Remember how CES once proved to be the battlefield for HD DVD and Blu-ray formats? While the dust in that particular battle has long been settled with Blu-ray emerging as the obvious winner, it looks like the next step in Blu-ray evolution would be to keep up with the slew of Ultra HD TVs that have been rolling out in quick succession from various manufacturers. Hence, it looks like 2016 will usher in a fair number of 4K Blu-ray movies, which would certainly be another opportunity for movie studios to milk their audiences for all their money’s worth by re-releasing old movies in the 4K Blu-ray format.
After all, 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray might very well be the last physical disk format in the larger scheme of things, where it will obviously come with a better image quality compared to what we have in the market at the moment. Some of the visual advances would include a 4K resolution (3840 x 2160), superior color and enhanced contrast thanks to high dynamic range (HDR) technologies such as Dolby Vision.
So far, the announced titles have been available on a pre-order basis, with only one release date being determined as at press time, which would be Ridley Scott’s The Martian. Those who are interested can place a pre-order for The Martian on Amazon for $29.99 a pop, where it will be accompanied by a release date of March 1. The Blu-ray version will be available in the middle of this month.