Everything we know about Ultra HD Blu-ray, the sharpest way to watch at home (eng)

In the year 2000, we began ditching our VHS tapes for DVDs. In 2006, Blu-ray brought high-definition video to flat-screen TVs everywhere. Now we’re about to take another step forward with the arrival of Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and players.  That’s right: Come holiday time, there’s going to be a whole new format to embrace – and it’s going to be awesome.
Though there will be no format war to stunt its growth (remember the whole Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD debacle?), Ultra HD Blu-ray adoption will still be slow. Even was more people buy TVs that support the higher resolution, Ultra HD Blu-ray will appeal to a relatively small audience – at least at first. But for anyone who wants the best possible picture and sound quality they can get, the arrival of this new format is exciting. And the best news is: It’s a pretty significant leap forward from 1080p HD.

Of course, with new technology like this comes a whole bunch of conditions and caveats. Will you need a new disc player? Will they be backward compatible? Will you need new cables, a new receiver, or any other new equipment? We grilled the Blu-ray disc association and have all the information you’ll need below, in plain English.

What’s so great about Ultra HD Blu-ray?

It’s true that streaming movies and TV shows from services like Netflix, Amazon, and Vudu is the future of TV, but until the Internet gets a serious bandwidth upgrade (don’t worry, Google’s working on it!) discs will always kill streaming when it comes to picture quality. Ever notice 1080p Blu-rays still look better than Netflix’s fancy Ultra HD streaming video? The reason they do comes down to one very simple, but important factor: bitrate.

Simply put, the more data you can deliver, the better the picture and sound quality is going to be, and Ultra HD Blu-ray is poised to deliver some seriously big-time data. So much, in fact, that not only will Ultra HD Blu-ray discs offer four times the resolution of 1080p HD, they’ll be able to deliver two new features only recently introduced to TVs: High Dynamic Range (HDR) and Wide Color Gamut (WCG). The result will be an at-home experience that matches or beats what you get at the cinema, with more colors than ever, incredible contrast, and uncompromised sound quality.

To be fair, Netflix, Amazon are both planning on delivering streaming 4K content with HDR in the near future, and this will improve the look of those videos, but because of current Internet bandwidth restrictions, these streams will be heavily compressed, and that means more artifacts – or, noise —  in the picture. You can see it especially well in dimly lit scenes, usually as big blocky anomalies.

If you want to enjoy Ultra-HD Blu-ray discs, you’ll need to buy a new Blu-ray disc player.

In addition, Ultra HD Blu-ray has the capability of delivering video at up to 60 frames per second (fps). Such a quick framerate is ideal for content that requires fast-moving cameras, like sports. Of course, as most movies are produced at 24fps, it remains to be seen how meaningful higher framerates will be in the near term.

Simply put: Ultra HD Blu-ray is going to offer significantly better picture and sound quality than any other format available, and it’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

Will I need a new Blu-ray player for Ultra HD Blu-ray discs?

If you want to enjoy Ultra-HD Blu-ray discs, you’ll need to buy a new Blu-ray disc player. We expect major manufacturers like Samsung, Panasonic, and Sony to announce new players later this year, possibly at the IFA electronics show this September in Berlin. The players are then expected to be available for purchase by the holidays at the end of the year.

These new players will be expensive when first introduced. For reference, the first Blu-ray players ran about $1,000 when they arrived in 2006, but now you can get a decent Blu-ray player with built-in Wi-Fi and streaming apps for about $100.

What kind of 4K UHD TV will work with Ultra HD Blu-ray?

Any and all 4K UHD TV will work with Ultra HD Blu-ray, including older models with HDMI 1.4 inputs. When connected to a TV via HDMI, an Ultra HD Blu-ray player is able to determine what that TV is capable of and act accordingly.

The catch is, the benefits to owners of older (even as recent as some of last year’s models) 4K UHD TVs will be limited to UHD resolution and that noise-free picture we talked about earlier.  In order to get the HDR and WCG features we mentioned earlier, the TV has to be capable of producing the added colors and processing and producing High Dynamic Range content. With the exception of some Sony and Panasonic models from 2014, only the newest premium 2015 TVs are capable of this.

