More details have emerged on the upcoming Ultra HD Blu-ray standard, which is expected to be formally announced by late spring or early summer. In addition to support for 10-bit encoding and Rec 2020 color, Ultra HD Blu-ray will support an open standard High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology but also allow for optional solutions like Dolby Vision. We'll be covering HDR in more depth in Monday's Featured News story, so stay tuned.

From Advanced Television
The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has agreed a batch of standards for 'next generation' players and disc media called 'Ultra-HD Blu-ray'. The news, reported by trade magazine Large Display Monitor, says that the Ultra-HD players will support an open standard High Dynamic Range (HDR) technology, using 10-bit HEVC MPEG video encoding and based on SMPTE HDR signalling. The format will allow for optional layered solutions including Dolby Vision and the HDR on offer from Philips.

However, a 4K proposal from Technicolor was not set into the new proposals.

Perhaps as important is that the new Blu-ray discs specifications conform to the EBU's Recommendation 2020, which takes the wide colour gamut proposals and frame rates up to 60P and delivers the much longed-for "better pixels" that true UHD demands. The advantages of 10-bit encoding and wider colour gamut will also enhance the presentation of Standard Dynamic Range (SDR) BT-709 colour content as well.

The BDA says that the combined recommendations will be embraced formally by the BDA around the middle of this year, and that discs and players should start appearing later this year.
The industry expects 4K Blu-ray players to be backwards compatible and play existing Blu-ray/DVDs on most machines.

To read the full Advanced Television article, click here.

Additional Resources
• 4K Blu-ray to Arrive in 2015 at HomeTheaterReview.com.
• The Color's the Thing That Will Make 4K So Amazing at HomeTheaterReview.com.