Ultra HD will replace the now widely used Full HD technology. How fast this will happen depends on the innovation pressure of the equipment industry and content providers, but ultimately on the acceptance of the end customers. The high-quality spearhead of the technical innovators can already enjoy the stunning images of the upcoming Ultra-HD technology. At this year’s IFA in Berlin, many manufacturers will show first devices, but Sony is advancing and has already introduced 65- and 55-inch models of the second 4K generation.
Transition of standards
Many components are part of a completely new TV world. Even at that time, when HDTV or 16: 9 flat screens came up, the breakthrough did not happen in one fell swoop. The first HD TVs had neither HDMI nor HD Tuner, not even the now usual full HD resolution. And the Blu-ray disc was initially a disc that only Japanese TV could record.
Picture gallery
Now we are again in the phase in which the new TV standard Ultra HD was officially standardized, but there are still no broadcasting and also no mass storage with films up to pilot projects. Other links in the chain would be DVB standards, HDMI to connect the devices, and improved video encoding to pack more data on data more tightly. The transmission technology with cameras, mastering hardware and transmitters must also play.
Ultra-HD color space
This is behind the new Ultra-HD standard
Color processing
Some of these technologies are already ready and released or are about to be launched. Sony is directly involved in many innovations. The broadcasting department already has 4K cameras, studio equipment and kobeobeam at the start, the new PlayStation 4 can 4K and Sony Pictures saves for some time good films in the highest resolution. Also, the first home cinema projectors and nominally the first 84-inch ultra-HD TV came from Sony.
We are technically much more advanced than the introduction of HDTV, when you could buy a new TV every year, because the copy protection of the interface or the picture resolution had changed. Even the Blu-ray would be capable of playing Ultra HD with already available techniques (like BD-XL or HEVC), but of course new players and not backward compatible.
Sony's new KD-65X9005A is in the top class with the bonus that the HDMI jacks accept ultra-HD material in 24 to 30 Hz and pixel-precision on the new display. In addition, the ultra-HD TV accepts 4K (4,096 x 2,160 pixels) in 24 Hz. This could be Sony's first ultra-HD model KD-84X9005 (84 inches, 25,000 euros), but the new approach clearly in another relationship The future Ultra-HD standard.
Ultra HD is not only sharper but also offers a larger color palette and finer gradients. And already during the test of the first Sony TV with Triluminos, we noticed that the newly expanded color space is exactly in the direction of the basic data of Ultra HD.
With the triluminos technology Sony uses special LEDs for the LCD backlighting. Conventionally, the white backlight is obtained from a blue LED, coated with yellow phosphorus. Color filters in front of the pixels make them in the basic colors red, green and blue.
Triluminos LEDs are also based on a blue energy emitter, with nanoparticles, which carry out exact quantum leaps in such a way that narrow-band light is supplemented in red and green. The basic colors become so much richer, the color palette bigger - considerably too large for normal television.
In order to make faces not blush or grass neon green appears, the Sony TV has a sophisticated color processing on board. It also supports the legally extended HD color space x.v.Color (xvYCC, a Sony invention), which is used, for example, in camcorders and transmitted via HDMI.
In cooperation with the Sony Pictures Studios in Hollywood, there would be the possibility to create a Blu-ray that is closer to the big digital cinema fares (DCI) or to Ultra HD than HDTV allows.
Hollywood Studiotour: behind the scenes of Sony Pictures
Ultra-HD image quality
In fact, Sony Pictures are watching new studio technology by re-creating special Blu-ray movies as Mastered in 4K. These films include a flag that switches the Sony Blu-ray player and Sony ultra-HD TV into a high-quality mode. In the test, it became clear that the scaling technology 4K X-Reality Pro went to the factory more restrained, probably because the source is recognized as particularly high-quality and less manipulated.
The expected color shifting or the automatic activation of the large color tints (setting: color brilliance) did not materialize, the image quality was extremely natural. In the analysis of the data streams of the Blu-rays we also found no conclusions on color data in x.v.Color. It remains an option for the future.
Filter and Motion Smoothing
As a player for our 4K tests we use a PC and as much as possible of the few footage that is already available. Sony has supplied us with a hard disk player, which is obviously intended for demos in the trade and delivers excerpts in fabulous Ultra-HD quality.
It is breathtaking that one can see the girls running on the beach from a distance in kilometers. Also differentiations in the finest grass blades of a stadium are incredibly authentic. Just the fact that you want to go up to one meter to the TV giant to get even more picture details to be able to absorb.
Download: 4K test images
Conclusion
When a total recall scene is panned over the city, you will inevitably have to pause the movie to enjoy all the subtleties. The colors of the demos are bombastic and show where the journey goes at Ultra HD. The resolution is almost too fine for standard seating distances, but the incredible clarity of the images and the fascinating colors convince every doubter.
However, Sony's greatest art is also to bring a normal TV, DVDs and Blu-ray movies convincingly to the futuristic screen. Noisy analogue TV is always a pain, but the Sony is very good with all sources from DVB-T and YouTube over HDTV to the best Blu-rays.
But only who knows exactly what he does can achieve perfect results. The extremely high contrast Ultra-HD panel with its great black forgives no mistake if you go close enough to the picture. And the effects of sharpness, X-reality and the many artifact filters all the way to facial smoothing influence each other. The result is often incredibly sharp, but too hard and pixelated.
Practice: Movies in Ultra HD
Properly dosed, however, the filters cause almost miracles. Not so convincing is the motion smoothing, which is to work with 800 Hz (and true 200 Hz as a basis expect). The best compromise between light jerking, flickering and blurring is hard to find. As usual with VA panels, superior contrast is measured from the front, but the colors suffer a bit from the angle.
New to the panel supplier is the 3D polarization. Finally, the light spectacles can be used at full resolution without flickering. The integrated video player for network or USB sources is limited to Full HD, but photos are already displayed with the full eight megapixels, and everyone has it at home.
After the elusive description of the new technology now to the overall impression of the device: That is excellent. It looks very appealing and is best processed. Small firmware bugs could still cushion our HD + module (Sky and KDG worked) and Miracast connections were only accepted by the Xperia Z. The direct-beam three-way loudspeakers deliver a well-balanced neutrality and precision, but hardly bass. The equipment leans - classic and smart - just as much to Sony's best TV series as the operation.
Download: Data and measured values
No comments:
Post a Comment