For those interested in the importance of ULTRA HD/4K standards and their use in televisions

September 26, 2019

Let's start with a little historical excursion. Originally, the HD format meant a signal with a resolution of 1280x720. Compared to standard definition (720x480/576) videos, HD videos are impressive.

However, even HD format on large screens lost sharpness. The industry soon adopted the Full HD format, which displayed images with a resolution of 1920x1080. Such an image contains more than 2 million pixels.

At the time, the Full HD format was a significant technological step.
Modernity is unimaginable without Full HD. Movies, videos, games - all of them have Full HD format.

At first glance, the Full HD format would satisfy the needs of even the most demanding and demanding user, but… the diagonal size of TVs is constantly increasing. If a few years ago a 40-inch TV was considered huge, today TVs of this diagonal are installed only in small rooms.

For large-diagonal TVs, 1920x1080 resolution is not enough. If you sit close to the TV, you can even distinguish the pixel structure. Today, even smartphones have Full HD resolution.

Their dimensions are truly microscopic compared to modern TVs. It has already become very clear that a different standard is needed for large screens.

Ultra HD and 4K TVs

The new standard is Ultra HD (also known as UHD and UHDTV). Like HDTV (720p and 1080p), Ultra HD comes in two formats. The first has a resolution of 3840x2160 and is called Quad HD, 4K Ultra HD. The second, 8K Ultra HD , has a resolution of 7680x4320.

To confuse consumers, 8K Ultra HD is called Super Hi-Vision in Japan, while in the film industry, the terms 2K, 4K, and 8K are established by the Digital Cinema Initiatives association, which show the expansion capabilities of cameras and also describe the traditional film scanning standard.

8K is practically not widespread, and manufacturers offer consumers 4K TVs and other products with this format. It is with this extension that all modern films and TV series are shot. 4K Ultra HD TVs offer consumers the best possible image quality.

The resolution of 4K Ultra HD is 4 times higher than that of Full HD.
Ultra-high definition video provides not only high detail, but also a wide range of colors thanks to 10/12-bit color depth.

It is worth noting that the standardized frame rate of Ultra HD has increased to 120 frames per second. This content is not yet used, but in the future it will definitely be useful for active 3D. Also, this format supports up to 24 audio channels.

The amount of data is not enough to expand Ultra HD four times. The standard industry format AVC/H.264 is less efficient for Ultra HD, and it became necessary to create a new standard HEVC (High Efficiency Video Codec) with the H.265 codec.

The difficulties of Ultra HD

As you can see, Ultra HD has significant advantages, although their evaluation would be better on real material. The distribution of Ultra HD is associated with some difficulties.

The scarcity of models with Ultra HD - the number of computer monitors on the market that support this format is small. It is worth noting that their prices are very high. It is likely that prices will soon drop significantly, as was the case with Full HD.

Underdevelopment of the digital interface for transmitting 4K signals - only computer video cards with DisplayPort video inputs fully support the 4K expansion frequency of 60 Hz.

This is the frequency that gamers need for fast image transitions. To get 3D, 120 Hz is best. In the case of TVs, 4K Ultra HD can be transmitted at a frequency of 24-30 frames per second with HDMI input version 1.4b, which is only enough for 2D movies.

For active 3D, these indicators are not enough. For 50/60 Hz 4K, HDMI 2.0 version is implemented. None of the 4K TVs on the market are equipped with this type of input.

Some manufacturers, such as Sony, are promising to implement HDMI 2.0 via a TV firmware update. Other companies are not talking about it yet.

Lack of 4K content - Currently, 4K content is distributed only in the form of demonstration videos, as there is no approved physical carrier for them. The Blu-Ray Disc Association is currently considering the possibility of creating 4K-compatible Blu-Ray discs.

If they do start production, they won't be available for more than a year. Some manufacturers have released 4K Ready models of BD players, which upscale a standard Full HD signal to Ultra HD.

The leader in this matter is Sony, which owns its own film studio. The company has released a media player, the FMP-X1, to accompany its 4K TVs. This device, priced at $700, is available only for the American market.

The film library itself is limited to just a few hundred titles from Sony/Columbia and its related television shows. Digital versions of the existing film library are already in 4K format and are used for Blu-Ray and HDTV streaming.

The lack of approved standards and carriers is actually hindering the spread of 4K content. However, there is a way out of this situation.

Great hopes for the popularization of 4K are pinned on gaming consoles, specifically the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Microsoft has vaguely stated that there is nothing to prevent graphics processing up to 4K, and the PS4 intends to continue rendering games in Full HD and upscale this signal to Ultra HD.

Computer gamers

The case for PC gamers is much easier. Modern graphics cards already have the power to render 4K games. We just have to wait for the mass distribution of 4K DisplayPort 60 Hz TVs.

There is also hope for the rapid spread of Ultra HD in digital distribution. For example, YouTube has supported 4K video for several years now. Cameras and smartphones that can record in Ultra HD format are already available to consumers.

Modern cameras have far surpassed 4K resolution, but we can assume that 4K content will not become widespread in the near future.

Video displayed on Ultra HD screens will be upscaled to Full HD. This technology is very simple. A 1080p image is upscaled to Ultra HD by simply doubling the pixels. As a result, one pixel of the original image will occupy 4 pixels on the screen (or 9 in the case of a 720p signal).

Tips: How to choose TVs?

This is the technology that manufacturers are using. Judging by the feedback, the upscaled image on Ultra HD screens is distinguished by greater sharpness, richer colors, and high-quality images.

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