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Will 4K set top boxes be available soon


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Old 16-10-2016, 15:20
mal2pool
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I only have a 1080p television but wondered if 4 k set top boxes would be available when bbc/itv/c4/c5 start broadcasting in 4K.
Will i tell the difference on my telly or will i need to buy a 4k tv anyway.
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Old 16-10-2016, 16:06
chrisjr
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Set aside a quid a week. By the time you've saved up enough to buy a 4k TV there might just be one 4k channel on Freeview to watch
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Old 16-10-2016, 17:38
Nigel Goodwin
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I only have a 1080p television but wondered if 4 k set top boxes would be available when bbc/itv/c4/c5 start broadcasting in 4K.
Why would you imagine they ever will?, there seems no point whatsoever in doing so
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Old 16-10-2016, 18:06
Stig
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I only have a 1080p television but wondered if 4 k set top boxes would be available when bbc/itv/c4/c5 start broadcasting in 4K.
Will i tell the difference on my telly or will i need to buy a 4k tv anyway.
A helpful reply: no, not yet. Any 4K standard for transmission is still in its early stages. It will probably be Sky that gets there first, although the BBC is doing test transmissions.

Most of the focus of 4K is streaming, for example the Amazon Kindle Fire box.
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Old 16-10-2016, 19:09
Nigel Goodwin
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It will probably be Sky that gets there first.
Haven't they already got a 4K channel?.
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Old 16-10-2016, 19:25
Stig
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Haven't they already got a 4K channel?.
A quick Google shows they started in late August.
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Old 16-10-2016, 20:06
mal2pool
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well i remember i had an hd ready telly and had to buy a set top box to view hd channels.So i wondered if they would do the same with 4k. I suppose i really need a 4k telly
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Old 16-10-2016, 20:49
Nigel Goodwin
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well i remember i had an hd ready telly and had to buy a set top box to view hd channels.So i wondered if they would do the same with 4k. I suppose i really need a 4k telly
Only if you want to subscribe to Sky, pay for SkyQ, and pay a high monthly subscription for just a single 4K channel.

I would be much more inclined to wait, and see if 4K ever goes anywhere - what do you expect to get from it anyway?, are you prepared to watch TV from VERY much closer to get any advantage from the increased resolution?.
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Old 16-10-2016, 21:18
tvmad-alan
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Well at this time BT TV has a 4K/UHD youview box that use Freeview & Internet channels and at this time BT has one channel that is mainly Sports.
The box has 1TB hard drive to record and has Apps like BBC Iplayer, ITV Hub etc.

Sky Q is sky 4K/UHD box that also use Internet services.

Virgin has put out press for it's new 4K/UHD box which is due at anytime with customers & non customers to per-order a e-mail from Virgin when the box can be got.

As for 4K channels, we only have one Internet and few Iplayers companies like Netflix .
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Old 17-10-2016, 09:33
GDK
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It's not so much the increased resolution that makes the difference - it's the improved colour gamut with HDR.

For most people sitting at the normal viewing distance for a given size of screen, there won't be much visible improvement in PQ due to the increased resolution alone. Though of course it does mean you could go to a much larger screen (twice the size actually), stay at the same viewing distance, and still not see the pixels.

When I watch UHD Blu rays now the noticeable improvement is in the presentation of colour. Colours look much more realistic. This is due to the ability HDR gives to portray a wider range of colours (closer to the full range the eye can perceive) than HD. HD still uses the same colour space that was defined in the 1960s in the early days of colour TV to accomodate the limitations of the technology of the time.

I think we're still several years away from the terrestrial channels starting to be available in 4K. Does anyone remember HD in the early days, with the BBC HD channel and only certain sports events being covered in HD? Now, 10 years on, there's pretty much a full service (regional programming excepted) from the big 5 terrestrial channels and it's almost impossible to buy a non-HD TV. I have no doubt that 4K HDR will go the same way.

As early as 2013 some of the Wimbledon coverage was shot in 4K. The same went for the 2016 Rio Olympics. Neither were available to the public though. Internal testing only.

In the meantime there's plenty of content out there in 4K (with HDR) on Blu ray, Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube, Sky, BT and others.
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Old 17-10-2016, 10:10
GDK
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Here's a link to the latest on BBC plans for 4K/HDR broadcasting. They might begin as early as next year.

Link
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Old 17-10-2016, 14:49
Nigel Goodwin
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Here's a link to the latest on BBC plans for 4K/HDR broadcasting. They might begin as early as next year.
Except it gives no details whatsoever, including when it might start, and how it might get to the viewers
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Old 18-10-2016, 09:59
GDK
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Except it gives no details whatsoever, including when it might start, and how it might get to the viewers
What's this then, sliced chicken?

"It is understood that the dedicated channel will go on air about a year from now and starting with long-form coverage of the 2017 Wimbledon Tennis Championships."

Sure, the item is not an official announcement of a date and it doesn't give a scope for the transmissions it mentions but the article is an indication of where the BBC is regarding its plans for 4KUHD/HDR transmissions.

This, taken alongside the providers that already have 4KUHD/HDR content, means the position overall is far more favourable than your overly pessimistic assessment.
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Old 18-10-2016, 10:13
Marti S
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What's this then, sliced chicken?

"It is understood that the dedicated channel will go on air about a year from now and starting with long-form coverage of the 2017 Wimbledon Tennis Championships."

