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Home Theater HDMI Standards

Living with 4K - Bought an UHDTV? wait, is it Upgradeable?

Early UHDTV adopters face potential obsolescence as the ITU Rec. 2020 standard introduces features beyond 4K pixel resolution, including 10/12-bit color depth, 4:2:2 and 4:4:4 chroma subsampling, HDCP 2.2 content protection, and HDMI 2.0 support for 4K at 60fps - capabilities many current displays cannot handle. Most manufacturers offer no upgrade path, while Samsung's replaceable connectivity box and Sony's in-home hardware upgrades for models like the $25,000 VW-1000 projector represent notable exceptions. Buyers should carefully evaluate upgrade commitments before purchasing, as connectivity gaps similar to the HDTV-to-HDMI transition of 1998-2003 could strand millions of early adopters again.

Rodolfo La Maestra •
Articles
Living with 4K - Nuvola 4K Player NP-1
Home Theater 4K Ultra HD HDMI

Living with 4K - Nuvola 4K Player NP-1

The Nuvola NP-1 is a $299 4K media player powered by an NVIDIA Tegra 4 quad-core processor with 72 GPU cores, running Android 4.2 and featuring a single HDMI 1.4 output limited to 4:2:0 chroma subsampling at 8-bit depth and 24/30 fps. It supports H.264-based 4K streaming and local playback via USB 3.0 storage, with H.265/HEVC support promised via firmware update, but its single-HDMI design forces buyers to use an HDMI splitter or sacrifice multichannel audio. Compared to Sony's $699 FMP-X1, the NP-1 offers broader TV compatibility and lower cost, though its video and audio connectivity limitations have real consequences for home theater installations.

Rodolfo La Maestra •
Articles
Manufacturing Standards

HDTV Expert - The Diverging Fortunes of Sony, Panasonic, and Sharp: Is There Life After Television?

Sony posted a net operating loss of $197M in Q2 2013, with its TV division alone losing $95M, while Panasonic raised its operating profit forecast to $2.75B after downsizing plasma TV operations and exiting plasma manufacturing entirely by March 2014. Sharp returned a $138M profit driven by solar cell demand, recovering from a $5.5B loss just one year prior. For consumers and investors, the data signals that Japanese TV brands face structural pricing pressure from Samsung, LG, and Chinese manufacturers like Hisense and TCL, with even the shift to 4K LCD TVs at roughly $80 per inch unlikely to reverse the trend.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Plasma TVs Manufacturing Standards

HDTV Expert - It's "Fade To Black" for Plasma and Projectors in Japan

Panasonic's exit from plasma TV production by March 2014 marks a broader collapse for Japanese display manufacturing, as plasma held only 5.7% global market share in FY2012 compared to LCD's dominant 87.3%. Chinese manufacturers are accelerating the pressure, with CSOT's 110-inch 4K panels and sub-$40-per-diagonal-inch LCD pricing reshaping both consumer and commercial AV markets. Mitsubishi Electric Visual Solutions has already withdrawn from the projector market entirely, and Sharp faces similar pressure, signaling that front projection and niche display technologies are losing ground to large-format LCD screens.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Manufacturing Standards

HDTV Expert - Tough Times Ahead For Toshiba

Toshiba is restructuring its television business after losses exceeding 50 billion yen ($512 million) annually, announcing plans to raise ODM-sourced production from 40% to 70% by FY2014 while closing two overseas manufacturing facilities and cutting roughly 3,000 jobs. The company is doubling down on large-screen Ultra HD (4K) LCD TVs and digital signage as its primary differentiators, while merging TV and CE operations into a new Toshiba Consumer Electronics Corporation. With a global TV market share below 5% and potential withdrawal from unprofitable regions including possibly North America, the path to viability remains uncertain.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Home Theater 4K Ultra HD HDMI

HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #599: HDMI 2.0 Announced

HDMI 2.0 raises bandwidth from 10.2Gbps to 18Gbps, enabling 4K video at 60fps compared to the 30fps ceiling of HDMI 1.4, along with support for up to 32 audio channels and a dramatic jump in audio sample frequency from 192kHz to 1536kHz. The spec also introduces simultaneous dual video streams and up to four independent multi-channel audio streams on a single cable. Practically, upgrading to HDMI 2.0 requires new source equipment, a receiver, and a display, but existing Category 2 High Speed HDMI cables remain compatible with most features.

The HT Guys •
Podcasts
4K Ultra HD Codecs & Compression Standards

HDTV Expert - SMPTE Fall Technology Conference: UHDTV Symposium - Pete Putman

The SMPTE Fall Technology Conference featured a one-day technical symposium on next-generation image formats, including a presentation titled 'UHDTV: The Big Picture on Bigger Pictures' examining Ultra High Definition Television technology. The symposium addressed the broader landscape of pixel density, image quality, and format advancements, separating verified technical claims from speculation. Attendees gained practical insight into where UHDTV stands relative to competing next-gen formats and what those differences mean for real-world display and broadcast applications.

Pete Putman •
Columns
4K Ultra HD HDMI Standards

HDTV Expert - HDMI 2.0 Is Here...And It's Not Fast Enough?

