Netflix Expects Modest 4K TV Sales & UHD Content Availability in 2014

Just when you thought that this might be the year when we finally get to see a decent amount of 4K content hit our larger-than-life UHD screens, well, it’s time to think again.

Netflix on TV

Earlier this month our hopes were dashed over the prospect of seeing 4K blu-rays hit the shelves, following their no-show at the CES in Las Vegas – contrary to earlier speculation. Since then we’ve had confirmation from the Blu-ray Disc Association that it’s at least established a task force made up of representatives of 17 media companies, including Dolby, Disney, Fox, Sony and Technicolor, in order to speed things up. Nevertheless, a standard framework for 4K Blu-ray isn’t expected until the end of the year, which means it’ll likely be 2015 at the earliest before we see any physical 4K media.

The other great hope for native 4K content is of course, streaming. There’s been plenty of talk about the new HEVC H.265 codec, not too mention Google’s alternative VP9, both of which allow the delivery of 4K media over the net. Netflix is one of the main proponents of this, and made a number of announcements at CES 2014 regarding its original 4K content such as House of Cards, which will be made available to all Sony Bravia subscribers.

Netflix deserves a pat on the back for at least trying, but yesterday it announced slightly disappointing news in its Q4 earnings report, saying that there will only be limited availability of 4K content this year. In its briefing, Netflix noted that it had promoted UHD technology in conjunction with a number of its key consumer electronics partners, announcing the availability of House of Cards season two, plus all five seasons of Breaking Bad, in 4K. However, it seems unlikely we’ll see much more 4K content than this, as the company stated that due to slow sales of UHD TVs, “4K content will be relatively modest” for the rest of the year.

The good news is that what little 4K content is available should be accessible by most Netflix subscribers. It said that its streams will be encoded at 15.6Mbps, which should be “well within the reach of a significant majority of our members”, especially with the reach of capable 20Mbps broadband connections likely to expand.

Source: Netflix

One comment

  1. 1/27/13
    McKinleyville, California

    UHD content solutions awaiting UHD broadcast and Blu-Ray discs:

    The word on the street is this. Google’s alternative VP9 video compression codec is a poor solution, an interval solution awaiting H.265. Digital video recorded in lens based cameras (not digital animation video) is compressed, IN THE CAMERA, to some degree. At the studio, in post processing, the original digital video file is compressed a second time before Google compresses it a third time to broadcast.

    It’s this third step, Google makes, to enable the UHD signal fit within Mb/s streaming parameters. Google’s codec compresses UHD too much, forfeits quality. 15.5 Mb/s is too much compression for UHD, unacceptable really, for the long term. UHD video, the sweet spot for video compression, for 4K UHD video is about 50 Mb/s compressed with H.264, and 25 Mbit/s/, no less than 20 Mbit/s, compressed using H.265 codec, no more. Over compression should be avoided.
    Excess video compression of UHD master video files ruins the original concept of UHD display quality.

    Patience. H.265 is coming soon. Until then, play hard copies downloaded from the Internet or supplied with the UHD TV when sold. Why watch UHD samples from YouTube?

    It’s still about H.265 codec, superior, not yet in wide release, commercially.

    The less video compression, the better.

    Until H.265 software becomes available, it looks like Google’s 15.6 Mb/s is the only stream source for the time being.

    Downloading, then playing UHD video seems the way to go. There’s a company, 4kdownload.com offering some free software to facilitate downloading of UHD files. My company visualambrosia.com offer fully downloadable UHD demo test files for download from Vimeo; download then play the original UHD movie.

    Few UHD videos are actually downloadable on Vimeo, but you can find them. Our company offers them: vimeo.com/visualambrosia pages. Our company also uploads identical UHD video files on YouTube to compare YouTube’s over compressed stream versions of videos, to the original.

    Michael Harris

    California