4k TVs at USFPD2014

March 3, 2014, US Flat Panel Display Connected Devices Conference, Santa Clara, CA—Paul Gray from NPD DisplaySearch moderated a panel on the emerging 4k TV segments. Panelists included Rob Tobias from Silicon Image, Joe Kane from Joe Kane Productions, Ken Lowe from Vizio, Amine Chabane from Marseille Networks, and Brian Markwalter from the Consumer Electronics Association.

There were fairly large misunderstandings as directors tried to work with the new formats. Now the industry is trying to catch up with new standards and a better definition of the value proposition for consumers. Netflix will start streaming 4k content this year in many regions in the world. Unfortunately, there is still no easy way to meet the varying standards for transmission and display across all these areas.

The consumers are not following the new directions for 4k. In tests, a high-frame rate produced better responses than higher resolution. For consumers, the question is whether the new format is good enough to upgrade their fairly new TV set. Broadcasters are evaluating the various versions of UHD with changes in resolution, frame rates, bit depth, color gamut, and dynamic range.

Even with all the coming changes, 4k TV is already out in the wild. The Chinese market is addressing different issues than the other part of the world. They are selling the TVs at a small premium in their domestic markets but have no special image processing to upscale HD, nor is there any native 4k content. Nevertheless, they expect to ship 9.9M sets this year. In comparison, the global brands are aiming to maximize image quality and should move about 2.6M TVs.

Broadcasters are starting experiments with new ways to use the extra pixels, and change the overall viewing experience. Sky Deutschland is planning to incorporate multi-view with the extra panes for director’s cut, replays, and other special effects. Moving to a HFR transmission will reduce motion artifacts in fast action, because the shallow depth of field in cinema is not realistic for action sports.

We learned from 3-D that changes to the viewing experience have to be easy and immersive. 3-D is dieing an early death because it is not immersive with glasses. 4K has to be the custodian for image quality or the industry will be frozen in HD. In 3-D, the industry rushed to generate content without concern for value or good user experiences.

Tobias described his company and noted that they are deeply involved in connectivity standards like MHL, HDMI, etc. They develop products that adhere to those standards and continue to address the requirements within the standards to meet the latest display needs.

Kane conducted a mini-tutorial on 4k and the requirements for production images. the various video formats are named for their horizontal resolution, and the vertical resolution is based on the aspect ratio. The cinema world has been using 4k in post for years. Now, the consumer displays are emerging with horizontal resolution that is not equal to 4k, 4096 x 3080 but is only 3840 x 2160. This format for consumer use was defined by ISO and is called 2160 P. One problem is that 4096 is not easily scaled to 3840 as the sizes differ by 6 percent. The current solution is to truncate the edges at post.

The video formats have been named by their vertical resolution, 480, 576, 720, and 1080 to date. 2160 is nice because it is twice the vertical resolution of 1080 P. Since 4k is not the real resolution, UHD is the current name for this format.

Lowe talked about the various sets in their lineup and noted that the new sets have integrated up scaling capabilities and support not just the higher resolution but also a wider color gamut, local dimming for higher contrast, 10-bit color, and HDR.

Chabane claimed that the delivery of 4k has to be in terms of the best visual experience. The lack of standards is a challenge, but the industry needs to have the capability to take any input format and deliver 4k to the consumer. The focus has to be on image quality and fidelity.

Markwalter described the CEA’s collaboration and inputs into defining the UHD standards and naming conventions. The CEA has helped to define interfaces like CEA 861 which is incorporated in the next generation HDMI specification. So far, 13-14 companies have market entries in 4k and are ready to deliver. Demonstrations are key to market penetration in the US, and better quality than HD is what will matter.

Hollywood attitude towards 4k ?
Kane considered that the content creators are surprised and are finding that the interface to delivery is something that they don’ understand. MovieLabs is redefining UHD to include HDR, high color gamut, and metadata. They are recommending some standard options for UHD delivery.

