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New $300 UHD Video Pack from Samsung

41363 Views 204 Replies 75 Participants Last post by  lujan, 
imagic

Yesterday at The Guggenheim in NYC, Samsung introduced its complete 2014 lineup of UHDTVs. The focus of the event was on curved screens and 4K/UHD resolution, but the company also introduced its solution for 4K/UHD content delivery: The UHD Video Pack. It consists of a 1-terabyte hard drive pre-loaded with content from 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. You get five movies total, plus three unnamed documentaries.

 



Samsung's new UHD Video Pack

 
Quote:
"With Samsung’s exclusive UHD Video Pack (1 terabyte of available data), consumers can watch Hollywood blockbusters such as Night at the Museum, The Counselor and X-Men Origins: Wolverine from 20th Century Fox as well as G.I. Joe: Retaliation and World War Z from Paramount Pictures. The Samsung UHD Video Pack, which also includes 3 documentaries, will be available in April for $299.99. Samsung plans to release a second UHD Video Pack with more UHD content in the second half of this year." source: Samsung press release
Click to expand...
 

$300 is a steep price for five blockbuster films and three documentaries. In fact, it costs less to buy Blu-ray editions of the same movies—along with a brand-new Blu-ray player. Despite the relatively high cost, the UHD Video Pack presents a viable solution for getting 4K/UHD content into consumer's homes—even homes that have limited internet access. 

 

The good news is that Samsung will provide additional UHD content for download, accessible free of charge to owners of the UHD Video Pack. Hopefully, UHD Video Pack owners will find enough content to their liking to justify the expense and the limited selection of unnamed movies.

 



Three of the five titles in the UHD Video Pack come from 20th Century Fox, represented at the Samsung event by president Mike Dunn (left), who appeared on stage with Samsung EVP Joe Stinziano

 

I wonder how visible the improvement in picture quality is versus watching Blu-rays of the same movies. Would you consider buying movies this way, pre-loaded as a bundle on a hard drive with a promise of additional downloads, in order to watch those movies in 4K/UHD resolution? 

edited to clarify that the video pack includes access to additional downloadable content

 



 

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J
No way. $60 per movie?
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N

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim McC  /t/1523673/samsung-introduces-uhd-video-pack-for-300#post_24513967


No way. $60 per movie?
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While I agree it's a lot, we are talking early adopter territory here. After all, how much did that Sony thing cost with how many movies out of the gate?


Consider this: with a large 4K screen and native 4K content, this potentially allows you to not spend $60 a movie to take the family out to the theater.


In my case, though, it would be a bad deal since I already don't go to the theater.
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imagic

Quote:
Originally Posted by NetworkTV  /t/1523673/samsung-introduces-uhd-video-pack-for-300#post_24515182


While I agree it's a lot, we are talking early adopter territory here. After all, how much did that Sony thing cost with how many movies out of the gate?


Consider this: with a large 4K screen and native 4K content, this potentially allows you to not spend $60 a movie to take the family out to the theater.


In my case, though, it would be a bad deal since I already don't go to the theater.
Click to expand...
 

The hardest thing for me to swallow is that you don't get to choose the movies. It's those five movies!


However, it could set a precedent for selling UHD movies bundled on hard drives. It's certainly not out of the question—the drive itself is only a small part of the $300 cost, there's room for the price to drop.
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B
I view it as $75 per movie. Bad math? It's almost a given that one of those movies is something you won't want to watch.
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N

Quote:
Originally Posted by BizarroTerl  /t/1523673/samsung-introduces-uhd-video-pack-for-300#post_24515274


I view it as $75 per movie. Bad math? It's almost a given that one of those movies is something you won't want to watch.
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It's worse than that.


It's almost a given most of the movies will be ones you won't want to watch.


Example - I bought a DVD player at one point that included 5 movies with it:


Stepmom

Stargate

Six Days Seven Nights

Lost in Space: New Line Platinum Series

Lethal Weapon 4: Premiere Collection


In other words, I got a DVD player that included Lethal Weapon 4, Stargate, and three decorative drink coasters.
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8mile13

Quote:
Originally Posted by NetworkTV 


It's almost a given most of the movies will be ones you won't want to watch.


Example - I bought a DVD player at one point that included 5 movies with it:


Stepmom

Stargate

Six Days Seven Nights

Lost in Space: New Line Platinum Series

Lethal Weapon 4: Premiere Collection


In other words, I got a DVD player that included Lethal Weapon 4, Stargate, and three decorative drink coasters.
Click to expand...
I reallly like Six Days Seven Nights




$300 UHD video pack, and it only works on a Samsung TV

five movies in UHD quality
- The Counselor - not recommended http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_counselor_2013/
- GI Joe: Retalation - not recommended (i've seen that one on blu-ray already) http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gi_joe_retaliation/
- WAR Z - recommended (i've seen that one on blu-ray already
)
- Nigh at the Museum - recommended (i've seen that one on blu-ray already
)
- X-Men Originis: Wolverine - recommended (i've seen that one on blu-ray already
)
+ three documentaries (probably documentaries originally produced for IMAX theaters such as The Last Reef and The Grand Canyon Adventure)
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K
UHD is dead on arrival.. This is a total mess.. 1080p Blu-ray for the next 15 years/.
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thrillcat
That's pricey. DVDs and Blurays, while they started with higher prices than what they were replacing, were still only a $10-15 premium over the existing tech. This is 3 or 4x the cost of blurays, and you can't choose the content you want?


