'PlayStation 4K' and 'Xbox Durango' will be key to Ultra HD adoption

With leaked details of octal-core processor banks paired with 8GB of RAM, the PlayStation 4 "Orbis" is sounding powerful (just for comparison of RAM alone, the 8GB of system memory is roughly 32 times more than the current model). But to see where 4K comes in it's worth taking a trip back seven years.

In 2005, very few people had an HDTV. According to one study, there were "as many" as ten million homes with high-definition screens -- globally. The problem, according to many commentators, was the lack of HD content: nobody wanted to buy an HDTV because there was little HD content; very little HD content was made because there were very few people to sell it to. Classic catch-22.

[Kamikaze135]

I could understand why people wanted an HD TV, but an Ultra HD TV? I'll stick with 1080p.

[darkride66]

Even on a small screen, 4k makes a noticeable difference. Just search for "4K" on Youtube, and then were you adjust the HD settings, select "original". They're really quite stunning, although streaming these videos can be laggy. I understand there's a new compression codec for 4k coming that will reduce the file size so it's closer to what standard HD uses. It looks stunning even on computer monitors in higher resolutions, and even those aren't the 3840 pixels × 2160 pixels of 4k.

Don't forget, back when HDTV came out, no one wanted that either. You often heard: Too pricey, the difference isn't that much better than what I see with DVD, there isn't any content available, etc...etc. In 2008, less than a quarter of TV's in the US were HD. Now that number is over 3/4. When the prices start coming down and more content becomes available, why wouldn't you buy 4K?

http://youtu.be/Cx6eaVeYXOs

[FriedGoat]

It would be good if they could render in 4K and downsample to 1080p, that will still increase the quality as we can do the same on youtube and see a difference.

[irepbtown]

Very expensive though...

I would love to buy it but the prices are ridiculous. They will obviously come down as time goes on however in the near future I'll pass.

I'll also stick with my 1080p.

[nukeitall]

"Don't forget, back when HDTV came out, no one wanted that either."

It's pointless to talk about technology when the price difference is negligible for an upgrade. Furthermore, HD has been around for almost a decade available to consumers.

With HD, it wasn't necessarily the video quality that attracted the masses, but rather the form factor of the TV itself (i.e. significantly smaller and lighter) as well as the quality of the screen i.e. the more pleasant viewing as opposed to the traditional tube TV.

If you really looked at how DVD migration to Blu-Ray happened it is very telling. It was very slow, and only when prices really really dropped as to be as cheap as DVD, traction really gained. Basically, the demand wasn't there to pay a premium. DVD was good enough unless the upgrade was insignificantly more in price.

4k content? That will take even longer for adoption than HDTVs. It will probably be slightly better than 3D adoption until it becomes the standard.

However, there is no real demand for it!

[Sucitta]

well said = )

[Bimkoblerutso]

It does look stunning, but it's way, WAY too early to try and replace the HD standard at this point. HD had been around for a few years prior to the previous generation of consoles, and price was STILL a very large barrier of entry at that point.

Imagine a bunch of companies producing around a standard that is still very much in it's infancy...

[SilentNegotiator]

HDTVs didn't cost $30K or whatever when the 360/Ps3 launched.

[j-blaze]

i will say this again, all the talk about the next gen playstation using 4k resolution, massive RAM, ultra processing power, 2TB HDD...all are just stupid speculations...i mean yeah they can do it IF they want the company to suffer massive losses....
Sony learned their lesson this gen with loads of money lost because of the ps3 and vita also TVs "Sony were losing $100 for each ps3 sold not to mention the annual loss reports lately http://www.ign.com/articles... i don't think they can afford to make an expensive console with their current economic/financial state, they'll make a decent console more capable than the Wii U depending mostly on their first party games

[JohnnyAkiba]

2006: Why people want a 1080p tv right?
xD

[ATi_Elite]

PlayStation 4K' and 'Xbox Durango' will be key to Ultra HD adoption
LMAO I'm already gaming in Ultra HD 1600p

Besides 4K TV's are still $20,000 and with NO 4K broadcast available I really do not see a big influx of people rushing out to buy 4K TV's when the prices drop especially seeing how their 1080p TV's are just fine.

ALSO remember how this Gen was suppose to USHER in 1080p Gaming......How did that work out?

I'll tell you how that worked out. NOT one AAA game is in 1080p and most AAA games struggle with 720p.

Consoles have Wattage caps and therefore they do not have the power needed to pump out superior graphics at high end resolutions. They do make good use of the limited specs that they do have.

Also 4K is more Hype than substance as 4K only helps TV's that are 60" or bigger. So don't get caught up in the 4K Hype unless you got deep pockets and 80" TV in your living room.

The proposed GPU's in the next Gen consoles are 4K capable but will sacrifice frame rates in order to do so.