Samsung JS9500 UHD TV

Adding complexity to this issue is the fact that many HDR systems require HDMI version 2.0a (there are exceptions – Dolby’s version of HDR doesn’t require HDMI 2.0a) and, at the time of this writing, there isn’t a single TV on the market that supports HDMI 2.0a … yet. That will change by the time Ultra HD Blu-ray makes its way to consumers, as manufacturers offer firmware updates or other update solutions to an extremely limited number of TVs. Really, it won’t be until spring of 2016 that a wider array of 4K UHD TVs with both HDR and WCG support will be made available.

Will Ultra HD Blu-ray players be backward compatible?

Yes. Ultra HD-Blu-ray players will play Blu-ray discs, DVDs, SACDs, DVD-Audio, and Redbook CDs. Both standard 1080p Blu-ray discs and DVDs will be up-converted to UHD resolution for playback on 4K UHD TVs.

In addition, Ultra HD Blu-ray players will downscale Ultra HD Blu-ray discs to work on 1080p HD TVs, so if you want to get a little ahead of the curve and purchase a new player and the latest discs, even before you get a 4K UHD TV, that’s just fine.

Will I need any other new equipment?

The more data, the better the picture and sound quality, and Ultra HD Blu-ray is poised to deliver big-time data.

That depends on your system. The good news is you won’t need any new HDMI cables. As for your A/V receiver? Think of it along the same lines as a 4K UHD TV. Older receivers with HDMI 1.4 will be able to support the higher resolution, but not HDR or WCG. If  your receiver supports HDMI 2.0, there’s a chance it could be updated to support HDMI 2.0a later on when it’s needed. However, depending on how HDCP (High Definition Copy Protection) 2.2 gets implemented by movie studios, you may need to consider a brand new A/V receiver if you want one to remain the hub of your home theater for the long term.

Will Ultra HD Blu-ray support digital transfers?

Yes. Just as UltraViolet has done for standard Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray discs will support digital copies, allowing users to access content  “across the range of in-home mobile devices,”  according to the Blu-ray Disc Association.

Tech specs

For you tech heads, here’s some interesting data:

Ultra HD Blu-ray will use primarily double-layer 66GB discs (though 100GB triple-layer discs are part of the spec) and will be capable of delivering up to 108Mbps of data. To put this in perspective, consider that Netflix’s 4K Ultra HD streams are delivered at about 16Mbps and represent an average of 14GB of total data for two hours of entertainment.

Ultra HD Blu-ray discs will be encoded using the relatively new HEVC (also known as H.265) codec. The Blu-ray disc association says encoding and disc authoring tools are currently being used experimentally by technicians in Hollywood.

Ultra HD Blu-ray will support several different types of HDR metadata, including those proposed by Dolby, Philips, and Technicolor. However, only the open HDR standard supported by the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE) is a requirement for Ultra HD Blu-ray authoring. The rest will be up to individual content creators, and require TV compatibility with a specific type of HDR Metadata. Vizio’s Reference Series TVs, for instance, will support Dolby’s vision of HDR in addition to the SMPTE standard.

So there you have it: Everything we know about Ultra HD Blu-ray discs and players so far. As we learn more from manufacturers and movie studios, we’ll be sure to update this article. In the meantime, you might want to start saving your pennies if you want a slice of the next biggest thing to hit home theater.

sursa: digitaltrends.com

Focal Debuts New Sopra Series (eng)

Focal has introduced the new Sopra speaker series, which consists of the Sopra N°1 two-way bass-reflex bookshelf speaker and the Sopra N°2 three-way bass-reflex floorstanding speaker. Focal describes these speakers as "offspring of the Grande Utopia" in a more compact form. The Sopra line features several new innovations for Focal, described below, and the speakers are available in a variety of gorgeous finishes--from carrara white (shown here) to imperial red to electric orange to dogato walnut. Pricing has not yet been provided, but the Sopra line will fall between the Utopia and Electra lines.

From Focal
Conceiving, innovating, pushing the boundaries while improving its expertise and staying faithful to its roots: Focal has taken up the new challenge. This new range of loudspeakers proves that even today it is possible to go further in the quest for audio perfection and excellence of the sound reproduction.

