LAS VEGAS -- Ultra HD, the format also known as 4K, is definitely a trend here at CES. But the oft-asked question is: How will consumers get the content?
Now Sony has an answer. The company announced Monday it'll debut the world's first 4K distribution service this summer. All the content will be native 4K, from Sony Pictures and other studios. Customers will download (not stream) the content via the Internet.
In addition to the coming service, Sony is pairing its 4K TVs with a media server with preloaded 4K movies. When you buy a Sony 4K set, you'll get a unit that hooks up to one of the set's HDMI ports and contains Sony movies such as The Amazing Spider-Man and Total Recall.
On top of that, Sony will be re-releasing some of its Blu-ray titles as "remastered in 4K." While these won't benefit from more pixels, Sony says they'll have improved color and overall picture quality over that of regular Blu-rays.
While the introduction of real 4K content is welcome, the question still remains how much practical benefit there is to Ultra HD, especially on sets with sane screen sizes and normal viewing distances.
Those displays are already "retina" screens, meaning the human eye already isn't able to discern individual pixels. Still, if you're a fan of wall-sized screens, Sony's announcement is a welcome one.