[MaxXAttaxX]

I don't see happening anytime soon either. But this is about mainstream adaptation, so no one cares if your PC can run games in 1600p, which isn't even Ultra HD(2160p or 4320p).

[JamieL]

To be honest I think it's too soon for them to push 4K. They are in bad shape right now, and I think they should be careful what tech they put in the PS4. They can’t take such a monster loss on the PS4 this time. They’re not coming off the all time best selling console in history this time. I could live without 4K right now, and I think it could hold off for the PS5. I want Sony back in the black, and I don’t see 4K supported enough yet to justify it. They try so hard in the gaming side I would hate to see their troubles worsen.

[Gamer1982]

Games wont be enough to sell 4k. People need TV/Movie content and thats simply not coming. Not any time soon anyway. Plus not to mention older films which in fairness some have gone upto 1080p quite well but 4k will be a stretch too far. People will be getting HD and Ultra HD movies as everything is still being recorded in HD right now so anything post 2013 would probably be available in 4k (and probably not all) but anything before that you would get an upscaled version or have to live with 1080p. So most will say whats the point?

Also unless you go over 50" most people won't notice the differnce in TV/movies. It will be a niche product i'm telling you now.

[DivineAssault]

Good article.. But there will be way too many people that are content with 1080p versus people being content with boob tubes.. Ultra HD is coming & will be around but idk if it will be supported in gaming this upcoming generation.. To stream games or movies in resolutions that high would require some HEAVY duty high speed internet & will require people to buy $10k+ tvs.. Who knows what the future holds but i dont see Ultra HD coming anytime soon unless the economy rises BIG TIME.. Its way too expensive for people to buy new tvs, systems, fiber optics, etc in the nx 5 yrs

[kneon]

4K TV's should be about $5000 by the end of this year for the smaller ones, so that means mainstream adoption should begin about year later.

H265 was just approved the other day so we're almost set for 4K content to begin being made available. We just need the new HDMI and bluray specs to be updated, and both of those are due this year from what I hear.

But I don't know about 4K for streaming. If you've chosen streaming as your preferred video medium then you have chosen convenience over quality. It that's the case then you probably wouldn't care about 4K.

[darkride66]

In terms of streaming, it was revealed that they are able to accomplish 4k using bandwidth similar to what they're using with HDTV broadcasts currently. The bandwidth required for such high res video was a concern for me as well when looking at this tech, but they're apparently already on top of that.

http://gizmodo.com/5942233/...

I mentioned before in another post, it makes sense for the next gen consoles to be looking at this tech. If the consoles are designed for another 10 year cycle, that's going to take it into the 2020's. If they want to make sure their consoles aren't left behind by TV tech, they need to be making gambles on what TV's will look like in another 5 years, and that seems to be trending towards continued 3d (3d tv sales doubled in 2012 and don't appear to be slowing, if though focus has shifted off the feature) and 4k resolutions.

But it's no different from HDTV adoption. We're not going to see 4k take off until prices come down, which will happen over time.

[NastyLeftHook0]

ps4 reveal in 2 days

[JoGam]

Hopefully, but doubt it

[GynGa]

Dude, that was just a teaser for Ascention

[steve30x]

The consoles wont make people rush out and buy a stupidly high price 4K TV. Until the prices get to a reasonable price then people wont buy into it.

[ThyMagicSword]

Whoever buys the new 4K Tv without thinking twice, has too much money or suffers from immense stupidity. If the game line-up is not good enough, I wont go out and spend tons of money for the videogame-industry.

[Karpetburnz]

True, I heard they will cost up to $30,000 USD. damn

They wont be maintream for at least another 7-10 years, then we will see price drops.

[kneon]

The manufacturers have already said to expect prices of the smaller (55-60 inch) 4K TVs to be comparable to current high end TV's by the end of this year. It only costs them about $700-$900 more to make a 4K 60 inch TV vs a 1080p 60 inch TV. So that premium pricing isn't going to last long.

Those current $25,000 4K TVs would never have much market appeal at any price since they are a massive 84 inches. So why not charge a premium since they will never sell in big numbers anyway.

[UnholyLight]

It's just like with every new technology in the TV sector. LED was expensive when they introduced it, more so than Plasma and LCD at the time. It's how you get to subsidize and improve on your technology is by introducing the expensive stuff first. There WILL be early adopters of 4K TV's and that will push the market into the range of greatly reduced prices and trickle down technology to the smaller less expensive televisions. They've already said prices will drop substantially after release.

This all makes sense in my mind because for example, the news channels generally still use the old format "Beta" method or whatever, and they have been waiting for a long time to use a new standard, I would see 4K being this standard. I believe the consoles will be much like what Microsoft did wih the Xbox 360 this gen; Initially there was support up to 720p and 1080i, and then a little while later the console was updated to output all the way up to 1080p as necessary. Same thing will happen this gen. These consoles will HAVE to be future proof enough that they will have a lot of support for 4k as 4k will become what 1080p is today IMO.

