The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), the organisation responsible for the promotion and marketing of the Blu-ray disc format, has this week announced that the specifications for recordable 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray have been completed, at least for the Japanese market.
Recording and archiving broadcast content is a big thing in Japan, with nearly 75 percent of the Blu-ray hardware market being dominated by Blu-ray recorders rather than non-recording dedicated players. With a recordable BDXL disc, a triple-layer one can hold up to 100Gb, whereas a quad-layer version can go up to 128Gb, making it the ideal format for storing HD (high definition), 4K and even 8K broadcast footage.
The Chair of BDA Global Promotions Committee, Victor Matsuda, is understandably bullish about the new archival format. “With 4K becoming the standard, not only for TVs, but also mobile devices and video cameras, extending recordable Blu-ray to enable Ultra HD content is a logical and very practical extension of format,” he said. “We are also anticipating that Ultra HD broadcasting will start in Japan around the end of 2018. The ability to continually expand to keep up with consumer demand for high quality experiences, remains one of Blu-ray’s greatest strengths and a primary reason for its success and longevity.”
Licensing of the next-gen broadcast recordable Blu-ray format is slated to start in January 2018, and the BDA will be liaising closely with other parties within the industry to develop tools and processes required to ensure interoperability between recorders, players and software.
We plan to meet the BDA at CES 2018 for a briefing next month, where we hope to find out more about the prospect of HDR10 Plus open-standard dynamic metadata system for the Ultra HD Blu-ray platform.
