4K video is the next evolution of digital video, and it’s the first flavor of ultra-HD video to hit the market. It offers 2160 by 3840 pixel resolution, or 8 megapixels per frame. That’s four times as many pixels per frame as 1080p video. It means the eye can see more colors, and that text and graphics appear sharper and clearer on larger screen smartphones like the 5.7-inch Galaxy Note 3, one of the first phones with a 4K-enabled display.
Samsung’s Note 3 is powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 800 chipset, which includes a 4K video processor. Mark Shedd, director of marketing at Qualcomm, says the new capability is not just about a richer video experience on the device, but also on the big screen. “The other piece is also Wi-Fi display or wireless display: the ability to not only display via HDMI out from a device but also to be able to wirelessly display onto a TV as well,” said Shedd.
“Large screens are coming down under $5,000 and smaller 32-inch 4K screens are coming down under $1,000,” said Shedd. But standards for 4K broadcasting have not been set yet, so the amount of 4K content for TV is limited. A 4K video library is available with Sony’s $700 4K ultra-HD media player, but many early adopters are likely to start out by getting much of their 4K content from mobile devices.
“4K video will first propagate out into the flagship handset segments and those users typically go for higher resolution video. They also use those handsets, in many cases, for media hubs to the home,” said Ron Javor, director of strategic business development for SanDisk. SanDisk makes embedded memory components for 4K-enabled devices, as well as a 128-gigabit microSD memory card the size of a fingernail that retailers are marketing as a 4K video storage device. “They enable smooth playback of 4K video, and also allow less RAM to be consumed during the execution process of video and give your handset overall better performance as that video is either being played back or being recorded,” explained Javor. The company says its Extreme microSD is the fastest-in-class solution for removable storage.
Storing 4K video may make sense even for owners of smartphones that do not have 4K displays. Smartphones that can capture, but not play, 4K video today include the Google Nexus 5 and the LG G2, both of which use the Snapdragon 800 processor. “The Snapdragon 800 supports 4K capture and playback on a larger screen so that you can basically capture your 4K content today,” said Shedd. “You can get all your special memories, your baby’s birth, family treasures, things like that, and play them back later when you actually migrate to a 4K screen or upgrade to a later device that has a 4K screen native.”
“We expect a lot of [4K] devices to start coming out between now and the holidays, and into 2014,” said Shedd. “We expect to see the adoption of 4K tablet size screens, and even smaller, probably in the late 2014 time frame.”
Recording, playing, and sharing 8 megapixels per frame is a tall order for a smartphone battery, and Qualcomm has tried hard to separate that work from the rest of the chipset. “We have specialized processors that are basically optimized for performance and power efficiency so that we don’t use the CPU and GPU directly,” said Shedd. “We’re able to actually offload it to a specialized processor so you’re able to actually code and decode the 4K directly on a specialized processor and that’s very efficient and actually reduces battery consumption substantially.”
Next up: 8K video, which is 7680 pixels by 4320 pixels and will offer 16 times as many pixels per frame as 1080p video. The first H.265 encoder for 8K video was just developed this year.
