Samsung First To Bow Ultra HD Blu-ray Player, but Not For Holiday Selling Season

Samsung’s Ultra HD Blu-ray player will have “a sleek curved design, matching perfectly with our Samsung curved SUHD TVs,” Michael Zoeller, vice president-visual display at Samsung Electronics Europe, told an IFA news conference in the massive new City Cube complex just inside the Messe Berlin fairgrounds’ south gate. The Ultra HD Blu-ray player is “set to hit shops early next year,” Zoeller said. In the U.S., Samsung’s Ultra HD Blu-ray player also will roll out early in 2016, Dan Schinasi, senior marketing manager-TV product planning at Samsung Electronics America, emailed us Thursday.

At the news conference, Zoeller introduced Fox Home Entertainment President Mike Dunn, who announced that Kingsman: The Secret Service will be Fox’s first Ultra HD Blu-ray title. Fox is preparing all its recent releases in “4K Ultra HD,” and they'll be available “in conjunction with the launch of your Ultra HD Blu-ray player early next year,” Dunn told Zoeller. Dunn’s repeated emphasis on “4K Ultra HD” left little doubt that Fox is a strong supporter of releasing Ultra HD Blu-ray titles in 4K, though Blu-ray Disc Association officials confirmed Wednesday that the format’s specs don’t require studios to release discs with 4K resolution. But 4K support is mandatory in Ultra HD Blu-ray hardware, and virtually all studios are expected to release Ultra HD Blu-ray titles in 4K, they said.

Earlier Thursday at an LG Electronics HDR “pre-briefing” at Berlin’s Melia Hotel (see 1509030034), SP Baik, who heads the TV product strategy team at LG and is his company’s representative on the UHD Alliance board, fielded a reporter’s question on the general applicability of HDR to 1080p content sources by specifically naming Disney as having been a strong supporter of using HDR for “2K” material. But LG has no plans for now to build HDR functionality into its 1080p TVs, Baik said. Disney representatives didn’t comment on Baik’s remark, including whether the studio has ambitions to release Ultra HD Blu-ray titles with anything less than 4K resolution.

All Samsung Ultra HD TVs “now allow you to connect and play from external HDR sources,” Zoeller said at the IFA news conference. “We are the first in the market to adopt the new HDMI 2.0a specification,” which carries HDR metadata, he said. “As the market’s number one TV manufacturer, it is our responsibility to lead and raise standards for everyone.”

HD Plus Gmbh, the SES-affiliated 50-channel satellite TV operator in Germany, plans the Friday launch of UHD1, a 24-hour Ultra HD content channel, Timo Schneckenburger, managing director-marketing and sales, told the Samsung news conference. “We know that UHD is the next frontier of television,” Schneckenburger said. “In Germany specifically, we have seen a steadily rising demand for UHD as well.” During daytime hours, all content provided by satellite by SES Astra on UHD-1 “will be free for everybody to enjoy,” he said. “We allow everybody to try out the brilliance of UHD using UHD1, at home, in shops or wherever you are.”

During prime-time hours, UHD1 “will become a truly exclusive offering for HD Plus customers only,” said Schneckenburger. “We’ll provide spectacular content that has never been seen before. We firmly believe that UHD1 will be an important catalyst to further drive the conversion from HD to UHD. And as consumer demand for UHD content increases, so will the number of options to broadcast that content. So all in all, UHD television is no longer the future, it’s here, and we’re very excited to be part of it.”

IFA Notebook

OLED is “the best TV technology available, and we’re not surprised that other manufacturers are announcing their aspirations to produce OLED TVs -- they’ve been trying for some time,” LG Electronics USA spokesman John Taylor emailed us Wednesday in reaction to Panasonic’s IFA introduction of its first 4K OLED TV for the European market (see 1509020025). Taylor sidestepped direct comment on Panasonic’s dig at LG that its CZ950 4K OLED TV would offer black-level performance that goes “beyond what’s available in other OLED TVs.” LG, which until now has been the industry’s only supplier of large-screen OLED TVs, “offers an entire line up” of OLED sets “available right now with perfect blacks and intense color for an awe-inspiring picture,” Taylor said. “LG OLED TVs are available in 55-, 65- and 77-inch sizes, both curved and flat, and 1080p and 4K resolutions, at more competitive prices starting at $2,499.” Panasonic representatives at the company’s IFA stand speculated the CZ950 would sell for about 8,000 British pounds (about $12,200) when it arrives in the U.K. in October or November. As for Panasonic’s claim that its CZ950 is the industry’s first OLED TV to land THX certification, LG’s OLED sets landed THX certification two years ago, Taylor said.

The “new Pioneer,” in cooperation with Onkyo, is readying a portable digital audio player with 4.7-inch screen and powered by a quad-core processor working under Android Lollipop Ver 5.11. The XDP 100R player was previewed Thursday at IFA in near, but not quite, ready state. The XDP 100R was introduced at IFA as the “world’s first product with MQA to deliver super hi-res audio in CD bandwidth” but was in fact “not quite ready” to work with MQA. Representatives of Meridian, the British company behind MQA, were on hand to explain that they now work for a new company, called MQA Ltd., which was spun off from Meridian to work in the same geographical location, but at arm’s length to ease negotiations with hardware companies that are natural competitors to Meridian. The new Pioneer player can download music direct from online stores such as Onkyo Music, without the need to use a computer, and also access Google Play and third-party stores such as Deezer, Spotify and Tidal. The large screen can be used for YouTube, Internet radio and gaming. Onboard storage is a mix of 32 GB inbuilt memory and up to two 128 GB SD cards, making a total of 288 GB, appearing to the user as one large memory bank. Wireless playback extends up to 192 kHz 24 bit. X-DAP software is available to push content from a PC to the portable.