[dcbronco]

Premium pricing is sometimes based on ripping early adopters. It won't take long for prices to drop. The real problem might be getting mainstream Americans to bite. Many don't really notice the difference between HD and upscaled. 4k has to really look like a huge leap to get them to move up.

Also there are the TV stations. The government made them switch here. I don't see them allowing themselves to be pushed into new equipment so soon. Plus a lot of TV personalities hate HD, They would really fight 4K.

[ThyMagicSword]

I am not worried about the costs of the new Xbox or Ps, I am more worried about the costs for a new TV to fully enjoy the new generation of homeconsoles ...

[NYC_Gamer]

It's also about rather tv stations will support 4K

[Oschino1907]

Well Sony is already pushing/promoting all of it's divisions to use 4k. They already dominate the market with their 4k projectors.

[CatXFlash]

No 4K! Do you even know how much 4k Tvs cost? more than a car. NO 4K Next Gen only true 1080p 3D at 60fps for VR gaming.

[cl1983]

3d has been a gimmick for over fifty years.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

[HiddenMission]

@cl1983
You say gimmick I say made playing Batman Arkham City, Crysis 3, Resistance 3, Killzone 3, God of War Chains of Olympus/Ghost of Sparta way better than what they would have been.

Just because you can't afford something doesn't mean you have to knock it.

I work for a living and get paid pretty good and I know everyone who comes over to my house and sits down in front of my 60 OLED Samsung 3D Tv and starts playing Batman or Crysis ends up being super jelly...which is what your doing right?

:P

[cl1983]

@HiddenMansion
The fact that you assume that I can't afford something, is mind boggling. Secondly people who are susceptible to motion sickness, and equilibration issues have problems watching 3d programs.

[hiredhelp]

Ok No reason why the console cant be 4k compatable but the main thing here is the price and lets not forget the hundreds you may of paid for out HDTV Like i did will then need if you choose to be replaced.
But at what cost for me it wont be for years when 4K Becomes cheaper to make becomes the norm where all brands start to make 4k The norm, then the prices will greatly reduce "Then" I will switch my £1300 tv.

[DeadlyFire]

If they put it out and noone buys it prices drop almost instantly. First 4K TVs put out will take a hit with production costs. Less than 2 years we will see reasonable prices for 4K monitors and TVs. Monitors likely first. 2015/2016 should see a steady flow of 4K sales.

[Kingofwiiu]

How is 8GB 32 times 512MB ? Aint it 16 times ?

[Saryk]

Its because of the 32 bit vs the 64 bit.

16 x 2

[DeadlyFire]

32 times = 16.3 GB

So yeah its 16 times the current PS3 RAM bank total. Still though that is rumor.

[TruthbeTold]

So now we are taking these rumors as fact??

[cl1983]

What made people jump to hd tv wasn't products, it was government bodies demanding that tv stations go from analog broadcast signals to digital signals. People had to buy new tv's and hd was in the bundle.

[rustyspoon80]

I'll take 2 of these:-
http://www.costco.co.uk/vie...

[tubers]

4k huh bet console 3d games are gonna run further down native res if you buy 4k tvs.

I'll get it when it's priced twice to what 1080p screens do today.

[Azurite]

I'd prefer 1080p in 120 FPS but expect 60.
What's needed next generation is higher resolution textures, polygon count, anti aliasing and FPS than our current generation not 4K(waste of resources).

Don't take me wrong though, I'd love to see 4K and eventually 8K, but it's still too early.

[UnholyLight]

Honestly I find it really hard to see differences in FPS most of the time. Drops in frame rates are only noticeable to "non tech savvy" type people when framerates go from like 30FPS to 20FPS. I don't notice a difference between 60FPS and 30FPS. Just saying. Ill take a 4k tv that runs at 30FPS rather than 1080p in 60fps.

Only game I know that runs at 60fps is CoD but it isn't a good looking game so it doesn't matter lol

[Conzul]

Shooters see the most difference, and anything with multiplayer.

Try gaming in 60fps multiplayer and then going back. It'd be like shooting yourself in the foot. Or falling into a bowl of porridge.

[ExCest]

I still don't see 4k coming in with the new consoles. I mean, we all understand that 4k will not be a standard for another decade, or some year near that. We also *should* understand that the new consoles will probably NOT have enough power to render a game in 4k while maintaining a 30 fps and above standard.

The consoles are definitely the next step to the adoption, but will most likely not see it in their lifetimes.

[Conzul]

I think Sony would disagree with you:

http://www.gtplanet.net/gra...

