Thomas Dorsey UHDTV

CONSUMER PERSPECTIVE: UHDTV & Immersive Sound Elevating Home Theater

Thomas Dorsey Digital Media Connoisseur

January 2016

2 Reasons To Love What’s

Coming Next To Home Theater

Ultra HDTV – The Window of Next Generation Home Theater When most Home Theater Buffs think of Ultra HDTV, they think of more picture detail than HDTV and a large screen that appears cinema-like in the comforts of home. To nudge that frame of reference towards 4K Digital Cinema, many TV manufacturers call it “4K Ultra HDTV.” Note however, that 4K Ultra UHDTV sets have 3840 horizontal x 2160 vertical pixels, so it falls short of “4K” horizontal pixels. More aptly named 4K Digital Cinema does have 4K horizontal pixels. To be precise, it has 4096 horizontal x 2160 vertical pixels. To avoid confusion with 4K Digital Cinema, I prefer Ultra HDTV abbreviated to “UHDTV.” Even with 6% fewer horizontal pixels than 4K Digital Cinema, Home Theater Buffs will not feel cheated because UHDTV has 4 times more picture detail than 1920x1080 pixel Full HDTV.

Home Theater image sizes; Source: http://gibbons-business-solutions.com/about-4k-video/

In addition to expanded picture detail, UHDTV is designed to widen your field of view, increase color accuracy and expand contrast range closer to 4K Digital Cinema. Let’s first examine how to see the most picture detail and widest field of view from both Full HDTV and UHDTV. The maximum horizontal field of view is 360o. Nature oriented our eyes to focus on about 90o field of view in front of us. Most people sit 8-12 feet from a TV screen. In order for 20/20 vision people to sit at their preferred distances from TV sizes that don’t overwhelm a room, TV engineers divided that 90o by 3 to get a 30o wide field of view. When the TV screen occupies a 30o field of view, people to see maximum picture detail on HDTV. Expressed in a simple math formula, HDTV is designed for viewing at a distance of 1.6 X Diagonal Screen Size.



Applying 1.6 X Diagonal Screen Size to common HDTV sizes, here are optimal viewing distances to see maximum picture detail at 30o wide field of view:

n 1.6 X 50” diagonal HDTV = 6’ 8” distance




Based on overly bright picture settings in most homes and individual seating preferences, most people sit 8’ to 10’ away from 50-55" HDTV. Another large percentage sits 10’ to 12' away from 60-65" HDTV. In both cases, they perceive less than 30o field of view and less picture detail. Since a goal of Home Theater is wider field of view on larger screens, I demark the beginning of Home Theater at 60” HDTV because you can sit 8’ from the screen to see 30o field of view intended by HDTV specifications. If a screen larger than 60” is viewed from 8’ distance, one can see a wider field of view. Perhaps you’ve seen a 78” LED UHDTV at the store. As you closely approach it, the wider field of view excites your pupils more than HDTV. Then you notice that UHDTV, like HDTV, has factory-set brightness to stand out in the showroom. Assuming the UHDTV price seems affordable, your next thought might be, “How close would I sit to such a large UHDTV for hours on end?” With the right color calibration on UHDTV, you may want to sit surprisingly close in your home. Better HDTV and UHDTV models have a “THX Cinema” or “ISF Cinema” temperature setting for the TV screen. They represent 6500o Kelvin color temperature to match how Hollywood movies are mastered in darkened rooms. THX Cinema or ISF Cinema momentary peak brightness is set as movie directors intend, without continuous excessive brightness that causes eyestrain. THX Cinema or ISF Cinema setting allows you to comfortably enjoy a 30o field of view at 8’ distance from 60” HDTV or a 39o field of view at 8’ distance with from 78” UHDTV. The wider field of view and affordable prices in the years ahead are why 75” to 78” UHDTV screen sizes will play a larger role in home theater.



Wider Color Spectrum of UHDTV At the consumer electronics store, color-sensitive patrons will notice that UHDTV color spectrum is a tad wider than HDTV color. How is that? Standard Definition TV (SDTV) and HDTV use Rec 709 specification, which features 8-bits of digital data to represent red, 8-bits to represent green and 8-bits to represent blue. These three primary colors form a 24-bit color gamut that can display any one of 16.7 million distinct colors for each pixel in an image.