No thanks. No thanks at all.


You have your early adopters (way too much expendable income, not much passion for home theater - just want to show off), the tech geeks (who love their home theater and want the best tech, can't afford it right away but will buy into it as soon as they can afford it), and then the general public.


The general public might buy the player/display when they can afford it, but they're going to want to rent the software titles until the prices drop down to the $20 range. They WILL NOT pay more than what they currently pay for Bluray. And why should they? They didn't have to pay more when they went from DVD to Bluray, or from VHS to DVD.


I don't see how they'll be able to rent software titles in this format OR at this price point, which will prevent the vast majority of the public from ever caring enough to buy the hardware.


The guys who are on avsforum on a Monday mid-afternoon are their target audience, and I haven't seen one post here yet saying "sounds good, where do I sign up?"


UHD tech in general is pushing the target market into the general public. We're looking harder at better ways to upscale our Blurays than chomping to pay their asinine prices for native UHD content.
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SMHarman

Will Netflix send me this in the mail for a UHD upgrade fee just like they send me BluRay for the BluRay upgrade fee?

 

Makes the Cinema One seem a bargain.

http://kaleidescape.com/products/cinema-one/

 

$4000, 50 movies, thats $80 a movie and then you have the ability to add more!
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fierce_gt
I think it's an interesting stepping stone.


I'd like to think of it as a $100 hdd with 200 worth of content(although even those numbers don't look so good) and after that initial cost of hardware, there may be the option for some discounted software.


maybe in the interim they will offer 'singles' on UBS drives, and perhaps even consider a 'red box' style of distribution. instead of going to a red box to rent a movie, you could go there with your own usb drive, and 'buy' a movie that is transferred to your usb, then that can be transferred on to your HDD at home for playback


I have no idea what the final plan is, but I do believe content needs to be available for distribution in a method OTHER than streaming/downloading for UHD to take off in the mainstream. to be blunt, I don't think any of the IP's in my area would even allow me to use the bandwidth necessary, let alone be anywhere close to capable of streaming it. I believe I have a cap of about 150gb a month, which would only be sufficient if I could store these movies locally. I mean buying 'only' one movie a month isn't a problem. but watching only one movie a month would be.


anyway, I'm all for options. while 300bux for 5 movies isn't a deal in my book(especially when I wouldn't want all 5 of those movies), it may lead to something a little more practical. maybe you go online and order a HDD with the movies you pick, and then it's mailed to you. and maybe they produce enough to lower costs. I just worry about the environmental cost of replacing discs with HDD's
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B

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R
I'm trying to look at the bright side. With this device, 20th Century Fox and Paramount are finally providing 4K content to consumers (joining Sony). Things are moving slowly, but in the right direction.
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B
Was there a mention of what audio codecs is on these movies? At that price it better be a lossless format.
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J
I can appreciate Samsng trying to get content into people's homes to justify the tech leap, but ths feels like a misstep. The movie choices are unimpressive and the price tag is a turnoff considering what the UHD displays are going for right now. I'm glad companies re spitballing ideas on getting content available though.
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C*Tedesco
Uh Wow! Yes huge misstep, early adopter or not. I thought this was an April Fools Joke, but we're not there yet for a few days.


Wow this is real life eh?
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stevenjw
While Sony's FPM-X1 costs more, it has a 2TB drive (with USB3 plug for more and archival), came with 10 free movies last year, and you could rent ($5) or buy more movies for a little over BD MSRP (@ $30).


The issue is until Hollywood shoots AND masters the entire movie (incl. CGI) in 4K, the quality and full potential is not there with what's being delivered. That's the case with Columbia titles and suspect the same will be true for the other studio titles on this Samsung. The documentaries are probably great though.
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S
I remember back in the early days of HD when Mark Cuban was around here asking if we would rent 1080p content mailed to the house on HDDs.


The more things change, the more they stay the same.


-Suntan
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SMHarman

Quote:
Originally Posted by stevenjw  /t/1523673/new-300-uhd-video-pack-from-samsung#post_24524534


While Sony's FPM-X1 costs more, it has a 2TB drive (with USB3 plug for more and archival), came with 10 free movies last year, and you could rent ($5) or buy more movies for a little over BD MSRP (@ $30).


The issue is until Hollywood shoots AND masters the entire movie (incl. CGI) in 4K, the quality and full potential is not there with what's being delivered. That's the case with Columbia titles and suspect the same will be true for the other studio titles on this Samsung. The documentaries are probably great though.
Click to expand...
4K 'prints' exist though, they are being delivered to the movie theater servers to play out on their 4K projection systems.
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Dan Hitchman

Quote:
Originally Posted by bullpuss  /t/1523673/new-300-uhd-video-pack-from-samsung#post_24524110

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You said it.
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