HDMI 2.0 arrives with a maximum data rate of 18 Gb/s, edging past DisplayPort's 17.2 Gb/s and enabling 4K at 50/60 Hz with 8-bit color, while also adding up to 32 audio channels and a 1536 kHz audio sample frequency. However, the standard falls short of supporting 10-bit and 12-bit 4K at frame rates above 60 Hz, which are prerequisites for high dynamic range video, and omits a high-speed data bus overlay increasingly demanded by modern devices. Consumers and integrators adopting HDMI 2.0 can use existing Category 2 cables, but should understand this is an incremental update rather than the future-proof leap many anticipated.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Standards 4K Ultra HD

HDTV Expert - Technicolor's and THX's 4K Certification: No Competition

THX and Technicolor have each developed distinct 4K certification systems that address different layers of the video pipeline. THX certifies TV displays against strict standards for black-and-white uniformity, motion artifacts, and mura, while Technicolor's algorithms upconvert 2K signals by synthesizing 3 pixels for every original pixel, restoring texture and removing jaggies before the signal reaches any display. In practice, the two certifications are complementary rather than competitive, and the Toshiba BDX 6400 Blu-ray player with its Marseille Networks VTV-122X chip represents the first consumer product to carry Technicolor's signal-level certification.

Ken Werner •
Columns
Standards

HDTV Expert - Is Toshiba Spitting Into The Wind?

Toshiba's television division has posted losses exceeding $500M annually for two consecutive years, with global TV market share dropping to roughly 5th or 6th place behind Sharp's 5% share, far below Samsung's dominant 28%. Despite these losses, CEO Hisao Tanaka is pressing forward, citing 4K displays including an 84-inch LG Display panel and autostereoscopic 3D TV development as ongoing innovation efforts. Profitable flash memory and power equipment units are subsidizing the TV business, but the path to profitability remains uncertain given that even vertically integrated Japanese rivals manufacturing their own LCD panels are struggling.

Pete Putman •
Columns
4K Ultra HD Standards

HDTV Expert - Technicolor's Remarkable 4K Algorithms and Certification

Technicolor's 4K upscaling certification program synthesizes three-quarters of the pixels per frame (roughly 6 million per frame) when converting FHD content to 4K, using a multi-stage algorithm that removes noise, inserts synthesized pixels, restores film grain texture, and sharpens edges. Quality is validated using PSNR, SSIM, and Technicolor's proprietary WQA metric, alongside subjective testing with 20 viewers per ITU-R Recommendation BT.500-11, with original native 4K footage serving as the high anchor. For consumers, this means certified 2K-to-4K upscaling on compliant Blu-ray players can deliver a perceptually near-native 4K experience without introducing visible artifacts.

Ken Werner •
Columns
Home Theater HDMI Standards

HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #590: HDMI 1.4a and Beyond

HDMI 1.4a delivers a feature set that includes the HDMI Ethernet Channel (HEC), which allows a single network connection to be shared across multiple devices over a standard HDMI cable, and the Audio Return Channel (ARC), which eliminates the need for a separate cable to pass Dolby Digital audio back to a receiver. The spec also defines 4K resolution support, 3D video input/output protocols, and a Micro Connector supporting up to 1080p for portable devices. Looking ahead, version 1.4b adds 1080p at 120 Hz, while the newly formed HDMI Forum is targeting version 2.0 with increased bandwidth and improved mobile device support.

The HT Guys •
Podcasts
Home Theater Standards 4K Ultra HD

HDTV and Home Theater Podcast - Podcast #585: Rec. 2020: UHD Decoded

The ITU-R Recommendation BT.2020 (Rec. 2020) specification defines Ultra High Definition television at resolutions of 3840x2160 and 7680x4320, with progressive scan frame rates up to 120p and color depth of 10 or 12 bits per channel. The expanded Rec. 2020 color space covers 75.8% of visible color versus only 35.9% for current Rec. 709 HDTV, translating to nearly 69 billion displayable colors compared to roughly 17 million today. For consumers, the practical benefits extend well beyond resolution gains, though widespread adoption depends heavily on end-to-end pipeline changes from production through broadcast.

The HT Guys •
Podcasts
HDTV Expert - For Samsung, It's Now Their Game With Their Rules
OLED TVs Standards

HDTV Expert - For Samsung, It's Now Their Game With Their Rules

Samsung, controlling roughly 25% of the global TV market and manufacturing over 90% of OLEDs used in handheld displays, announced a $111 million investment in Sharp Corporation for a 3% ownership stake, a move that signals a strategic pivot away from commodity LCD panel production toward next-generation IGZO backplane and OLED technology. Sharp, facing a record 450 billion yen ($4.7B) annual loss and a 55% stock price decline, had been courted by Taiwan-based Foxconn Group, making Samsung's entry a geopolitically significant shift in Asian CE industry dynamics. For consumers and industry watchers, this consolidation suggests Samsung is positioning itself to control both display supply chains and the transition to large-screen OLED technology.

Pete Putman •
Columns
Standards 3DTV

3DTV is Not Dead, It's Just Facing Reality Beyond the Hype

The ATSC A/104 Service Compatible Hybrid Coding (SCHC) standard, approved December 2012, defines a 3DTV broadcast framework using MPEG-2 for the base view and AVC/H.264 for the additional view within a single 6MHz terrestrial channel. Europe's Sisvel Technology offers a competing approach via its 3DZ Tile Format, which encodes dual 1280x720p eye images plus a depth map within a single 1920x1080 MPEG-4 frame, leaving roughly 230,400 pixels for auto-stereoscopic data. Both systems prioritize backward compatibility with legacy HDTVs, meaning viewers can receive 3D broadcasts on existing sets without a channel change, though a firmware or hardware update to MPEG-4 set-top-boxes is required for full 3D decoding.

Rodolfo La Maestra •
Articles