In 1986,
Sony introduced a
smectic light valve LCD laser projector that could display high resolutions up to
8K resolution (8000×10,000). In 1995,
NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories began
research and development on a Super Hi-Vision UHDTV system as a successor to their
Hi-Vision HDTV system. In 2000,
JVC introduced the first
4K resolution video projector, a
D-ILA digital
cinema projector. In 2001, the first
liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) capable of displaying 4K content were the
IBM T220/T221 LCD monitors for computers.
2003–2005 NHK, JVC and
Ikegami Tsushinki researchers built an early UHDTV prototype, Super Hi‑Vision, which they demonstrated in January 2003. They used an array of 16 HDTV recorders with a total capacity of almost 3.5
TB that could capture up to 18 minutes of test footage. and the CMOS image sensor system was demonstrated at
Expo 2005,
Aichi, Japan, the
NAB 2006 and
NAB 2007 conferences,
Las Vegas, at
IBC 2006 and
IBC 2008,
Amsterdam,
Netherlands, and
CES 2009. A review of the NAB 2006 demo was published in a broadcast engineering e-newsletter. Individuals at NHK and elsewhere projected that the timeframe for UHDTV to be available in domestic homes varied between 2015 and 2020 but Japan was to get it in the 2016 time frame.
2006–2010 On November 2, 2006, NHK demonstrated a live relay of a UHDTV program over a 260 kilometer distance by a
fiber-optic network. Using
dense wavelength division multiplex (DWDM), 24
Gbit/s speed was achieved with a total of 16 different wavelength signals. Uncompressed, a 20-minute broadcast would require roughly 4
TB of storage. The
SMPTE first released Standard 2036 for UHDTV in 2007. UHDTV was defined as having two levels, called UHDTV1 () and UHDTV2 (). In May 2007, the NHK did an indoor demonstration at the NHK Open House in which a UHDTV signal ( at 60fps) was compressed to a 250Mbit/s MPEG2 stream. The signal was input to a 300MHz wide band modulator and broadcast using a 500MHz
QPSK modulation. During IBC 2008 Japan's
NHK, Italy's
RAI,
BSkyB,
Sony,
Samsung,
Panasonic Corporation,
Sharp Corporation, and
Toshiba (with various partners) demonstrated the first ever public live transmission of UHDTV, from London to the conference site in Amsterdam. On June 9, 2010, Panasonic announced that its professional plasma display lineup would include an plasma display with 4K resolution. At the time of announcement, it was the largest 4K display and the largest television. On September 29, 2010, the NHK partnered up and recorded
The Charlatans live in the UK in the UHDTV format, before broadcasting over the internet to Japan.
2011 On May 19, 2011, Sharp in collaboration with NHK demonstrated a direct-view LCD capable of pixels at 10 bits per channel. It was the first direct-view Super Hi-Vision-compatible display released. Before 2011, UHDTV allowed for
frame rates of 24, 25, 50, and 60fps.
2012 On February 23, 2012, NHK announced that with
Shizuoka University they had developed an 8K sensor that can shoot video at 120fps. In April 2012, Panasonic, in collaboration with NHK announced a display ( at 60fps), which has 33.2 million 0.417mm square pixels. In April 2012, the four major South Korean terrestrial broadcasters (
KBS, MBC, SBS, and EBS) announced that in the future, they would begin test broadcasts of UHDTV on channel 66 in
Seoul. At the time of the announcement, the UHDTV technical details had not yet been decided. By reducing the size and weight of the camera, the portability had been improved, making it more maneuverable than previous prototypes, so it could be used in a wide variety of shooting situations. As ultra-high-definition broadcasts at full resolution are designed for large, wall-sized displays, there is a possibility that fast-moving subjects may not be clear when shot at 60fps, so the option of 120fps has been standardized for these situations. which set up 15-meter-wide screens in London, Glasgow, and
Bradford to allow viewers to see the Games in ultra-high definition. On May 31, 2012, Sony released the VPL-VW1000ES 4K 3D Projector, the world's first consumer-prosumer projector using the 4K UHDTV system, with the shutter-glasses stereoscopic 3D technology priced at US$24,999.99. On August 22, 2012, LG announced the world's first 3D UHDTV using the 4K system. On August 23, 2012, UHDTV was officially approved as a standard by the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU), standardizing both 4K and 8K resolutions for the format in
ITU-R Recommendation BT.2020. On September 15, 2012, David Wood, Deputy Director of the
EBU Technology and Development Department (who chairs the ITU working group that created Rec. 2020), told
The Hollywood Reporter that South Korea plans to begin test broadcasts of 4K UHDTV next year. Wood also said that many broadcasters have the opinion that going from HDTV to 8K UHDTV is too much of a leap and that it would be better to start with 4K UHDTV. The Ultra HD label also requires the display to have an aspect ratio of 16:9 or wider and to have at least one digital input that can carry and present a native video signal of without having to rely on a
video scaler. On October 23, 2012, Ortus Technology Co., Ltd announced the development of the world's smallest pixel LCD panel with a size of and a
pixel density of 458px/in. The LCD panel is designed for medical equipment and professional video equipment. The LG 84LM9600 is an flat panel
LED-backlit LCD with a price of US$19,999 though the retail store was selling it for US$16,999. The preloaded 4K movies are
The Amazing Spider-Man,
Total Recall (2012),
The Karate Kid (2010),
Salt,
Battle: Los Angeles,
The Other Guys,
Bad Teacher,
''That's My Boy,
Taxi Driver, and The Bridge on the River Kwai''. Video output can be DCI 4K (), 4K Ultra HD, 1080p, and 720p at frame rates of up to 60fps with a color depth of up to 12bpc with 4:2:2 chroma subsampling. On January 7, 2013,
Eutelsat announced the first dedicated 4K Ultra HD channel.
Ateme uplinks the
H.264/MPEG-4 AVC channel to the Eutelsat 10A satellite. On January 8, 2013,
Broadcom announced the BCM7445, an Ultra HD decoding chip capable of decoding
High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) at up to at 60fps. The BCM7445 is a 28nm
ARM architecture chip capable of 21,000
Dhrystone MIPS with volume production estimated for the middle of 2014. The certification involves up to 600 tests and the goal of the program is so that "content viewed on a THX Certified Ultra HD display meets the most exacting video standards achievable in a consumer television today". On January 25, 2013, the BBC announced that the
BBC Natural History Unit would produce
Survival—the first wildlife TV series recorded in 4K resolution. This was announced after the BBC had experimented with 8K during the London Olympics. On January 27, 2013,
Asahi Shimbun reported that 4K Ultra HD satellite broadcasts would start in Japan with the
2014 FIFA World Cup. Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications decided on this move to stimulate demand for 4K Ultra HD TVs. On March 26, 2013, the
Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) announced a call for proposals for the
ATSC 3.0 physical layer that specifies support for resolution at 60fps. On April 11, 2013, Bulb TV created by Canadian entrepreneur Evan Kosiner announced a 4K linear channel and VOD content to cable and satellite companies in North America. The channel planned to be licensed by the
Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission to provide educational content. On April 19, 2013,
SES announced the first Ultra HD transmission using the
High Efficiency Video Coding(HEVC) standard. The transmission had a resolution of and a bit rate of 20Mbit/s. The HEVC encoder supports the Main 10 profile at Level 6.1 allowing it to encode 10bpc video with a resolution of at 60fps. The HEVC encoder was shown at the
NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories Open House 2013 that took place from May 30 to June 2. At the NHK Open House 2013 the HEVC encoder used a bit rate of 85Mbit/s, which gives a compression ratio of . On May 21, 2013,
Microsoft announced the
Xbox One, which supports 4K resolution () video output and
7.1 surround sound. Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of marketing and strategy for Microsoft, has stated that there is no hardware restriction that would prevent Xbox One games from running at 4K resolution. Eye IO encodes their video assets at and includes support for the
xvYCC color space. On June 11, 2013,
Comcast announced that they had demonstrated the first public U.S.-based delivery of 4K Ultra HD video at the 2013
NCTA show. The demonstration included segments from
Oblivion,
Defiance, and nature content sent over a
DOCSIS 3.0 network. On June 26, 2013, Sharp announced the LC-70UD1U, which is a 4K Ultra HD TV. The LC-70UD1U is the world's first TV with THX 4K certification. On July 3, 2013, Sony announced the release of their 4K Ultra HD Media Player with a price of US$7.99 for rentals and US$29.99 for purchases. The 4K Ultra HD Media Player only worked with Sony's 4K Ultra HD TVs. The CTA-861-F standard adds support for several Ultra HD video formats and additional color spaces. On September 4, 2013, the HDMI Forum released the
HDMI 2.0 specification, which supports 4K resolution at 60fps. On the same day, Panasonic announced the Panasonic TC-L65WT600—the first 4K TV to support 4K resolution at 60FPS. The Panasonic TC-L65WT600 has a screen, support for DisplayPort1.2a, support for HDMI2.0, an expected ship date of October, and a suggested retail price of US$5,999. at the 2013 IBC Conference in Amsterdam, Nagra introduced an Ultra HD User Interface called Project Ultra based on HTML5, which works with OpenTV 5. On October 4, 2013,
DigitalEurope announced the requirements for their UHD logo in Europe. The DigitalEurope UHD logo requires that the display support a resolution of at least , a aspect ratio, the
Rec. 709 (HDTV) color space, 8bpc color depth, a frame rate of 24, 25, 30, 50, or 60fps, and at least 2-channel audio. On November 28, 2013, Organizing Committee of the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi chief Dmitri Chernyshenko stated that the 2014 Olympic Winter Games would be shot in 8K Super Hi-Vision. On December 25, 2013, YouTube added a "2160p 4K" option to its videoplayer. Previously, a visitor had to select the "original" setting in the video quality menu to watch a video in 4K resolution. With the new setting, YouTube users can much more easily identify and play 4K videos. On December 30, 2013, Samsung announced availability of its Ultra HDTV for custom orders, making this the world's largest Ultra HDTV so far.
2014 On January 22, 2014,
European Southern Observatory became the first scientific organization to deliver Ultra HD footage at regular intervals. On May 6, 2014,
France announced DVB-T2 tests in
Paris for Ultra HD
HEVC broadcast with objectives to replace by 2020 the current
DVB-T MPEG4 HD national broadcast. On May 26, 2014, satellite operator
Eutelsat announced the launch of Europe's first Ultra HD demo channel in HEVC, broadcasting at 50fps. The channel is available on the
Hot Bird satellites and can be watched by viewers with 4K TVs equipped with DVB-S2 demodulators and HEVC decoders. In June 2014, the
FIFA World Cup of that year (held in
Brazil) became the first shot entirely in 4K Ultra HD, by
Sony. The
European Broadcasting Union (EBU) broadcast matches of the
FIFA World Cup to audiences in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia in Ultra HD via
SES'
NSS-7 and
SES-6 satellites. Indian satellite TV provider unveils its plan to launch 4K UHD service early in 2015 and showcased live
FIFA World Cup quarter final match in 4K UHD through
Sony Entertainment Television Sony SIX. On June 24, 2014, the CEA updated the guidelines for Ultra High-Definition and released guidelines for Connected Ultra High-Definition, adding support for internet video delivered with HEVC. The CEA is developing a UHD logo for voluntary use by companies that make products that meet CEA guidelines. The 4K video stream was published at 8Mbit/s and 14Mbit/s for all its 11 ceremonies, with people viewing in from countries such as Cyprus, Bulgaria, Germany, Australia, UK, and others. On September 4, 2014,
Canon Inc. announced that a firmware upgrade would add Rec. 2020 color space support to their EOS C500 and EOS C500 PL camera models and their DP-V3010 4K display. On September 4, 2014,
Microsoft announced a firmware update for the
Microsoft Lumia 1020,
930,
Icon, and
1520 phones that adds 4K video recording. The update was later released by the individual phone carriers over the following weeks and months after the announcement. On September 5, 2014, the
Blu-ray Disc Association announced that the 4K
Blu-ray Disc specification supports 4K video at 60fps,
High Efficiency Video Coding, the
Rec. 2020 color space,
high dynamic range, and 10bpc
color depth. 4K Blu-ray Disc will have a data rate of at least 50Mbit/s and may include support for 66GB and 100GB discs. On September 11, 2014, satellite operator
SES announced the first Ultra HD
conditional access-protected broadcast using
DVB standards at the
IBC show in Amsterdam. The demonstration used a
Samsung Ultra HD TV, with a standard
Kudelski SmarDTV CI Plus conditional access module, to decrypt a full pixel CAS-protected Ultra HD signal in
HEVC broadcast via an SES
Astra satellite at
19.2°E. On November 19, 2014, rock band
Linkin Park's concert at Berlin's O2 World Arena was broadcast live in Ultra HD via an
Astra 19.2°E satellite. The broadcast was encoded in the UHD 4K standard with the HEVC codec (50fps and a 10bpc color depth), and was a joint enterprise of satellite owner
SES,
SES Platform Services (later
MX1, now part of
SES Video) and
Samsung.
2015 Indian satellite pay TV provider
Tata Sky launched UHD service and UHD Set Top Box on 9 January 2015. The service is 4K at 50fps and price of the UHD box is
₹5900 for existing SD/HD customers and
₹6400 for new customers. The
2015 Cricket World Cup was telecast live in 4K for free to those who own Tata Sky's UHD 4K STB. In May 2015,
France Télévisions broadcast matches from
Roland Garros live in Ultra HD via the EUTELSAT 5 West A satellite in the
HEVC standard. The channel "France TV Sport Ultra HD" was available via the
Fransat platform for viewers in France. In May 2015, satellite operator
SES announced that Europe's first
free-to-air Ultra HD channel (from Germany's pearl.tv shopping channel) would launch in September 2015, broadcast in native Ultra HD via the
Astra 19.2°E satellite position. In June 2015, SES launched its first Ultra HD demonstration channel for cable operators and content distributors in North America to prepare their systems and test their networks for Ultra HD delivery. The channel is broadcast from the
SES-3 satellite at 103°W. In June 2015,
SPI International previewed its "4K FunBox UHD" Ultra HD channel on the HOT BIRD 4K1 channel, in advance of its commercial launch on
Eutelsat's HOT BIRD satellites in the autumn. In July 2015, German HD satellite broadcaster
HD+ and TV equipment manufacturer
TechniSat announced an Ultra HD TV set with integrated decryption for reception of existing HD+ channels (available in the Autumn) and a new Ultra HD demonstration channel due to begin broadcasting in September. On 2 August 2015, The FA Community Shield in England was broadcast in Ultra HD by broadcast company
BT Sport, becoming the first live football game shown in Ultra HD on the world's first commercial Ultra HD channel. The match was shown on Europe's first Ultra HD channel, BT Sport Ultra HD where selected live English Premier League and European Champions League matches were broadcast. Fashion One 4K launched on September 2, 2015 becoming the first global Ultra HD TV channel. Reaching nearly 370 million households across the world, the fashion, lifestyle and entertainment network broadcasts via satellite from Measat at 91.5°E (for Asia Pacific, Middle East, Australia) and from
SES satellites
Astra 19.2°E (for Europe), SES-3 at 103°W (for North America), NSS-806 at 47.5°W (for South America). In September 2015,
Eutelsat presented new consumer research, conducted by
TNS and
GfK, on Ultra HD and screen sales in key TV markets. The study looked at consumer exposure to Ultra HD, perceived benefits and willingness to invest in equipment and content. GfK predicts a 200% increase in Ultra HD screen sales from June to December 2015, with sales expected to reach five million by the end of the year. GfK also forecasts that Ultra HD screens in 2020 will represent more than 70% of total sales across Europe and almost 60% in the Middle East and North Africa. On 2 September 2015, Sony unveiled the Xperia Z5 Premium; the first smartphone with a 4K display. On 9 September 2015,
Apple Inc. announced that their new smartphone the
iPhone 6S could record video in 4K. On 6 October 2015,
Microsoft unveiled the latest version of their
Microsoft Surface Book laptop with a display of "over 6 million pixels" and their new phones the
Microsoft Lumia 950 and
950 XL, which, aside from 4K video recording that their predecessors included, feature a display of "over 5 million pixels". On 8 December 2015, the ceremony of the opening of the Holy Door in Vatican City, which marked the beginning of the
Jubilee Year of Mercy in the Roman Catholic church, was the first worldwide Ultra HD broadcast via satellite. The event was produced by the Vatican Television Center with the support of Eutelsat, Sony, Globecast and DBW Communication. The team did some advanced experimentation with 4K/High Dynamic Range live images and in particular using technology developed by the BBC's R&D division and Japan's public broadcaster NHK in terms of Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG) signals.
2016 The "UHD Alliance", an industry consortium of content creators, distributors, and hardware manufacturers, announced Monday on January 11, 2016 during CES 2016 press conference its "Ultra HD Premium" specification, which defines resolution, bit depth, color gamut,
high dynamic range (HDR) performance required for Ultra HD (UHDTV) content and displays to carry their Ultra HD Premium logo. As of April 2016,
The NPD Group reported that 6 million 4K UHD televisions had been sold. In May 2016,
Modern Times Group, owner of the
Viasat DTH platform announced the launch of Viasat Ultra HD, the first UHD channel for the Nordic region. The channel features selected live sport events especially produced in Ultra HD and launch in the autumn via the
SES-5 satellite at
5°E. Viasat is also launching an Ultra HD set-top box from
Samsung and a TV-module that enables existing UHD TVs to display the channel. Satellite operator, SES said that the launch of Viasat Ultra HD brings the number of UHD channels (including test channels and regional versions) carried on SES satellites to 24, or 46% of all UHD channels broadcast via satellite worldwide. In August 2016,
Sky announced that 4K broadcasts would begin via their new
Sky Q 2TB box. The opening match of the
2016–17 Premier League between
Hull City and
Leicester City on
Sky Sports was the first 4K transmission.
2017 On 29 September 2017,
BSAT-4a, dedicated for UHDTV programming and was also claimed "the world's first 8K satellite", was launched from the
Guiana Space Centre aboard
Ariane 5 rocket. BSAT-4a would be used for
2020 Summer Olympics held in Japan. Additionally, in September 2017,
Kaleidescape, a manufacturer of home-theater movie players and servers made 4K UHD movies compatible with their movie store, and with their movie players. In December 2017, Qualcomm announced that their Snapdragon 845 chipset and Spectra 280 Image Signal Processor would be the first phone SoC to record video in UHD Premium.
2018 In April 2018, RTL started broadcasting its own UHD channel in Germany. First available at
Astra 19.2°E, the Channel shows UHD productions, Formula 1, Football and Deutschland sucht den Superstar. Satellite operator
SES broadcast an 8K television signal via its satellite system for the first time in May 2018. The 8K demonstration content, with a resolution of pixels, a frame rate of 60fps, and 10bpc color depth, was encoded in
HEVC and transmitted at a rate of 80Mbit/s via the
Astra 3B satellite during SES's Industry Days conference in Luxembourg. In June 2018,
fuboTV broadcast the
2018 FIFA World Cup live in 4K and
HDR10 becoming the first
OTT streaming service to do so. Quarter, Semi and Final matches were available on many popular streaming devices including Apple TV, Chromecast Ultra, Fire TV, Roku and Android TVs. Content was streamed at 60 frames per second using
HLS and
DASH. Video was sent in
fragmented MP4 containers delivering HEVC encoded video. On December 1, 2018, NHK launched
BS8K, a broadcast channel transmitting at 8K resolution.
2019 In February 25, 2019 at the event of 2019
Mobile World Congress,
Sony announced the
Xperia 1, the first smartphone featuring a
ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio
4K HDR OLED display (with a resolution of 3840 × 1644), which would be released on May 30, 2019. In May 2019, for the first time in Europe, 8K demonstration content was received via satellite without the need for a separate external receiver or decoder. At the 2019
SES Industry Days conference at Betzdorf, Luxembourg broadcast quality 8K content (with a resolution of pixels at 50fps) was encoded using a Spin Digital
HEVC encoder (at a bit rate of 70Mbit/s), uplinked to a single 33MHz transponder on SES'
Astra 28.2°E satellites and the downlink received and displayed on a
Samsung Q950RB production model TV. == List of 4K television channels ==