Television, our window into a world of entertainment is evolving before our eyes. The next advancement in TV technology is taking shape; the rise of 4K television is nearly upon us.

This week the CEA (Consumer Electronics Association) have formally established the 4k standard and given it a catchy new name in the process, UHD or Ultra High Definition. UHD is based around the new mega pixel resolution of 3840 x 2160, four times the number of pixels than 1080p.

As part of the standard all UHD display devices must have at least one digital input capable of receiving native 4k UHD images, no up-scaling.

The remaining pieces of the puzzle have also fallen into place recently. HDMI’s new cable and connector has been upgraded to the new 1.4 standard that will allow transmission of the UHD content to any compatible display. BluRay has also, in the last 12 months established an upgraded format named BDXL with an impressive 100GB per disk and new compression algorithms that will allow a UHD to fit onto a single disk.

Many films are already being shot in UHD using the spectacular Red Scarlet cinema camera. Sony is also working behind the scenes to bring much of its movie content to BluRay in UHD format.

LG and Sony both have players that are able to upscale BluRay movies to UHD’s 4K resolution at the moment. Next year Sony will shift these players to pure UHD once the content and hardware is in place.

With all of the boxes ticked and standards in place the UHD eco system is now leaving the labs and is about to enter our living rooms. 2013 will see the rise of 4k TV.

Reference: Wikipedia 4K
Reference: Wikipedia HDMI
Reference: Daily Mail
Reference: Techspot