Ultra High Definition Video

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Super Hi-Vision, also known as Ultra High Definition Video, UHDV, Ultra High Definition Television, UHDTV and UHD is an experimental digital video format, currently proposed by NHK of Japan.

Super Hi-Vision's main specifications:

  • Resolution: 7,680 × 4,320 pixels (16:9) (approximately 33 megapixels)
  • Frame rate: 60 frame/s.
  • Audio: 22.2 channels
    • 9 — above ear level
    • 10 — ear level
    • 3 — below ear level
    • 2 — low frequency effects
  • Bandwidth: 21 GHz frequency band
    • 600 MHz, 500~6600 Mbit/s bandwidth
UHDV resolution shown in comparison to other digital video formats.
UHDV resolution shown in comparison to other digital video formats.

The new format with a resolution of 7,680 × 4,320 pixels is four times as wide and four times as high (for a total of 16 times the pixel resolution) as existing HDTV, which has a maximum resolution of 1920 × 1080 pixels. According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications will be starting a public-private partnership to develop technology for UHDV in the hopes of setting an international standard for Super Hi-Vision in addition to broadcasting with it beginning in 2015.[1]

Contents

[edit] Experimental technology

Because this format is highly experimental, NHK researchers had to build their own prototype from scratch. In the system demonstrated in September 2003 they used an array of 16 HDTV recorders to capture the 18-minute-long test footage.

The camera itself was built with four 2.5 inch (64 mm) CCDs each with a resolution of only 3840 × 2048. Using two CCDs for green and one each for red and blue, they then used a spatial pixel offset method[2] to bring it to 7680 × 4320.[3]

The system was demonstrated at Expo 2005, Aichi, Japan, the NAB 2006 and NAB 2007 conferences, Las Vegas, and at IBC 2006, Amsterdam, Netherlands. A review of the NAB 2006 demo was published in a Broadcast Engineering e-newsletter.[4]

In November 2005 NHK demonstrated a live relay of Super Hi-Vision (UHDV) program over a distance of 260 km by a fiber optic network. Using dense wavelength division multiplex (DWDM), 24 gigabit speed was achieved with a total of 16 different wavelength signals.

A UHDTV camera
A UHDTV camera

On December 31, 2006, NHK demonstrated a live relay of their annual Kōhaku Uta Gassen over IP from Tokyo to a 450 inch (11.4 m) screen in Osaka. Utilizing a codec developed by NHK, the video was compressed from 24 Gbit/s to 180–600 Mbit/s and the audio was compressed from 28 Mbit/s to 7–28 Mbit/s.[5]

The BBC also appear to be interested in the technology, and they will be collaborating on a demo at IBC 2008, according to the BBC Internet Blog.[6]

[edit] Potential Advantages

One particularly large advantage of 4320p is that it will be able to scale 480i, 480p (both with pillarboxing), 720p, 1080i, 1080p, and 2160p images accurately, as a height of 4320 pixels is a least common multiple of all common NTSC and ATSC TV resolutions. This will create for a more pleasant viewing experience, as the picture will be less distorted than with today's conventional 720p/1080i/p televisions.

[edit] See also

Related technologies

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Govt, private firms to team on Super Hi-Vision. Yomiuri Shimbun (2008-01-14). Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
  2. ^ The resulting lines in the image alternate between pixels from the green-1 and red CCDs, and pixels from the blue and green-2 CCDs.
  3. ^ M. Kanazawa, et al. (2003). "Ultrahigh-Definition Video System with 4000 Scanning Lines" (PDF). . NHK Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  4. ^ Ultra HD draws crowds, interest at NAB2006. BroadcastEngineering (May 2, 2006). Retrieved on 2008-03-12.
  5. ^ Super Hi-Vision live relay over IP. NHK (2007-04-03). Retrieved on 2008-01-15.
  6. ^ Interesting Stuff (HTML). BBC (2008). Retrieved on 2008-05-23.

[edit] External links

Official site

Articles