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REDRAY 4K Player Update

post #1 of 14
1/31/13 at 5:17am
Thread Starter 


For anyone who has not heard of REDRAY, The RED company manufactures the famous Red 4K (actually 5K) video camera for filmmakers at a very reasonable price compared to the alternatives (RED 4K Camera). RED announced sometime ago about introducing a 4K Player called the REDRAY Player. The REDRAY player is not a disc player, but rather a 4K movie download and playback player.

At this year's CES Show in Las Vegas, Toshiba used this Redray player to demo their new Ultra HDTV displays at CES 2013.
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The Redray 4K player implements its own compression algorithm in .RED files requiring only 2.5 MB (20 Mbps) for transporting 4K content, which is roughly what HD requires today for broadcasting with MPEG-2 at its full resolution (19+ Mbps).
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The Redray player outputs 4K DCI but also UltraHD, 1080p and 720p formats with an audio of 24-bit 7.1 channel at 48 kHz, comparably lower than the Blu-ray capacity of 7.1 channels at 96 kHz or 5.1 channels at 192 kHz.

It connects via HDMI 1.4 to the 4K display for video, and it has a separate HDMI 1.3 output to connect to an A/V receiver or preamp for multi-channel audio, as some Blu-ray players already do, such as Oppo.

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The content will be supplied by a RED’s distribution platform: Odemax.com, expected to be up and running by March 2013. The platform provides filmmakers, production companies and independent distributors, direct channel access to the new cloud enabled REDRAY 4K home players.

Rodolfo La Maestra from HDTV Magazine confirmed with HDMI LLC at CES 2013 that the HDMI specification standard will introduce a new version by the first semester 2013 that as expected will include, among other features, a 60fps frame rate spec for 4K (the current HDMI version1.4 already supports 4K as 24fps and 60i, in addition to 25fps and 50i for other regions of the world).

With an impressive price tag of 1450$ MSRP, I wonder how much content will be as well as which content will be available at release.

Will you want one?



Click here for specs on REDRAY
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Edited by VinnyS - 1/31/13 at 10:01am
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post #2 of 14
1/31/13 at 9:11am
Very interesting article!
For some this might be the beginning, an economical way to get 4K content (although I suspect content is very limited).
Perhaps this is the trickle that will turn into stream (someday).

Not for me - but it will be interesting to see if this gets any early adopter momentum?
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post #3 of 14
1/31/13 at 11:53am
Quote:
Will you want one?
Yes

Would I be willing to spend $1450 on one?
No

I'll just wait until FIOS or Comcast offers 4K content in a few years.
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post #4 of 14
1/31/13 at 12:12pm
Gotta be one of the most dreadful-looking rectangles you could ever devise...never mine one that commands $1500

I realize its aesthetic is of little consequence, but jesus,is this the best you can do?

James
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post #5 of 14
1/31/13 at 12:23pm
Ode max update any time soon??
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post #6 of 14
1/31/13 at 1:46pm
thanks... I'll take one now please.

OPPO for sale
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post #7 of 14
1/31/13 at 2:57pm
Sounds like a typical RED consumer product... a lot of promises with little delivered.
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post #8 of 14
1/31/13 at 3:04pm
And I gotta ask... how many here that are getting one actually have a 4K display?

It's crazy to think that this system is going to be a standard for 4K delivery. Remember D-THEATER D-VHS and HD DVD. Just because it's first does not make it a standard.

If the studios think 4K servers are going to be long term solutions if they really want to sell content to collectors they aren't living in reality.
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post #9 of 14
1/31/13 at 3:15pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Toknowshita View Post

And I gotta ask... how many here that are getting one actually have a 4K display?

It's crazy to think that this system is going to be a standard for 4K delivery. Remember D-THEATER D-VHS and HD DVD. Just because it's first does not make it a standard.

If the studios think 4K servers are going to be long term solutions if they really want to sell content to collectors they aren't living in reality.


Your absolutely right that most of us won't have a 4K display for some time.

I believe theatres today are using hard drives for the new digital format. We'll have to wait and see what the new codec will bring us. I'm also curious to see how much the content will cost when it comes out. Nonetheless, the REDRAY player is still a great price considering some high-end Denon blu-ray players cost much more.

Only time will tell.
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post #10 of 14
1/31/13 at 5:30pm
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And I gotta ask... how many here that are getting one actually have a 4K display?

4K content would look mighty good on a 1080p display, just like 1080p content looked good on XGA or 720p displays.

But I'm not holding my breath for true 4K content that I want to watch anytime soon.
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post #11 of 14
1/31/13 at 6:28pm
I don't think so! Love my Oppo too much for one. And 1080 siuts me fine with my display. IF, I was a rich man then I would have a huge screen and want the best possible. Not today though.
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post #12 of 14
2/1/13 at 1:39pm
I wonder how the content would look on a Sony projector with reality creation, or JVC projector with EShift2? Would it be better than 1080p Bluray? Or would the 4k "emulation" (for lack of a better description) of these 2 units only do what they can do, which is the best they can do (if this makes sense)
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post #13 of 14
2/1/13 at 1:48pm
Face it, these are interim solutions like D-VHS. There is no UHD delivery standard... in fact... the audio side takes a hit and is of a lesser standard than even Blu-ray. And no mention if it's bit-for-bit lossless. No mention of 48 fps. Also, at only 20 Mbps for UHD this is probably not the visually lossless version of Redray (or even 10 bit video). They're just trying to save on storage space at the expense of quality. Quality = higher storage requirements, even with the Redray codec.

Now Dolby and DTS (in partnership with SRS) want to move towards object oriented soundtracks... no cloud based solution has ever mentioned allowing for that. This technology takes up even more space.

We need a high caliber disc based medium with all the bells n whistles.
Edited by Dan Hitchman - 2/1/13 at 1:54pm
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post #14 of 14
2/10/13 at 8:31pm
I’ve been keeping a curious eye on this Redray player for several months now. I must say that I’m intrigued with what I’ve read, but I’m certainly not ready to buy yet. I see headroom for a possible format war here yet. I’m fascinated with what Red has accomplished with compression ratios in the 4K realm, but how stable is it at this point?

The Red player does not take a disk. It plays downloaded media from its internal drive, which is a great idea and I’m sure the way of the future, but what about my blu-ray collection that I’ve already bought and paid for? Is there a way to load that material on the player? I’ve read that 4K media will have to be in the .RED format for the player to read. So does that mean all my blu-ray movies will have to be converted too, or is that only referring to 4K material? Too many unanswered questions at this point for me to commit to spending $1500. eek.gif

Hmmm! I think I’ll stick with my trusty Oppo for now and wait until the dust settles down some more. rolleyes.gif
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