Recommendations for formats and gaps?
Tobias declared that interface standards are emerging. HDMI, MHL, etc. are looking at broadcast and cinema inputs for bandwidth, metadata, and other issues. Other specifications like the color space are being defined.

Wireless 4k?
Tobias noted that the silicon exists in a number of formats. The 60 GHz band is a likely choice and some transport options use compression to reduce bandwidth while others ship the full data stream.

Kane addressed the need for HDR and color depth and gamut as more important than higher resolution. The resolution only applies to the pixel count while UHD can be expanded to be much more than just a bigger 720 P or 1080 P image.

Lowe agreed that color matters. The ATSC committees are looking at a broadcast standard to be released in ’16.

Markwalter suggested that there are no big gaps in the existing standards, and most are already aligned for 4k.

Chabane exclaimed that 4k has many interfaces for the panels and source data. The intent is to move towards greater reality. If you use 8-bit pixels on a panel, you need to understand how to take advantage of any content and be able to transfer the content to various platforms. This situation indicated a good future for silicon.

4k sales and content?
Gray stated that the technology is growing in China as set makers are trying to open a new market. It is all numbers marketing with emphasis on low prices. The Chinese markets are famous for poor labeling and a complete lack of consumer protection legislation. 4k is a fad in China. For the rest of the world, there is a longer attention span, so there is more effort in developing a new ecosystem and addressing the underlying issues of standards and quality.

Dream specifications? NHK is testing 8k and shipping 4k now.
Kane responded that a 1080P image needs a 6-foot wide space for best viewing. A 2160P will need a 10-foot wall for proper viewing. This wall would be a tile of four (4) 2160P panels to see an 8k image, something that is not practical for a normal environment. For example, “Oklahoma” was scanned from a 65 mm film at 30 FPS and down converted to 2160P. even if you shoot at 8k native, you will still have to down convert to 2160P to view the pictures. The resulting quality if the images will be degraded due to the conversions. There is no 2160 content even though HD DVDs are mastered in 4k. It will be a major challenge to deliver 2160, so 8k will be even harder.

Chabane disagreed since film standard is to shoot at 24 fps, so you cannot see any better images with a HFR UHD TV. 8k content will be as good as it gets for a full native image to the TV because more information is perceivable. The iPad 3 changed our expectations of image quality. Consumers like and value better images, so it is up to the creators to learn how to create and reproduce high-quality images content.

Kane retorted that 8k is coming and what it will take to deliver content will be there.

Lowe opined that the ecosystem cannot support direct 8k. there is no way to generate 8k content and get it to the home. An 8k image has 33M pixels, so you cannot get the data to the home with existing bandwidth limits.

Markwalter noted that studies have shown that the size and other issues are not insurmountable. Those who have experienced 8k in demonstrations consider the images to be super realistic and more like real stuff.

8k standards calls for 120 fps, implying a 250GB stream. What standards and labels will insure the increased number of pixels, higher color depth of 12 bits, and wider color gamut?
Markwalter alleged that there are discussions to define all the requirements, develop new logos to identify UHD compliance, certifications, changes to pure scale, and native content. These efforts will raise the bar for “real” 4k content. For the 2160P, the number of bits is already defined.

Kane noted that 202 is a carrier specification and does not work for displays. The alternative is CAP XYZ. Given that, 80 percent of 2020 is better than nothing.

Gray added that no one can make a 2020 display today.

Will the next generation TV change the replacement cycle?
Kane commented that UHD is going to include HDR, grey scale, color gamut and depth differences. These features are not compatible with HD.

Tobias claimed that the replacement cycle has already shrunk from 10 to 7 years. 4k will reduce this cycle even more.

Markwalter noted that the transition to HD was partially driven by the change to digital TV, so forced many to upgrade their sets sooner than usual. Now the advent of 4k coincides with pent up demand and older sets due for replacement.