4K films head to new Sony UHD TV owners, but only for a limited time

The biggest problem owners of Ultra HD TVs have right now is the lack of content. There is pretty much an absence of 4K media in Australia at the moment, but if you’re thinking of buying a Sony UHD TV, you’ll have one on the rest of us.

Promotions don’t normally stir us, but an upcoming one from Sony has made us wake up and take notice as it looks to offer an interesting deal for people keen on upgrading their television.

If you like the sound of an Ultra HD TV before the media well and truly comes out, Sony will be offering five movies in the Ultra HD resolution of 3840×2160 to you, giving you something in ultra definition to watch on your brand new ultra definition TV.

“At this time of year, everyone is busy thinking about gifts for their loved ones, so it’s nice to be able to offer Sony customers a little something extra,” said Koichi Suzuki, General Manager of Consumer Products Marketing at Sony Australia.

“The Summer of Sony promotion includes a range of surprises for consumers, from bonus 4K Ultra HD movies to a free barbecue – perfect for summer entertaining while blasting music from your Muteki Hi-Fi system.”

Yes, depending on what you buy, you’ll receive something different, with the promotion running from October 28 through to December 31, 2014.

For instance, you can get a wireless speaker if you purchase another wireless speaker, and if you buy a Sony camera you’ll find a Sony lens provided for free, and as Suzuki just mentioned, you can get a barbecue if you buy a Sony Muteki HiFi system.

But if you get a Sony 4K TV from the X8500, X9000, or X9500 series, you’ll have a choice of five Ultra HD movies on out of ten that are available.

The movies include “The Amazing Spiderman,” “The Amazing Spiderman 2,” “Moneybag,” “Premium Rush,” “Total Recall,” “Salt,” “Ghostbusters,” “The Patriot,” “Battle: Los Angeles,” and “Captain Philips,” and Sony assures GadgetGuy that the movies will be provided on a hard drive in the 4K resolution, rather than just provide the 4K colour with Full HD picture that Sony’s “mastered in 4K” Blu-rays currently provide.

As such these titles will be some of the only examples of real Ultra HD movies available in Australia from a commercial studio, providing something more than samples or trailers for people keen to get the most out of their new TVs.

Unfortunately, anyone who bought a Sony TV from earlier in the year who hasn’t been able to buy 4K movies isn’t eligible — yup, we checked — with a representative for the company telling GadgetGuy that everyone else can find “a range of mastered in 4K Blu-ray discs available from authorised retailers,” while devices “such as the Xperia Z3 smartphone and 4K Handycam offer 4K video capture for consumers.”

So on the one hand, it’s good news if you’ve been looking for a reason to buy a 4K TV, and couldn’t work out if it was worth having until the content was dropped locally, but on the other hand, we feel for people who own a 4K TV and just can’t make a lot of use out of it yet.

Sure, you can watch Full HD movies upscaled to Ultra HD, but it’s not the same, and until UHD content is out there for everyone to acquire, not just new owners of TVs, there will be a problem with 4K content availability.