UHDTVs are expected to be a big seller this holiday season. But where's the UHD content?
HOLLYWOOD You can already buy several models of 4KTVs ( 4K in this case stands for a resolution of 3840x2160 pixels, more accurately described as Quad HD or 2160p), starting with super-cheap models from Chinese brands like TCL and continuing with higher- priced versions from Samsung, Sony, Sharp, LG, and Panasonic.
However, as you might have guessed, the UHDTV delivery system is far from complete, and there are already some significant technical obstacles to overcome: The first is the new HDMI 2.0 standard, which is barely fast enough to deliver Quad HD content at 60 Hz, using 8-bit color. The consensus of presenters, panelists, and attendees at the SMPTE Technology Conference 4K session recently was that 8-bit color is inadequate for UHDTV, and that 10-bit and preferably 12-bit color should be used in a full 4:4:4 (RGB) delivery format. That's not difficult to do if the source frame rate is 24 Hz, but it will be impossible with fast frame rates over HDMI 2.0. And higher frame rates, plus high dynamic range and deep color, are seen as the real attractions to 4K, according to SMPTE presenters and panelists. So, before UHDTV is even out of the gate, there is already a major connectivity obstacle.
You'll also discover a growing belief among video professionals that it's finally time to ditch the backwards-compatible obsession that has dogged our television systems since NTSC color was standardized 60 years ago.
For UHDTV, this would mean moving exclusively to RGB color, dropping fractional frame rates, and burying interlaced scanning for good as the new UHDTV ecosystem is developed. This sounds like a great idea on paper, but it raises plenty of questions with respect to signal format conversion.
Right now, we have a hodge-podge of broadcast and video formats coming into our 2K-resolution LCD and plasma TVs, including 480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p delivered through MPEG4 H.264 encoding. How will each of those look on a UHDTV?
Upscaling 1080p content appears to be the easiest task, as horizontal and vertical resolution are both doubled using straight pixel interpolation and no de-interlacing is required. Most 1080p content originates from optical disc or streaming sources and comes with slow frame rates (read: movies).
EXISTING CONTENT
But things aren't quite so simple with high frame rate sources, such as live 60Hz programming. Presently, all of that originates as either a 720p/60 broadcast or a 1080i/30 broadcast. Jumping from 720p to 2160p requires tripling the number of pixels in both axes, plus performing motion interpolation for the two additional pixels. 1080i adds the burden of de-interlacing to the process.
And how does upconverted 720p and 1080i programming look? Not as bad as you might think, but it's definitely a step down from native 4:4:4 2160p content, as demonstrated at the SMPTE event by several manufacturers of video processors. Think of the difference between 480i composite video and 1080p 4:2:2, and you get the idea.
The writer leads a session on 4K delivery at SMPTE last month.
And as we all know, there is still a lot of 480i source material out there, particularly on secondary minor channels like Antenna TV and This TV. These channels specialize in good old days programming from the 50's, 60's, 70's, and even the 80's; all formatted to 4:3 and all using interlaced black-and-white and color formats.
How big is the jump from 480i to 2160p? Assuming a clean de-interlacing job, the pixels need to be interpolated 4.5 times. (And they're in the wrong aspect ratio to begin with.) Add in the fact that you really want to sit closer to a UHDTV screen to get the immersive viewing experience, and you'll quickly realize that NTSC should be buried for good.
While Blu-ray advocates work on a new standard for 2160p/Quad HD authoring, there's a new source for 4K content delivery: Streaming. Amazing as it may seem, Netflix is already testing 4K movie delivery and plans to roll it out next year for premium subscribers. Netflix CEO Reid Hastings said a few months back that 15 Mbps is their targeted streaming rate for 4K, and . . .If you have a 50 Mbps broadband connection, you'll be fine.
The new H.265 High-Efficiency Video Codec will make it possible to stream/play back 2160p video at data rates comparable to those currently used for 1080p; in the range of 10 20 Mbps. (HEVC will also increase the use of 1080p streaming at the expense of 480p and 720p). The first HEVC chips from Broadcom are being evaluated now, but we won't see a wide roll-out of H.265 decoding in consumer products until later next year. Netflix is undoubtedly relying on HEVC to enable 4K streaming, as will Blu-ray and other physical media platforms.
To summarize; we've got plenty of UHDTVs to choose from, with more coming each month at surprisingly affordable prices. And they're all big-screen sets (starting at 50 inches and going up from there). But, their display interfaces aren't fast enough to support 2160p video at high frame rates and deeper color, nor are they likely to be any time soon. And aside from expensive, pre-loaded media players, there aren't any sources of true UHDTV content to watch.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
UHDTVs are expected to be a big seller this holiday season. But where's the UHD content? 
