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CEA Expands Ultra HD TV Terminology

NEW YORK – The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) recently sent notice to TV manufacturers around the world that the stakes have been raised for minimum feature sets and capabilities if they expect to use a forthcoming logo signifying classification as an Ultra HD TV as recognized by industry’s overseeing trade association.

CEA released a set of expanded characteristics for use of the term “Ultra High- Definition (UHD) displays for the home,” including, among other things, up-conversion capability and new minimum attributes for “connected UHD TVs,” here in late June.

Although the changes apply to most Ultra HD sets announced for 2014 release, they would eliminate some of the less-expensive first-generation Ultra HD TV models released earlier and some monitor-only displays.

The characteristics, which were approved by CEA’s video division board, build on the first-generation Ultra HD characteristics released by CEA in October 2012.

The expanded display terminology (CEA’s Ultra High-Definition Display Characteristics V2) is said to provide “voluntary guidelines” to take effect in September 2014.

Under the updated terminology, a TV, monitor or projector may be referred to as Ultra High-Definition if:

• It is capable of displaying at least 8 million active pixels, with at least 3840 horizontally and at least 2160 vertically.

• It has an aspect ratio (width to height) of 16:9 or wider.

• It is capable of up-scaling HD video and displaying it at Ultra High-Definition resolution.

• It has one or more HDMI inputs supporting at least 3,840 by 2,160 native content resolution at 24p, 30p and 60p fps (at least one of the 3,840 by 2,160 HDMI inputs must support HDCP revision 2.2 or equivalent content protection).

• It processes 2160p video inputs encoded according to ITU-R BT.709 color space or wider colorimetry standards.

• It has a minimum color bit depth of 8 bits.

Meanwhile, newly added terminology and characteristics for “Connected Ultra High-Definition” displays were developed “because one of the first ways consumers will have access to native 4K content is via Internet streaming on connected Ultra HD TVs,” according to the CEA.

Under the new characteristics, a display system may be called a “Connected Ultra HD” if:

• It meets all of the requirements of the CEA Ultra High-Definition Display Characteristics V2 (listed above).

• It decodes IP-delivered video of 3,840 by 2,160 resolution that has been compressed using HEVC.

• It decodes video from other standard encoders.

• It receives and reproduces, and/or outputs multichannel audio.

• It receives IP-delivered Ultra HD video through a Wi-Fi, Ethernet or other appropriate connection.

• It supports IP-delivered Ultra HD video through services or applications on the platform of the manufacturer’s choosing.

The CEA said it is working with member companies to develop an Ultra HD logo to assist consumers in quickly identifying Ultra HD products meeting CEA’s guidelines.

The logo will be made available for voluntary use by manufacturers for product packaging, marketing materials and promotional activities.

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