Folded Space suggests Blu-ray could work with "billions of colors"

There's a bit of technology being introduced this week by the folks at Folded Space that they suggest will allow "Deep Color Content Encoding" that'd be fully backwards-compatible with existing Blu-ray players, allowing 12 bits per color rather than the current 8. This bit of tech would allow studios to release Blu-ray disks compatible with today's most current systems that work with far, far deeper color application than the best available right now. This could be very good news for the Ultra-HD/4K television and display market, to be sure.

The biggest bit of must-have this company needs to overcome is the introduction of a decoding algorithm that'd need to be applied to existing systems. This means that a software update would have to be pushed – and accepted – by users of current Blu-ray players. This also means they'll have to be connected to the internet.

Once they're there, Folded Space can move forward with their new ability to process original content with 12-bits per color for a "much greater color range of recently announced displays."

"In comparison to other proposed content delivery methods that require large amounts of valuable bandwidth or supplementary streams to deliver 12-bit color information, DCE is an extremely efficient process requiring very little additional bandwidth or processing power to deliver true 12-bit equivalent color to compatible displays." – Folded Space

In short – this is a new encoding technology, one that the industry would have to adopt at a base level in order to see it roll out in any kind of significant way. The potential for the company to grow at an extreme rate if this tech were adopted is more than enough to have Folded Space license this encoding algorithm for free to software partners in the near future.

They'll also be licensing the decoding algorithm to hardware partners for a "moderate fee", of course.

VIA: Folded Space, Engadget