A8 Chip in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus Capable of Playing 4K Video

[Ken Kaniff]

Someone smarter than me- please explain something regarding the linked to app Vizzywig 8xHD.

They say:

iPHONE 5S REQUIRED FOR 24FPS MOTION VIDEO
Although Vizzywig 8xHD is compatible with devices that have 8MP cameras, we recommend an iPhone 5s for best results in order to capture the highest possible frame rate of 24 frames per second. Most devices including the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are limited 10 frames per second as of iOS 8.1. The video is still amazing but the motion is not as smooth.

What? I thought the iPhone 6/6+ could record up to 120 fps at full resolution. No? Are they talking about while at 4K? Either way, they're saying the 5S could record/play 4k video then, yes? So if that's already known, why would it be a surprise for the newer generation phones?

None of this makes any sense to me, really.

 

[sshambles]

Great! Now, just update the storage capacities, and we can take 4K video, store it, and if required view and edit it. Sounds good to me. Never mind the whole size ratio, those three things alone will be great to have.

 

[Iconoclysm]

Is it REALLY playing a 4K video if it is showing it on a 1K screen? I think it is reading a 4K video files, thrashing 3/4 of the data and displaying the remaining 1K video stream.

It is like when you buy a 24MP camera and are all happy that you have this high resolution image. But then you phone has a 2MP screen. What happens to the extra pixels? Well they are down sampled and not displayed.

Yes, it is REALLY playing a 4K video. If it were as simple as you are suggesting, we could have played 4K video on 133 MHz Pentium machines 18 years ago, and simply "thrashed" 99/100 of the data. On a camera capable of processing a 24 MP image, it's obviously capable of PROCESSING a 24 MP image...

 

[Shadow Runner]

To me this just says the next apple tv will have this chip in it, or if Apple releases a tv it would have this chip, same thing really though.

 

[mi7chy]

4K at what bitrate? Note 3 can decode 4K at 275Mbps rate from internal storage or 120Mbps over 5GHz 802.11ac and supports MKV format with several players like MX Player app without the need to convert to iTunes compatible format that takes time and disk space.

 

[aslucher24]

Sounds like future proofing to me. Thinking, with this, 4k is coming to iTunes in the next year or two... Just my guess though.

 

[OneMike]

Kind of pointless but good I guess

 

[hungx]

Just because a phone has a good camera doesn't mean it has a good GPU, the two have nothing to do with each other.

I think you missed the sarcasm part. The iPhone doesn't record video in 4k.

 

[RockSpider]

I think you missed the sarcasm part. The iPhone doesn't record video in 4k.

Unfortunately I'm not real good on sarcasm or iPhones, I've got Apple stuff, but I've never owned an iPhone, so I have no idea what they can record in.

I like Android for phones, IOS for tablets and Windows for computers.

 

[haruhiko]

Is it REALLY playing a 4K video if it is showing it on a 1K screen? I think it is reading a 4K video files, thrashing 3/4 of the data and displaying the remaining 1K video stream.

It is like when you buy a 24MP camera and are all happy that you have this high resolution image. But then you phone has a 2MP screen. What happens to the extra pixels? Well they are down sampled and not displayed.

The "K" in screen resolution uses the longer side. So the iPhone 6 Plus is 2K, not 1K.

 

[farewelwilliams]

Is it REALLY playing a 4K video if it is showing it on a 1K screen? I think it is reading a 4K video files, thrashing 3/4 of the data and displaying the remaining 1K video stream.

It is like when you buy a 24MP camera and are all happy that you have this high resolution image. But then you phone has a 2MP screen. What happens to the extra pixels? Well they are down sampled and not displayed.

when you're using h264 encoding, you're decoding blocks of pixels. it's not like you can decode only, say, every other pixel.

 

[Small White Car]

Is it REALLY playing a 4K video if it is showing it on a 1K screen? I think it is reading a 4K video files, thrashing 3/4 of the data and displaying the remaining 1K video stream.

It is like when you buy a 24MP camera and are all happy that you have this high resolution image. But then you phone has a 2MP screen. What happens to the extra pixels? Well they are down sampled and not displayed.

Computationally, that's actually MORE impressive.

 

[proline]

Nothing is confirmed. Or guaranteed.

Wrong. The 2015 Apple TV will in fact have an A8 chip. It's Apple's only mobile chip that can decode H.265, which will be essential for decoding video better than 1080. Apple cannot wait until 2016 to improve the Apple TV, and they simply aren't going to make an entire new chip for it. It will be an A8, possibly single core variant.