UHDTV utilizes a new television specification, ITU Recommendation BT.2020, commonly called Rec 2020. As you see from the chart above, UHDTV color gamut has a wider triangle range of greens, yellows, reds, magentas, blues and purples. Rec 2020 achieves that with 10-bits to



represent red, 10-bits to represent green and 10-bits to represent blue for a 30-bit color gamut. Those 30-bits of color reproduce any one of 1.07 billion distinct colors for a given pixel on UHDTV vs. only 16.7 million distinct colors on SDTV and HDTV. Though most Digital Cinema is displayed as 2K or 4K today, all Digital Cinema is specified to have 12-bits of Red, 12-bits of Green and 12-bits of Blue for a 36-bit color gamut that reproduces any one of 68.7 billion distinct colors for a given pixel. In summary, think of digital color gamut in these applications: • SDTV & HDTV: 8-bits per primary color => 24-bit color gamut => 16.7 million colors

• UHDTV: 10-bits per primary color => 30-bit color gamut => 1.07 billion colors

• Digital Cinema: 12-bits per primary color => 36-bit color gamut => 68.7 billion colors

Film Cinema color gamut is roughly equivalent to 36-bit Digital Cinema color gamut. But film mixes cyan, yellow & magenta primary colors using photochemical properties instead of mixing red, green & blue primary colors using electro-mechanical properties. So Film Cinema and Digital Cinema each display a small percentage of colors that the other color gamut format can’t display. In order to see the extremely slight difference of colors between Digital Cinema and Film Cinema, you would have to freeze-frame a Film Cinema scene that has a wide spectrum of colors displayed. Then, you have to carefully compare it side-by-side with the same Digital Cinema freeze-frame. Since no one freezes a movie for such frame-by-frame comparisons, the extremely slight color differences are moot.



Another Benefit of 30-Bit Color Gamut Ever notice a movie scene on HDTV that shows color or gray scale bands in sunsets, underwater or shadows? That occurs because an insufficient number of digital data bits try to reproduce a gradient of pixel colors or gray scale present in Digital Cinema. Digital Cinema has 12-bits to reproduce 4096 shades of Red, 12-bits to reproduce 4096 shades of Green and 12-bits to reproduce 4096 shades of Blue. They are precisely mixed to form a 36-bit color gamut for each pixel. Each pixel can represent any of 68.7 billion colors. Placed adjacent to one another, Digital Cinema pixels reproduce seamless color gradients, like Film Cinema. HDTV has only 8-bits to reproduce 256 shades of Red, 12-bits to reproduce 256 shades of Green and 12-bits to reproduce 256 shades of Blue. They are mixed to form a 24-bit color gamut for each pixel. Each pixel can represent any of 16.7 million colors. When HDTV’s palette of 16.7 million colors tries to reproduce Digital Cinema’s palette of 68.7 billion-colors, too many pixel color matches can’t be found. When color matches can’t be found, HDTV repeats the pixel color closest to it. Not fooled by this pattern of repeat color pixels from a limited 24-bit color gamut, our eyes perceive color bands, rather than smooth color gradients, as illustrated below.

Source: Cable Labs

UHDTV has 10-bits to reproduce 1024 shades of Red, 10-bits to reproduce 1024 shades of Green and 10-bits to reproduce 1024 shades of Blue for a 30-bit color gamut. Each pixel can represent any of 1.07 billion colors. Since UHDTV’s 30-bit color gamut reproduces 67 times more pixel color matches than HDTV’s 24-bit color gamut, it produces smooth color gradients as illustrated by 30-bit color above and at typical home theater seating distances. Be certain however, that if a Digital Cinema projected 30-bit color gamut and you sat in the first row, you would see mild color banding in a few sunset, underwater or shadow scenes.



