Ultra High Definition Television (or UHDTV, Ultra HDTV, and 4320p) is a digital video format, currently proposed by NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories. It has 16 times the number of pixels of HDTV (high-definition video). 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).
Contents |
UHDTV's main tentative specifications:[3]
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 fibre 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 metres), 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]
During IBC 2008 Japan's NHK, Italy's RAI, BSkyB, Sony, Samsung, Panasonic Corporation, and Sharp Corporation Toshiba (with various partners) demonstrated the first ever public live transmission of UHDTV, from London to the conference site in Amsterdam.[10][11]
On September 29, 2010, the 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]
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]
The BBC intends to trial UHDTV during the 2012 Summer Olympics, erecting 15 m display screens at two or three locations.[15]
Standards that deal with UHDTV include:
Official sites of NHK
Video
Articles
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||