Ultra HD Alliance Announces New Specification - Ultra HD Premium

[LAwLz]

 
It's about damn time that monitors and TVs caught up with my Chinese cartoons in terms of technology. Today the UHD Alliance (UHDA) announced a new standard called "Ultra HD Premium".
What is Ultra HD Premium and how does it differ from your UHD TV you just bought? Well, here are the requirements.
 
 
Requirements:

• Image Resolution: 3840x2160
• Color Bit Depth: 10-bit signal
• Color Palette (Wide Color Gamut)
  • Signal Input: BT.2020 color representation
  • Display Reproduction: More than 90% of P3 colors
     
• High Dynamic Range
  • SMPTE ST2084 EOTF
  • A combination of peak brightness and black level either:
    • More than 1000 nits peak brightness and less than 0.05 nits black level
      OR
    • More than 540 nits peak brightness and less than 0.0005 nits black level

 

What does this mean? It means that an UHD Premium display will need to support a much wider color space, it must support 10 bit colors (reduces banding), it must have UHD resolution and they must have good contrast.

 

 

Sources:

Ars Technica
Business Wire

 

Does this sound familiar to someone? It should if you have been following AMD news recently, because they talked about supporting these things last month. You can read more about what AMD had to say about their GPUs and BT.2020 over at Anandtech. It is well worth the read.

 

Are you excited that we will finally replace an ~80 year old monitor standard with something more modern, designed for the types of panels used today?

Windows does currently not support HDR but Microsoft are working on it. Both hardware and software got quite a long way to go before we will see widespread adoption, but this is an important first step towards a much better looking future.

[werto165]

I want games to recreate the sun, 1.6E9 nits please I need a reason to wear my sunglasses indoors. Which do you think would look better the one with the higher peak brightness or the one with the lower minimum nits?

[samcool55]

Wow, the display evolution is going faster and faster.

 

First g-sync/freesync, higher refreshrates (144hz+), high refreshrates with IPS.

Ultrawide and 4K. And now this!

 

Where is it going to end?

[Syfes]

Wow, the display evolution is going faster and faster.

 

First g-sync/freesync, higher refreshrates (144hz+), high refreshrates with IPS.

Ultrawide and 4K. And now this!

 

Where is it going to end?

 

At the point where you can't tell you're looking at a monitor

[mr.squishy]

I want games to recreate the sun, I need a reason to wear my sunglasses indoors.

Epic Troll is epic

[VerticalDiscussions]

This year Samsung SHUD Tvs with Quantum Dot Display will be a big seller, for the big wallet fellas i guess... Its all about "Premium Word", marketing  :blink:

[samcool55]

At the point where you can't tell you're looking at a monitor

I prefer just going outside then

 

And i think such thing is probably a task for a VR headset and not a monitor.

[GoodBytes]

Now, if only Nvidia or AMD unlocks 10-bit colors (per channel) on its graphics card, so that it can actually be used, for those who got a 10-bit color enabled monitor (which is very few, as people have a hard time justifying true 8-bit panel, and opts for 6-bit panel instead)

[Nineshadow]

Wow, the display evolution is going faster and faster.

 

First g-sync/freesync, higher refreshrates (144hz+), high refreshrates with IPS.

Ultrawide and 4K. And now this!

 

Where is it going to end?

When this stuff will get affordable.

[GoodBytes]

Wow, the display evolution is going faster and faster.

 

First g-sync/freesync, higher refreshrates (144hz+), high refreshrates with IPS.

Ultrawide and 4K. And now this!

 

Where is it going to end?

This is nothing new, my 2009 Dell IPS monitor does all that (I mean what this new Ultra HD Premium) already. While I can't measure the contrast ratio, it can display very deep darks and very bright colors very well, and blacks are very black.

[GarnetDevil]

Wow, the display evolution is going faster and faster.

 

First g-sync/freesync, higher refreshrates (144hz+), high refreshrates with IPS.

Ultrawide and 4K. And now this!

 

Where is it going to end?