1080p Plasma HDTV & 1080p Blu-ray Reset Home Theater Benchmarks You may have heard a TV salesman state that Full HDTV and UHDTV feature a Progressive display format, which replaced the old Interlace display format. What does that mean? Progressive display format means pixels are drawn one after the other on a line, then drawn line-by-line to fill up an image frame on the screen. Interlace display format means pixels are drawn one after the other on odd-numbered lines in 1/60th of a second to form one field. Then even-numbered lines are drawn in the next 1/60th of a second to form a second field. Our brain interlaces the odd line field & even line field into a coherent image frame that is combined in 1/30th of a second. This process repeats each 1/30th of a second. On average, humans perceive Interlace format as having 25% less picture detail than Progressive format. Outdated Standard Definition TV (SDTV) and 1st generation HDTV featured Interlace format. Frames per second (fps) for Cinema Film are also different from SDTV and 1st generation HDTV. Cinema Film images are recorded at 24 fps. For physics reasons, projected light decays faster than 1/24th of a second. So each film frame is double-exposed at 1/48th of a second by a professional Cinema Film projector to produce brighter 48 fps imagery on large screens. Introduced in 1939, SDTV featured analog-based Cathode Ray Tubes and topped out at 480x480 pixels in Interlace format (480i) at 60 fps. Introduced in 1998, 1st generation HDTV also featured analog-based Cathode Ray Tubes, but topped out around 1440x1080 pixels in Interlace format (1080i) at 60 fps. Introduced in 2000, 2nd generation HDTV featured digital-based Plasma and LED technology at 1280x720 pixels in Progressive format (720p) at 60 fps. When DVD was introduced in 1995, it’s designers organized file content to be retrieved from disc as 480i Interlace or 480p Progressive format. They also permitted content to be horizontally (anamorphic) compressed from an 854x480 pixel image that has 1.78:1 aspect ratio (units of width to unit of height) down to 720x480 pixels. Anamorphic compression was done in order for longer widescreen movies to fit on a DVD and to match the coming 1.78:1 aspect ratio of HTDV. Anamorphic Widescreen 480p DVD was introduced in 1998. On HDTV, a setting reverses anamorphic compression from 720x480 pixels back to 854x480 pixels then upscales the image for 720p or 1080i HDTV display format. Anamorphic Widescreen DVD quickly became the primary source for viewing Hollywood movies on 30” to 50” HDTV. 2006 was a watershed year for home theater. Heavy & bulky 1080i Cathode Ray Tube HDTV was eliminated in favor of lighter & flat 40” diagonal 720p LED HDTV and 50” diagonal 1080p Plasma HDTV that reached the Full HDTV specification at 1920x1080 pixels in Progressive format. On 1080p Plasma HDTV, very dark grey, ample gray scale and wide color spectrum were evenly lit edge-to-edge on screen. Anamorphic Widescreen 480p DVD upscaled to 1080p Plasma HDTV with modestly noticeable artifacts. Blu-ray and HD-DVD high definition videodisc formats were introduced with the goal to replace Anamorphic Widescreen DVD.



Initial 25GB Blu-ray and 30GB HD-DVD movies used off-the-shelf 1080i Digital Masters that originated from lousy 4th generation film quality or 1080i HDTV broadcasts. Few films received sufficient image & sound restoration. Both videodiscs used MPEG-2 video encoding technology at overly compressed 14-19 Mbps bit-rates and old Dolby Digital technology to encode 5.1 channel audio at overly compressed 256 Kbps bite-rate. Copies of 1080i Digital Masters were okay for signal transmission over NBC, CBS, HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and other 1080i HD channels. Few of their viewers were critical of 1080i imagery and sound. But Home Theater Buffs complained that they could not experience good video or sound quality from 1080i on their 1080p HDTV and sound system. [Sports are more important to the business models of ABC, ESPN, Fox and Fox Sports channels, so they adopted 720p HDTV format because 60 fps displays fast motion better.] 2008 was another watershed year. Higher capacity 50GB Blu-ray arrived, forcing 30GB HD-DVD to throw in the towel. Most Blu-ray movies were scanned from better 3rd generation film, received modest image & sound restoration in new in 1080p Digital Masters. Hollywood studios switched to efficient MPEG-4 or VC-1 video encoding technology and used the capacity of 50GB Blu-ray to encode video at higher 21-26 Mbps bit-rates. They added DTS Master Audio to encode audio at 1.5 Mbps bit-rate. The FCC announced that in 18 months, analog signal TV channels would end, since a majority of homes had shifted to digital signal 720p or 1080p HDTV as planned. The announcement amplified 720p and 1080p LED and Plasma HDTV sales. Pioneer introduced a 60” Kuro Plasma HDTV that became the darling of Home Theater Buffs for achieving Near Black that surpassed Dark Grey on then smaller LED HDTV screens. Since 2010, better HDTVs included an electronic setting to quadruple project 480p 24 fps and 1080p 24 fps movie images at 96 fps, so that motion looks the same as double-exposed 48 fps Cinema motion, while maintaining a bright image. Due to high expense manufacturing premium glass screens placed over plasma pixels, Pioneer exited the Plasma HDTV business and sold its Kuro technology to Panasonic. In 2011, Panasonic 65” Plasma HDTV became the new home theater darling for achieving Near Black, more accurate color, better DVD-to-HDTV pixel upscaling, and elimination of motion artifacts when pixels changed color. Samsung Plasma HDTV technology was close behind. In 2014, Panasonic and Samsung stopped making Plasma HDTV because they too found premium glass screens too expensive for sustainable business models. Sony, Panasonic and Samsung R&D achieved Near Black and ramped up production volume for LED panels. They sold 1080p LED HDTV at low prices, while introducing 3840x2160 pixel (2160p) UHDTV at prices below sticker shock. In 2016, Panasonic, Sony and Samsung eliminated motion artifacts, improved color accuracy and achieved superb HD-to-UHD pixel upscaling on LED UHDTV. Middle-income households could afford 65” to 78” LED UHDTV images that are bigger & sharper than 55” to 65” Plasma HDTV images. Those Early Majority consumers want more UHD content.



