Last year Samsung unveiled their first 8K TV right before CES 2018 with a 85″ QLED model that can now be yours for a cool $15,000, and capable of upscaling SD / HD content to 8K using artificial intelligence since 8K content was not – and still is not – broadly available. One year has passed, and now LG has announced two new 8K TVs with HDMI 2.1 inputs just before CES 2019. Both 88″ Z9 OLED TV and 75″ SM99 8K LCD TV are powered by the company’s α9 (Alpha 9) Gen 2 processor running deep learning algorithms to deliver enhanced picture and sound. The press release gives an overview of how AI works on both video and audio as follows: In addition to content source detection, the new processor finely adjusts the tone mapping curve in accordance with ambient conditions to offer optimized screen brightness, leveraging its ability […]
Samsung Exynos 9820 Application Processor Supports 2 Gbps LTE, 8K Videos, UFS 3.0 Storage
Samsung has just unveiled a new high-end Exynos processor that comes with an enhanced NPU (Neural Processing Unit), and an LTE Advanced Pro modem supporting 2.0 Gbps downloads. Exynos 9820 is a tri-cluster octa-core processor with two custom Arm cores, two Cortex-A75 cores, and four Cortex-A55 cores coupled with an Arm Mali-G76 MP12, and manufactured using Samsung’s latest 8nm LPP FinFET process, which reduces power consumption by up to 10 percent compared to 10nm LPP process. Samsung Exynos 9820 key features and specifications: CPU – Dual-core custom CPU + dual-core Cortex-A75 + quad-core Cortex-A55 GPU – ARM Mali-G76 MP12 Integrated NPU Memory I/F – LPDDR4x Storage I/F – UFS 3.0, UFS 2.1 Display – WQUXGA (3840×2400), 4K UHD (4096×2160) Cellular Connectivity LTE Modem – LTE-Advanced Pro Cat.20 8CA 2Gbps (DL) / Cat.20 3CA 316Mbps (UL) 4×4 Multiple-Input, Multiple-Output (MIMO), 256-QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), and Enhanced Licensed-Assisted Access (eLAA) technology. Camera […]
Socionext HV5 Series HDMI 2.1 Video Processing ICs Enable 8K TVs and STBs
HDMI 2.1 specification was released late last year with the main benefit being the support of 8K videos at up to 120 Hz, and a small downside with the requirement for new 48G cables. Samsung Q900R is one of the first 8K TV on the market, but according to the product page HDMI 2.1 is not supported just yet: Will provide complimentary upgrade for HDMI 2.1 support when available. Please contact customer support for more details So it looks like the Quantum Processor 8K processor found in the TV will be firmware upgradable to support HDMI 2.1. Anyway for 8K video equipment to be useful we’ll need video equipment to support HDMI 2.1 Tx & Rx, and SocioNext has launched what it claims are the first HDMI 2.1 compliant video processor ICs with their HV5 series. The processor family comes with HDMI Tx and Rx with two main series: Interface […]
Arm Announces Cortex-A76 CPU with Laptop-class Performance, Mali-G76 GPU, Mali-V76 8K VPU
Arm Cortex A75 based processors are only found in a few SoCs and devices, but Arm keeps on innovating, and they’ve now announced a new suite of of IP with Cortex-A76 CPU enabling 35 percent more performance, and Mali-G76 GPU with ML support and 30 percent higher efficiency and performance. SoC based on those new CPU and GPU IP will provide “laptop-class” performance, and the company also announced Arm Mali-V76 VPU with support for 8K video decoding and encoding. Arm Cortex A76 After Cortex A75, the Arm Cortex-A76 CPU is the second high performance processor core based on DynamIQ technology, and beside the 35 percent performance gain mentioned in the introduction, it also offers 40 percent improved efficiency, as well as delivers 4x compute performance improvements for AI/ML at the edge. Highlights of Cortex A76: Architecture – Armv8-A (Harvard) with Armv8.1, Armv8.2, Armv8.3 (LDAPR instructions only), cryptography and RAS extensions […]
Astro Design HDMI Test Equipment Supports 8K @ 120 Hz
