Deluxe’s Digital Distribution unit said it has secured a deal to handle the processing and delivery components of Samsung’s Ultra HD Video Pack, a bundle of movies and other content that are offered in the eye-popping format in a media player that can be paired up with Samsung-made 2014 model 4K TV sets.
Samsung launched the Ultra HD Video pack earlier this month.
Similar to Sony’s approach with a 4K-optimized media player for its Ultra HD TV line and Video Unlimited 4K library, Samsung is also looking to prime the content pump with the Ultra HD Video Pack and One Connect (pictured above), a separate media player/sidecar device that comes pre-packed with movies and documentaries in 4K format, and the ability to download additional titles from a constantly-evolving library of UHD fare. Samsung is also supporting Netflix’s budding 4K streaming library and will feature a new 4K video app from Comcast, which also plans to introduce boxes for its X1 platform that can decode native 4K content.
The Samsung One Connect device is capable of holding “several hundred movies,” with the average 4K file size of about 30 Gigabytes, according to Deluxe, which is encoding Ultra HD video in the H.265/High Efficiency Video Encoding (HEVC) format, which is about 50% more bandwidth efficient than H.264/MPEG-4.
Deluxe is also in talks with multichannel video programming distributors on how to process and deliver 4K content, Kevin Corbett, president of Deluxe Digital Distribution, said. The company is also collaborating with studios to convert, restore and master Ultra HD-optimized content.
Deluxe, he said, looking to “bridge the gap” on 4K by preparing source material into formats that can be handled by consumer devices while still meeting the quality standard required by studios, Corbett added.