Sure, the item is not an official announcement of a date and it doesn't give a scope for the transmissions it mentions but the article is an indication of where the BBC is regarding its plans for 4KUHD/HDR transmissions.

This, taken alongside the providers that already have 4KUHD/HDR content, means the position overall is far more favourable than your overly pessimistic assessment.
Could be satellite only, DSO 2 starts next year and that will mean there will be less space for channels after than there is now, so I really cant see where the space for UHD would come from.
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Old 18-10-2016, 10:27
gds1972
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Could be satellite only, DSO 2 starts next year and that will mean there will be less space for channels after than there is now, so I really cant see where the space for UHD would come from.
I wonder if it would be streamed through a broadband connection and not be supplied via terrestrial transmissions as some stations now seem to be doing.
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Old 18-10-2016, 11:15
skinj
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The rep that comes in from Freeview has said there are no immediate plans for 4K on the platform at the moment.
The transmission space is cramped enough with variety of stations seeming to be preferred over quality. I can't see any reason why the BBC wouldn't use ip streaming for 4K though.
If you have a 4K smart TV they should be able to supply the content through that route for the limited content they would have to broadcast.
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Old 18-10-2016, 13:03
GDK
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I agree it's hard to see how 4K could be done via the terrestrial broadcast network, due to its bandwidth needs and the scarcity of spectrum, but, the 5 major UK terrestrial channels are also available by other means such as satellite and streaming services where the bandwidth issue isn't quite such a problem.

In other words, a theoretical BBC UHD, for example, might not be available via ground based transmitters, at least at the beginning, but in principle it could be made available on other platforms. The restriction there is the requirement for the BBC's services to be universally available.

"Every household in the country should have access to each BBC service on at least one platform free at the point at use"
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Old 18-10-2016, 13:25
Nigel Goodwin
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What's this then, sliced chicken?
It's simply a vague rumour

It contains nothing except complete guesswork.
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Old 18-10-2016, 14:04
skinj
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"Every household in the country should have access to each BBC service on at least one platform free at the point at use"
Theoretically Broadband/Satellite can meet that criteria in the short term. Maybe if/when we can migrate the existing DVD-T signals to DVB-T2 that might free up enough space to allow one or two 4K transmissions but not much more. This all assumes that OFCOM will not sell of more of the airwaves to mobile phone companies.
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Old 18-10-2016, 20:14
GDK
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It's simply a vague rumour

It contains nothing except complete guesswork.
Well, you can pour cold water on every report of progress and be negative if you like. That's your prerogative. But I'd be surprised if there were no test broadcasts in UHD/HDR from next year's Wimbledon. That's mainly because they've been testing 4K at Wimbledon since 2013 (not actual broadcasts, but presumably cameras, studio equipment and production workflows). The 2017 tests are unlikely to be terrestrial transmissions, and I don't see how there could be any receiving equipment for the public to buy by then, but there'll be something by satellite or streaming.
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Old 19-10-2016, 10:14
anthony david
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If you read this thoroughly you will see that there is no chance of regular 4K on Freeview before 2022 unless existing SD services on DVBT are switched off early which seems unlikely. There could be something experimental on satellite, but probably not from the BBC as it would not be platform neutral.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/asse...-Statement.pdf
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Old 19-10-2016, 10:31
skinj
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If you read this thoroughly you will see that there is no chance of regular 4K on Freeview before 2022 unless existing SD services on DVBT are switched off early which seems unlikely. There could be something experimental on satellite, but probably not from the BBC as it would not be platform neutral.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/asse...-Statement.pdf
Didn't BBC launch their HD station on Sky/Freesat a fair while before Freeview?
It's one thing to have to be platform neutral and another to have to wait for one platform to catch up with others capabilities.
If 4K was available/possible on Freeview then they have to do it. If it's not possible they can still use Sat instead without that being preferential treatment as such.
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Old 19-10-2016, 10:39
Stig
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Didn't BBC launch their HD station on Sky/Freesat a fair while before Freeview?
It's one thing to have to be platform neutral and another to have to wait for one platform to catch up with others capabilities.
If 4K was available/possible on Freeview then they have to do it. If it's not possible they can still use Sat instead without that being preferential treatment as such.
I installed a dish so I could get BBC HD. It's fairly obvious that it will be via satellite first as there is so much more bandwidth available.
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Old 19-10-2016, 11:06
anthony david
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Didn't BBC launch their HD station on Sky/Freesat a fair while before Freeview?
It's one thing to have to be platform neutral and another to have to wait for one platform to catch up with others capabilities.
If 4K was available/possible on Freeview then they have to do it. If it's not possible they can still use Sat instead without that being preferential treatment as such.
Just because you can buy a cheap 4K TV doesn't mean that the BBC have to spend countless millions on providing a service for it. You need a very large TV to see any difference or to sit very close to it neither of which the public want to do according to an excellent BBC survey posted on these forums by Technologist.
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Old 19-10-2016, 11:54
Night Crawler
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Just because you can buy a cheap 4K TV doesn't mean that the BBC have to spend countless millions on providing a service for it. You need a very large TV to see any difference or to sit very close to it neither of which the public want to do according to an excellent BBC survey posted on these forums by Technologist.
Same could be said for HD. But what has this got to do with the BBC launching a HD channel on Satellite years before it was available on Freeview, which clearly shows it is possible to launch a dedicated channel that doesn't have to be platform neutral. Nothing stopping the BBC doing the same for 4K.
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