*** 4K Player Thread ***

Hmmm, I couldn't get it working and rather than rely on the What-Hifi news: http://www.whathifi.com/news/xbox-one-gets-welcome-bitstream-audio-update

I went to the Microsoft site: https://news.xbox.com/2017/03/29/xbox-one-update-available-today-brings-beam/

Where is says
Blu-ray player bitstream passthrough: The Blu-ray disc player on Xbox One now supports bitstream passthrough, which allows your receiver to decode audio natively. All bitstream formats are supported, including newer ones like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. This feature will light up later next week.
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Assuming the above update works well, is an X box now a total no brainer for a tentative first foray into the world of 4K discs?

I've held off so far because I perceive the players to be far too expensive.

I'm also anticipating / assuming that 4K UHD movies will be streamable at some point soon at equivalent bit rates to uhd discs...?
 
Participant said:
I'm also anticipating / assuming that 4K UHD movies will be streamable at some point soon at equivalent bit rates to uhd discs...?
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UHD Bluray I believe ranges from 80-120 mbit, so unlikely to hit streaming platforms any time soon. Netflix 4k is currently 20mbit? Assuming progress in codecs continues I could maybe see something competing about the 5 year mark, looking at the history of 1080p content (which still isn't as good as BluRay, although it COULD be).
 
Chris1712 said:
UHD Bluray I believe ranges from 80-120 mbit, so unlikely to hit streaming platforms any time soon. Netflix 4k is currently 20mbit? Assuming progress in codecs continues I could maybe see something competing about the 5 year mark, looking at the history of 1080p content (which still isn't as good as BluRay, although it COULD be).
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I don't understand (and I'm sure there are some great technical reasons) why streaming services don't make the bit rate more scaleable.

If they can allow SD vs. HD on iPlayer, why can't they allow 20Mb vs. 100Mb on streaming services? Is it server bandwidth constraints that are the real problem?

Plenty of people have 100Mb+ internet connections that could stream full bore UHD / HDR content.
 
Participant said:
I don't understand (and I'm sure there are some great technical reasons) why streaming services don't make the bit rate more scaleable.

If they can allow SD vs. HD on iPlayer, why can't they allow 20Mb vs. 100Mb on streaming services? Is it server bandwidth constraints that are the real problem?

Plenty of people have 100Mb+ internet connections that could stream full bore UHD / HDR content.
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I reckon the streaming services want a constant service available to all, I doubt the current infrastructure or the servers could cope if even those with as (relatively ) poor connection as mine even requested a 50Mb stream at peak times (8-10pm? & weekends) , everyone would cache endlessly

I wonder how many actually get 100Mb+ though, I know I dont but its the best I can get where I am so I live with it (the amount of times HD iplayer stutters and caches, let alone anything more demanding)

Also whats the overhead likely to be ? Obviously from a disc to a local display UHD can be upto 80Mb/s or whatever but there must be a quite a big overhead that streaming services also have to contend with?
 
Plenty of people dont have 100mb+. Certainly not enough for companies to change the bitrate. They always go for the lowest denominator to ensure the best coverage. It will be years yet till you get proper speed for UHD etc. There is still a lot more ADSL users than Fibre. Have a look at this http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...-uk-home-broadband-speeds-reach-28-9mbps.html and remember this is Mar 2016 and 2000 surveyed.
 
HD and SD live streaming with iplayer are adaptive, well up to ~6Mb/s, you can see with context menu what you are currently getting.
latest utube vp9 is also adaptive and they send audio and video separately to enable it.

But, yes, for uhd the infrastructure to enable a reliable 50Mb/s from cloud to you, may not yet be available in UK.
In USA, at peak times >50% of network is netflix (sd/hd/uhd) traffic, so netflix have to be careful not to cripple the network.
In USA some local cable companies (with full control of path) do deliver uhd, so should be able to surpass netflix bit rate, for sport.

A download/offline facility (with local disc) might solve some of the buffering/transient problems, so they could up the bitrate, but nonetheless the sky uhd movies are not delivered giving 50Mb/s viewing rate.
I imagine their rights to distribute the movies are for partiuclar limited bitrates.


EDIT: Frankjh are your xbox one s problems resolved ? (it was you with disc playback issues?)
 
I've got a Panasonic UB700 on the way, should have been delivered today but DX are useless.

I don't own any 4k blurays yet, not sure what to get. Really want Planet Earth 2 but £30! Wonder how long before used copy's are available.
 
varkanoid said:
Plenty of people dont have 100mb+. Certainly not enough for companies to change the bitrate. They always go for the lowest denominator to ensure the best coverage. It will be years yet till you get proper speed for UHD etc. There is still a lot more ADSL users than Fibre. Have a look at this http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.ph...-uk-home-broadband-speeds-reach-28-9mbps.html and remember this is Mar 2016 and 2000 surveyed.
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None of that explains why it doesn't adapt to the connection speed.
 
another couple of factors
- cost of streaming is ~$.003 per GB with akamai or aws netflix use - so the cost doubles/trebles for 30/45 Mb/s
- ability of tv hevc decoder newer ones cap out at 80Mb/s

...so why are BBC not commisioning further 4k shows, was curious that Galapagos last night (didn't DA do that too years ago)
is not being cut in 4K ... are production costs so much more ? BBC is missing a trick.
 
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Nick1881 said:
I've got a Panasonic UB700 on the way, should have been delivered today but DX are useless.

I don't own any 4k blurays yet, not sure what to get. Really want Planet Earth 2 but £30! Wonder how long before used copy's are available.
Click to expand...

I got mine from zoom.co.uk. It's 27.99 but there's a 10% off code with the newsletter.
 
jpaul said:
EDIT: Frankjh are your xbox one s problems resolved ? (it was you with disc playback issues?)
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I got a Samsung UHD player for 1/2 price with my Samsung 4k tv so Im just using my Xbox for GTA V / Forza 3 currently

Im happy a lot of people are content with the One S 4k playback but will still suggest there are some issues regarding this if anyone asks in the future (I dont believe its that rare a case)
Given how cheaply the 8500's are now (Samsung have even released a new UHD player recently as well to drive prices even lower), unless someone wants a gaming device as well there is little point in going for a One S imo

Participant said:
None of that explains why it doesn't adapt to the connection speed.
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Pure guess but I would suggest that would be too demanding on the netflix servers to be able to do this.
 
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