Sopra is the unique proof that in this age of digital technologies, docking stations and wireless sound, it is now more possible than ever before to give high-fidelity loudspeakers their importance once again. Inherently desirable but reasonable in terms of design, Sopra is destined for all those who, through space constraints or concern for modernism, would have thought that at some point the loudspeaker would go out of fashion. Modern in its approach and bringing obvious faithful musicality to your room, Sopra is about to seduce all music lovers who are enthusiasts of performance and equipment which reflect their true identity and which is not only intended for audiophiles.

A visual signature and technical ingenuity
Sopra's origins are immediately visible. Besides having Focal's DNA, it is also the offspring of the Grande Utopia, the prestigious loudspeaker developed in 1995 and whose third version was launched in 2008. Sopra has the same sleek silhouette conceived by designer Alain Pineau. This evokes, as Alain says, "the passionate quest reconciling complex constraints, experience and innovative and sophisticated solutions" which led the engineers at Focal to forge Sopra N°1 and Sopra N°2.

Through their so unique and inimitable visual signature, Sopra N°1 and Sopra N°2 bring unprecedented technical ingenuity. There are three main major innovations which make this line so unique.

• The tweeter's rear horn
Thanks to Focal's patented IHL technology (Infinite Horn Loading), the 21 milligram dome of the Beryllium tweeter no longer requires large cabinet volumes to prevent the rear sound waves from the dome being reflected back. Sopra needed to be compact, so the tweeter was given a graduated rear horn to avoid any return energy effect which can cause distortion.

• Midrange suspension
The surround connecting the W cone to the chassis can cause anomalies at certain frequencies where its movement isn't in perfect phase with the cone. When applied to Sopra's 6'' (15cm) woofer, Focal's patented TMD technology (Tuned Mass Damper) counterbalances the resonance of this oscillating system and gives the sound incomparable transparency. Made possible thanks to the power of numerical analysis carried out by Focal, TMD ensures that the sound stays pure and that very high definition is maintained.

• A stabilised magnetic field
In all loudspeaker drive units the magnetic field surrounding the voice coil is unstable. Variations in current from the amplifier in the voice coil and the voice coil's varying position blur the sound which can be more or less significant and which changes the sound reproduction. Focal's new innovation NIC (Neutral Inductance Circuit) was made possible thanks to the development of powerful dynamic simulation software, which finally enables the magnetic field to be stabilised. This paves the way for very high definition sound.

Equipped with transducers which are "Made in France" for the bass, midrange and treble which are probably recognised as being the best in the world, and benefitting from major technological innovations which weren't possible three years ago, Sopra N°1 and Sopra N°2 are premium loudspeakers capable of unprecedented performance in such a compact design. Emblematic of Focal's sound signature, the new Sopra line has now paved the way for a new era for the world of high-fidelity.

sursa: hometheaterreview.com

Want a paper-thin OLED TV that sticks on the wall with magnets? LG’s got it (eng) and (ro)

There are a lot of reasons OLED displays are revered by video experts as the superior display technology over LEDs, and even plasmas. But one of the most intriguing design traits of OLED tech is the ability to create ultra thin, malleable displays. LG Display showed off the scintillating possibilities of the technology last year with a rollable 22-inch OLED display. Now, as reported by Yonhap News, the company has unveiled a detachable 55-inch display that you can literally stick to a wall using nothing more than a magnet.

Short for organic light-emitting diode, one of the main ways OLED displays differ from LED-lit LCD displays is that they don’t need a backlight to brighten up your living room. Simply applying electrical current lights up each OLED pixel individually, which not only allows the displays to offer unparalleled black levels, rich colors, and vivid contrast, but also allows OLED displays to be remarkably thin; LG’s EC9700 4K OLED TV, for instance, is about as thick as an iPad.

The design gets even thinner when you remove the brains of the TV from the equation, as LG Display has done with its fascinating wallpaper display prototype. Dubbed a “future display” by the company, the panel is a remarkable .97mm thick, and weighs just over 4 pounds (1.9 kg) allowing it to be placed virtually anywhere with ease.

Such a display probably won’t be used in a TV anytime in the near term; it’s more likely to end up in wearable technology, automobile manufacturing, and commercial applications. Still, we could conceivably see such technology (paired with an outboard processing unit) becoming the TV of the future. Imagine being able to detach your screen along with a small hardware accessory, and mount it virtually anywhere.

