Television manufacturers are moving toward ultra high definition — also known as “4K” — which offers four times the resolution of HD. It also offers greater depth of color and faster frame rate. That means more information must travel through the cable from the video source to the TV. The current de facto cable, HDMI, or high-definition multimedia interface, solves some of the old problems of multiple cables, incompatible interfaces and bandwidth issues, but it could it be approaching the end of the line.
I'm surprised that you went to the trouble to talk about 4:2:0 color space, but did not describe 4:4:4 color space at 60Hz, and the higher bandwidth required for it. Moving forward into FY2016, there are two requirements for the maximum picture information to be displayed of native 4K material. 1) HDMI 2.0 with 18Gbps bandwidth, and 2) source and sink devices which are 4:4:4 compliant, not merely 4:2:0 compliant (which is equivalent to current Blu-ray color space). Unfortunately there are no regulations which dictate that manufacturers must adhere to only the 4:4:4 certification OR that they must label their devices as being 4:2:0 or 4:4:4 compliant. This means that even if you have 4K content (which natively is 4:4:4) and have a 4K display (ADP, UltraHD FPD or FPJ), if there is anything in between, such as a receiver or switch which is only 4:2:0 compliant, then the display will only show 4:2:0, not 4:4:4.
On a side note, Sony has thrown a big monkey wrench into the mix by mandating HDCP 2.2 compliance in the digital chain of devices in order to show 4K theatrical releases (at least Sony/Columbia-TriStar titles). Otherwise the resolution will be downgraded, as will the color space.
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The Next-Gen TV Cable Dilemma
Posted by: Peter Suciu October 22, 2014 06:44 AMTelevision manufacturers are moving toward ultra high definition — also known as “4K” — which offers four times the resolution of HD. It also offers greater depth of color and faster frame rate. That means more information must travel through the cable from the video source to the TV. The current de facto cable, HDMI, or high-definition multimedia interface, solves some of the old problems of multiple cables, incompatible interfaces and bandwidth issues, but it could it be approaching the end of the line.
On a side note, Sony has thrown a big monkey wrench into the mix by mandating HDCP 2.2 compliance in the digital chain of devices in order to show 4K theatrical releases (at least Sony/Columbia-TriStar titles). Otherwise the resolution will be downgraded, as will the color space.