4K BD...

[Yuri]

Clever marketing: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment announces it will market Blu-ray Discs as "Mastered in 4K" to coincide with the launch of Ultra-HD TV sets.

https://blog.sony.com/press/sony-pictures-home-entertainment-announces-mastered-in-4k-blu-ray-titles-timed-with-sony-4k-tvs/

Still they'll be "standard high-definition" (sorry for the awkward choice of words), just like DSD-CDs (RBCDs mastered in DSD) are still Red Book PCM resolution. The fact they're mastered in 4K in no way helps the BD player or the TV do the upscaling. Still, a smart tactic.

[PS3SACD]

I wrote last month about the idea of an optical disc standard for 4K video, possibly with DSD audio as an option.

http://www.ps3sacd.com/news.html#_20121216

Sony now discusses that idea (probably at the suggestion of a journalist) and the response of Kaz Hirai is that Sony wants a standard for 4K video distribution, that a disc format is possible but not the first priority.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/8/3852094/sony-ceo-kaz-hirai-wants-4k-standard-disc-format-unlikely-but-not-out

People involved with standardization I talked with did not seem aware of any efforts to define something like 4K on BD but I still expect we'll see something like:

• a physical format like a read-only version of BD-XL, with a higher capacity than the first-generation single and dual-layer BD-ROM discs
  
• the same file system as BD
  
• the same logical structure for A/V as BD-Video but with new codecs allowed, notably HEVC for video and maybe DSD as an optional audio format
  
• the same interactive and online functionality as BD-Live.

Not sure if Sony would do it in a proprietary way but probably they'd standardize it through the Blu-ray Disc Assocation where they've surely got a dominant position.

I've still got to do the math but I suspect the format's capacity would be enough not just for music but also for feature films.

[Brandon B]

I am not sure physical disk sales have enough legs left in them to justify another format. Sony surely knows this so if they do decide to develop one, it would have to be for launch in the next couple of years. And would have to be an extension of the Blu-ray format rather than a stand-alone format.

[PS3SACD]

Yes, I was thinking of a sort of 'Super Blu-ray Disc' or 'Ultra-HD BD'. (HD-BD is a poor choice on various levels and the term 'BD Plus' is already reserved for something else : )
However, the title of this thread may be how it's going to be called in practice.