Attention moves beyond 4K resolution to HDR and ‘Ultra HD Premium’ at CES

There is plenty of Ultra HD news coming out of CES 2016 in Las Vegas this week, as you might expect, and the biggest developments are the emergence of the ‘Ultra HD Premium’ brand and logo – signifying displays that offer much more than 4K resolution and include better colour and high dynamic range – and the related shift in focus onto the merits of colour and contrast as part of a fully-formed next-generation viewing experience. Panasonic provided its own verdict with its declaration that “the buzz this year at CES is all about entering a new era in picture quality, as the already spectacular visuals made possible by 4K UHD resolution are joined by high dynamic range (HDR) technology.”

Ahead of the show (the word barely covers what CES is – a city-wide exposition that takes up endless floors in high-rise hotels, not just exhibition halls), Parks Associates revealed television purchase intentions in key European markets that point to an appetite for 4K screens, at least. The company reported that among broadband households planning to purchase a flat-panel TV, 59% in the UK, 57% in France, 53% in Spain and 49% in Germany plan to purchase a 4K TV even though content is not yet widely available.

“4K picture quality is an important consideration to a majority of flat-panel TV buyers in Western Europe and is highest in Spain and lowest in Germany,” the research and analyst firm revealed. “French broadband households are the most willing to pay a higher premium for 4K TV picture quality.”

The stakes are now being raised of course, with the UHD Alliance (UHDA) recently completing its premium specifications for UHD displays, content and distribution, outlining performance metrics relating not just to resolution but to high dynamic range (HDR), peak luminance, black levels and wide color gamut, among other things. There are also recommendations regarding immersive audio. The specs are being backed by a conformance and certification programme complete with consumer-facing Ultra HD Premium logo. 

“The diverse group of UHDA companies agreed that to realize the full potential of Ultra HD the specs need to go beyond resolution and address enhancements like HDR, expanded colour and ultimately even immersive audio. Consumer testing confirmed this,” Hanno Basse, President of the UHD Alliance, explained. “The criteria established by this broad cross section of the Ultra HD ecosystem [the organisation has over 35 members] enables the delivery of a revolutionary in-home experience, and the Ultra HD Premium logo gives consumers a single identifying mark to seek out so they can purchase with confidence.”

Paul Erickson, Senior Analyst at IHS Technology, reckons the certification programme is a good idea. “For the many mainstream consumers looking to make sense of the various terminologies, acronyms and feature descriptions at retail, standardisation efforts like this can reduce consumer confusion and help ensure consistency of both buyer expectations and the delivery of the end experience. That benefits not only consumers but the industry as a whole.”

IHS is forecasting that annual worldwide shipments of Ultra HD televisions will grow 719% over the next few years, from nearly 12 million in 2014 to nearly 96 million in 2019. There will be over 300 million UHD televisions in use by the end of 2019, the analyst firm reckons. 

Samsung Electronics used CES to announce that its entire line-up of 2016 UHD televisions (called SUHD by the company – with the ‘S’ apparently signifying their best technology efforts) has been awarded the new UHD Premium Certification by the UHD Alliance. As a result, a certification logo from the UHDA will be included on all Samsung SUHD TVs launched in 2016. “This is the most trusted identifier of top UHD picture quality, ensuring consumers can easily identify premium technology in the marketplace,” the CE giant declared. 

All 2016 OLED TV models from LG Electronics also feature the UHD Premium seal of approval. Meanwhile, Panasonic has hailed its DX900 as the world’s First Official ‘Ultra HD Premium’ TV and explained how it meets a whole range of tough picture performance criteria as set out by the Ultra HD Premium specification. “The UHDA’s Ultra HD Premium rating is designed to help consumers see at a glance which TVs are best equipped to handle the cutting edge picture formats ready to set new standards of quality in 2016,” the company stated.

It has been clear for a while that there would have to be some new marketing around next-generation television to differentiate between 4K and ‘true’ or ‘premium’ UHD. The question now is what Ultra HD Premium will mean for ‘standard’ Ultra HD products (like those carrying DigitalEurope’s Ultra HD logo) and whether the world will settle for two visual quality options, long-term, as it did for SD and HD televisions.

