Summary and new information ( For PC drive listed below) which still indicates the following:
1) There is no such thing as a UHD drive, it's a modern version 2 drive that complies with the 2010 BD-R whitepaper. So any modern BD-ROM drive can be a version 2 drive if it can read a BD-R disk and UHD requires 4X read speed. There is a quote on this forum stating that PCs will not need a special drive to support UHD Blu-ray. The PS4 documentation says it can read BD-ROM and BD-R while the XB1 says it has a BD-ROM drive. (The Sony 2010 Patent for a version 2 drive states that a version 1 drive could read a version 2 disk with firmware update but maybe not reliably; PS3 has a version 1 disk.)
2) We know that the PS4 has a custom HDMI port that can support up to 120 FPS and HDCP takes place in the Southbridge TEE. There is a 2013 quote from a Sony employee that the PS4 supports a HDMI 2 port. (Firmware update-able to HDMI 2)
3) HEVC requires 1.5 times the GPGPU that h.264 requires and
both the XB1 and PS4 have dedicated blocks of GPGPU compute using Xtensa DPUs and Microsoft has announced the XB1 supports HEVC profile 10. They do not mention it will be used for UHD blu-ray but for Netflix UHD IPTV.
AMD subsequently announced they use the same hardware to support HEVC in their APUs and dGPUs (Xtensa DPU in the UVD). Xtensa DPUs can support openCL (GPGPU), OpenVX (Vision processing), Video and audio processing.
4) UHD IPTV, Ultraviolet, Blu-ray and ATSC 3 (UHD Antenna TV world wide 2018 in Korea) use the same software stack (same HEVC Profile 10 and HTML5 browser with W3C extensions). If you can support one you can support all.
5) There is a UHD Blu-ray test player for game consoles to use. It confirms that there are plans for Game Consoles to support UHD blu-ray. The PC UHD BD-ROM listed below is explained and essentially requires the Player to support; BD ROM Mark, AACS 2 and BD+ which are not part of the drive but the player.
What are the business categories available under the ROM4 FLLA?
Ultra HD BD-ROM Media
Ultra HD BD-ROM Movie Player/Game Console/Test Player
Ultra HD BD-ROM PC Drive
Licensee shall ensure that each Ultra HD BD-ROM Movie Player and Ultra HD BD-ROM PC Drive is not allowed to playback any Ultra HD BD-ROM Media unless such Ultra HD BD-ROM Media includes Ultra HD BD-ROM Mark. [BD-ROM Mark is a small amount of cryptographic data that is stored separately from normal which again does not require a different drive just that the player look for and properly use the mark...]
AACS 2 & BD+
Ultra HD BD-ROM PC Application Software
Ultra HD BD-ROM CAV Content
Ultra HD BD-ROM Component, and
Ultra HD BD-ROM Tools and Manufacturing Equipment / Ultra HD BD-ROM Testers
Between the PS4 and XB1 they have all the building blocks and the life of both consoles was known to overlap UHD in all it's forms. Sony has never broken the console model allowing major features in a revision that the first version couldn't support with a firmware update.
In addition to the thread in this forum there is one in NeoGAF.
So why did Ito when pressed on the PS4 supporting UHD Blu-ray say that the PS4 drive can't read three layers and there is no HEVC codec in the PS4. My best guess is NDA as from late 2013 there has been no word from either Microsoft or Sony on UHD blu-ray in the XB1 and PS4. Just before release, employees of both companies made the statements in this post and sonicyogurt's.
Ito may be technically correct in that HEVC as a software codec using Xtensa accelerators may not be in the PS4 YET and the PS4 blu-ray drive may require a firmware update to read an inverted track if the 2010 Sony patent for a version 2 drive was implemented.
Both Sony and Microsoft have media plans for Antenna and Cable TV support and Sony started Get TV (antenna TV) and Playstation Vue. Bandwidth and caps require using HEVC for 1080P streaming.
For the
PS3 a PDF on Passage was just released at the latest FCC DSTAC (Downloadable Security Technical Advisory Committee) meeting. Page 12 has a chart showing a PS3 being used as a Vidipath STB.
[HTML5 app written by the Cable company using Sony's passage and network tuners to ?emulate a Vidipath Cable TV DVR?. The
Sony job posting makes more sense with this proposal
Second Sony Passage Paper to the FCC DSTAC is about using clear QAM tuners (USB, PC Card and Network tuners) with PCs, PS4, Phones and Tablets as the client using the DSS (Downloadable Security Scheme) (page 10 and 11). A picture of the PS3 labeled PS4 on page 11 is using a
Hauppauge USB Tuner. Also on that page is a HD Homerun network tuner feeding a home WiFi router to portables.
The
2010 Leaked Xbox 720 powerpoint (XB1) has the
HD Homerun listed third row down, third column from the left. These two tuners were chosen by the W3C's TV working group as standards and their control schemes will be used as the APIs for the Network and USB tuner control standards supported by W3C extensions to Javascript.
HTML5 TV tuner Control will work for both Cable TV and Antenna TV.
ATSC 3 will use the same modulation scheme (QDFM) that cell phones use and the US Antenna TV frequencies being sold to Cell Phone companies are upper band TV UHF. The leaked Xbox 720 hardware slide (Device specific IO bottom right) has cell Phone hardware (HSDPA is an enhanced 3G (third-generation) mobile-telephony communications protocol) which was thought to allow wireless VR using a cell phone but it can also support ATSC 3. ATSC without extension could be 1&2 or 3 or all. XTV support is mentioned multiple times and XTV starts with ATSC 2 and will also be in ATSC 3. Microsoft has announced support for a Antenna TV 1080P DVR; 1080P is only available with ATSC 2.