A lot of fellow videographers are still outputting their final footage to DVD mainly for weddings and children’s dance shows. 2016 was to be the year for UHD (Ultra High Definition) or 4K DVD players.
Some have questioned whether Blu-ray discs will have a future in a world increasingly enamored with streaming. The industry’s response is simple: Ultra HD Blu-ray player and discs provide the best possible picture quality for those who own high-performing UHD TVs. The picture quality of the 4K content from services such as Amazon and Netflix is highly dependent on the viewer’s broadband connection and the amount of network traffic inside and outside the viewer’s home.
With a constant bitrate in excess of 100Mbps second—four times the FCC’s definition of what constitutes broadband—Ultra Blu-ray promises a consistent, reliable, high level of performance currently unmatched by streaming.
At the same time, the industry has acknowledged the shifts in viewer habits with an Ultra Blu-ray feature called “copy and export.” As its name suggests, copy and export lets you make a bit-for-bit copy of an Ultra HD film or program and store it on an authorized hard drive. That means you can probably expect to see Ultra HD Blu-ray players with 1TB or more hard drives.
Using the export feature, you’ll be able to transfer a file—presumably a lower-quality version of the content—to authorized mobile devices. But you can’t transfer it directly on your own to that device; it will have to go through a third-party service such as Vidity or UltraViolet. Both the movie studio and the player will have to implement this feature for it to work.
Just like current Blu-ray titles, Ultra Blu-ray discs can carry lower-quality content, such as 1080p programs or movies, but manufacturers must clearly state that in the tech specs box on the package. One advantage to doing this would be to include an entire series on a single disc. There will be three disc sizes: 50GB, 66GB, and 100GB, depending on the length of the program material and which extra features—wider color gamuts, HDR, etc—are included.
There are no UHD burners as yet which would be needed to deliver UHD weddings or dance shows, nor do we have burning software capable of UHD but maybe Apple will have this in their new version of FCPX anytime soon. You can deliver UHD in a USB stick and I have just discovered this software (PC only) called DRAX that allows you to add chapters to your mp4 videos without ReRendering! (chapter titles too!)
When recording dance shows in 4K and delivering is DVD, the drop is quality is horrendous, so I welcome this kind of technology.
Its about bloody time!
@Gary Greenwood. Next time deliver on Blu-Ray (1080p) at a higher bit rate.