8K media players and 8K TVs are coming, but if you develop one of those products how do you test them since 8K players/TVs are not available just yet. Answer: Test equipment. Astro Design offers just that with their VG-879 digital video generator, as well as their VA-1844A HDMI protocol analyzer. VG-879 digital video generator key features: 4K/60p is transmitted by one channel of 12G-SDI. Max.4 slot-type interface units can be selected from 12G-SDI, HDMI2.0b 3G or 6G, DisplayPort 1.2a, V-by-One and Analog. By synchronizing 4 or 2 units of VG-879, 8K/120p or 8K/60p signals are supported. (8K/120p by V-by-One HS, 8K/60p by V-by-One HS and HDMI.) HDMI 2.0b test functions supported EIA CEA-861-F Timing Format including 4K/50, 60p, YCBCR 4:4:4/4:2:2/4:2:0 timing. SCDC parameter change and status display. ITU-R BT.2020 color bar and video output setting 4K6G with Scrambling Enable setting CEA-861.3 HDR (High Dynamic Range) InfoFrame setting HDR Test Patterns supported […]
Advantech and SocioNext Collaborate for 8K 60Hz Real-Time HEVC Video Encoding, Streaming, and Decoding Solutions
The first live event to be broadcasted in 8K resolution should be the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020, but but broadcasters will use large and expensive infrastructure equipment to achieve this feat. However, the cost of this solution will be prohibitive for most other situations, so Advantech and SocioNext have collaborated to provide more affordable solutions for live 8Kp60 HEVC video encoding and decoding. One of those solution is Advantech VEGA-3304 that is said to be the first 8Kp60 HEVC acquisition encoder, and comes with 16 x SDI-3G inputs Key features: 1-ch 8Kp60, 4-ch 4Kp60 or 16-ch 1080Kp60 HEVC real-time encoding in Main 8, Main 10 4:2:2 modes Video acquisition over built-in 16-ch 3G-SDI inputs HDR support Double width, ¾ length PCI Express x16, compatible with server GPU slots The PCIe card supports Linux and Windows, and simple-to-use API and example code for FFmpeg and GStreamer multimedia are provided. It can […]
Samsung 8K QLED TV Uses Artificial Intelligence to Upscale SD Content to 8K Resolution
You’ve probably read how artificial intelligence can be applying to modify photos, either repair them, or change the weather in photos from sunny to rainy, and vice versa. Samsung unveiled an 85″ 8K QLED TV right before CES 2018, which should be news by itself, but that I found really intriguing is the TV’s artificial intelligence capabilities that will upscale standard and other resolution content to 8K resolution. The TV will take SD, Full HD or 4K sources runs it through machine learning algorithm to re-create details, reduce noise, and restore edges to bring them back to 8K picture quality. Not your usual “dumb” upscaling 🙂 The TV is said to be equipped with a database that studies and analyzes millions of images in advance to transform low-resolution content into high-resolution, and capable of selecting the optimal filter to convert the source to higher quality. Samsung then explains the images […]
HDMI 2.1 Features Overview
HDMI 2.1 was announced last January with support for up to 10K @ 120 Hz while using Display Stream Compression (DSC) and new 48Gbps cables, as well as other improvements. The HDMI Forum has now released version 2.1 of the HDMI specifications. The detailed specifications are only available to HDMI adopters, but an overview of the specifications can be downloaded by simple mortals. From the table above, we can see HDMI 2.1 adds 7 new features compared to HDMI 2.0b: Dynamic HDR (HDR dynamic metadata) – HDR data (depth, detail, brightness, contrast, and color gamuts) can now be optimized on a scene-by-scene or even a frame-by-frame basis Enhanced audio return channel (eARC) – eARC supports high-bitrate home theater audio formats, object-based audio, uncompressed 5.1 and 7.1, and 32-channel uncompressed audio thanks to up to 37 Mbps audio bandwidth. Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) – Syncs up source and display with continually […]