Watch a 6K Red Dragon sample video in 4K VP9 - the next generation codec for 4K YouTube streaming

[Luc]

Just about any modern display these days IS a "retina" screen, whether it's on a mobile phone or laptop or PC. Apple seems to have created an amazing mystique around the term retina, when all it really means is moderately high pixel density compared to viewing distance.

 

I think the key element that people are missing is the 'retina rendering mode' (basically supersampling the UI and text elements, and native resolution for content). Maybe they haven't experienced it. Actual resolution of computer screen will become irrelevant, you just chose the quality of the rendering you want (or can achieve). I think on the Mac, it's nicely done. On windows, the UI scaling is always kind of clunky (at least when I tried it on a yoga levono tablet or a desktop with a 4K panel attached).

[jgharding]

I was trying to play this back on a dual Xeon 12-core with a GTX780 and it can't play it smoothly in suggested players... Either it's not yet optimised for all systems, or it's very very intense on decoding...

[NOC40]

Nope, not by far. Most PC displays are 1920x1080 or 1920x1200, some -but few- high end monitors are 2560x1440 and most TV sets are FullHD.

 

Retina refers to pixel density per square inch -regardless of how far you are- reverting back to the method used in print, since supposedly the pixel density is such that you'd find it hard to tell the difference between printed characters and screen-displayed characters. The bigger the display, the more difficult it is to make it "retina". The iPhone 4 was Retina due to the small screen, but the later released iPad with slightly improved technology was not. It took apple two more generations to bring Retina density to the iPad.

Nope, not according to the wikipedia article on it or logic for that matter. "Retina" is meant to refer to an angular pixel size at least as small as the limiting resolution of the human eye. So it's pixel density divided by viewing distance. Read the article if you don't believe me. People are still mixing up resolution, pixel density, and angular pixel density. "Retina" is ONLY about angular pixel density.

[jgharding]

Nope, not according to the wikipedia article on it or logic for that matter. "Retina" is meant to refer to an angular pixel size at least as small as the limiting resolution of the human eye. So it's pixel density divided by viewing distance. Read the article if you don't believe me. People are still mixing up resolution, pixel density, and angular pixel density. "Retina" is ONLY about angular pixel density.

 

In truth though, it's most likely that the colloquial use, which is related to Apple's marketing will become 'what it means' regardless of science or terminology.

 

So even though it makes no difference at 6 feet away, a retina display will be one marketed at a certain DPI.

 

Eventually the marketing term will die it's own death I'm sure...

 

There's not much point marketing these things though, most people won't buy them for the stats, but they'll buy one if it's all that exists come upgrade time...

[alexcosy]

I was trying to play this back on a dual Xeon 12-core with a GTX780 and it can't play it smoothly in suggested players... Either it's not yet optimised for all systems, or it's very very intense on decoding...

 

Strange, i got it to play very nicely on both Chrome and VLC, on my iMac i7 GTX680MX... not on a 4K monitor though just on the 2.5K iMac monitor which is already nice... Is everything up to date (vlc / chrome) ?

[varicam]

VLC (latest version) couldn't play on my rMBP.  But Chrome played it fine.  Strange.

[JBraddock]

VLC (latest version) couldn't play on my rMBP.  But Chrome played it fine.  Strange.

VLC plays it on my rMBP (Mid 2012). No drop frames.

[Andrew Reid]

VLC plays it on my rMBP (Mid 2012). No drop frames.

 

Interesting.

 

VLC not working for me (2013 iMac 27")

 

What graphics does your mid 2012 MBP retina have?

 

What version of VLC?

[JBraddock]

Interesting.

 

VLC not working for me (2013 iMac 27")

 

What graphics does your mid 2012 MBP retina have?

 

What version of VLC?

VLC 2.1.4. The GPU is NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M and Intel HD Graphics 4000 but I assume that the VLC uses the discrete one. I've tried again, both VLC and MPlayerX play it fine.

[Brellivids]

Latest version of VLC played the whole thing fine. (all 4 cores at about 75%, GPU usage level unknown)

 

Machine

2500K @ 3.3Ghz + Asus AMD Radeon 270X  (Windows 7)

 

Firefox 29 starts it nicely and all the cores are at 34% but it wont play the whole video.

Tried twice and on the second run it stops the playback in different part of the video on firefox 29.

 

It's worth mentioning that this combination of HW is has not been proven to be the optimal for Video playback I get these smear on screen when I playback Bluray material and other high res stuff. My work machine that has Nvidia GTX 470 and i7 @ 3.4Ghz plays video much better.

 

So what I'm saying there are many factors that can affect the playback. The hardware + it's drivers + the code of the software that plays back the video.

[Luc]

Interesting.

 

VLC not working for me (2013 iMac 27")

 

What graphics does your mid 2012 MBP retina have?

 

What version of VLC?

 

I think it didn't work for me at first, then I trashed the preferences ("Reset All" I believe) and then it worked.

No scrubbing though.

[varicam]

Downloaded a new VLC update today and it now plays fine.

[Danyyyel]

I think that this video is a bit misleading because there is zero motion. It would be better to see some more motion to get a better idea of VP9 encoding with 4k on normal footage (movies) compared to paint drying videos.

[kadajawi]

Not going to try watching this on my laptop, but as for resolution: Last year I was in China, and in a normal electronics shop pretty much every TV at 50" or above was 4K. You can't even buy non-4K TVs! Also there are more and more laptops with > 1080p screens, tablets with higher resolutions, etc. Soon enough any device you buy will have that sort of resolution, like most TVs had 720 or 1080p despite no one having a Blu Ray player or a HD capable receiver.

 

4K does look great. It's nice not being able to see any pixel on a screen.

 

That being said, it's a shame that plasma had to die for 4K. I'd take a 1080p plasma from Panasonic over any 4K TV. ANY.

 

As for codec... I doubt VP9 is any better than h265, apart from the licensing thing. There have always been claims that VPx is better than h26x, and nope, not true.

[RRASmith]

It seems like professional cameras add another 2K every few months now. Never thought the techonology would be capable of moving at the same rate as cell phones. Makes me question how long the prices can stay so high when it's getting so easy to make drastic advances in picture quality at such fast rates.

 

I would like to compare the new Kinefinity cameras to the Red's. The price is so much lower but they offer very similar specs. Anyone out there actually had the opportunity to compare the Red's and BMCC's to these Kinefinity models? Here is a link to their website: http://www.kinefinity.com/?lang=en

 

Yes, they are made in China, but I don't think that is such a bad thing now.... Would love to hear from anyone out there with any direct shooting experience using them.