High Dynamic Range Between True Black and True White In early-2015, LG introduced a 65” OLED UHDTV that delivers True Black. LG includes a White sub-pixel along with Red, Green and Blue sub-pixels that compose each pixel. RGB sub-pixels can be turned off with White sub-pixel turned on for True White. Other TVs mix Red, Green and Blue to form White, so they are not True White. HDR (High Dynamic Range), now included in UHDTV, has two competing formats, Dolby Vision and HDR10. HDR multiple exposes each image. Then it averages bright parts and dark parts for enhanced image contrast (see below). As Hollywood studios get more accustomed to HDR, they will use it judiciously for more realistic dimensionality in movies.

HDR Image Process; Source: Wikipedia

Though Dolby Vision has the slightly superior technology, HDR10 is an open format with no license fees for use in consumer electronics or video content. Before purchase, ensure that your UHDTV and UHD Blu-ray Player support both formats.



LG, UHDTV Technology Leader All UHDTV brands feature 30-bit color 2160p UHDTV that can display a billion more color matches and has four times more pixels than 24-bit color 1080p HDTV. All UHDTV brands and most Hollywood studios agreed to standards set by the UHD Alliance. One UHDTV brand is the clear technology leader. LG OLED UHDTV models exceed the UHD Alliance’s minimum requirements for Premium HDR certification by having a black level lower than 0.001 nits and a maximum brightness of 800 nits. LG Signature 65” and 77” OLED UHDTV models support both HDR and Dolby Vision HDR standards. By achieving True Black-to-True White, LG OLED UHDTV’s color gradients reproduce nearly perfect color. To be specific, its color processing system reproduces 99% of the Digital Cinema reference color gamut. Furthermore, LG OLED UHDTV images have response times of less than 0.01ms that completely eliminate motion artifacts when pixels change color. This combination of advancements produces evangelists. Without being a paid sponsor, movie director Francis Ford Coppola says nothing compares to LG Signature OLED UHDTV imagery. LG Signature OLED UHDTV has a versatile built-in sound-bar designed by Harman Kardon that functions as a 2-channel speaker system under the screen or 1-channel center speaker under the screen within a 3.0, 3.1, 5.1, 7.1 or 9.1 speaker system configuration.

In April 2015, LG introduced their 65” OLED UHDTV for $9000. On 2016 Black Friday, a standard LG 65” OLED UHDTV could be had for $4000. LG Signature 65” OLED UHDTV reduced to $6000. Those trends should continue on 2017 Black Friday. That trend will be extra welcome for the LG Signature 77” OLED UHDTV (above), which cost a staggering $19,000 on 2016 Black Friday.



