Sony 4K Ultra HD Video Player

You can't buy it. They are loaners from Sony as a short term method of displaying 4K content (4HD) on their projector and flat panel. I suspect it will be something less than DCI 4K quality and color space and since itis not based most likely on whatever the new 4HD disc standard will be, it will not be indicative of what consumer 4HD will be.

I think CES will tell us more of the answers you are looking for. A true 4K DCI server will set you back around $12K though there may be a $6K out there or coming and then you need to be keyed for a limited run of a particular piece of DCI content. Morever, I do not think the server is a Sony product or I suspect they would be offering it for sale rather than buying or leasing the loaners. It is a stop gap until they get their player out and release some sort of disc it can play. Sony might end up going its own way here and we might be getting back to format wars such as beta vs vhs, Bluray vs HD DVD etc or whatever they were called back then. Kudos to Sony for rewardings its early adopters with some free 4HD content and a means of delivering it to their displays.

I think it will be very important for consumer 4HD to be kess in quality than DCI 4K so that one still must go to a commercial theater if one wants the highest quality content but perhaps not the highest quality display. Its not what you and I want, but we don't count. We are insignificant to mass market 4HD and to the well being if that's possible of commercial theaters.
Edited by mark haflich - 12/3/12 at 8:16am

The worst news I am afraid but theSsony server will not be loaned to 1000ES owners or purchases and obviously sony will not be offering them for sale. For more ramblins see my recent post in the 1000ES thread in the over 3K projector forum. Please read that before posting here. And stay calm, a solution will be forthcoming for content and a player, hopefully at CES but that time frame.
Edited by mark haflich - 12/3/12 at 8:17am

I see a all new format war coming agian.Bummer

The problem is that there are very few 4K projector and displays out there and little present consumer interest in buying them. Sony by lending servers and content to panel buyers has solved its demo problem as well. I hope it doesn't just kiss of its 4K FP buyers but they are relatively few in number. I do think they will come up with something for us because it punishes us not to for going with a FP instead of a panel.

The Blursay consortium is not even close to a 4K bluray standard and like the redbook standard of Sony's glory days, they can go it totally alone. Come out with disc from their own optical player and content from their own studeo and their studeo partners such as Columbia. Unlike CDs which only require a cheap player inserted into the many many many audio playback systems out therer, 4K displays will be few and far between for many years. Will other companies chase a new format. Its would be like all the major worls powers trying to invade and take a small island as their own.

As a 4K FP owner, I want content and a means of inputting it into my FP. I could car less about a format war. Thinking about it, I would use the would skirmish, not war. The mass public wouldn't even notice it.

reminds me of the HD sencore player in the late 90's that was being passed around before real HD broadcast started. 4k content will come but it will be probably 2 years.

Naw . There will be lots of 4K content very soon but not like on optical discs. i expect Sony will have a solution for its 4K projector owners very soon to and the Redray player I have ordered should be spewing forth content through Odemax by mis April. They say March but I have learned to lower time frame expectations re new technology over the years. This does not mean that the content will be first relrease time frames or even the stuff we have watched many times before. I am afraid in the HT world we and much of our society have become rerun watchers. Kudos to my wife who can watch the same TV prgram and episode 10 times over or mayber even 20. How many here watch the same movie, over and over, and then gush when they buy a new projector to awatch everything trhey have previously watched multiple times. I simply won't lower myself to this. I tend with a few exceptions to only watch a film once. That's it. My brain is not that dead. Occasionally I might watch something twice ifre are viewers in the audience that want to see it. Occasionally a clasic from my youth, say Lawrence of Arabia, I purchased and watched but with out the very very wide screen it was showed to me on in my youth.Mostly what I watch is live stuff. It with the new server will open a lot more content up from independents.

Those that had claimed something like this would never happen are now, 'Nooooo! What about my game console?' But they will be buying the PS4 anyway, which I am damn sure will support 4K video playback. Whatever new profile Sony comes up with, the so-called consortium will adopt it without blinking a eye.
I hope this 'player' will show up in the local Sony store for a demo, but I think that's unlikely in Canada.

Got a link?

Oh yeah, so are new Sony film dp in 4k now?
Edited by wuther - 12/3/12 at 5:17pm

"Sony Electronics has announced its 4K Ultra HD video content line-up for their new 4K Ultra HD Video Player.

Pre-loaded onto the Video Player will be the following first ever collection of 10 full-length feature films presented in native 4K for the home: The Amazing Spiderman, Total Recall (2012), The Karate Kid (2010), Salt, Battle Los Angeles, The Other Guys, Bad Teacher, That’s My Boy, Taxi Driver, The Bridge on the River Kwai." (Sony Electronics)

Very very interesting ! Will this be demonstrated at CES ?

Art

Nothing new there.
It is only a temporal offer/solution exclusively for people buying the Sony 84" UHD/4K TV and was announced back in last part of November discussed here; http://www.avsforum.com/t/1428193/4k-i-have-seen-the-light/360

Sony hinted at the time they will announce more about 4K distribution solution at CES 2013.