[akaakaaka]

playstation ultra 4!!! (it will be a nice new name)
16gb ram.
new high end top of the line graphic card "quantum leap".
1tb HD.

and their first party plus good 3th party studias = best console ever!!!

[ExCest]

But will the PS4 be 4x the power of a PS3/equivalent to a SLI of sorts of 4 PS3s?

[Conzul]

The point is that in only took 4 PS3's to pull of an unoptimized 4k demonstration of an already beautiful-looking game.

IMO, the PS4 need only be 2-3x as powerful as the PS3 (with optimization) to enable quite a slew of 4K games. Sure, AAA games probably won't see much of it, but then again, GT games are what I'd consider AAA.

[psp2roundup]

4K is just a way for TV makers to sell 80" and bigger sets, in the same way HD and LCD moved the bar from 32" to 40"+.

It has nothing to do with how the human eye perceives light and movement, so for gamers is a big fat waste of space. Even movie fans only get the extra space for that "cinema feel".

Sure, those still images and short clips on-screen at trade shows look great, but only because they are still, or moving veeerry slooowly. As soon as there's action, about 40% of the content is ignored by the viewer. Unless you want to watch Avatar frame by frame, or re-run all your CoD missions in super slo-mo, what's the point?

[EffectO]

TV industry is crazy if they think people will easily replace their brand new 1080p sets,sets they bought because they fit nicely on bedroom walls.

[UnholyLight]

Industry doesn't care if you are a late adopter. If you are late to the 1080p HD game that has been around for the last 8 years that's too bad for you!

4k is on it's way, whether you like it or not! Be a late adopter again for 4k and it won't matter...

[EffectO]

They will care when nobody buys their latest shit.

[VonBraunschweigg]

Bring on 4K!

Now hiring: locksmith, getawaydriver, weaponsspecialist and anyone with a map of Fort Knox.

[NoSuchUserName]

I think there will be 4k support in the ps4, but mainly for video. Most games today still run in 720, and few run 60fps. So just having all games run 1080p@60fps would be a step for next gen. With time, there will be the occasional games supporting 4k, but it is highly unlikely that this will be the standard res for next gen.

[lovegames718]

I game on an optoma hd20 1080p projector with a 120 inch screen so the more resolution the better for me. My 720p games still look good on a big screen but you notice a huge difference when im on the ps3 menu screen and i have 1080p res wall papers or i play 1080p supported movies.

[lovegames718]

By the way the Ps4 i believe will sell for like 400 to 450 and still pack a punch given how cheap blu ray drives are and Sony sells consoles at a loss. So youll be getting a system worth probably like 500 to 550 for 400 to 450.

[dennett316]

OK, this gen they promised HD resolution....yet barely any games ran 720p natively on consoles, never mind 1080p. What makes anyone think that they'll come even remotely close to 4K resolution for even a fraction of titles? There's simply no chance, not without the cost being extremely prohibitive. The generation after next, maybe.

Lets not get carried away on idiotic rumours that have no realistic chance of being close to possible. 1080p at 60 frames a second should be what's expected of next gen. Perhaps support for Ultra wide TV's with a 16:10 ratio, but not 4K. It just wouldn't be workable with complex games.

[lovegames718]

You really think these ppl think that games will be rendered in 4k? I think ppl just want it to be 4k capable like the ps3 was 1080p capable so they can eventually watch movies and netflix in 4k eventually a few years down the line.

Ppl on here kill me you dont have to be a rocket scientist to know that even if the ps3 is 4k "supported" games wont be 4k and we are lucky if half the games are 1080p.

[ALLWRONG]

4k hype train CHOO! CHOO! ALL ABOARD! Next stop 1080p!

[Kidmyst]

So few games are in full true 1080P now anyways, it'll be nice to just get some 60FPS 1080P games. Then 5 years from now the Ultra HD TV's should be more reasonable. But beyond gaming and Movies, I don't see TV or Cable going to this since they output mostly in 1080I if that, some 720P. So no NFL/MLB/NHL 4K networks anytime soon.

[NateCole]

As long as it is optional it is fine. It's never a bad thing to have more choice.

[mamotte]

No, Our wallets will be the key, and let me say: They're not ready. And wont be for a long, long time. Also, where will that humongous tv fit in my room?

[TheObserver]

I am all for pushing technology forward. Why is everyone reluctant? 1080P at 60 FPS is a promise fulfilled by PCs already. If they, the tech industry, push harder towards 4k, maybe they will meet or exceed 1080P at 60 fps for consoles and touches 4k. It is better than meeting the 1080P at 60 fps then stagnate there for 10 years while the rest of the world move on.

tl;dr 4K next gen for the purpose of future proofing. Perfect future proofing? Unlikely, but better than no future proofing at all.

[StreetsofRage]

LOL! The misinformation about the whole 4k resolution on this site is ridiculous. Just proves that many can be suckered by the media. Bunch of sheep.