For the elite home video enthusiast
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With update 253 a new characteristics was added to the combo group to designate a package that contains both a Blu-ray format discs and the new Ultra HD format disc. The Ultra HD resolution is 3,840 (w) x 2,160 (h) pixels. The Ultra HD is also known as 4K because it contains 4 times the number of pixels as the 1,080 format. The designation of 4K is a bit of a misnomer because the designation 1K initially referred to the vertical resolution of the 1,920 x 1,080 format. For consistency the Ultra HD format should be called 2K. I suppose the 4K designation makes more sense for marketing because it sounds like a bigger improvement for the consumer.
Ultra HD discs can have a 1-layer version that contains 50 GB, a 2-layer format that contains 66 GB and a 3-layer format that contains 100 GB. The format uses the H.265 HEVC coding scheme. Existing Blu-ray players will not play the Ultra HD discs. At CES 2016 there was no indication that the Ultra HD format will ever support programs in 3D.
The minimum setup to play the Ultra HD format is a 4K display device and a 4K Ultra HD player. While 4K display devices have been on sale throughout 2015, the Ultra HD players will not become available in the USA until later in 2016.
The Ultra HD discs that have been announced for release in 2016 are packaged as a combo with a standard Bly-ray discs.
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