4K is here!
Almost a year ago, we decided to transition out of filming our matches in full HD and move towards 4K Ultra HD resolution. The road needless to say is not without its bumps. We've made plenty of mistakes, and worked on improving as we go along. We appreciate your patience.
Today, we are very excited to start offering downloads in both HD and 4K resolution. Starting with Aron Stokes vs. Ray Mousi, over the next few months, we will be actively adding matches that we've released in the past year in 4K resolution where possible; and moving forward, we will make downloads in both resolutions as well.
There are several reasons why it took us this long to make 4K resolution downloads available. On the hardware side, we have to make sure that 4K television sets come down in prices first and gain market adoption. While things are still relatively early, compared to a year ago, we are seeing more and more 4K television sets in stores like BestBuy, Wal-Mart, etc. In addition, prices for 4K televisions have been coming down. You can get a 50" 4K television now for less than $800. Less if you opt for a smaller size. In addition, many of these new televisions are "smart" and can connect to the internet for a variety of media streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, YouTube etc. which offers 4K content without the need for a separate streaming device.
In the event the television does not come equipped with the ability to connect to the internet, the options are a lot more limited. At the moment, there are only the Sony 4K Ultra HD Media Player and the Samsung UHD Video Pack. Both devices have their pros and cons. We do encourage you to check them out if you are in the market for a separate streaming device.
On the software side, Apple finally released the codec which compresses the footage we've shot and edited into a reasonable size file for 4K. Previously, for a typical uncompressed 4K file would be about 9.55GB for a 20 minute match. This is far too large for download, and depending on your internet speed, it could take a while for some. So if you compare the file size now between a HD and 4K resolution, the difference is much smaller. For example, the wrestling match between Aron Stokes vs. Ray Mousi, in HD, the file size is 1.14GB, while in 4K, it is 1.61GB.
We are excited to be amongst the first wrestling content companies to release in 4K resolution, simply because we believe our customers and fans deserve the best we can provide.
