natursports/123RFIn recent years, live sports have lagged conspicuously behind the rest of streaming entertainment. Lack of availability and reliability has plagued the over-the-top sports market, but today brought news of another step forward. Sony Electronics has announced its participation in successful streaming trials of live 4K sporting events, including the first live North American soccer broadcast in 4K by Univision Deportes.
The events were streamed live and in 4K via the NeuLion Digital Platform and were delivered over-the-top exclusively to Sony 4K HDR Ultra HD TVs with integrated NeuLion 4K Streaming SDK. Availability was limited to select audiences in New York, Florida, and California. Trials began in early 2016 and are expected to continue through the summer.
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Univision Deportes Network (UDN) is the number one Spanish-language sports network in the world, and participated in this round of trials by producing the groundbreaking soccer event referenced above. The match took place at Marlins Park in Miami, Florida on February 10 and pitted Mexico against Senegal in an international friendly.
“Sony 4K HDR Ultra HD TVs are the logical choice for these 4K events because with our experience in 4KHDR shooting, editing, recording, storage, playback, and transmission, we understand 4K display technology like no other company,” said Sunil Nayyar, Sony’s Director of Product Marketing, TV, and Projectors for North America. “These 4K live streaming tests reveal that the streaming and broadcast of live 4K sports is on its way to consumers in the near future. And Sony’s line-up of 4KHDR Ultra HD TVs is ready today.”
Recent months have brought quite a bit of news on the 4K sports front, as the NBA aired its first game in the format back in January — though it wasn’t streamed and was available only in the U.K. and Canada.
Hopefully, the momentum will continue and Mr. Nayyar’s “near future” timetable will hold true — there are a whole lot of rabid sports fans out there that are champing at the bit to watch their teams tilt with rival squads in glorious 4K.
Go ahead and spend the extra $20 on the good Apple TV 4K
Apple has announced two new versions of the Apple TV 4K. Both are good for all kinds of reasons. Better internals. New features. And prices that are much more likely to be competitive, even if they're still a good bit north of what folks are spending on the likes of Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices.
But two new Apple TV 4K boxes -- and the death of the lower-resolution Apple TV HD -- means you've got a decision to make. Which Apple TV 4K is right for you?
New Apple TV 4K tweaks the internals and the price
Apple today announced a new version of Apple TV 4K. It's the third generation of what we consider to be the best streaming device you can buy, and Apple's not really messing with things too much. Same general design. Same general function. But the internals have been tweaked that allow this 2022 model (which follows the models released in September 2017 and May 2021) to work better with more TVs — and to allow for a little more flexibility in price.
Here are the big deals: There are now two versions of Apple TV 4K (or SKUs, for those of you who prefer inside-baseball terms). There's a model that's Wi-Fi only with 64GB of storage for $130, or a model with Wi-Fi and Ethernet with 128GB of storage for $150. For our money, we'd just go ahead and spend the extra $20.
Optoma’s CinemaX 4K laser projectors now have faster response times for gamers
Optoma is expanding its 4K UHD home theater projector line by introducing the CinemaX D2 Series. Optoma says this is an upgrade from the previous CinemaX P2 projector, and the improvements are based on user feedback. The series includes the CinemaX D2, a 4K UHD ultra short throw laser home projector, and the CinemaX D2 Smart, which adds smart TV features courtesy of an included Android TV dongle.
Ultra short throw projectors are ideal for people with limited space in their room as they can cast an image on the screen from small distances. Traditional short throw projectors need at least four feet to eight feet of distance from the screen to be able to produce high-quality images, but not all rooms have this much area to spare. That's where ultra short throw projectors can help. The CinemaX D2 Series, for example, can cast up to 100-inch images from less than a foot away from the screen. If you increase the distance a bit more, you get up to 120-inch images.
The CinemaX D2 Series features 3,000 lumens and a 1,800,000:1 contrast ratio, which, oddly, is a bit of a step down from their predecessor, the CinemaX P2 projector, which offers the same brightness, but with a 2,000,000:1 contrast ratio.
The biggest boost this series offers is an Enhanced Gaming Mode that claims "blur-free visuals and low lag" with the help of its 16ms response time in 4K at 60Hz and 4ms in 1080P at 240Hz. The 30,000-hour life span (same as its predecessor) seems to be slightly higher than other ultra short throw projectors in this price range as well. Both D2 models have three HDMI 2.0 inputs, instead of the P2's double-HDMI 2.0 and single HDMI 1.4 inputs.
