Netflix Bigs Up HDR as Bigger, Better than 4K

Netflix sees HDR as a bigger draw for its subscribers than 4K, according to Netflix’s Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt, and the streaming giant expects 20% of its content to support HDR by 2019.HDR, or otherwise known as High Dynamic Range, aims to incr…



Netflix sees HDR as a bigger draw for its subscribers than 4K, according to Netflix's Chief Product Officer Neil Hunt, and the streaming giant expects 20% of its content to support HDR by 2019.

HDR, or otherwise known as High Dynamic Range, aims to increase the range between the brightest and the darkest areas in a scene. This increased contrast gives makes the picture stand out more and feels more life-like, and according to Hunt, is what users will notice more easily than a simple upgrade to 4K resolution.

“I think HDR is more visibly different than 4K,” says Hunt. “Over the past 15 years, we have had plenty of increments of pixels on the screen, and from what we saw with digital cameras, pixel count eventually stopped being interesting.” A higher number may have looked nice stamped on the side of the camera, but most people couldn’t discern a 25-megapixel shot from a 20-megapixel shot in real life.

Hurting HDR's chance to be "the next big thing" in home entertainment is, and this should be familiar to earlier adopters of HD, yet another format war, plus the fact that people will need to ensure their displays can support HDR.

Right now, there are two competing HDR standards, Dolby Vision and Ultra HD Premium (also known as HDR 10). Netflix is trying to stay format agnostic - while they currently only provide Dolby Vision versions of its HDR streaming shows Marco Polo and Daredevil, the company will offer HDR 10 versions in the near future.

“There are a couple of manufacturers making Dolby Vision TVs that we will certify and be in the market very soon. In a month or two, we’ll do the same with HDR 10 TVs as well,” Hunt says, also hinting that firmware updates to a few TVs already capable of HDR will make them Netflix-HDR compatible in 2016.

As for content, Netflix is aiming to make 5 percent of its library HDR compatible by the end of 2016, and up to 20% by 2019. While it's possible to add HDR to older content (much like 3D remastering or colorization), to get the best out of HDR, Hunt argues that shows and movies have to be shot in HDR, something Netflix is committed to doing.

“The big step for Netflix this year is that we’re shooting our original shows with cameras that are capable of capturing all the range, then mastering for HDR,” he says. “That includes all the metadata for both types of TVs because we worked with the manufacturers to render it properly. We’re ready to start building a library and the TVs are making a big leap this year.”

Patent: iPhone-Homebutton soll künftig Druckstärke erkennen

Der Homebutton könnte in künftigen iPhone-Generationen zum Minijoystick werden, der neben Richtungen auch Druckstärken erkennt. Je nach aufgelegtem Finger sollen unterschiedliche Aktionen gestartet werden. Diese Funktionen hat sich Apple patentieren lassen. (iPhone, Apple)

Der Homebutton könnte in künftigen iPhone-Generationen zum Minijoystick werden, der neben Richtungen auch Druckstärken erkennt. Je nach aufgelegtem Finger sollen unterschiedliche Aktionen gestartet werden. Diese Funktionen hat sich Apple patentieren lassen. (iPhone, Apple)

Smartwatch: Pebble Time reagiert nach Firmware-Update schneller

Pebble hat für die Smartwatches Pebble Time und Pebble Time Steel ein Firmware-Update auf Version 3.9 veröffentlicht, mit dem die Uhren schneller reagieren. Zifferblätter und Apps können zudem Aktivitätstracker-Daten anzeigen. (Pebble, API)

Pebble hat für die Smartwatches Pebble Time und Pebble Time Steel ein Firmware-Update auf Version 3.9 veröffentlicht, mit dem die Uhren schneller reagieren. Zifferblätter und Apps können zudem Aktivitätstracker-Daten anzeigen. (Pebble, API)

G Master: Sony stellt drei neue Vollformatobjektive vor

Sony hat drei neue Vollformatobjektive mit E-Mount-Anschluss vorgestellt, die für die spiegellosen Systemkameras des Herstellers gedacht sind. Dabei handelt es sich um eine 85 mm Festbrennweite und zwei lichtstarke Zooms. (Objektiv, Sony)

Sony hat drei neue Vollformatobjektive mit E-Mount-Anschluss vorgestellt, die für die spiegellosen Systemkameras des Herstellers gedacht sind. Dabei handelt es sich um eine 85 mm Festbrennweite und zwei lichtstarke Zooms. (Objektiv, Sony)

Chrome picks up bonus security features on Windows 10

The browser is now hardened against some classic Windows security flaws.

(credit: Moyan Brenn)

The Windows 10 November update (version 1511, build 10586) included a handful of new security features to provide protection against some security issues that have kept on popping up in Windows for a number of years. Google yesterday added source code support for these features to the Chrome browser, making Windows 10 the best version of Windows to use with Google's browser.

Over the last few years, Windows has had a number of flaws that relate to its font handling. The TrueType and PostScript fonts that Windows supports are complex things, and for historic reasons, much of the code used to handle these fonts runs in Windows' kernel mode. This makes it attractive to attackers: if a bug exists in this font-handling code, it can be used to obtain kernel-level privileges.

Compounding this, the code is also quite exposed: a Word document, for example, can contain its own embedded fonts, and opening the document means that those embedded fonts will be loaded into the kernel. If the fonts are malicious, constructed to exploit bugs in the font-handling code, this can compromise your system simply by opening a document.

