BBC iPlayer UHD Trial on KD-55x8505b?

[tvguy99]

Hey all,

Does anyone know if Sony will be supporting the iPlayer UHD trial on the KD-55x8505b?

Cheers,

Derek

[Anonymous]

Hi there

It looks like some Panasonic models are the first to get the trial:

http://iplayerhelp.external.bbc.co.uk/tv/planet_earth_4k

BBC might be doing a phased trial roll-out (just a guess), so in time more brands and models "should" be added.

Cheers

[tvguy99]

I understand participation in the trial depends on whether the TV can support an emerging standard for HDR encoding called Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG).  I know the TV doesn't support this standard at present, but I wonder (hope) if it's just a matter of a firmware update.  

[Anonymous]

Hi there

Unfortunately 2014 TVs such as yours will not get an update to HDR as it is simply impossible to do without the correct hardware available.

However I dont see why the BBC cannot add UHD to the iPlayer for TVs such as yours in the future.  HDR contains a set of metadata which will be interpreted if the TV can 'handle' it and simply ignored if not.

Cheers