Obviously aware of the current dearth of native 4K content, Panasonic has today revealed at a UK briefing that it will soon be launching a 4K online video channel on its Viera Connect Smart TV platform for owners of the company’s cutting-edge TX-L65WT600B Ultra HD television. Before you get too excited, the videos are more your typical demo material than full-featured 4K movies, but at least it’s better than nothing.
Whilst late to the ultra high-definition (UHD) game compared to the likes of Samsung, LG and especially pacesetter Sony, Panasonic has nevertheless managed to come up with the most comprehensively-specced 4K TV available to buy on the market today. The Viera TX-L65WT600 is the world’s first and – at this time of writing – only UHD television that’s fully compliant with the HDMI 2.0 standard, offering support for 2160p videos at higher frame rates of 50fps and 60fps.
Add in THX 4K certification (Europe’s first), full 4:4:4 reproduction at 4K@60p (again a world’s first), a DisplayPort 1.2a input that’s aimed squarely at PC enthusiasts, complete with the world’s first 4K native web browser, it means the Panasonic TXL65WT600B is so far ahead of its competitors specifications-wise that we wonder whether any other 4K Ultra HD TV can even match it in six months’ time.
But back to the Panasonic 4K channel that offers native ultra high-def content for lucky owners of the Viera WT600. Some videos will come from Panasonic, whereas the rest will be various types of 4K-quality videos uploaded by users. For smooth playback of the 4K online videos, the Japanese manufacturer recommends a high-speed broadband of at least 50Mb/s, although there will be an option to download the videos if streaming is not possible because of slower internet connection.
A company spokesperson said that its 4K channel service will go live on the 15th of October in the form of a downloadable app on its Smart Viera internet-connected portal. However, we Googled and stumbled upon a Panasonic 4K channel on YouTube which appears to offer the exact same videos we saw in today’s session, so go ahead and feast your eyes… if you have a native 4K screen.
No one is looking out of the window anymore. That’s because everyone is looking into the screens of their smart mobile devices which bring them more fun and drama and connectivity than they have ever experienced. People are hooked onto the content on their devices, and video sharing has been the single largest reason for the higher bandwidth requirement among mobile data consumers and takes up a significant chunk of their data quota. With more video apps players in the market and better video recording capabilities on mobile devices, uploading and sharing videos have become so easy and convenient that the coming years will continue to see explosive growth in on-line video content.