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CES: Blu-ray Disc Association Looks for 4K Ultra High-Def BD Success (MESA)

Dan Schinasi, senior marketing manager at Samsung Electronics America and chair of the the Blu-ray Disc Association’s U.S. promotions group, couldn’t be happier with how things went for Ultra High-Def (UHD) Blu-ray at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Three consumer electronics companies (Samsung, Philips and Panasonic) promised 4K UHD Blu-ray players this year, final specifications for UHD content were announced by the UHD Alliance, independent distributor Shout! Factory announced it would release content on the format, and for the first time, slick new packaging for the UHD Blu-rays was unveiled. And despite the small amount of players, and the fact streaming services like Netflix and Amazon are already delivering UHD content, Schinasi thinks UHD Blu-ray will be a huge addition in consumer living rooms in 2016…

“It’s already been commercially produced,” he said, pointing to a Warner UHD Blu-ray title that’s been released in Japan. “It’s not a market until there’s multiple players, but we can expect at least 100 titles this year, and streaming still hasn’t matched the quality of Blu-ray.

“UHD Blu-ray moves the bar to the ceiling. It’s taking it to a new level. Want to see everyone jump into the format.”

Also at CES:

• Patrick Griffis, Dolby’s executive director of technology strategy for the office of the CTO, was visibly pleased during a demo of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos technologies (collectively known as Dolby Cinema) during this week’s CES.

“This isn’t a lab experiment,” he said, showing off Dolby’s latest sound and video technologies for Warner’s Mad Max and Disney’s Big Hero 6. “These are real services and real products you can get today.”

Dolby was among the companies to make the biggest of splashes at the trade show, announcing a bevy of content and consumer electronics partnerships, covering everything the inclusion of both Vision and Atmos on the hardware and software sides. Griffis said he was “very gratified” when it was announced that both MGM and Universal would deliver new-release and catalog titles mastered in Dolby Vision.

“We’re just pleased with the momentum we have,” he said.

• Freecast — the company behind the popular Rabbit TV device and aggregation service — had a major announcement during the show, sharing the aggregation service will be included in a set-top box (one that includes a PC), shipping in April.

The SelecTV set-top offers access to 350,000 TV shows, 200,000 movies, along with more than 50,000 Internet radio stations, and makes it searchable and customizable, identifying which is free, what’s PPV, and what needs a subscription. The device will be available for $179, and the aggregation service itself will be rebranded as Two-Buck TV (and will cost $2.99 as month).

The SelectTV service will also have the option of unifying users’ billing for PPV movies and subscription services, and will run Windows on a quad core Intel processor, offering Web content, DVR features, email and the ability to run Microsoft Office.

“We do all the searching for you, and bring all the content together in one place,” said FreeCast CEO William Mobley.