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Ultra-high-definition television

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 67.182.237.57 (talk) at 05:32, 21 July 2011 (→‎Experimental technology: Changed 120 fps to 60. Source is on talk page. I don't know sources citing well, so I put the cite needed tag. I'm not sure about the 24 fps claim. That may need source/verification as well. Thx). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

UHDTV resolution shown in comparison to HD and SD formats

Ultra High Definition Television (or UHDTV, Ultra HDTV, 4320p, and Ultra High Definition Video (UHDV)) is a digital video format, currently proposed under the leadership of NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories. It is 16 times the resolution of HDTV. IMAX has roughly the same resolution as UHDTV.[1][2]

Wide Quad High Definition (WQHD) (2560×1440) and Quad Full High Definition (QFHD) (3840×2160) are not the same resolution as that of UHDTV and represent intermediate resolutions mid-way between those of HDTV and UHDTV.

NHK is advocating this video format as Super Hi-Vision (SHV).

Experimental technology

UHDTV's main tentative specifications:[3]

  • Number of pixels: 7,680 × 4,320
  • Aspect ratio: 16:9
  • Viewing distance: 0.75H
  • Viewing angle: 100°
  • Colorimetry: Rec. 1361
  • Frame rate: 120Hz progressive
  • Bit depth: 12
  • Audio system: 22.2ch
    • Sampling rate: 48kHz, 96kHz
    • Bit length: 16, 20, 24
    • Pre-emphasis less
    • Number of channels: 24
      • Upper layer: 9ch
      • Middle layer: 10ch
      • Lower layer: 3ch
      • LFE: 2ch

Since this format is highly experimental, NHK researchers had to build their own prototype from scratch. In the system demonstrated in September 2003, they used an array of 16 HDTV recorders to capture the 30-minute-long test footage.

The camera itself was built with four 2.5 inch (64 mm) CCDs, each with a resolution of only 3840 × 2048. Using two CCDs for green and one each for red and blue, they then used a spatial pixel offset method[4] to bring it to 7680 × 4320.[5]

The system was demonstrated at Expo 2005, Aichi, Japan, the NAB 2006 and NAB 2007 conferences, Las Vegas, at IBC 2006 and IBC 2008,[6] Amsterdam, Netherlands, and CES 2009. A review of the NAB 2006 demo was published in a Broadcast Engineering e-newsletter.[7] In November 2005, NHK demonstrated a live relay of a UHDTV program over a distance of 260 km by a fiber optic network. Using dense wavelength division multiplex (DWDM), 24 Gbit/s speed was achieved with a total of 16 different wavelength signals.

On December 31, 2006, NHK demonstrated a live relay of their annual Kōhaku Uta Gassen over IP from Tokyo to a 450 inch (11.4 m) screen in Osaka. Utilizing a codec developed by NHK, the video was compressed from 24 Gbit/s to 180–600 Mbit/s and the audio was compressed from 28 Mbit/s to 7–28 Mbit/s.[8] Uncompressed, a 20 minute broadcast would require roughly 4 TB of storage.

In another indoor demonstration at the NHK Open House, the UHDTV signal was compressed to a 250 Mbit/s MPEG2 stream. This was later input to a 300 MHz wide band modulator and broadcast using a 500 MHz QPSK modulation. This "on the air" transmission had a very limited range (less than 2 meters), but shows the feasibility of a satellite transmission in the 36,000 km orbit.

In 2008, Aptina Imaging announced the introduction of a new CMOS Image sensor specifically designed for the NHK UHDTV project.[9]

The BBC also appears to be interested in the technology. During IBC 2008 Japan's NHK, Italy's RAI, the BBC, RTE, Sony, Samsung, and Panasonic (with various partners) demonstrated the first ever public live transmission of UHDTV, from London to the conference site in Amsterdam.[10][11]

In addition, it was demonstrated at the BBC's Media Centre in West London in early October 2008. The BBC has been looking into the use of its Dirac codec with UHDTV.

On September 29, 2010, the BBC and NHK partnered up and recorded The Charlatans live in the UK in the UHDTV format, before broadcasting over the internet to Japan.[12]

On May 19, 2011, SHARP demonstrated a direct-view 85" LCD display capable of 7680 x 4320 pixels at 10 bpp.[13]

Although UHDTV has increased resolution compared with existing HD standards, it uses the same number of frames per second (60 FPS, whereas modern cinema films are usually 24 FPS). [citation needed]

The final goal is for UHDTV to be available in domestic homes, though the timeframe for this happening varies between 2016 to 2020 (mainly based on technical reasons concerning storage and broadcast distribution of content).[14]

Standards that deal with UHDTV include:

  • Rec. ITU-R BT.1201-1 (2004)
  • Rec. ITU-R BT.1706 (2006)
  • SMPTE 2036-1 (2009)
  • SMPTE 2036-2 (2008)
  • SMPTE 2036-3 (2010)

See also

Notes and references

  1. ^ Latest Research Activities of NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories From Open House 2002
  2. ^ Progress on Large, Wide-screen Image Presentation NHK STRL, Broadcast Technology No.18, Spring 2004
  3. ^ Open House 2011 Exhibition
  4. ^ The resulting lines in the image alternate between pixels from the green-1 and red CCDs, and pixels from the blue and green-2 CCDs.
  5. ^ M. Kanazawa; et al. (2003). "Ultrahigh-Definition Video System with 4000 Scanning Lines" (PDF). NHK. Retrieved 2008-03-12. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help); Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)
  6. ^ Sangani, Kris (2008-10-11). "A game of leapfrog". Engineering & Technology. 3 (17): 8. doi:10.1049/et:20081720. ISSN 1750-9637. Retrieved 2008-10-31.
  7. ^ "Ultra HD draws crowds, interest at NAB2006". BroadcastEngineering HD Technology Update e-newsletter. 2006-05-02. Retrieved 2007-02-14.
  8. ^ "Super Hi-Vision live relay over IP". NHK. 2007-04-03. Retrieved 2008-01-15.
  9. ^ "Aptina Imaging introduces new high performance cmos sensor for high definition broadcasting video camera". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. ^ "IBC Plans Two HD Firsts". AVS Forums. 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  11. ^ "Live super-HD TV to debut at IBC". Broadcast Now. 2008-05-27. Retrieved 2008-10-03.
  12. ^ "'Historic' broadcast of super HD from UK to Japan". BBC News. 2010-09-29.
  13. ^ http://www.engadget.com/2011/05/19/sharp-shows-off-the-worlds-first-super-hi-vision-lcd-with-16x-m/ SHARP and NHK SHV display demonstrations
  14. ^ http://www.satmagazine.com/cgi-bin/display_article.cgi?number=243539090

External links

Official sites of NHK

Video

Articles