The most significant announcements at last week’s CES show in Las Vegas was the formation of the Ultra High Definition consortium. The major manufacturers and developers have finally decided on the format requirements of the new UHD (Ultra High Definition, also erroneously referred to as 4K) television format for both transmission and display.
Up until this point there was no precise parameters to define the actual format of UHD. A lot of manufacturers were stating that their televisions were UHD ready without even knowing what the actual broadcast/display standard was going to be! Well, now we know.
UHD increases not only the detail level of (approximately 4 times the resolution of current high definition televisions) but it also has an increased dynamic range (the difference between black and white that the display is able to show) and a substantially increased colour gamut (more colours on the screen). Now that the industry has ironed out these variables, the manufacturers of broadcast and display technologies know what their devices and format HAVE to do in order to carry the designation of UHD.
This will happen with the generation of televisions being released this spring (’15) by most of the manufacturers. One company, Samsung, has added an “S” prefix to their new models ,which the “S” apparently doesn’t stand for anything in particular, but denotes that these sets are in full compliance with the finalized UHD standard.
As far as delivery to the home is concerned most manufacturers have announced plans to release new Blu-Ray players compatible with the UHD standard and both Netflix and YouTube plan on having some internet streaming content in UHD available this year. There are also video cameras and Smart phones available that can record the new UHD standard for playback of your own content.
As most of you know that read my blog, I have been advising to stay away from the UHD format until the format was finalized by the industry. This spring is finally the time to purchase a new UHD television without concern of compatibility! It’s about time!
Now, what size would you like?