Alternative distribution to optical disks : SSD, cards, and download*

Can you force Steam to download an unupdated version? I dunno, but I doubt it. So... by that logic, if I bought the game a while ago (before patch) and want to download it again, I have lost the content I paid for, without me being able to get it back (legally).
 
In Steam you can turn Automatic Updates off (or on) on a per game basis. Would this do it?
 
But it IS problematic for people owning GTASA on Steam. All buyers (even pre-update) get updated to the new version, losing all the songs. With VC, they didn't do this.

Also, you CAN ignore patches on consoles, tkf.

The problem will be when the game doesn't run without the patch certainly multiplayer games will have this problem . And the dd version is without any chances.
 
Seems like there is a 4K BluRay standard/player on the way..

http://www.ecoustics.com/news/panasonic-4k-blu-ray-player-prototype/

Specification Notes

[1] 4K / 60p
High speed display in 60 frames per second of 4K video (3,840 x 2,160 pixels – Ultra HD), which has four times the resolution of Full Hi-vision, for highly detailed videos with extremely smooth movement.

[2] 10-bit gradation
Previous Blu-ray Discs displayed the color signals (Y, Cb, Cr) in 8-bit gradation each (256 gradations). By expanding this to 10-bit gradation each (1,024 gradations), even minute signals can be faithfully reproduced to realize richly textured video.

[3] High Dynamic Range
A technology that drastically expands the brightness peak from the previous 100 nit to 1,000-10,000 nit, marking a significant leap in the dynamic range of the picture. Bright light sources (e.g. lights or rays of the sun) and reflected light (from metal or water) that up to now were difficult to display can now be shown in rich textures.

[4] BT.2020 wide color gamut
Compliant with the ITU-R BT.2020 wide color gamut signal formulated for 4K/8K broadcasting. Enables vividly rich coloration not previously possible on Blu-ray discs (BT.709 standard).

[5] HEVC (H.265) / 100Mbps
Support for the highest 100Mbps video signal using the latest high-efficiency video compression technology. Compression efficiency and high bit rate far beyond previous Blu-ray discs (MPEG-4/AVC (H.264), maximum 40Mbps) enabling outstanding playback of high quality video with 4K/60p/10bit, High Dynamic Range, BT.2020, etc.

Hopefullt we will avoid another format war, in any case, there is a UHD Alliance now:
https://www.avforums.com/news/uhd-a...andards-for-4k-ultra-hd-content-devices.10999
 
Are the consoles powerful enough to decode H265 4K/60p at 100Mb/s?

In theory, the PS4/XB1 bluray drives should be capable of reading these 100GB discs with a firmware update, but I've been overly optimistic in the past, if the ROM production didn't exist yet at launch, maybe there was no way to validate the drives to read 3 layers ROM. But if that works, that should enable 100GB game discs too.

I would have liked more bitrate, but at least they went for 10bit and wider gamut. A 1080p downscaled film will look like a 4:4:4 professional format, and that's the most important for OLED TVs and laser projectors, regardless of 4K.
 
4K Bluray spec looks good, they are finally adopting wider color gamut and HDR. Now the question remains when will the clusterfuck with HDMI 2.0 be solved. I'm hoping that SuperMHL port will become soon a norm.
 
What's wrong with HDMI 2.0?
Beat me to it. I have four HDMI2/MHL ports on my TV, have connected a variety of equipment to it, including a 4K Mac, and not encountered any issues.

EDIT: just checked, only two are MHL.
 
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Are the consoles powerful enough to decode H265 4K/60p at 100Mb/s?
There are variants of the H265 codec in the wild and i5 4330 is decoding main profile encodes (4K @ 24p) at around 25% CPU usage with the i7 4770K CPUs is at around 10% CPU usage.

I know this doesn't answer your question ;)
 
I suppose your figures are with partial decoding from the hardware decoder and/or Quicksync?

With the consoles, the CPUs are lowish power so there it may be not terrible to put a significant load on them, and perhaps GPGPU or some DSP resources can assist in some stages of decoding. I wonder if consoles shrinks to 20, 16 or 14nm (whichever will have high enough availability) will include a full featured H265 decoder, and the other question [already asked, duh] would be if they can be made to read a 100GB bluray.
 
I suppose your figures are with partial decoding from the hardware decoder and/or Quicksync?
The figures came from the unlicensed encoder/decoder which could have have included portions of Intel's QuickSync HVEC code. This was over a year ago, I was toying with the idea re-encoding all of my existing video but realised that would take over a year.
 
It will be very nice if we discover that there are tangible advantages of playing a UHD Bluray on a 1080p TV, given the wider colour gamut, HDR etc. And if it actually makes any sense to do that on my TV of course.

At least that would keep me happy until I sell a testicle to buy a new TV.
 
Haven't you got anything smaller :D

Do you mean benefits of playing a 4k blueray on a 1080p tv ? and are you saying 1080 sets have better specifications (apart from res) than 4k sets
and wouldn't you just get a signal out of range message?
 
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It will be very nice if we discover that there are tangible advantages of playing a UHD Bluray on a 1080p TV, given the wider colour gamut, HDR etc.

Only if your 1080p has quantum dots :yes: Resolution aside, if a theoretical UHD Blu-ray disc carries more colour information and your TV can display it, then picture should be better.
 
A lossless frame from a film in 1080p looks significantly better than the paused bluray playback. So I think it's fair to think that a 4K disc on a 1080p TV should provide an interesting jump in quality. Like playing a bluray in 480p looks definitely better than the DVD version.

10 bit = no banding artifacts, specially during fades and low-light scenes.
Wide Gamut = higher color saturation without color-boost artifacts.
4k source to 1080p = 1 chroma sample per pixel instead of 1 in 4 for bluray, and much more data per pixel.
Higher bitrate and H265 = Even more data per pixel.
 
A lossless frame from a film in 1080p looks significantly better than the paused bluray playback. So I think it's fair to think that a 4K disc on a 1080p TV should provide an interesting jump in quality. Like playing a bluray in 480p looks definitely better than the DVD version.

10 bit = no banding artifacts, specially during fades and low-light scenes.
Wide Gamut = higher color saturation without color-boost artifacts.
4k source to 1080p = 1 chroma sample per pixel instead of 1 in 4 for bluray, and much more data per pixel.
Higher bitrate and H265 = Even more data per pixel.

That would be true...except we can't downscale UHD BD to 1080p displays yet. HDCP 2.2 requirement alone practically excludes all non UHDTVs. I have been downloading 4K demos for playing on my plasmas and some of them having bitrate in excess of 100Mbps really look great downscaled so I was looking forward to UHD BDs, but not anymore.
 
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