UHD Blu-ray Path To Reference Audio Quality By 2000, DVD was the primary home theater source for early HDTV. To meet demand for better looking widescreen images on HDTV plus multi-channel speaker systems, Hollywood studios started MPEG-2 encoding movies at 5-to-6.5 Mbps video bitrate, plus 1.5 Mbps 5.1 channel DTS Master Audio English track and two highly compressed 256 Kbps 5.1 Dolby Digital foreign language audio tracks. The “.1” audio channel is directed to a subwoofer for bass. The combined audio and video was packed on a 2nd-generation DVD having 8.5GB capacity. For average income consumers, TV manufacturers responded by selling sound-bars for placement under HDTV screens that function in 2-channel mode or 1-channel mode. Average-income Home Theater Buffs already had 2-channel speaker systems, so they added a sound-bar and/or subwoofer. They did so because 5.1 DTS/Dolby-certified amplifiers easily reproduce or fold down soundtracks to these channel speaker configurations: 2.1: Left, Right, Sub-woofer 3.0: Left, Center, Right 3.1: Left, Center, Right, Sub-woofer 4.0: Left, Right, Left-rear, Right-rear 4.1: Left, Right, Left-rear, Right-rear, Sub-woofer 5.0: Left, Center Right, Left-rear, Right-rear 5.1: Left, Center, Right, Left-rear, Right-rear, Sub-woofer In 2005, Sonos wireless speaker system was the breakthrough permitting average-income Home Theater Buffs to expand to home theater speaker systems, as budget and room space permit. In 2008, 60” and 65” HDTV sizes and more 50GB Blu-ray movies having 7.1 DTS Master Audio arrived. They begged for expanded movie sound fields. Well-heeled Home Theater Buffs dedicated large rooms with 60”-65” Plasma or Projection HDTV coupled with expensive 7.1 DTS Master Audio channel speaker systems. Sonos enabled Average-income Home Theater Buffs to affordably stair-step expansion to 5.1 channel speaker systems. 7.1: Left, Right, Left-side, Left-rear, Center, Right, Right-side, Right-rear, Sub-woofer Dolby Atmos and DTS:X are the new standards for up to 128 discrete objects of Immersive Reference Audio Quality at select cinemas. The typical cinema featuring Dolby Atmos and DTS:X however, mounts only 32 to 64 speakers to reproduce 32 to 64 discrete sound directions from movie soundtracks mastered as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. Home Theater Buffs always seek to replicate cinema sound experience. So Dolby Atmos or DTS:X are being placed on UHD Blu-ray movies. Well-heeled Home Theaters Buffs having 7.1 channel speaker systems will add 2 or 4 ceiling-mounted speakers to form 9.1 or 11.1 channel speaker systems because Dolby Atmos and DTS:X-certified amplifiers produce immersive sound fields in home theater. Though well-heeled Home Theater Buffs can afford rooms 28 feet long to reproduce the deepest bass a human can hear, 20 Hertz, most will settle for 20-foot room lengths to hear a satisfying 29 Hertz that makes you believe Jurassic Park dinosaurs are in the room.



Dolby Atmos surround sound in Home Theater; source: Dolby

Average-income Home Theater Buffs can purchase Sonos ceiling-targeted speakers to place on the top of left and right front speakers of their 5.1 speaker systems. By reflecting sound off the ceiling, these upgraded 7.1 speaker systems simulate most overhead sound effects at a cinema featuring Dolby Atmos or DTS:X. In a 15 to 16-foot long room, a Sonos subwoofer will deliver a respectable 38-36 Hertz, while viewing a 65” OLED UHDTV from 8 to 9-foot distance to screen. Now Home Theater is growing from 5.1 and 7.1 Surround Sound to include discrete overhead sound effects from 9.1 and 11.1 Immerse Sound in these speaker configurations: 9.1: Left-front, Left-side, Left-rear, Top-Left, Center, Right, Top-Right, Right-front, Right-side, Right-rear, Sub-woofer 11.1: Left-front, Left-side, Left-rear, Top-front Left, Top-back Left, Center, Right-front, Right-side, Right-rear, Top-front Right, Top-back Right, Sub-woofer Its fair to guess that, aside from a 2nd subwoofer, well-heeled home theater is unlikely to grow beyond 11.1 speaker configuration.

Next: UHD Content For Home Theater

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