What They Say
The IBC.org site published an interesting and extended article on the limited penetration of UltraHD resolution into broadcasting. The article hightlights that both SES and Eutelsat have said that their UHD channel count is down as demo channels are closed and ‘pop-up’ channels are down from two years ago. Paul Gray of Omdia is quoted as saying:
“It’s very hard to find UHD services in China,”, while in Japan “many channels carry upscaled content”.
Comcast in the US has reduced its UltraHD line-up and will not repeat its UltraHD coverage of the French Open in 2021. Charter’s Spectrum cable TV service, the second-largest cable operator, doesn’t offer anything in 4K. And Dish, Verizon, Optimum and FuboTV offer just a smattering of live events in 4K, mostly from Fox productions, according to the article. DirecTV has more live UltraHD than other TV services in the US (including streaming providers).
Although NBCUniversal has talked up that it is capturing the Olympics in UltraHD (NBCUniversal To Provide Live 4k Hdr Coverage Of NBC’s Tokyo Olympics Primetime Show For First Time), the reality is that
“it is only carrying HD 1080p feeds back to the US. By far and away the majority of its audience will still be served in SD, albeit this time in HDR”.
Only around a quarter of all channels worldwide are in HD, 20 years on. However, some argue that UltraHD adoption seems slow because streaming services have been able to roll it out without the need to have standardisation or widespread/universal adoption.
The article discusses the bandwidth challenges, especially in the US. Ian Nock, founder at consultancy Fairmile West said:
“You just have to compare bitrates used in broadcast in the US compared to bitrates in Europe – in like-for-like compression methodologies – it’s not uncommon to see 30% to 50% less bitrate used in the US, which has a direct impact on quality.”
Thierry Fautier, VP video strategy at Harmonic, pointed out that
“With the advance of low-latency schemes for OTT, it is now possible to mix and match broadcast and OTT without a noticeable difference in delay between the two delivery mechanisms. Broadcasters can offer a UHD experience 24/7 using other delivery channels for UHD, while HD (1080p60) is transmitted over the air”.
The article goes on to look at the non-resolution aspects of UltraHD including HDR and audio. As has often been said, HD with HDR is a better experience for most viewers than UltraHD with SDR, with a smaller bitrate penalty for broadcasters.
What We Think
I must admit, I do get more hyped up myself when I see content is in PQ on my TV, although I am rarely aware of resolution changes. This was often discussed in years gone by, but as we know ‘pixels are free for LCD makers’ so set makers have focused on spatial resolution and made the specification standard on most TVs, now. (BR)