LG Display

In addition to the new ultra-thin 55-inch OLED, LG Display also showed off a new convex OLED display that will primarily be aimed for commercial applications.

While virtually every other brand on the market has all but given up on OLED as an expensive, fickle display technology that proved too difficult to manufacture en masse (including Sony, Panasonic, and Korean rival Samsung), LG has essentially staked its future on it. The company unveiled its first commercially viable OLED TV last year in the EC9300 HDTV ($3,500), and has continued to ramp up production, unveiling several new models for 2015, all of which will pack 4K UHD resolution.

According to the Yonhap report, LG will ramp up toward the release of a 99-inch OLED display to accompany the 55, 65, and 77-inch displays LG has already made available for purchase. And LG TVs may be just the beginning.

“We should be able to supply a satisfactory volume to our clients from July or August, which means we’re hoping to buckle down production as well as promotion from the third quarter,” said the head of LG Display’s OLED division Yeo Sang-deog at a press conference.

To be clear, LG Display supplies the panels — which are used in LG TVs, as well as in other applications outside the company. In theory, the Display wing could sell its panels to other TV manufacturers as well — after all, money spends the same whether you’re selling OLED panels, or full-on TVs. However, exactly which companies LG Display is supplying with OLED panels is unclear.

The company did say that it expects to sell 600,000 OLED panels this year, and 1.5 million next year as it has created higher yields in the complicated process. For now, however, LG Electronics is the lone brand waving the OLED flag among the major players in the TV biz.

Just when (or if) the rest of us will get our hands on one of those futuristic, ultra-thin OLED displays that can be peeled off the wall with ease remains to be seen.

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LG demonstrează un ecran OLED cu grosime sub 1 mm, care poate fi aplicat direct pe perete

Creeat în fabricile LG Display, ecranul dezvoltat pentru următoarea generaţie de televizoare OLED poate fi aplicat direct pe perete, renunţând complet la carcasa rigidă confecţionată din plastic şi metal.

Spre comparaţie, cel mai avansat ecran folosit pentru actuala generaţie de televizoare OLED are o diagonală de 55˝ şi grosime de 4.3mm, fiind mult prea greu şi impractic de folosit fără protecţia unei carcase. Având doar 0.97 mm grosime şi o greutate de 1.9 Kg, noul ecran dezvăluit în Coreea este de 4 ori mai subţire, putând fi aplicat direct pe perete folosind drept suport un covoraş magnetic pre-aplicat. După folosire, ecranul poate fi desprins asemenea unui magnet pentru frigider şi rulat pentru depozitare sau transport.

Din păcate nu vom găsi prea curând în magazine televizoare de tip poster, pe care să le putem lipi pe orice perete liber, tehnologia încă imatură având costuri de fabricaţie mult prea ridicate. Cert este că în ciuda dificultăţilor de fabricaţie şi longevitatea redusă observată la primele generaţii de ecrane OLED, LG consideră această tehnologie o alternativă viabilă pentru cea LCD.

Comparat ecranelor LCD cu substrat din sticlă, ecranele OLED (organic light emitting diodes) pot fi modelate într-o multitudine de forme şi nu au nevoie de o sursă externă de lumină, reducând substanţial grosimea şi complexitatea produsului finit. Astfel, putem aştepta ca în perioada următoare să avem parte de mult mai multe modele de televizoare şi monitoare cu ecran curbat, mai subţiri şi capabile să redea culori mai bogate decât este posibil cu actuala generaţie de ecrane LCD. Din păcate cel puţin în cazul ecranelor OLED cu diagonală mare, preţurile nu vor scădea prea curând la nivelul celor cu tehnologie LCD, probabilitatea mare de apariţie a defectelor în timpul procesului de fabricaţie crescând foarte mult costurile de producţie. Drept dovadă, cel mai spaţios televizor OLED din oferta LG, un model cu diagonală de 77˝ şi rezoluţie 4K, vine cu un preţ exorbitant de 24999 dolari. LG promite pentru viitorul apropiat şi un televizor OLED cu diagonală 99˝, însă preţul să nu este cunoscut.

sursa: digitaltrends.com   and/si  go4it.ro