Audio Video News

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is getting more specific about its standards for Ultra High-Definition TVs and projectors. Building on its initial 2012 specs, it requires UHD TVs to have: resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels; aspect ratio of 16:9 or more; upscaling of HD to UHD; one or more HDMI inputs supporting 3840 x 2160 pixels at 24, 30, and 60 frames per second; one or more such inputs with HDCP 2.2 (or equivalent) copyright protection; support for the ITU-R BT. 709 color space or wider colorimetry standards; and a minimum color bit depth of 8 bits.

Some of these standards appear on the surface to be pretty minimal: ITU-R BT. 709 has been around since 1990, and 8-bit color is pretty basic stuff in computers. “We intend for these naming requirements to be useful today and not aspirational,” explains Brian Markwalter, CEA’s senior VP of research and standards.

“ITU video format standards like BT. 709 and BT. 2020 are big, generational video format standards. They cover many characteristics of video, including pixel count, color space, and frame rate. It takes years for the entire capture, production, distribution, and display industries to migrate. Think about how long it took for all the infrastructure to change over from analog SD to digital HD.”

As for color bit depth, “we understand that chipsets are migrating from 8-bit to 10-bit. I anticipate you will see plenty of 10-bit UHD TVs out there, but we are on the front of that curve.”

Mindful of the streaming juggernaut, CEA also revealed requirements for connected UHD TVs. They must meet the standards above, decode IP- delivered video compressed using the latest HEVC compression as well as other standard encoders, handle multichannel audio, support IP-delivered video through services or apps, and work with Wi-Fi, Ethernet, or other connections.