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posted by FatPhil on Friday December 09 2016, @08:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-want-moar-pixels-and-moar-colours dept.

The BBC has begun a trial of 4K high dynamic range (HDR) video on its iPlayer streaming platform.

The test involves four minutes of footage from its Planet Earth II series, which promise to reveal more detail and present more vibrant colours than was possible before.

It is part of efforts to develop technologies that will make live broadcasts in the new formats possible.

But only a minority of TVs can screen the footage at this stage.

"One of the clips is a frog on a leaf with lots of rain, and the reason this is so interesting is that the redness of the frog is a really deep Ferrari red that you would never get in broadcast television at the moment," explained Phil Layton, head of broadcast and connected systems at BBC Research & Development.

[...] But programmes will cost more to make if they take advantage of the innovations. So, the improved quality will have to be weighed against the fact the majority of viewers will be unlikely to have TVs that support the new technologies for some time to come.

In the meantime, Amazon and Netflix both offer some pre-recorded shows and movies in HDR and 4K.

And BT and Sky both offer movies and sport in 4K but not HDR.

There's always the chicken/egg situation with video - without the screens that can view them, there's little point making the content, and without the content being available, there's little point in producing the screens. Has 4K reached the critical mass that will make it inevitable, or will it retreat the way that 3D did?


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @09:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @09:32PM (#439408)

    So Ferrari red is impossible to represent in a 24 bit / 8 bit per channel RGB color space? What color space does 4k use?

  • (Score: 1) by nitehawk214 on Friday December 09 2016, @09:42PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Friday December 09 2016, @09:42PM (#439411)

    Well the color bit depth is only useful if you are looking at a range of colors. For instrance a gradient would be less choppy.

    High bit depth recording is necessary to get the "HDR" effect. You couldnt convert an existing recording to it.

    --
    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
    • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @09:49PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @09:49PM (#439417)

      So 4K is 10bit per channel, right? is 000, 000, 000 darker than 00, 00, 00, and is 3FF, 3FF, 3FF brighter than FF, FF, FF?

      • (Score: 1) by Francis on Friday December 09 2016, @10:16PM

        by Francis (5544) on Friday December 09 2016, @10:16PM (#439430)

        It means you get more detail in the shadows as those extra bits are added to the dark end of the spectrum. And you get somewhat less rounding between values.

        The 4k that gets touted is more of less the last useful spec change in the standard.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:13AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:13AM (#439579)

          Doubtful? I just don't know, Francis, maybe it is not. There is no way to tell. What does it look like to you?

          • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:16AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:16AM (#439582)

            Hi Aristarchus, I just got back from fucking your mother, so I figured I'd troll you a bit.

            BTW, fucking her was a bit of a feat as she's quite loose. I guess it's all the sailors she's been sleeping with on the docks.

        • (Score: 1) by slap on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:16PM

          by slap (5764) on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:16PM (#439731)

          If people cared about details in the shadows then plasma TVs would have outsold LCD TVs.

  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday December 09 2016, @10:28PM

    by bob_super (1357) on Friday December 09 2016, @10:28PM (#439439)

    BT.2020 allows encoding of more colors.
    https://www.cnet.com/news/ultra-hd-4k-and-beyond-rec-2020-glimpses-the-future-of-tvs/ [cnet.com]

    Compare the color space on the wiki pages:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec._2020 [wikipedia.org]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rec._709 [wikipedia.org]