ITU Closes In on Ultra HDTV Standard

The ITU has announced a new recommendation for "Ultra High Definition Television" or UHDTV. The ITU's Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) has developed the standard -- or recommendation -- in collaboration with experts from the TV industry, broadcasting organizations and regulatory institutions in its Study Group 6. ITU-R Study Group 6 has now agreed on a draft new recommendation on the technical details for UHDTV, which is now being submitted to administrations for approval.The ITU-R recommendation lays out the quality standards for UHDTV in two steps. The first level of UHDTV picture levels has the equivalent of about 8 megapixels (3 840 x 2 160 image system), and the next level comes with the equivalent of about 32 megapixels (7 680 x 4 320 image system). Ultra high definition picture quality is accompanied by improved color fidelity and options for higher numbers of pictures per second than for today's TV systems.A video on UHDTV development is available at http://youtu.be/hT2XluvAjwQ.