The 4K Ultra HD Potential of the Playstation 4

[Sledgstone 8,672]

The Playstation 4 might be a better deal than we all thought if it ends up fully supporting Sony's newly announced Video Unlimited 4K service. Sony announced a standalone 4K media player today that will be retailing for $699.99. Keep in mind that Sony has previously announced that the PS4 will not play games in 4K, but it will play 4K movies and series. With this feature, it could be possible for the Video Unlimited 4K service to run on the PS4, possibly as early as sometime next year. Sony has Video Unlimited on the PS3, so it would only make sense for them to continue the service on their new console.

If this reminds you of something, think back to when the PS3 came out. It was actually cheaper than, or the same price as many blu-ray players. Considering the PS4 will be retailing for $399.99, it could easily be the cheapest 4K player with downloadable access on the market if Sony allows it to run their 4K service. The biggest difference between the PS4 and Sony's $699 media player is storage. The PS4 will have a 500GB hard drive, while the media player is 2TB. However, the PS4's hard drive is upgradeable and the console will support external storage. The media player also comes with ten 4K movies preloaded onto it's hard drive. Each 4K movie will retail for about $30 a piece, thus driving up the cost of the player.

Of course the required 4K Ultra HD TV is still too expensive of an upgrade for many people. With Sony's cheapest 4K TV starting at $3,499.99, the cost of the PS4 and media player are like loose change. I thought I'd share this information anyway because it looks like Sony will be leading the way with 4K and the PS4 might be their best chance at getting their 4K movie service into the mainstream.

Sony has not announced if Video Unlimited 4K will be made available on the PS4, but it looks like a strong possibility. Until then, their 4K service will only be accessible on their new media player.

Introducing Video Unlimited 4K, the world's first in-home video service capable of delivering Hollywood feature films and TV shows directly to your living room in 4K Ultra HD. Available exclusively on the Sony® 4K Ultra HD Media Player.

Sources: Sony Store - Media Player | Sony Store - 4K Ultra HD TV

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[Myk JL 1,731]

This is why I don't own an HDTV yet as soon as I was anywhere near ready for 1080P I found out about 8K.... Even if I could ever afford a 4K HDTV someday I know the biggest news might as well be a 16K HDTV.

 

Which is also part of the reason to why I'm excited about VR. No more need for a huge TV for no apparent reason beyond "Oh bro you're not a Real Gamer if you don't have this many Pixels on your TV".

 

F*** That. I've never needed a new TV before to play Video Games & with VR I hopefully never will.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

If I need or want to buy a new tv in the near future, I'll probably get a 1080p, because the price will be good because it'll be older tech. I'd hold off on getting any new tv that has a built in camera tho. I've heard too much about new WIFI tvs getting hacked remotely allowing people to access and record from the tv's camera to anywhere online. Screw that.
 
Even with the Oculus Rift having 1080p now, at the distance it is to the human eye, the resolutions can still get vastly improved. Eventually display technology will max out to what the human eye can see and then the screen could be indistinguishable from reality. At a distance it does sound like 16K will accomplish this, but up close to a screen like how VR works, would need more time to be optimal.
 
http://wolfcrow.com/blog/notes-by-dr-optoglass-the-resolution-of-the-human-eye/
 

So this is how it is. If a healthy adult brings any display screen or printed paper or whatever 4 inches (100 mm) from his or her face, the maximum resolution he/she can see at is 2190 ppi/dpi. It doesn’t get any better than this for 99.99% of us, except maybe during pre-kindergarten years.

But the legally accepted norm of 20/20 vision only asks for 876 ppi/dpi at 4 inches!

Let’s have some fun:

Magazines and Fine Art Prints

If the average reading distance is 1 foot (12 inches = 305 mm), p @0.4 arc minute is 35.5 microns or about 720 ppi/dpi. p @1 arc minute is 89 microns or about 300 dpi/ppi. This is why magazines are printed at 300 dpi – it’s good enough for most people. Fine art printers aim for 720, and that’s the best it need be. Very few people stick their heads closer than 1 foot away from a painting or photograph.

Computer Monitors

The average computer monitor viewing distance is about 2.5 feet (762 mm). p@0.4 is 89 microns or about 300 ppi/dpi. p@1 is 222 microns or about 115 ppi/dpi. Now you can understand why most consumer computer monitors are about 100 ppi, and most professional computer monitors are slightly higher, but not by much.

The new iPad (3) has a resolution of 264 ppi, which isn’t as good as 300 dpi print but is much better than the average computer monitor. The new Eizo 36.4″ professional air traffic control 4K monitor is at 128 ppi.

 

Oculus Rift at 1080p will be displaying at 440 PPI, still far away from the 2190 ppi it'll need to be perfect. But I don't need perfect. From what I've read, the new VR is so damn impressive that I'd love to try it out myself.

