4K Blu-Ray is on its way!

It's beginniing to look like 4K Blu-ray is on its way

Some great news from TechRadar about what now looks like a definite future for 4K Blu-ray discs. Although the Blu-ray Disc Association has yet to officially announce such a format, Marty Gordon, the official spokesman for the BDA, has apparently told TechRadar that there will be an announcement soon. For the time being there is no specific information on specifications but Mr Gordon has suggested that the new format won’t just be about 4K suggesting the format will have other new features and singling out audio in particular as something that may also get an upgrade. “We think audio is one of the important features to look into” he stated.

Three layers

TechRadar have also spotted a reference to three layer Blu-ray discs on the website of Singulus who manufacture the technology that pressing plants use to make Blu-ray discs. Apparently the new three layer format provides 100GB of capacity, and there is obviously a lot of speculation flying around that this might be a part of the new Blu-ray specification. Hopefuly HEVC/h.265 will be a part of the new specification too to make the most of whatever higher capacity is available.

This is really good news for the 4K UHD format as I think there is presently a really strong case to be made for physical media vs internet download of 4K media and I have been concerned for a while that the success of UHD might be held back by the lack of a consumer disc format. It now seems certain that such a format is on its way and that the 4K future is also more certain with it.