With lack of live 4K sports content a major...

With lack of live 4K sports content a major hurdle to widespread consumer adoption of Ultra HD, Sony will give consumers a peak at what the future of sports in 3840 x 2160 resolution will look like this summer at Sony stores, the 350 Sony Experience sections in select Best Buy stores and at specialty AV dealers. Sony Electronics President Mike Fasulo said during an all-Sony panel on Ultra HD Wednesday that Sony will ship a thumb drive to dealers with FIFA highlights 48 hours after a match airs, with 11 matches slated for 4K production and delivery to dealers. Dealers will be able to show the matches, but the content won’t be available to consumers for sale, Fasulo told us. Sony will make a Blu-ray disc with highlights of FIFA matches shot in 4K available to consumers later this year, Fasulo told us, but the content will be limited by container restraints of the Blu-ray format, since there’s no Ultra HD standard for physical media. Fasulo referred to the balancing act Sony has taken on, trying to push Sony Pictures’ content that’s been mastered in 4K by noting it on the back of a Blu-ray Disc while not confusing consumers into thinking that a 4K TV is required to play the disc. The backside of the package reads “Mastered in 4K,” he said, so consumers know the disc will be compatible with the next-gen format, he said. Fasulo deflected a journalist’s question on what’s standing in the way of the industry developing a next-generation Blu-ray format for 4K movies, referring instead to a recently launched Blu-ray player that will upconvert to “almost native 4K.” Hugo Gaggioni, chief technology officer-Sony Broadcast and Production Systems, said the National Association of Manufacturers and Blu-Ray Disc Association have been investigating various technologies and compression formats for over two years and that “very good progress” has been made. Gaggioni didn’t provide a timetable for when a standard might be implemented.