One of my friends is buying the Sony 4K panel and has said he will loan the server to me since he has no intention of repeatedly watching the limited content.. CES is a week away.
Edited by mark haflich - 12/31/12 at 8:22am

Sony just announced "mastered in 4k bluray" coming "this spring" at CES.

4K streaming to their server launches "this summer."

Here's the full PR release...

CULVER CITY, CALIF. (January 7, 2013) – To compliment the electronics industry's launch of 4K Ultra HD Televisions, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) is proud to leverage its growing 4K asset library to present "Mastered in 4K" Blu-ray™ titles. While maintaining the studio's commitment to the highest possible quality Blu-ray releases, the "Mastered in 4K" offering takes these efforts even further.

"Mastered in 4K" Blu-ray releases will feature titles-such as The Amazing Spider-Man™, Total Recall, The Karate Kid, Battle: Los Angeles and The Other Guys-sourced from pristine 4K masters and presented at high-bitrate 1080p resolution, with expanded color showcasing more of the wide range of rich color contained in the original source. When upscaled via the Sony 4K Ultra HD TVs, these discs serve as an ideal way for consumers to experience near-4K picture quality. SPHE also plans to utilize available high quality 4K masters for select upcoming new release Blu-ray titles. "Mastered in 4K" Blu-ray Discs can be played on all existing Blu-ray Disc players.

"The electronics industry's groundbreaking launch of 4K Ultra HD TV has given us reason to even further elevate our Blu-ray offering," said David Bishop, President, SPHE. "This spring, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is excited to deliver a complementing lineup of 'Mastered in 4K' Blu-ray titles, offering consumers the best possible picture and sound quality to be experienced on the latest HDTVs."

Leading the adoption of 4K content in cinema, home entertainment and broadcast, Sony Pictures builds on its renowned professional equipment expertise along with the company's wealth of knowledge in both 4K acquisition and home entertainment. These "Mastered in 4K" Blu-ray titles-paired with the native 4K titles for Sony's 4K video distribution service, which is planned to be launched in summer 2013 in the US-demonstrate Sony Pictures' holistic commitment to 4K and to the launch of this exciting new hardware into the market.

SPHE will release this initial wave of more than 10 "Mastered in 4K" titles starting in Spring 2013, with rollout to select international territories soon thereafter.
Edited by reanimator - 1/7/13 at 6:11pm

The Disk version sounds like the BluRay version of Super Bit

Does Bluray support a higher gamut than Rec 709? What would displays be calibrated against to ensure accurate color?

Ha - it does, doesn't it? Whatever it takes to get the studios to give us the best looking movies they can, I'm all for it.

I don't believe Bluray requires the use of BT 709 colorspace. They may just come uo with one by themselves and just further screw things up or use DCI color space. Whatever it will be, you can bet that the Sony 4K panels will have that space as a selection on its displays. If such space is not on the 1000ES, one vwill have to create that space in an external CMS such as the one in the Lumagen. We are still dealing with 1080p so the Lumagen will be able to do it.

As to the true 4K distribution to server service, there are simply no details about anything to do with it. But my Redray should come in February and will hold me with 4K content at least for a while. I will skip the new Bluray let's call it format and await 4K distribution.
Edited by mark haflich - 1/9/13 at 8:57pm

What the heck does 'paired with the native 4K titles for Sony's 4K video distribution service' mean?

Besides self created Redray 4K content?

Without getting overly technical, all a new color space is different cordinates xyYfor the primaries. That's pretty much it. signal generators would have to be able to generate the targets but with digital generators such as in the Lumagen, no big deal.

Sony presently delivers 2K and 4K content to its commercial projectors and utilizes a sever built into the projector. Content is supplied into the server by a hard copy (non disc) and a license key is provided (I think the license Key is supplied over the internet but I am not sure) which allows the title to be displayed for the term of the license. So basically, Sony has announced that it will be selling servers to its 4K display market (not exactly clear if that will includes those owning FPs or buying other brands of 4K panels) and will distribute native 4K content to those servers (by internet said at the Sony stage show) but I doubt they really know. details about licenses etc unknown.

Now Red has its servers ready and will be shipping the first batch sometimes this month, with a larger batch next month supposedly large enough to fulfill all preorders. The Odemax distribution system has been announced amd i tcan distribute by hardcopy or download. Use of the system is available to all content providers. We will hear about initial content at Sundance later this month.

We don't know who besides Sony with use Sony's network but one can assume there will be studeos other than Sony. ITS FREAKEN money for the source provider

So you say I have to buy two servers. OK. I already bought the Redray for $1450. Now I may need to buy the Sony when it comes out supposedly in the Summer. WTF are they making me do? By two different.players, like Bluray and HD whatever it was. A war of servers? Maybe like two topless waitresses having a fight in a jello bath?
Edited by mark haflich - 1/10/13 at 6:35am