One of the immediate marketing challenges is to make sure consumers know that your ‘UHD Premium’ televisions are still good for ‘non-premium’ viewing, like standard 4K. Panasonic hit the ground running. “While HDR might be grabbing the headlines in 2016, 4K UHD technology also continues to redefine what’s possible with TV picture quality, finding its way into ever more screens and content sources. The DX900’s beautiful native 4K UHD resolution makes it perfect for streamed 4K content.”

Confirming that television makers have moved decisively beyond resolution at this CES, Panasonic explained how the DX900 manages to combine the extreme brightness that is the strength of LCD displays with “the sort of contrast and black level response that people used to love about Panasonic’s plasma TVs.”

The company adds: “While nobody doubts the potential of LCD screens to go extremely bright to meet the demands of the new luminance-expanding High Dynamic Range picture format, questions have been raised over whether LCDs can deliver HDR’s brightness heights without severely compromising their handling of dark image areas. The DX900 proves definitively that an LCD can indeed deliver both the brightness highs and black level depths of a great HDR experience.”

This is achieved using what Panasonic calls a honeycomb structure local dimming technology, where the picture is divided into hundreds of individually controlled lighting zones that are rigorously isolated from each other so there is minimal light leakage between them. “The result is a picture able to contain extremely bright peaks and deep blacks simultaneously without the light halo or ‘bloom’ effect around the bright objects that LCD technology usually produces,” the company confirms.

Panasonic said the DX900 “is literally built for HDR” but promised an improved non-HDR experience (for content that has not been made in HDR) thanks to a new processing chipset that faithfully reproduces the pre-HDR Rec 709 industry video standard. This Panasonic HCX+ (Hollywood Cinema eXperience plus) chip combines an enhanced 3D Look Up Table system and new colour compensation algorithm to improve on-screen colour accuracy. 

“This means the DX900 can reproduce hues and tones within the Rec 709 standard space at every level of brightness. This is done at such an accurate degree that pictures verge on the sort of fidelity only previously possible on hugely expensive professional studio master screens,” Panasonic claims.

Panasonic has already prepared for life after the ‘Ultra HD Premium’ logo, in terms of how to maintain product marketing differentiation. “Don’t just take our word that the DX900 is capable of producing images of outstanding accuracy,” the company told the world at CES 2016. “As well as securing the highest Ultra HD Premium grade from the UHDA, the DX900 has earned 4K Certification from a renowned independent quality assurance group, THX – a recognition of picture quality and accuracy that precious few TVs achieve.”

THX is an audio-visual specialist that provides a list of approved equipment for both movie studios and cinemas, with its certification programme covering digital cinema HD video encoding, among other things. It tells consumers that the merits of going to a THX Certified cinema are that “it holds the promise of delivering the director’s vision with the best visuals and sound experiences possible.”

Explaining why the best TVs are THX Certified, the company says: “We have been synonymous with great movie sound for decades. Now, THX sets the bar for picture quality with accurate colour, sharp pictures and the critically acclaimed THX Cinema Mode. It’s no wonder THX Certified Displays are among the world’s best, or any other world for that matter.”

Although high dynamic range is one of the star technologies being bundled within the new ‘UHD Premium’ branding, it has already received enough plaudits to be valued in its own right by the more tech-savvy and early adopting consumers. The evidence from CES is that HDR is going to be marketed hard in its own right, which makes sense given that it is resolution-independent, and could eventually be an asset for HD televisions as well as tablets.

Aside of its UHD Premium announcement, LG flagged its support for 4K with HDR-enabled streaming services on various television sets, with the HDR10 and Dolby Vision formats among those supported. LG, Dolby and Netflix collaborated to create 4K Dolby Vision HDR footage from Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ series for LG OLED TVs for visitors to watch on the booth. “The Dolby Vision content takes full advantage of LG’s OLED technology to deliver brighter highlights, deeper darks, enhanced details and colours unmatched by conventional TVs for a superior TV viewing experience,” LG declared.

