Samsung has announced a content deal with Amazon that will enable its 2014 smart TVs to deliver Amazon’s debut Ultra High Definition (UHD)/4K streams from October.
As revealed in a statement by Samsung ahead of the IFA technology show in Berlin next week, these first Amazon UHD streams will be available via a new app for Samsung’s 2014 Smart TV platform. This app is scheduled to roll out on a global basis in October, so hopefully we won’t be faced with that all-too-common UHD/4K situation where some services are only available in certain territories.
There are no precise details yet as to whether the Amazon UHD platform will come accompanied by some kind of premium price, or what exactly the first Amazon UHD Video On Demand (VOD) content will consist of. However, early indications are that as well as TV shows (Amazon declared earlier this year that all of its 2014 home-grown shows would be shot in UHD), the new Amazon UHD service will offer some movies. This would give it a definite edge over arch streaming rival Netflix NFLX +0.49%, which at the time of writing still only offers two TV series in UHD, Breaking Bad and House Of Cards, despite launching its UHD service back in April.
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The Amazon deal wasn’t the only 4K content agreement Samsung revealed in its pre-IFA announcement either. The brand also declared that it will finally be bringing its UHD Video Pack to Europe following the IFA show. Developed in conjunction with Fox Home Entertainment, the Video Pack will carry an impressive 40 UHD/4K movies – including genuine Hollywood big hitters like Star Trek: Into Darkness – preloaded onto a 500GB media player. Intriguingly the UHD Video Pack currently available in the US only carries eight titles at the moment; presumably Samsung will be looking to update this sooner rather than later.
Samsung further declared that its TVs will soon deliver to European users 4K feeds from Spanish content provider Wuaki.tv, Italian outfit CHILI, and German VOD provider Maxdome. Doubtless these European arrangements will be joined by similar local deals in other territories in the coming months.
Amazon's UHD streaming will be coming to 2014 Samsung UHD TVs like this soon.
Amazon’s UHD streaming will be coming to 2014 Samsung UHD TVs like this soon.
Questions remain over how fully all these new UHD/4K content services will deliver on the picture potential of the UHD/4K format, as discussed in my The Trouble With 4K article a few weeks ago. And it’s frustrating that initially, at least, the Amazon UHD service appears to be exclusive to Samsung TVs. But it’s certainly promising to find UHD/4K content deals suddenly starting to flow thick and fast.
As revealed in a statement by Samsung ahead of the IFA technology show in Berlin next week, these first Amazon UHD streams will be available via a new app for Samsung’s 2014 Smart TV platform. This app is scheduled to roll out on a global basis in October, so hopefully we won’t be faced with that all-too-common UHD/4K situation where some services are only available in certain territories.
There are no precise details yet as to whether the Amazon UHD platform will come accompanied by some kind of premium price, or what exactly the first Amazon UHD Video On Demand (VOD) content will consist of. However, early indications are that as well as TV shows (Amazon declared earlier this year that all of its 2014 home-grown shows would be shot in UHD), the new Amazon UHD service will offer some movies. This would give it a definite edge over arch streaming rival Netflix NFLX +0.49%, which at the time of writing still only offers two TV series in UHD, Breaking Bad and House Of Cards, despite launching its UHD service back in April.
amazonprimelogo
The Amazon deal wasn’t the only 4K content agreement Samsung revealed in its pre-IFA announcement either. The brand also declared that it will finally be bringing its UHD Video Pack to Europe following the IFA show. Developed in conjunction with Fox Home Entertainment, the Video Pack will carry an impressive 40 UHD/4K movies – including genuine Hollywood big hitters like Star Trek: Into Darkness – preloaded onto a 500GB media player. Intriguingly the UHD Video Pack currently available in the US only carries eight titles at the moment; presumably Samsung will be looking to update this sooner rather than later.
Samsung further declared that its TVs will soon deliver to European users 4K feeds from Spanish content provider Wuaki.tv, Italian outfit CHILI, and German VOD provider Maxdome. Doubtless these European arrangements will be joined by similar local deals in other territories in the coming months.
Amazon's UHD streaming will be coming to 2014 Samsung UHD TVs like this soon.
Amazon’s UHD streaming will be coming to 2014 Samsung UHD TVs like this soon.
Questions remain over how fully all these new UHD/4K content services will deliver on the picture potential of the UHD/4K format, as discussed in my The Trouble With 4K article a few weeks ago. And it’s frustrating that initially, at least, the Amazon UHD service appears to be exclusive to Samsung TVs. But it’s certainly promising to find UHD/4K content deals suddenly starting to flow thick and fast.
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