4K vs 1080p in the home

[Bill Sepaniak]

The other thing to consider is that I do not believe that there is currently an "agreed upon" codec for 4K transmission via cable/satellite or OTA. Some serious discussion is being made in the direction of HEVC or H.265.

See: this paper just delivered at IBC:

http://ateme.com/IMG/pdf/4k_delivery_to_the_home_-_pierre_larbier_-_ateme.pdf

You will note that they used 4K footage from an EPIC for their tests.

If HEVC turns out to be the standard, it is my understanding that the codec is only 10 bit. REDRAY processing is 12 bit 4:2:2 ... which I believe is a limitation of the HDMI spec, and I think that Jarred said that the .RED codec actually encodes internally at a higher bit rate and color space.

What does that mean? Chances are that 4K content encoded with .RED and delivered/transmitted via ODEMAX should have higher quality than what may be delivered in the future via cable/satellite or OTA .... especially if that content is viewed on a RED laser projector and does not have to go out to a panel via HDMI.

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[Michael Brennan]

If HEVC turns out to be the standard, it is my understanding that the codec is only 10 bit.

Although 10bit is a significant improvement it is a pity that the sight isn't apparently being set any higher, at least to allow "up to" 12bit.
My new Panasonic TV has 10bit processing and the more expensive model has 12bit. The spec says they interpolate from 8bit.
Having worked with R&D and PR division of a major TV manufacturer to shoot HD display material I've learnt that there are no standards that can be reliably applied by us to compare specifications between manufacturers. 12bit processing may exist but it also may be throttled to 8bit for some internal processing.

Having said that with the ability to shoot and deliver in 12bit and now watch in 10bit or 12bit I wonder where the trade offs lie between resolution and tonality in the allocation of data?

A reduction in banding is evident on my new set but it is far from ideal I suspect due to the incoming 8bit image as still photos played from USB input look far more appealing.

flat areas, filling say more than 25% of the frame are most obvious areas for banding to be noticed, in these shots there is usually not a lot of fine detail in these areas, ie a sunset of street nightscape. With this in mind, is it possible for a distribution codec to intelligently trade resolution for tonality on a shot by shot basis?
Given the large overhead of 4k resolution, a trade worth doing?


Mike Brennan