When Will the UK Get UHD (Ultra High Definition)?
| Reuben Howe
Television has undergone some key milestones in recent decades. It wasn't that long ago that we had an analogue to digital switchover, and even more recently that some countries (not the UK...) had an SD to HD switchover!
The next step is a fork in the road.
Will TV continue to become higher definition, or is it now a question of delivery methods? Catch up with the latest here:
What is UHD TV?
For our UK audience, you'd be forgiven for not knowing UHD TV even exists. UHD stands for Ultra High Definition and is the next "level" of fidelity after HD, which is simply "High Definition".
You may all recall when TVs and game consoles and cameras all started having a 1080p true HD stamp on, and that's the standard a lot of media has stuck too since.
HD caps at 1080p, UHD caps at 2160p! As the mathematicians among you have seen, that's quite literally double the amount.
This means UHD TV has the potential to show double the detail, and express even the smallest changes in colours, shadows, movement and minor details.
Can You Get UHD Live TV?
Live TV in the UK is still maximised at 1080p for HD channels, and lower for SD. If a channel name doesn't say "HD", then assume it is the standard definition version.
Even on the Freeview website, they list YouTube and iPlayer as the main sources of UHD content in the UK, which aren't even Live TV services but instead use catchup and on-demand content streaming / download.
Therefore, if you are using a rooftop aerial and watching broadcast live TV, there's no real way to access UHD content in the UK.
Now, other countries are a different matter...
Is TV Better in France?
France has achieved a digital switchover (like the UK) but they also managed an HD switchover. That means SD channels in France are not the norm, but HD instead!
Meanwhile in the UK, we have 100+ SD channels and only 15 or so HD.
With the Paris Olympics underway, the motivation was there to have UHD channels up and running for 2024. And indeed, January saw a UHD "multiplex" (basically a set of channels) set up in France.
The official statement from DVB reads:
Looking ahead to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, a new UHD multiplex was officially launched in January 2024 in France using DVB-T2 for transmission and HEVC for video coding. On 23 January, TDF initiated the broadcast from 22 sites, including the iconic Eiffel Tower, covering 16 million people. Thanks to the combination of DVB-T2 and HEVC, we can achieve a spectrum efficiency boost of up to around 2.7 times compared to the existing DVB-T/MPEG-4 configuration. This UHD multiplex will gradually expand its coverage from January to June 2024, to ultimately cover 70% of the French population. For the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, it will allow the broadcast in UHD/4K of two public service channels, France 2 and France 3, belonging to France Télévisions. The Paris Olympic Summer Games will be broadcast in 4K but also with high dynamic range (HDR10), 10-bit colour depth, wide colour gamut (based on BT.2020), higher frame rates (50 fps progressive) and Next Generation Audio.
This is a lot of jargon and stats in a small space, but to translate roughly the French broadcasts for the Olympics cover two channels, both in UHD and covers 70% of homes in France.
Alongside UHD there are some other bonuses like HDR and 50fps (frames per second) to make the content look smoother.
France has pulled out all the stops and shown that, in half a year, a multiplex for UHD can be established and deployed. Suddenly, the possibility of a UHD switchover is more hopeful.
"We firmly believe this event marks the beginning of the generalization of UHD on DTT.” - Gaëlle Kaminsky, Deputy Director of the Audiovisual Business Unit at TDF.
Other Countries' TV Direction
Beyond the UK and France, Spain have managed to complete their HD switchover in February. The next step is naturally to begin conversion to UHD.
In Italy, the focus is more on Internet-based TV and testing an environment for co-existence of internet and aerial TV. Rather than focusing on TV quality and specifications they are exploring the future of the TV landscape on a wider scale, and how internet TV should not "infringe" on the established aerial system.
What's Next for UK TV?
With France demonstrating the feasibility of UHD Live TV, it's possible DVB follow-through in the UK. However, there is still a choice to be made about the direction of Live TV here.
If the country decides to opt for UHD switchover, like France or Spain, then we have seen it is, at the very least, possible.
If the country instead decides on an IP Switchover, like Italy, then the focus is on accessing TV via Wifi or Internet. Given how "Freely" is going, IP TV may not be the way the UK decides to go in the long run.
You can read more about the current research undergone at DVB for the UK and Europe here.
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