Ultra HD Bluray

[Killing_Pete]

Hi,

Announcements have been made concerning the UHD Bluray (Ultra HD Bluray).
Movies on this media will be coming this summer as they say.

My questions :
- Do you plan to upgrade MakeMKV to be compliant with these new UHD Blurays ?
- If yes, will it be included in the subscription ?

Thanx ahead of time

KP

[Romansh]

No, not really.

FYI, this guy isn't involved in MakeMKV, at least not that anyone knows. Let's wait for an answer from the admin

[matt198t]

Would a theoretical UHD makemkv rip be playable on a 1080p screen?

[Woodstock]

What happens during playback depends entirely on your playback software, same as playing a 1080p source on a 720p display. It SHOULD scale it, but it may not.

I have a 3840x2160 display here, but I don't have any UHD content to test with.

[Romansh]

Would a theoretical UHD makemkv rip be playable on a 1080p screen?

I'f you're asking whether your 1080p TV will be able to read HEVC-encoded content from e.g. a USB drive plugged into one of the available ports, then the answer is most likely no (maybe very new TVs that have just been released, but even then it's unlikely).

But there are 3rd-party dedicated media players (which you connect to your TV via HDMI) which should be able to (you'd have to make sure to get one which does support it - i.e. HEVC decoding up to 4K resolution - before purchasing, of course).

Similarly, computers hooked up to your TV via HDMI should work fine too (and you don't necessarily need to upgrade your hardware to do so, though of course for software-based decoding of HEVC 4K video you need a beefy-ish CPU and it'll be quite power-hungry.

In addition, many newer graphics cards support hardware-accelerated HEVC decoding, which you can take advantage of with the right combination of playback software and graphics driver. I think Intel's integrated GPU have support for partially-accelerated HEVC decoding from Haswell onwards (Core i3/5/7-4xxx), which is better than no acceleration at all (and should work transparently, as far as I know). Newer processors' GPUs will support full HEVC acceleration, though I can't recall if Broadwell (Core i3/5/7-5xxx) chips already do. I'm fairly confident the latest generation of AMD and NVIDIA graphics also support hardware-accelerated HEVC, though I have no clue as to what earlier models do or do not support.

[matt198t]

Would a theoretical UHD makemkv rip be playable on a 1080p screen?

I'f you're asking whether your 1080p TV will be able to read HEVC-encoded content from e.g. a USB drive plugged into one of the available ports, then the answer is most likely no (maybe very new TVs that have just been released, but even then it's unlikely).

But there are 3rd-party dedicated media players (which you connect to your TV via HDMI) which should be able to (you'd have to make sure to get one which does support it - i.e. HEVC decoding up to 4K resolution - before purchasing, of course).

Similarly, computers hooked up to your TV via HDMI should work fine too (and you don't necessarily need to upgrade your hardware to do so, though of course for software-based decoding of HEVC 4K video you need a beefy-ish CPU and it'll be quite power-hungry.

In addition, many newer graphics cards support hardware-accelerated HEVC decoding, which you can take advantage of with the right combination of playback software and graphics driver. I think Intel's integrated GPU have support for partially-accelerated HEVC decoding from Haswell onwards (Core i3/5/7-4xxx), which is better than no acceleration at all (and should work transparently, as far as I know). Newer processors' GPUs will support full HEVC acceleration, though I can't recall if Broadwell (Core i3/5/7-5xxx) chips already do. I'm fairly confident the latest generation of AMD and NVIDIA graphics also support hardware-accelerated HEVC, though I have no clue as to what earlier models do or do not support.

Good post thanks.

What I am describing is a 4k mkv read from HDD using Kodi on my HTPC.

I ask because I would probably buy 4k blu-rays as soon as they become available (as well as a 4k PC optical drive) but not necessarily have the 4k screen and receiver in place until prices come down considerably for decent units.

Until I do it would be nice that I could still be able to watch the 4k mkv using my 1080p equipment.

My understanding then is that as long as I have the horsepower to decode the stream, the mkv will still play on a 1080p screen but obviously at reduced 1920x1080 resolution?

[Romansh]

My understanding then is that as long as I have the horsepower to decode the stream, the mkv will still play on a 1080p screen but obviously at reduced 1920x1080 resolution?

Correct. Kodi should be perfectly capable of downscaling video (most everything is, though some do better jobs than others).

[weibos]

Any updates on this?

There were several announcements at CES. Televisions, OLED Screens, UHD players from Samsung and Sony, and a few studios announcing UHD discs releasing in March.

Is anything known about the specs? I assume that BD-XL type discs will be used, not a new format right? If that's the case the BD-ROM/BD-RW drives that support BD-XL are the only thing necessary on the hardware side.
I wonder about the software too. DRM (AACS / BD+, etc), Video Codecs (HEVC, maybe VP9?), Audio Codecs, UDF filesystem and disc structure, etc.

I guess MakeMKV can't support anything until there are players and discs available to begin reverse engineering.

[Krawk]

Any new format presents all new copy protection standards in place. You can bet it will likely be YEARS before any viable option is available.