UHD | China's HDR Vivid Unveiled, and Soon to be Deployed

[ShenZhen, China, March 4, 2021]HDR Vivid, China's first-ever high dynamic range video standard was released by the China UHD Video Industry Alliance (CUVA), following a two-year for proposal, formulation, and implementation. All key links throughout the value chain, including video capture, production, encoding, transmission, playback, decoding, and display, are now ready for commercial use. Once commercialized, HDR Vivid will help produce richer colors and image details on the vast majority of display devices.

China's HDR Industry Has Attracted Fervent Interest

Many prominent enterprises have gotten involved with the HDR industry in China, involving content providers CCTV, Guangdong Radio and Television (GRT), Sichuan Radio and Television (SRT), and Tencent Video; TV manufacturers, including Hisense, KONKA, SHARP, Skyworth, TCL, Changhong, and Huawei; as well as chipset vendors, notably HiSilicon, which released its HDR Vivid–powered commercial chipsets in mid December 2020. Amlogic and MediaTek have also initiated the R&D process for HDR chipsets.

The HDR standard spans the entire process of the value chain, including ultra-high definition (UHD) video capture and production, encoding and transmission, and display. The standard defines how display devices perform adaptation based on dynamic metadata, as well as how they facilitate closer coordination between videos and devices, including TVs, mobile phones, tablets, and STBs, for a new realm of visual immersion.

All of the other mainstream HDR standards on the market, such as HDR10, Dolby Vision, and HDR10+, are formulated by enterprises outside of China. Recently, Tencent Video 8.3.00 (mobile app) was officially launched, pioneering the commercial use of HDR Vivid.

Zhong Wenkui, Vice President of KONKA, praised the HDR Vivid standard in an interview with China Electronics News, "HDR Vivid noticeably outperforms the international mainstream static metadata HDR solution in terms of luminance adaptation. This is especially true for native HDR+ movies with a high frame rate. HDR Vivid offers rich colors, vivid detail, and smooth visuals, which provide for an immersive viewing experience. The 8K HDR Vivid native standard can be utilized to enhance the display quality of documentaries, movies, and live streams."

Industry insiders believe that HDR Vivid is an open, cost-effective, and industry-safe technical standard, that also features a friendly intellectual property rights (IPR) policy. These attributes make it highly likely to be widely deployed.

Although HDR Vivid has made great strides, it is still in the initial phase of industrialization and application. Experts believe that HDR Vivid's journey to widespread commercialization has just begun.

Industry Collaboration: Key to HDR Vivid Videos

Wang Xinge, a technical expert from CUVA, recently told China Electronics News that the promotion of UHD video industry standards is a long-term process. Addition sets of standards following the current HDR Vivid V1.0, are in the process of being developed. After these standards are issued, vendors will develop their own products based on HDR Vivid and conduct cross-compatibility tests. These new technologies likely won't become overnight successes, but nonetheless, the HDR Vivid standard has already taken a crucial step toward becoming an industry mainstay.

The key to full commercialization is in enabling the capture-encoding-display path.

However, promoting HDR Vivid in the content production field will not be an easy task. Zhang Jinsha, technical director of Sobey's video product R&D center, told China Electronics News that TV stations and production companies have different areas of focus and work processes. Many production companies have grown so used to international non-linear editing software that they are unable to switch to new tools easily. "HDR Vivid has a long way to go before it becomes universal," she commented. Helping those companies jump-start HDR Vivid program production as soon as possible, and for their benefit, is the most crucial issue at this stage.

No less important is building an ecosystem for HDR Vivid videos, while also facilitating the application of display technologies. Zhong urged partners throughout the industry to work together to accelerate the implementation of the HDR Vivid network videos and broadcasting from the source end.

Meanwhile, quality display devices are desired for the loading of HDR Vivid videos. This is where an adequate chipset supply becomes essential.

According to Wang Xinge, the chipset sector needs more solutions from enterprises. Other chipmakers in addition to HiSilicon, such as Amlogic and MediaTek, have obtained CUVA intellectual property licenses and reference code, and actively promoted chipset solutions that meet the HDR Vivid standard.

Chen Renwei, a technical expert from China Electronics Standardization Institute (CESI), has noted that industry partners, responsible for certification standards of the HDR Vivid quality system, stability evaluation, update certification for chipset and device vendors, and updating software and devices for video producers, will need to work together.

"We are optimistic that HDR Vivid–certified products will help produce an unparalleled visual experience." said Qu Yaxin, General Manager of HiSilicon's Smart Media Product Domain, in an interview with China Electronics News. The burgeoning video industry in China is supported by a wide range of leading enterprises, including those involved in production, transmission, content promotion, chipsets, and display devices. Thanks to their dedicated efforts, the HDR Vivid video standard appears ready to make waves in the industry.