We already knew most of the details of the new Ultra HD Blu-ray standard, but the last pieces have now fallen into place. The UHD Blu-ray standard has been finalized with support for 4K, three HDR standards, HFR and better colors. 

UHD Blu-ray standard final
Ultra HD Blu-ray will support 4K in up to 60fps (HFR), up to Rec.2020 color gamuts (and DCI), 100 Mb/s bitrate, HEVC codec, 10-bit color depth and HDR, but no 48fps or 4K 3D. We already knew all of that.

The standard is now final and BDA (Blu-ray Disc Association) has clarified the HDR support. The open HDR standard based on the SMPTE proposal (ST 2084 and ST 2086) will be mandatory. Two other HDR standards from Dolby Vision and Philips are optional, so manufacturers and content makers will have to decide whether to use / support them. A fourth proposal from Technicolor was discarded.


The first players should be available by late 2015. There is no competing disc format this time, but UHD Blu-ray will instead compete with streaming services. Netflix was the first to launch 4K streaming in early 2014 and will add HDR support later this year.

- “As UHD content offerings mature, we believe that the two systems will “coexist” for quite some time. However, we also believe that the value of owning the Ultra-HD Blu-ray packaged media will be robust for many years as it offers the premium content viewing experience each and every time it is played.” a BDA representative said to Advanced Television.

For more details see this article.

- Source: Advanced-Television