# Samsung Debuts Its First Ultra HD Blu-ray Player



## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Panasonic made waves at CES 2015 by announcing it had developed the world’s first Ultra-HD Blu-ray player. At the time, the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) was still in the process of finalizing specifications for the technology, making a release date hard to predict. The BDA has since released definitive specs along with a new logo, opening the doors for manufacturers to aggressively pursue development of the next big disc technology.










Yesterday, Samsung took center stage at IFA 2015 and addressed its standing in the Ultra-HD world. It also officially announced its own Ultra-HD Blu-ray player. 

“The player supports four-times the resolution and sixty four-times higher color expression as compared to standard Blu-ray,” said Michael Zoller, president of visual display at Samsung. “It supports HDR and can play UHD Blu-ray with up to 60 frames per second.”

These kinds of specs are hardly earthshaking, but it’s impossible to deny their enticement factor. The new player will also feature upscaling capabilities for both disc and streaming based content. One of the more interesting design elements of the player is its outer shell form factor, which features a curved-front to match Samsung’s current line of curved displays. Samsung says the new player will be made available early in 2016, missing the previously predicted Ultra-HD release period of the 2015 holiday season. 

Samsung didn’t discuss specific pricing for its Ultra HD Blu-ray player during the press conference, however several media outlets are reporting that it will be south of a $500 price point. Consumers should expect UHD discs to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $30. 

During the press conference, Samsung said their UHD market has been growing at a healthy clip and predicts that nearly 53 million UHD units will be sold in 2016. The company also reported that sales of its SUHD televisions (displays using quantum dot technology) have increased near 264-percent during the period of March through June of this year. On the content side, Samsung announced the first 24-hour UHD television channel in Germany (UHD 1). The channel launches today (September 4) and will feed the masses with free UHD content during non-prime time hours, changing to premium status during prime time.

Samsung’s announcement is probably the first of many Ultra HD Blu-ray announcements to come. It will be interesting to see if any manufacturers are able to release a player in time for the holiday season.


_Image Credit: Samsung_


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## Blacklightning (Nov 22, 2011)

Now hopefully their will be a way to know if a TV can display all the new specs on a UHD Disc.


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Most new 4K TVs, next model year, will support HDR, WCG, etc... there are a few models, out now, that do as well.


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## Blacklightning (Nov 22, 2011)

I was under the standing that those models HDR or WCG might not be the same format. Sony HDR can not be played on a Samsung HDR set. So if UHD blyray pick a different HDR format it will not work on any set. Same with WCG.


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Blacklightning said:


> I was under the standing that those models HDR or WCG might not be the same format. Sony HDR can not be played on a Samsung HDR set. So if UHD blyray pick a different HDR format it will not work on any set. Same with WCG.


Yes, you're correct. There isn't an HDR standard yet...you are correct there. That is definitely something that we'll be monitoring. I wrote about this issue right after CE Week 2015...if you missed it, here are my thoughts following the event: http://www.hometheatershack.com/for...7-high-dynamic-range-live-ce-week-2015-a.html


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## class a (Oct 22, 2010)

Are you really going to tell the difference unless you have a projector/screen display?? Most people have 55-65" TV's. I think better black and gray scales would be a bigger improvement in smaller displays rather than pixel count.:T


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## Todd Anderson (Jul 24, 2009)

Pixel-wise... You're right. Not from what we all consider to be normal viewing distances. 

HDR-wise... Absolutely. The difference is incredible (just need content!)


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