Amazing how the power of reason can reveal things to you.

 

[doelcm82]

Perhaps the iPad Pro (if it really exists) will have a 4K screen.

 

[Mashurrab]

4K at what bitrate? Note 3 can decode 4K at 275Mbps rate from internal storage or 120Mbps over 5GHz 802.11ac and supports MKV format with several players like MX Player app without the need to convert to iTunes compatible format that takes time and disk space.

Thank you for the information.


Edit: I checked the screen on the note 3 and it is 1920x1080 which means there is no use for 4k files on it

 

[farewelwilliams]

Someone smarter than me- please explain something regarding the linked to app Vizzywig 8xHD.

They say:




What? I thought the iPhone 6/6+ could record up to 120 fps at full resolution. No? Are they talking about while at 4K? Either way, they're saying the 5S could record/play 4k video then, yes? So if that's already known, why would it be a surprise for the newer generation phones?

None of this makes any sense to me, really.

I believe it's snapping 8mp images and stitching them into a video

 

[mozumder]

4k is such a waste on a mobile device. The only thing it does is take up more power.

Nobody has EVER enjoyed a movie on a phone because it was 4k instead of HD. In fact, 720p is fine on a phone.

4k in a phone is the ultimate in geek measurebating.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Yes, it is REALLY playing a 4K video. If it were as simple as you are suggesting, we could have played 4K video on 133 MHz Pentium machines 18 years ago, and simply "thrashed" 99/100 of the data. On a camera capable of processing a 24 MP image, it's obviously capable of PROCESSING a 24 MP image...

That's the most ridiculous logic I've read in this thread.

Since no one really knows what WALTR is doing, how can you say that the product that exists on the iPhone after going through WALTR is even a 4K format and not something much less?

Big deal if the iPhone can take a 4K data file and process it down to something that displays on a relatively low-res iPhone screen. IT'S DIGITAL DATA. It's manipulating the one's and zero's. I can take a 1080p blu-ray file on my PC and show it in a 320x200 window. So what? I, for one, am not that impressed if the point of the story is that the iPhone iOS software can read a 4K file format.

 

[Michael Scrip]

4k is such a waste on a mobile device. The only thing it does is take up more power.

Nobody has EVER enjoyed a movie on a phone because it was 4k instead of HD. In fact, 720p is fine on a phone.

4k in a phone is the ultimate in geek measurebating.

Agreed on the phone.

But the A8 chip in a future AppleTV would be nice.

Playing 50mbps video smoothly is a good test. I haven't seen any other mobile processor tested that way though. Is that normal? I honestly don't know.

 

[mozumder]

Agreed on the phone.

But the A8 chip in a future AppleTV would be nice.

Playing 50mbps video smoothly is a good test. I haven't seen any other mobile processor tested that way though. Is that normal? I honestly don't know.

It won't be for this generation of chips.

If they haven't announced the AppleTV by now, then they missed the holiday season, and that means they're going to wait for next year, by which time the A9X or whatever will be out.

 

[SeaFox]

4K video ? wait until apple provide iPhone with 64gb as the entry level.

Why don't I just wait for Apple to add a micro SD card slot? Seems about as likely.

Agreed on the phone.
Playing 50mbps video smoothly is a good test. I haven't seen any other mobile processor tested that way though. Is that normal? I honestly don't know.

The easiest way to do that would be to play back a blu-ray with one.
Oh, wait. Apple doesn't believe in blu-ray.

 

[GoSh4rks]

Not sure why this is news. Its the bit rate that causes things to choke, not resolution. Plus, video decoding in hardware is a long solved problem (3gs/1080p)

 

[Michael Scrip]

It won't be for this generation of chips.

If they haven't announced the AppleTV by now, then they missed the holiday season, and that means they're going to wait for next year, by which time the A9X or whatever will be out.

It's still good news. If the A8 can play these files... the A9X or whatever will likely too!

The easiest way to do that would be to play back a blu-ray with one.

Oh, wait. Apple doesn't believe in blu-ray.

LOL... true.

But the iPhone doesn't have a Blu-ray drive... so it wouldn't really matter.

These guys were still able to get a 50mbps (and a 100mbps) file on the iPhone.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Show off.

(the point being that you don't need significant storage to enjoy 4k!)

 

[MasterRyu2011]

Not sure what's so surprising about it and why it's news. Any GPU can do 4K at a certain bitrate.