these titles back on their disc player as if the disc itself were in the tray (only faster, as it won't have to wait for the disc to spin up and load).
In terms of the current state of the Blu-ray Disc market itself, the BDA says 2014 was a pretty successful year with an overall 5% increase in Blu-ray Disc sales over 2013. The format is now in over 80,000,000 households. Also, earlier this month, the BDA added three new members to the fold, namely Microsoft, Toshiba and Universal Studios. Do those names ring any bells? They should. They were the three strongest opponents to Blu-ray during the format wars (HD DVD vs. Blu-ray). So now with five of the major studios on board as well as the top CE hardware manufacturers there should be nothing standing in the way of Ultra HD Blu-ray being a successful format for those who still appreciate the highest possible audio and video quality when enjoying movies at home.
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