All year, we’ve been hearing about 4K Blu-ray. We still don’t have an actual player available for purchase just yet, but movie titles are being readied anyway.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) just announced the lineup of movies that the studio plans to launch with—and it’s slightly underwhelming. SPHE’s first 4K Blu-ray titles will be The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Salt, Hancock, Chappie, Pineapple Express, and The Smurfs 2.
Those bright, blue Smurfs may look awesome with four times the resolution of full HD and high dynamic range (HDR), but do you really want to bring them home? Even the highest rated movie on that list (Pineapple Express) isn’t exactly the type of film I’d reach for during demo time.
Sony Pictures currently has a pretty decent library of 4K movies, each of which were restored from original film elements. That offering includes Fury, Captain Phillips, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Men In Black, Ghostbusters, The Fifth Element, Bad Boys, The Da Vinci Code, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Leon: The Professional, Lawrence Of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Guns of Navarone, Taxi Driver, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and many others. There’s no word on if or when any of these titles will come to 4K Blu-ray.
We do know there will be other movies, though. Just last month, 20th Century Fox announced its own 4K Blu-ray launch list, which includes Exodus: Gods and Kings, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Fantastic Four, X-Men: Days of Future Past, Life of Pi, The Maze Runner, and Wild. While all of these titles are currently available on Blu-ray, at least this lineup seems slightly more promising.
“By some estimates, consumers will own over 100 million Ultra HD television sets by 2019. Sony Pictures’ 4K Ultra HD Discs will deliver consumers the ultimate home theater experience, with stunning picture and sound quality,” said Man Jit Singh, SPHE president. “Ten years ago this month, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment authored the world’s first feature film on Blu-ray Disc, and we continue to bring consumers the most innovative, immersive home entertainment experiences available.”
All of the above 4K Blu-ray titles from Sony and Fox are expected to arrive sometime in early 2016. So, are you planning on buying?
Looking for another way to get your 4K fix? We’ve got five of them in our article, “5 Ways to Watch 4K Resolution TV Content.”
Jack says
where are the 4k players?
Rachel Cericola says
YES. I have been asking that too. We should be seeing some by this spring…