PANASONIC 4K BLURAY PLAYER

[Peter CINERAMAX]

4K UHD Blu-ray makes an appearance

Surprisingly, Panasonic was rather unceremonious about its announcement of a prototype 4K UHD Blu-ray player. Of course, what we saw could well have been little more than a black box with some HDMI connections on the back, but we see the mention as proof positive that Panasonic is very much on the forefront of 4K UHD Blu-ray, and will likely be showing off a fully functioning player in the third quarter of this year.
Panasonic bluray player

4K UHD Blu-ray players are being developed in conjunction with the UHD alliance, comprising manufacturers such as Samsung and Panasonic, as well as movie-industry players such as Technicolor, 20th Century Fox, and Warner Brothers. The alliance is not only responsible for establishing standards with regards to specs like 10-bit color and High Dynamic Range (HDR), but also for pushing content creation forward and managing distribution

[Peter CINERAMAX]

4K UHDPanasonic Corporation announced today that it has developed the world's first Blu-ray Disc™ playback technology supporting the latest technologies such as 4K and High Dynamic Range, which are expected to be adopted in the next generation Blu-ray Disc standards (ULTRA HD BLU-RAY™). A prototype player will be on display at the 2015 International CES (Las Vegas, NV, United States) January 6-9, 2015.

This prototype integrates video processing and optical disc drive technologies that Panasonic has refined over many years, making it capable of reproducing 4K (3,840 x 2,160 pixel)/60p[1]/10-bit[2] high resolution video, and supporting the latest technologies such as High Dynamic Range[3] that marks a major leap in the brightness peak from the previous 100 nit3 to 1,000-10,000 nit to improve the power of expression; wide color gamut standard BT.2020[4], which greatly increases color reproduction; high-efficiency video compression technology HEVC (H.265)/ Blu-ray Disc playback at a high bit rate of 100Mbps[5].

This marks a major advance in picture quality over current Blu-ray Disc players, and paves the way towards allowing consumers to enjoy the crisp, true-to-life quality of amazing 4K Ultra HD content in their own homes.

Since the announcement of the Blu-ray Disc standards in 2002, Panasonic has consistently taken the lead in standardization. In 2004 it released the world's first 50GB Blu-ray Disc recorder capable of double-sided recording, and in 2006 the world's first recorder capable of playing BD-Video, as well as being the first in the world to develop the technology to play back full HD 3D image data recorded to the Blu-ray Disc in 2008. With these and other achievements, Panasonic has constantly led the industry in developing Blu-ray devices.

Panasonic is now further redoubling its R&D efforts to bring its customers products that deliver amazing experiences and emotional impact. Panasonic will also participate in the newly-formed UHD Alliance4 to contribute to the progress of whole 4K (UHD) industry.

[Peter CINERAMAX]

If you thought you’d be watching Peter Jackson’s blockbuster Hobbit trilogy on Ultra HD Blu-ray in high-frame rate 3D, the way the director intended it to be seen, think again. The long anticipated new disc format, due to go on sale at the end of the year, will not support 4K 3D.

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing says Kazuhiko Kouno (pictured below), Panasonic’s chief engineer responsible for 4K Blu-ray player development. Speaking to Inside CI at CES 2015, he confirmed that 3D 4K was unlikely to be supported, although conceded that the final specification was not yet completed (so never say never, until the fat lady sings). “The Ultra HD Blu-ray standard, as it stands at the moment, does not support 4K Blu-ray – and we are at an almost final specification,” he said, adding: “It’s my personal opinion that 3D doesn’t need such a high resolution.”

However it’s not a perceived lack of interest in stereography that’s behind the snub, more the sheer cost of implementing the technology. “4K 3D would require a very costly 4K 3D decoder chip,” explains Kouno-san. “I think it would be too expensive to commercialise.”

Kouno

As it stands, the upgraded disc specification does support “4K titles, 4K HDR titles and 2K HDR titles…” confirms the man from Panasonic. HDR 4K discs will play back with regular brightness levels on non-HDR displays. It seems High Dynamic Range content is increasingly being seen as a key ingredient in the UKD Blu-ray mix, even though there are no agreed standards for HDR display brightness. Leaked authoring guidelines would seem to indicate that 4K HDR discs will be authored with a maximum frame average light level of 400 Nits, with a peak of 1,000 Nits for highlights. However, Kouno-san says the format can handle content mastered for a peak brightness of 10,000 Nits. At least we’ll all be able to use our redundant 3D goggles as sunglasses...