 

And from a distance, Ultra HD is pretty damn realistic:

 

 

 

I don't know if that was a 4K or 8K tv, but damn that looks good.

[Myk JL 1,731]

Funny video but "The World's First 84 Inch Ultra HDTV" feels like its stating that's the smallest it can get. The biggest I can imagine me ever wanting a new TV would be 40 inches. And that would only be because I wanted at one time a TV bigger than my Steel Battalion Controller. Anything bigger than that is just overkill.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

It all depends on the size of the room the TV is in. The larger the room, the larger the TV, but for normal sized living rooms and bedrooms, 40 inches or so is probably the largest anyone needs. If someone has one of those giant living rooms that are so large that a couch just floats in the middle of the room, than a larger TV would definitely be better because of the distance from the TV.

[Myk JL 1,731]

I just don't want to see video gaming have a standard where you would need a TV larger than you would want or need in order to function properly.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

If anything I think its going in reverse. I have no interest in playing hand held game systems, but the damn game companies aren't releasing their hand held games on the regular consoles or on PC. Its like we're being forced to buy small screens just to play those games. I remember back in the day, Nintendo made the Super Game Boy. I could pop that thing into my Super NES and play any game boy game.. but now we have to wait for a hand held game to get rereleased on a different system like Kingdom Hearts 1.5

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

Outside of the God of War games on PSP, I haven't had a desire to play a handheld game. I haven't felt like I've missed out on anything. Vita with PS4, and tablets with next gen consoles proves that handheld gaming is at the bottom of the gamers' food chain. Like Super Game Boy, they need to interact with their big brothers to capture interest with the common gamer. Nintendo thrives in the handheld market because of its customer base of children. Their handhelds are affordable and a cheap alternative to consoles.

 

I've played a 3DS, and I think they are cool as hell. The 3D without glasses is pretty trippy. But I have no desire to own one. The last handheld I bought was a Game Boy Advance SP. Its not that I didn't like it... its just I lost interest in the games and it collected dust. Thats why I have no desire to blow money on a 3DS, 2DS, PSP, or Vita.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

My last handheld system was a Gameboy Color. Some of the games I had for it were very fun though. My biggest complaint is that almost all RPGs are on the damn handheld systems. I used to play nothing but RPGs, now I only have action / adventure games and FPS to really choose from for consoles. Heres someone's post from 2012 listing off RPG games for consoles and handhelds:

 

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.351559-Most-good-JRPGs-seem-to-be-on-handhelds-these-days#13917065

 

Handheld exclusive releases have basically ruined an entire genre of games for me because I don't own the damn handheld systems. Imagine if 80% of all FPS games were only available on the Vita or DS. That sounds completely stupid, but its what they are doing with RPGs and it doesn't make any sense to me.

 

I don't see why PS3 doesn't have software emulation setup on their consoles to allow digitally purchased Vita games to play on the PS3. I could get an emulation program setup on my laptop easily enough, so I don't understand why these companies are restricting games to just the hand held device. If they are trying to push people into buying the hand held system just to play these games, well screw that. It only makes me jump back on Steam to check their RPG selection.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Since we talked about the Oculus Rift in this topic.. I was reading this and I'm very impressed with the advancements in the Oculus Rift VR. Its not even available yet and they are already planning on the 4k version. They are making great improvements in really short periods of time.

 

http://www.dvice.com/2013-10-21/oculus-rift-vr-4k-resolution-display-development

 

The only problem with 4k is storage. A single 4K movie will take up 500gb of space. An Oculus Rift version that has two displays at that resolution would probably take up 1tb. Imagine how large everyone's hard drives will have to be for games at this resolution.

[Myk JL 1,731]

I feel as though this has underlined a major problem with graphics. They don't even look real. Yet The Gaming Industry is forcing it in just because Movies & TV do it. Similar reason as why I would want to face palm when Wii U uses a touch screen just because Handhelds do it too.

 

Also something else that is scary how long would a video game have to download via Steam if games were over 1TB or more.

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Well, at least for VR, the more real the image the better the effects and immersion we'll feel.. that and less possible nausea or headaches.

 

1tb games would take a long time to download. Regardless of the download rate, I think the biggest issue will be storage and the speed of the hard drives. We'll all need high speed mass storage solid state drives.

[DeathscytheX 9,732]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I remember playing a classic 90s VR set up with the circular stand.... it was a game that mirrored Sonic & Knuckles giant ring stages in first person mode

 

 

[Sledgstone 8,672]

Lmao. I remember seeing a crappy VR setup when I was a kid. I didn't try it because it looked stupid and cost money. They had large tv screens showing what the people were seeing. It was original star fox style polygon graphics. They'd hold up their hands and it looked like they were Andross from the first game. It looked so stupid. I thought, why would I ever want to explore a world like that when I can just walk outside.

 

Remember the movie Hackers? I still love that movie. They had VR in it too: