HEVC, the Key to Delivering an Enhanced Television Viewing Experience “Beyond HD”

Broadcasters and operators' objectives remain the same over time: reduce transport costs, reach more customers, and improve the TV viewing experience. Ten years after the beginning of the SD to HD transition, history is about to be repeated once again. With the 50% bitrate savings promised by the new HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) standard, these compression gains will not only reduce the bandwidth but also allow us all to more importantly improve the viewing experience, conveying more information and emotional impact though higher spatial and temporal resolution. — 1080p60 transmission has already been demonstrated to be a better user experience than 1080i30, inspiring market leaders to commence the transition towards producing 1080p60 channels. However the required bandwidth still remains the bottleneck to complete and efficient end-to-end deployment. — This paper will demonstrate why HEVC will be the key to unlock the “progressive only” broadcast chain deployment; and why it will not lead to forcing a premature end of life to interlaced television. Finally we will discuss future (premium) services brought about by the “beyond HD” viewing experience: live events, sports, concerts, and other newly immersive experiences offered by UHDTV.

Published

2013-10

Content type

Original Research

Keywords

HEVC, beyond HD, Ultra-HD, 4K, UHDTV, enhanced viewing experience, video compression, interlaced, progressive

DOI

10.5594/M001528

ISBN

978-1-61482-953-9