Samsung has a few firsts under its belt. It had the first generally available Blu-ray player on the market back in 2006, and today, it has the first 4K UHD Blu-ray player released in Australia. Announced at IFA last year, Samsung’s UBD-K8500 was shown off at CES 2016 as well, and now it’s coming here for us to enjoy.
The premise of Ultra HD Blu-ray is simple; it offers a true cinematic experience for Australian viewers. Users can enjoy 4K content on compatible TVs, and for those with the latest HDR technology, Samsung’s player supports those too — deeper blacks, brighter whites, and sharp contrasts in between.
I look forward to watching Interstellar on something like this, assuming it’s released in an appropriate format for this player to handle.
Compared to conventional Blu-ray technology, Samsung’s 4K UHD player has twice the colour range, and up to 64 times the colour expression, meaning your viewing will be as breathtaking as it is vivid. On top of all this, if your TV isn’t particularly smart, the Samsung player can interface with online streaming services like Netflix and others for 4K content on demand.
Samsung’s 4K UHD Blu-ray player will be on sale from Australian retailers this Thursday 5 May 2016 from $599.
We hear there’s going to be some news this week about Samsung’s new TV line-up as well. We’re sending Jason along, so we’ll have some further updates there come mid-week.
“… from $599”
Oh well, that’s going to go gangbusters then. Particularly when you can a 4K media player for $50 and at heart all this is is a normal bluray player and a 4K front end (and nasty DRM).
You might have thought they would have learned, but no.
On one level I kind of agree; I don’t generally get movies on discs anymore either. I download or stream them, depending on where they’re available. However, there’s still a strong market for products like this, otherwise Samsung wouldn’t release them.