The 20th Century Fox just confirmed than they plan to release all of their new movies on home video to the 4K UltraHD Blu-ray format at the same time as the regular Blu-ray edition.
The first title to be released will be Kingsman : The Secret Service which offers us a first glimpse at the look of the boxes for this new physical format. As you can see, the title will also include Blu-ray and Digital Download, but no DVD copy. Which is good news in my mind as the format should start disappearing and we should stop paying for an unwanted disc. Talking about prices, they said the new titles should have an MRSP around 30 US dollars, not surprising for a new format.
No word yet on the technical details of the disc, the main question being if Fox will start working with Dolby Atmos or DTS:X as the movie was shown in cinema in Atmos.
Finally, Fox also confirmed other titles that will be also available on UltraHD Blu-ray soon after launch: Exodus: Gods and Kings, Fantastic Four, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Life of Pi, The Maze Runner and Wild.
Exciting times !
I find some of the choices with this packaging a bit odd:
1) Why include a Blu-ray disc? I thought the whole point of the new “Digital Bridge” part of UltraHD Blu-ray was to allow for the “export” of a 1080p version to any other device. Of course, Digital Bridge is optional. Maybe Fox isn’t going to support it. Joy.
2) No clear marking on the package of whether the title is in HDR? 4K resolution is nice and all, but it’s High Dynamic Range that really visually separates the new format. I’m quite certain all of those Fox titles are in HDR. But not making a big deal about that on the front of the package seems like a missed opportunity to me.
3) Why are we still living in this wasteland where seemingly no one cares about audio?! We already have Vidity titles available through M-Go and pre-loaded onto Western Digital MyPassport Cinema hard drives. But while they include 4K resolution – and some even include HDR – none of them include lossless audio, let alone immersive audio! Nope, it’s DTS-HD High Resolution, which is nice and all, by why not DTS-HD MasterAudio with DTS:X ?!
For their part, Vidity has said there’s nothing about their format or system preventing titles from including lossless and immersive audio. It’s purely on the studios as to what version they choose to release on the service. So…why? When the file is already getting close to a 100GB download, do we really need to scrimp and save bits on the audio? It’s a drop in the bucket compared to the bandwidth being eaten up by the video.
Such a shame.
– Rob H. – AV Rant Podcast Co-host
Hi Rob !
Thanks for the comments ! Some thoughts :
1) Good question, my though is it’s for future proofing, so you can buy the UHD discs before buying the player with the digital bridge feature and use the Blu-ray until then. Or Fox just will not support the bridge as you said…
2) Agreed about HDR, it should be stated more clearly.
3) I sure hope DTS:X or Dolby Atmos will be included on those Fox releases, let’s wait and see.
what isnt implented in here is if there is a dolby atmos or dts:x soundtrack, will it be playable through downmix if not well equiped or are these soundtracks gonna deliver the full range with 32 channels.
another thought for me was that the choice using HDR is in the development of the movie (correct me if i’m wrong). but 20th century fox will release all 4k movies with HDR including these 4 titles and tv’s must be equiped with this technology or else it’s a no go.
Yeah sadly we don’t know yet any specs, including the sound tracks. But if DTS or Atmos is included, no worry, the TrueHD/DTS Master Audio versions will be included, it will use the same technology as the current Blu-ray formats.
Regarding the 32 channels, Atmos/DTS:X are object based, so they will support as many channels if you have a Trinnov or something that can leverages so many.
Same thing for HDR, it will fall back to a normal image if you don’t have a compatible display.