LAS VEGAS — Last year’s CES brought the complete transition of TV sets to 4K. At CES 2016, TV manufacturers are making incremental improvements to their 4K sets, but they also want consumers to begin to acquire more 4K video content.
4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray players
CES 2016 may mark the sunset of regular ‘ole Blu-ray players. At press briefings today, both Samsung and Panasonic announced new 4K UHD Blu-ray players that take advantage of 4K content.
Samsung introduced its first Ultra-HD Blu-ray player, the UBD-K8500, which will be available for purchase in March 2016 at a price of $399.
Panasonic is also introducing its first UHD Blu-ray player, promising that it will be available in the US sometime during 2016. Pricing has not been announced for either player.
It isn’t entirely clear how quickly the Hollywood studios will release 4K titles, though Samsung and Sony indicated that a number of popular titles like The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Lego Movie and The Amazing Spiderman 2. For the immediate future, the selection of native 4K Blu-ray titles will be lackluster, to say the least.
Given the predominance of streaming services these days, it would surprise us if these players gain mass-market adoption or appeal, though the movie studios could always squeeze consumers and only offer certain popular movies on physical media to force the issue.
4K Buy & Stream
Sony also got into the mix by announcing that folks who own Bravia TV sets will soon be able to buy and stream 4K movie content from the Sony Pictures catalog this year using a new app on the TV called ULTRA. Sony promised “the best new and classic titles from the 4K digital library of Sony Pictures.”
Curiously Sony also introduced a new Blu-ray player, the UHP-H1, though it appears to support regular 1080p Blu-ray content and then upscales it to 4K resolution.