When 1440p or 4K becomes a standard like 1080p

[GoodBytes]

When 1440p or 4K becomes a standard like 1080p

Nha. When we have true 14-bit per channel panels, OLED (with OLED issues solved), 8K on 24inch screen, non glossy, while maximizing sharpness, wider color spectrum then AdobeRGB (laser projectors already do this particular point), then it will stop.

[dylan43270]

This reminds me. Has there been an update for Nvidia drivers to support 10-bit color on their non Quadro cards? My 4k monitor with 10-bit color capability will be here soon.

[GoodBytes]

This reminds me. Has there been an update for Nvidia drivers to support 10-bit color on their non Quadro cards? My 4k monitor with 10-bit color capability will be here soon.

Nope. Same for AMD

[SansVarnic]

Very interesting.

Thanks for the article and summary.

[dylan43270]

Nope. Same for AMD

I thought AMD consumer cards did support 10-bit maybe only in Linux?

[Fred Castellum]

That's good news, but consumer cards don't really support 10-bit color. =/

 

And monitors with that capability are expensive and not very widespread. So basically the monitors that fall under this standard right now are going to be few and far between.

[BobbyG2]

That's good news, but consumer cards don't really support 10-bit color. =/

And monitors with that capability are expensive and not very widespread. So basically the monitors that fall under this standard right now are going to be few and far between.

They're getting close

http://www.tweaktown.com/news/49335/aoc-u2879vf-monitor-goes-4k-freesync/index.html

[bcredeur97]

so 10bit panels are going to become the norm finally?? That will be cool.

[Notional]

Now, if only Nvidia or AMD unlocks 10-bit colors (per channel) on its graphics card, so that it can actually be used, for those who got a 10-bit color enabled monitor (which is very few, as people have a hard time justifying true 8-bit panel, and opts for 6-bit panel instead)

Isn't that exactly what amd is doing with polaris?

http://www.hardwarezone.com.sg/m/feature-heres-how-amd-will-make-games-movies-and-photos-look-better-ever-2016

The article mentions that the 300 series already supports this. Would be awesome if someone at ltt could do a quick test to verify.

[qwertywarrior]

can some one really tell the difference between  8 and 10 bit ? ive never really noticed

[Guest Kloaked]

Now, if only Nvidia or AMD unlocks 10-bit colors (per channel) on its graphics card, so that it can actually be used, for those who got a 10-bit color enabled monitor (which is very few, as people have a hard time justifying true 8-bit panel, and opts for 6-bit panel instead)

It'll probably be a Quadro/FirePro thing for a while. Unless some mainstream or gaming monitors start coming out with this standard.

[Ashaira]

can some one really tell the difference between  8 and 10 bit ? ive never really noticed

the first samsung 4k panel had 8+2 bits with dithering. The asus one had 8 bits. I have both. i can assure you you can tell the difference. it's not HUGE but noticeble.

[LAwLz]

Now, if only Nvidia or AMD unlocks 10-bit colors (per channel) on its graphics card, so that it can actually be used, for those who got a 10-bit color enabled monitor (which is very few, as people have a hard time justifying true 8-bit panel, and opts for 6-bit panel instead)

AMD will do it. They talked about it a month ago. I don't think they said which cards will get it, but their 300 series and their new generation will get it.

 

 

 

This is nothing new, my 2009 Dell IPS monitor does all that (I mean what this new Ultra HD Premium) already. While I can't measure the contrast ratio, it can display very deep darks and very bright colors very well, and blacks are very black.

I don't think your monitor supports all of it yet.

It might support local dimming and 10 (or maybe even 12) bit colors, but probably not the Rec.2020 color space.

 

 

 

can some one really tell the difference between  8 and 10 bit ? ive never really noticed

It highly depends on what you are looking at. It is not very obvious unless you look a very fine gradients.

You will be able to notice the much wider color space and the better contrasts though.

[That Norwegian Guy]

Hate to burst your bubble, but 10-bit pirate releases of anime are not native, they are just conversions for the sake of the lower file size video.

 

Same with FLAC audio. Crap in = Crap out, even if you pretty up the toilet it's in.

 

You can't convert a 96kbps mono mp3 to FLAC and expect it to magically sound good. It's just a different container for the same data.