Sony to Offer 4K Movie Downloads This Fall

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By Pete Pachal2013-07-17 17:51:50 UTC

Sony will begin offering 4K movies for download via its Video Unlimited service in the early fall, company executives announced Wednesday. The movies will be from Sony Pictures, as well as other independent production houses.

Phil Molyneux, Sony's chief operating officer, announced Sony would launch Video Unlimited 4K at a lunch with members of the press. Previously, 4K TV owners could only get native 4K content from Sony's 4K media server, which is delivered to users with the content pre-loaded. Any content updates are done manually through a hard-wire connection.

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"We will be first in the world with a native 4K downloading service," said Molyneux during the launch event. "We're populating that now with 4K feature films, primarily from Sony Pictures, but there are other short-form films from other production houses."

As far as 4K content from other major studios, Molyneux would only say Sony had a "good relationship" with studios for Video Unlimited for its standard-definition and HD content. Molyneux couldn't say whether the launch would include the PlayStation 4 since that product is on a "different timeline."

4K, also called Ultra HD, is the next high-resolution video format. Loosely, it doubles the pixel count in both the horizontal and vertical directions, leading to a 4x increase in overall resolution. The first TVs were very large and expensive, but manufacturers, including Sony, have debuted TVs in the 55-inch size that are more affordable (Sony's is about $5,000).

What do you think about the future of 4K movie downloads? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Image: David Becker/Getty Images

Topics: Film, Sony 4K, Tech, Television