“This strategy would have several consequences. First, a transition towards better codec, dropping the efficient but CPU-consuming encoding codec H.264 for adopting Wavelet transform-type of codec which will allow even better compression rate while offering better efficiency,” HardMac reports.
“The ultimate goal for Apple would be to promote this new format to support 4 K video (up to 4096×2160,” HardMac reports. “Of course, main customers do not have necessarily a 1080 HD TV at home, so a 4K-compatible device, even less. However, Apple would be planning to enter the market from the high-end, as it did for the iPhone, and in the coming weeks/months we should see Apple products with display offering an increasing definition.”
HardMac reports, “Apple has already been in contact with companies manufacturing camera and camcorder, as well as Google, the latter having announced yesterday that YouTube would now support 4K video.”
Read more in the full article here.
I demand no less than a complete product recall on aTVs. Apple sold me the aTV only 37 months ago knowing full well that it could not handle this new format, which it planned to release in the future. This self-made design flaw debacle is unacceptable and is distorting the public’s understanding of the aTV.
Double rainbow at 4K, all the way!
@MarkL – You’re holding it wrong; AppleTV’s need to face Cupertino to receive codec updates.
It makes sense for Apple to be working on a 4K specific format…not so much for home use in the near future, but rather for theater release. Keep in mind that the pro film business is also where Apple is at.
lol Mark & Bill
4K is one of the main standards for 3D animations at theaters.
Seriously, Steve, this is getting old fast. Another video format?
MP4, license debacle, thanks guys (and I am looking at you, too, Apple), really!
Pixlet, 2003, Mac only (Wavelet based) and left to die.
Quicktime File Format, so yesteryear.
QTVR, awesome for 360 views and interactivity… aaaand kinda discontinued.
Just a small list of Apple’s gems.
Oh, “F” you if you do a witty comeback with other’s codec/format lists in comparison. My snark is certainly NOT about Microsoft or others and their crap.
MDN Magic Word: about
ya… about that codec nonsense
Imagine the huge bumper we may need, depending on how we we hold our 60″ Apple TV. Buy stock in the bumper producers NOW!
@Chris D
Then what is your snark about? You’re blaming Apple because Microsoft used its previous monopolies to crowd out alternative video formats? You make no technical comparisons among codecs, but try to imply inferiority by using words like “left to die,” “yesteryear,” “kinda discontinued,” and “gems.” This kind of comment fulfills the requirements to be labeled “trolling.”
This 4K stuff is at least 5 years away. 1080i & p have yet to mature in the market, and solving the mobile problem is a much higher priority.
Really?
And just how is this codec to delivered to end users?
Fiber optic?
@ leodavinci–
Ummm… Yes?
I have fiber in my house, as many others do too.
The web certainly doesn’t need another video format in the mix, now with H.264, Theora and WebM all competing for the HTML5 standard.
This would be for electronic distro of films to theaters?
Another proprietary format. Wonderful.
4K monitors? YES! YES! YES!
As long time readers here have noted, I’ve been pushing for Apple to replace the 30″ Cinema Display with a 4K monior. Certainly Apple does not care about my opinion, but maybe more than just me have been clamoring for this.
I’m not 100% behind a new compression codec, but if it is BOTH more efficient (gives equivalent quality with greater compression) AND less intensive (does not require as many passes through the compression engine, does not require hand tweaking [as H.264 often does] to get optimum results, and is less compute intensive to compress and decompress) than H.264 then I’m all for it.
As for the comment by Chris D. about Pixlet… Pixlet was *never* meant to be a common, publicly used codec. Go back to Steve’s very first presentation on Pixlet. It was meant for transferring compressed, full resolution imagery around the sudio. Up until that time people were working with thumbnails or full, lossless compressed files. Pixlet gave studios an alternative.
And to Paul Johnson… 1080i & p have yet to mature in the market? What percentage of TVs sold in the U.S. in 2010 will not be 1080i &p capable. I don’t have the numbers, but I’d be very surprised if that percentage was over 20% and of that 20% I’d wager half that support the 720p standard (which never should have existed in the first place).
For what it’s worth, I can’t imagine anyone uploading 4K to YouTube — even if it is only 4Kp24. Can you imagine the load on the server’s network connections? Even if they can get the compressed stream down to 20 Mbps per stream (combined video and sound — implying a compression efficiency of 2 – 8 times better than H.264) if 2000 people are downloading this stuff concurrently this is 40 Gbps server network connection to the ‘net. This exceeds the throughput of the largest backbones existing today (OC-768).
Can anyone say appleTV with iOS?
Oh, and this codec will only be widely picked up if Apple turns it over — 100% — to an international standards organization. NOT like Microsofts “Open XML” with Microsoft effectively still controls or JAVA which Sun (I still think of them as Sun) effectively controls. Apple would have to turn over the core patents or would have to have the licensing of those patents at a very, very, VERY small cost (<<1% royalties).
And so the gulf between Apple specced video standards and those of Adobe/Flash grows even wider…
326dpi screens (iPhone), Resolution Independence, 4k screens… It’s just a case of thinking ahead. I have a 22” 16:10 monitor, and at 326dpi that equates to 6k+ pixels in width. Hence a 4k codec.
Frankly, I find it laughable that we’re upgrading to HD at all. It’s just an intermediate step to something altogether truly high-resolution, which will be worth the hassle of the upgrading. I’m growing tired of living in the days of imminent obsolescence. Give me something worth upgrading to that’ll last as long as the previous format… At least a couple of decades, therefore.
[/gripe]
@SiR G. – you are absolutely correct. The dozens of crappy lossy codecs out there need to be swept aside.
That said, the world is full of idiots who actually prefer grainy Youtube crap on mobile devices. For brainless amateur entertainment, there are just so many companies competing to rot people’s brains. Proposing something better and forward-thinking (without planned obsolescence) wouldn’t sell to them. They still think quality Apple products cost too much.
Probably to be a total html5 booster.
Apple can make mistakes… but they are rare compared to Zune Tang’s masters ones!!
This proves that the iPhone 5 will sport a built-in RED camera…
..ok, a Deus can dream, can’t he?
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As a DP, I’ve shot 8 feature films using the wavelet compression
developed by RED DIGITAL CINEMA and used in their RED ONE
camera. RED has developed a compression/format, RED RAY,
that delivers 4k images @ 24fps at 10-15Mbits/sec that equal or
surpass current digital cinema standards.
I wouldn’t be surprised that this rumored move by Apple has come
about thorough their connections with RED.
I know that those of who have been shooting 4k for the past 2.5 years,
have been waiting for this development with eager anticipation.
Which internet provider is going to be able to provide 4K video to me in any kind of speed that I would be willing to wait for it to download. Then again @Greg L, I might wait for 4K double rainbow.
eyemagic… I think you’ve got your hardware, software and data rates confused.
Red’s codec is Redcode(tm). Whether it delivers quality equal to or better than other compression systems is openly debated.
Red Ray is a product for which they are not even taking orders yet. It’s optical media for long term storage (sort of a play off of Blu-ray).
Red Drive is the product for their cameras. At 320 GB for a two hour movie that is approximately 355 Mbps (not even close to 10-15 Mbps) for 4K 24p.
No where does anyone with knowledge of the Red systems (other than you) claim that Red can deliver 4K 24p at even close to cinema quality at anything even in the ballpark of 10-15 Mbps (unless, of course, it is a still or nearly still image).