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There was a massive population crash in Europe over 14,500 years ago

New evidence shows a whole group of Europeans vanished, replaced by people of unknown origins.

Europe wasn't a very hospitable place fifteen millennia ago. The westernmost landmass of the Eurasian continent had endured a long ice age, with glaciers stretching across northern Europe and into the region we now call Germany. But suddenly, about 14,500 years ago, things started to warm up quickly. The glaciers melted so fast around the globe that they caused sea levels to rise 52 feet in just 500 years. Meanwhile, the environment was in chaos, with wildlife trying vainly to adjust to the rapid fluctuations in temperature. Humans weren't immune to the changes, either.

A new, comprehensive analysis of ancient European DNA published today in Current Biology magazine by an international group of researchers reveals that this period also witnessed a dramatic shift in the human populations of Europe. Bloodlines of hunter-gatherers that had flourished for thousands of years disappeared, replaced with a new group of hunter-gatherers of unknown origin.

Researchers discovered this catastrophic population meltdown by sequencing the mitochondrial DNA of 35 people who lived throughout Europe between 35 and 7 thousand years ago. Mitochondrial DNA is a tiny amount of genetic material that's inherited virtually unchanged via the maternal line, and thus it serves as a good proxy for relatedness over time. Two people from the same maternal stock share almost the same mitochondrial DNA, even if separated by thousands of years, because this kind of DNA evolves very slowly.

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Greed, lies, and Shkreli’s smug “performance”: Lawmakers go ballistic

Hearing exposes Turing’s lavish spending, while exec says they’re losing money.

Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing, smirked his way through Thursday's Congressional hearing. (credit: CSPAN)

WASHINGTON—After Turing Pharmaceutical raised the price of the decades-old, life-saving drug, Daraprim, from $13.50 a pill to $750 last fall—leaving some patients with $16,000 co-pays—Turing executives handed out six-figure bonuses, spent thousands of dollars on a lavish yacht party, and paid a public relations firm to help them shine their tarnished reputation.

The revelations came amid a Thursday hearing by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which focused on such high-profile cases of drug price-hikes that the committee argues are helping to fuel the soaring costs of healthcare. The committee, chaired by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), aimed to understand why some drugs’ prices have skyrocketed and figure out how to stop it.

One of the key witnesses they called to testify was Martin Shkreli, Turing’s majority shareholder and former CEO, who was largely responsible for Daraprim’s price hike. Shkreli stepped down as CEO in December, shortly after being indicted on fraud charges for allegedly running a Ponzi-like scheme with two former hedge funds and swindling another former pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, out of millions of dollars. In light of his impending criminal trial, Shkreli said prior to the hearing that he would not answer questions from the lawmakers and would invoke his Fifth Amendment right to avoid self-incrimination. He kept to his word.

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Chief Justice sells at least $250K of Microsoft stock in advance of hearing

Three justices own individual stocks, and that’s created more conflicts recently.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has sold between $250,000 and $500,000 worth of Microsoft stock, according to an Associated Press report out today. It's the largest single stock sale by anyone on the court in more than a decade.

The large stock sale is news in part because the high court agreed a few weeks ago to take a case involving alleged defects in Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. Assuming that Roberts sold all his Microsoft stock, that means he won't have to withdraw from the case.

The last time Microsoft had a case in front of the Supreme Court was 2011, in which the software giant made a last-ditch attempt to fend off a patent claim brought by i4i, a small Canadian firm. Microsoft asked the court to reconsider the standard of proof used to invalidate patents, but the justices sided with i4i in an 8-0 vote, cementing the firm's $290 million payday. Roberts recused himself from that case.

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LPX Show is available in iTunes, Stitcher, anywhere you get podcasts

LPX Show is available in iTunes, Stitcher, anywhere you get podcasts

The LPX Show podcast is now even easier to find. The show features interviews with the people behind the technology we use… or will use. The first episode, for example, features interviews with the creators of a dual-OS phone and an upgradeable laptop project. When I released episode one earlier this week, you could listen to […]

LPX Show is available in iTunes, Stitcher, anywhere you get podcasts is a post from: Liliputing

LPX Show is available in iTunes, Stitcher, anywhere you get podcasts

The LPX Show podcast is now even easier to find. The show features interviews with the people behind the technology we use… or will use. The first episode, for example, features interviews with the creators of a dual-OS phone and an upgradeable laptop project. When I released episode one earlier this week, you could listen to […]

LPX Show is available in iTunes, Stitcher, anywhere you get podcasts is a post from: Liliputing

Sony further extends PS4’s console sales lead over the 2015 holidays

But both PS4 and Xbox One are easily outselling the last console generation.


The last time we checked in on the sales battle between the big name video game consoles, Microsoft had seen its annual sales increase, but not fast enough to catch up to the still-surging PS4. The same trend was apparent in 2015's all-important holiday quarter, which saw Sony continuing to extend its sales lead over the competition.

In recent earnings reports for the fourth calendar quarter last year (October through December), Sony announced shipments of 8.4 million PS4 units to retailers (Fig. 1), a record for the system and a 2 million unit improvement from the 2014 holiday quarter (more on the difference between shipments and "sell-through" below). Nintendo, however, announced 1.87 million shipments of Wii U hardware. That marks the system's second straight year of slight decreases in holiday performance, which came despite the availability of well-regarded 2015 releases like Splatoon and Super Mario Maker.

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