Electronics

Samsung has a 4K Blu-ray player coming in 2016

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Samsung's UHD Blu-ray player will land some time in 2016
Paul Ridden/Gizmag
It might look like a simple black box at first glance, but it actually features a curved design, so it'll look right at home alongside the company's curved TV and curved sound bar offerings
Paul Ridden/Gizmag
The hardware is capable of upscaling lower resolution disk content to UHD, and will support 4K streaming services
Paul Ridden/Gizmag
The new player will support UHD Blu-ray disk playback, providing users with four times the resolution of standard Blu-rays, and with 64 times higher color expression
Paul Ridden/Gizmag
Samsung's UHD Blu-ray player will land some time in 2016
Paul Ridden/Gizmag
As of yet, there's no pricing for the new Ultra HD Blu-ray player, but we do know that it's scheduled to land some time in 2016
Paul Ridden/Gizmag
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Samsung's new player supports 4K Blu-ray playback, giving users more to watch on their glossy new panels. The product, which was announced at the IFA show in Berlin, will also support upscaling and streaming services.

Ultra HD TVs are a dime a dozen these days, and their prices have come down quite a bit. But if you put such a high-res panel in your home, you're left with one big issue – there still isn't much content that will take full advantage of the hardware. That's where Samsung's new player steps in, giving users the opportunity to watch the latest releases in glorious 3,840 x 2,160 resolution.

You might remember that Panasonic had a 4K Blu Ray player back at CES in January, but that product was only a prototype, and has yet to make its way onto shelves. Samsung's player is a little different in that regard. While we don't know exactly when it will land or how much it will cost when it does, we do know that the company plans to give it a commercial launch.

The new player will support UHD Blu-ray disk playback, providing users with four times the resolution of standard Blu-rays, and with 64 times higher color expression
Paul Ridden/Gizmag

The new player will support UHD Blu-ray disk playback, providing users with four times the resolution of standard Blu-rays, and with 64 times higher color expression. The hardware is also capable of upscaling lower resolution disk content to UHD, and will support 4K streaming services.

Samsung has also paid attention to the design of the player. It might look like a simple black box at first glance, but looks closer and you'll see that it has a curved design, and will look right at home alongside the company's curved TV and curved sound bar offerings.

As we mentioned, there's no pricing for the new Ultra HD Blu-ray player just yet, but Samsung did say that it's scheduled to land some time in 2016.

Source: Samsung

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3 comments
Kie
How long will a disc be? Would lord of the rings extended edition film fit on one at 4k 60fps - 3 to 4 hours?
Is it h.264 or h.265?
Wolf0579
"Blu-ray" is nothing more than an encryption scheme to go along with the higher resolutions. Why tout something that cost so much money to the consumer but gives nothing back to the consumer?
MarcStizzy
When I download 4k (2160p) content, it seems it's roughly double the filesize of the same file in 2k (1080p).