Samsung teams with Amazon, Comcast, studios on 4K video
Alongside Samsung's CES press conference, Amazon teams up with the Korean computer maker plus Warner, Lionsgate, and others for 4K video. It's not alone: M-Go and Comcast partner with Samsung too.
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Amazon, as well as television and film studios, cable company Comcast, and pay-as-you-go digital movie and TV streaming service M-Go, have teamed up with Samsung to deliver 4K video.
The announcements were released to coincide with a Samsung press conference Monday in Las Vegas as part of the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show.
Amazon Instant Video said it was working with Samsung, as well as top Hollywood studios and TV programmers like Warner Bros., Lionsgate, 20th Century Fox, Discovery, and more to offer Amazon customers a premium 4K video experience.
Without providing many details, the e-commerce giant's announcement about broad 4K partnerships follows news last month that it would shoot all 2014 full original series, including comedies and dramas, in 4K.
Earlier Monday, Amazon streaming rival Netflix showed up at LG's press conference to announce a partnership with Samsung's smaller Korean rival. Netflix, which is working with a number of electronics makers on the technology, has said its flagship original series, "House of Cards," would be filmed and offered in 4K this year.
Tune into CNET's live Samsung press conference coverage.
4K is the top high-resolution video standard, which at 3,840x2,160 pixels, or 8.3 million pixels, is four times the number of pixels as standard full HD.
Comcast, the cable company that also owns NBC, said that later this year customers of its Xfinity TV cable package who have Samsung Ultra HD TVs will be able to launch an Xfinity TV 4K app directly on their TVs letting them stream 4K movies and TV shows on demand.
Comcast said it was working with programmers, including its subsidiary NBCUniversal, to provide a library of 4K choices for the Xfinity TV 4K app.
M-Go, which is a joint venture of Technicolor and DreamWorks Animation that offers TV shows and movies to stream, said it has developed a 4K streaming service to launch on Samsung UHD TVs in the spring. For content that wasn't filmed or post-produced in 4K, Technicolor and M-Go's 4K Optimized solution takes the source files from its licensed content partners and reprocesses them to enhance the visual crispness, color acuity, and image depth for 4K television owners.
At the press conference, Joe Stinziano, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics America, said DirectTV was working to offer a 4K streaming service as well.
Updated at 2:48 p.m. PT: with further details of the partnerships.