4K Video Service Coming To PlayStation 4

4k seems like a next, next console kind of thing. Let consoles catch up to 60fps 1080p with directx11 and sexy MSAA before they do anything crazy haha.

Given that Sony makes 4K projectors and TVs, one would hope their flagship media platform would do 4K video.

The more important part of this announcement is definitely the creation of a 4K video service. Like you said, it really doesn't matter right now, but I'm glad to see Sony tackling the issues early so that everything is nice and cozy by the time this technology sinks into my price range.

Is 4K really necessary? I think 1080p is more than enough and unless you got a real cinema at home there's no point to it.

My opinion is that it is not just a matter of X amount of pixels being enough, you need to also consider the size of the screen and the estimated distance between the screen and the viewer. A 1080p screen on a 21 inch monitor might look great from across a desk, and a 40 some inch TV with a 1080p screen might look great from across the living room, but replace that monitor with a 27 display and maybe 1080p suddenly doesn't look so good up close.

The main thing about 4K is that it's not only twice the resolution of 1080 but has 4 times the pixels overall.

1080p is excellent for screens as big as 55" (maybe even bigger), and the difference between 720p and 1080p in screens under 40" is negligible, if any. So my points goes in that way, I don't think the difference between 1080p and 4K will be perceptible for screens that are smaller than 60", and if you ask me, I'm more than happy with my 46" TV in the living room.

Again, if you'll be able to tell a difference depends upon how closely you sit to the TV, but I also think that 4k resolution will only be useful for very large TVs, and for unusually large computer monitors. Difficult to say, though, without actually witnessing the difference (or lack thereof).

Unless you live in a movie theater yourself, do people really need to have massive screens?

"Oh boy! Now I can see the pores on that guy's face!....ew a blackhead"

yeah, but wouldn't that blackhead look totally sexy in 4K?

I don't see this ever being used until after 2020. Most people have a hard time grasping 1080p still let alone 4K. Plus the movie downloads are over 100GB and in a standard internet connection that could take all day if the service was stable. Maybe this is Sony "future proofing" their consoles, which I don't mind because I do that with my PCs...but still

I bet the porn industry can't wait to get their hands on this tech

This actually reminds me of something I read a few years back about Sony starting R&D on their newest format that would one day replace blu-ray. I read that supposedly it would be a 6 terabyte disc and that (quite obviously) it wouldn't be available for a very long time. This makes me think that one day this format is what could be used when 4K becomes standard

Saying something supports 4K is just a marketing ploy and will be for some time. The current cheapest 4K TVs, projectors, monitors, etc. all run around $25,000. We won't see them become affordable within the lifespan of any next-gen console or anyone's PC sitting in front of them. Most digital media players that can connect via HMDI can play 4K videos though. It's being able to see it that's the problem.

I seriously think 4k oled screens are sexy. They make me want to build a pc just to run video games at that resolution(And yes It would take a extreme expensive pc to push games at that resolution)

Exactly what I ask myself!
And I actually have to lower the sharpness of images in non-animated movies, because otherwise you see this dust particles that were settled on the lens of the camera who filmed them.

This was meant as a reply to wildmario, thank you very much.

I wonder "why?" Yes, the technology is super cool and my inner geek is screaming "I want," but the hardware required to make use of the 4K tech is so expensive that the average person won't be able to afford it, and the infrastructure doesn't exist yet to support it (ie, bandwidth to stream 100gig movies).

As long as Sony puts the potential for 4K in, all it will take is a firmware update later to make use of it. You can use an HDMI input/output to transmit 4K... sending and receiving the signal is no problem. Having it go to a 4K TV at true 4K resolution is the hard part, along with transferring the massive amounts of data.

It'll be a few more years before it starts to go mainstream. I have a feeling we'll start to see it heavily near the end of this console generation, but judging by the current gen, I'd wager we'll be playing PS4 titles until 2025.

Thanks for the diagram.
Since previous resolutions (480, 720, 1080) all referred to the number of vertical lines (the smaller number), I assumed 4K was the same.

They pulled a switcharoo and now refer to the number of horizontal lines.
So 4K sounds like it's about 4x the linear resolution of 1080p, but it's really about 2x.

Why switch mid-game, just to make us upgrade sooner?