YouTube Reveals 4K Plans

The popular video site will be demoing Ultra HD streaming at CES.

According to a report by GigaOM, YouTube will be showcasing new 4K streaming technology next week at CES in Las Vegas. The website will be implementing the VP9 codec for its Ultra HD content.

VP9 is a royalty free codec developed by YouTube owner Google that will enable high resolution playback at manageable bitrates. Likewise, the codec will also improve standard HD streaming, reducing the amount of data required to deliver HD content by about 50 percent. This will lead to substantially less buffering times. In order to bolster VP9 support, YouTube and Google have partnered with several manufacturers and hardware developers, including Intel, Broadcom, Samsung, and Sharp.

YouTube plans to demonstrate its 4K streaming tech at the Sony, LG, and Panasonic booths at CES next week. VP9 decoding is expected to roll out to PCs and mobile devices first and then expand to upcoming television models in 2015.

Source: GigaOM