The UHD Alliance (UHDA), which unveiled criteria early this year for certifying the performance of 4K Ultra HD TVs and 4K content, has expanded its mission to certifying the performance of 4K Blu-ray players.
The association also said it hopes to develop criteria for live broadcasts of UHD content.
The group’s current content criteria cover 4K streaming content and 4K Blu-ray discs. The group has also established criteria for 4K content-mastering products.
Products and content that meet the group’s minimum-performance criteria are allowed to wear the Ultra HD Premium logo, signifying that they deliver what the alliance calls a premium 4K experience.
The logo is reserved for products and services that comply with the group’s minimum requirements for resolution, bit depth, high dynamic range (HDR), peak luminance, black levels, and wide color gamut, among other things.
Although the alliance developed performance minimums for 4K Blu-ray players, one alliance member told TWICE late last year that criteria for players would be unnecessary. The member said at the time that all 4K Blu-ray players by definition would deliver the performance of alliance-certified discs because of the high performance levels written into the 4K Blu-ray spec by the Blu-ray Disc Association.
The alliance hasn’t yet responded to requests for a clarification or for details of its player-performance requirements.
So far, only one company, Samsung, is offering a 4K Bluray player in the U.S. Panasonic and P&F’s Philips brand also plan players this year.
Thirty TVs have already been certified, the alliance said. They include models from Samsung and LG.
Companies interested in the UHDA specification and licensing terms can obtain the UHDA Information Agreement and/or licensing terms at UHDAlliance.org.
The group consists of more than 35 companies from the content-creation, content-distribution, and CE industries. Members include the DirecTV Group, Dolby Laboratories, LG Electronics, Netflix, Panasonic Corporation, Samsung Electronics, Sony Corporation, Technicolor, The Walt Disney Studios, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros. Entertainment.
