Sony will offer 4k movies for download via Video Unlimited service by early fall 2013, according to executives. The movies are from Sony Pictures and also from other independent production houses.

Sony's chief operating officer, Phil Molyneux, announced to the press that the company would launch Video Unlimited 4k in early fall 2013 and will change the previous system, allowing 4K TV owners to view native 4K content from Sony's 4K media server.

"We will be first in the world with a native 4k downloading service. We're populating that now with 4K feature films, primarily from Sony Pictures, but there are other short-form films from other production houses," said Mr Molyneux.

When it comes with 4K content from other major studios, Mr Molyneux only said that Sony had a "good relationship" with studios for Video Unlimited for its standard-definition and HD content. He could not determine yet if the launch would include PlayStation 4 content since the product has a different timeline.

4K Movie Format

4K resolutions exist mostly in digital television and digital cinematography, which refers to the horizontal resolution instead of the vertical one. The 4K Ultra HD has 3840 x 2160 lines or 8.3 megapixels with an aspect ratio 16:9. The 4K UHDA has twice the horizontal and vertical resolution of the 1080p HDTV format with four time as many pixels overall.

Most common video streaming sites supporting 4K movies are YouTube with maximum upload resolution of 4096 x 3072 or 12.6 megapixels and Vimeo with same resolution of movie uploads as well.

4K requires compatible television sets which could cost within a $1,000 budget barrier, and if you need additional features such as from Sony, you are going to possibly need a 55-inch TV set and the most affordable unit would cost about $5,000.