LG has also teamed up with a number of content providers to ensure the best streaming content is available for HDR viewing. Original HDR programmes from Amazon including ‘The Man in the High Castle’, ‘Red Oaks’, ‘Transparent’ and ‘Mozart in the Jungle’ are being demonstrated at CES. Visitors can also experience YouTube’s HDR content for the first time, demonstrated using Google’s VP9-Profile 2 codec. YouTube will provide HDR playback through its TV app starting later this year.

There is a dark room on the LG booth specifically to display HDR video clips from deep space shot by NASA and produced by Harmonic, the official UHD partner of NASA. “LG’s OLED TVs, with their ability to deliver deep blacks, showcase the recently announced NASA TV UHD channel in the best possible way, taking consumers much closer to the real experience of being in space,” Peter Alexander, Senior Vice President and CMO at Harmonic, comments.

With LG also demonstrating local over-the-air broadcast of HDR-enabled signals, using the ATSC 3.0 standard and HEVC encoding, Brian Kwon, President and CEO at LG’s Home Entertainment Company, confirmed that, “At LG we take content just as seriously as TV technology and hardware.”

Panasonic is also highlighting the fact that the DX900 will soon offer titles in HDR from Amazon, with plans to support the upcoming Netflix HDR streams. Sony Electronics has gone one better, announcing ULTRA, a new app from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment that will be launched in the US this year to allow consumers to purchase and stream 4K HDR movies and TV shows directly onto their Sony 4K HDR TV.1. These will be the best new and classic titles from the 4K digital library of Sony Pictures.

Sony used the show to unveil its latest line-up of 4K Ultra HD televisions (the XBR-X930D, XBR-X940D and XBR-X850D series) which are designed to support HDR and provide what the company says are unique backlighting technologies, all in ultra-thin designs. 

Confirming that HDR will be marketed in its own right (a virtue for televisions that will not be UHD Premium badged, and maybe advisable even if they are), Sony has its own ‘4K HDR Ultra HD’ logo for its high dynamic range sets. “This logo will be used across Sony’s 4K HDR Ultra HD compatible products, from content production to display devices and services,” the company announced. “Logoed televisions meet the Consumer Technology Association’s (CTA) HDR definition and support compelling next-generation visual experiences.”

Paolo Pescatore, Director, Multiplay and Media at analyst firm CCS Insight, has given his commentary on the show so far. “Unsurprisingly HDR is as big a theme as 4K, if not bigger, and the latest announcements from Samsung, LG, Sony and Panasonic clearly reinforce this. All consumer electronic providers are now jumping on the HDR bandwagon in order to sell more TVs. 

“There is no denying that HDR is very much needed given the initial poor 4K experiences. The difference between 1080p HD and 4K displays is only really noticeable on screens larger than 40 inches; however improvements can be gained by integrating other technologies such as higher frame rates and, more importantly, HDR. 

“It is paramount for content and media owners to support HDR and there is still a distinct lack of 4K content in the market. We expect HDR to feature prominently throughout the year and especially at NAB in April.”

While the UHD Alliance was grabbing the early CES headlines with the Premium UHD logo programme, another organisation tasked with bringing UHD to market successfully, the Ultra HD Forum, was meeting to discuss next-generation audio, backwards compatibility, content security, 2016 field trials including live events and ATSC 3.0 (US digital terrestrial) testing.

Ultra HD Forum is complementary to the UHD Alliance, with both groups aiming to minimise fragmentation in this emerging market, enable the smooth flow of UHD content and deliver the ‘wow’ factor consumers will pay for. Whereas the main focus for the UHD Alliance is content creation and playback, the Ultra-HD Forum focuses on the end-to-end distribution infrastructure and seeks to ensure the proper network infrastructure is developed, in place and interoperable as service providers move to deployment. 

The Ultra-HD Forum is working on deployment guidelines and best-practice knowledge sharing and one of its biggest jobs currently is defining the first version of its guidelines that will enable operators to deploy next generation UHD services with high dynamic range in 2016. Currently under review by the Forum’s members, these guidelines will be published before NAB this year (NAB 2016 is April 16-21, also in Las Vegas). Videonet recently hosted a webcast with the Ultra-HD Forum called ‘Ultra HD: What Is It And When Will We See It’, which you can listen to here.