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x.v.YCC
x.v.YCC is a technology established as an industry standard by the International
Electronics Commission in January of 2006 that expands the current color data range
of video by approximately 1.8 times. It is based on the “Munsell Color Cascade” a
universal color chart defining the colors of natural objects and is used to evaluate
color expression capability of displays, which provides the ability to display more
natural and vivid colors similar to what the human eye can actually see.
Sony, Mitsubishi, Silicon Image, HDMI Licensing, LLC., and others are implementing
and facilitating xvYCC, a technical standard that expands the range of colors of the
current standard, BT.709-5, used for HDTV; it adds shades of cyan, bright green,
etc. making the colors more natural and richer. Sony is implementing the
technology under the name xvColor.
“The existing standard works for most TVs, but it constrains the capabilities of LCD
televisions with light-emitting diode (LED) backlights and rear-projection TVs with
digital light-processing technology”, Vik Murty said, senior manager of product
marketing at Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America.
In a demonstration of HDMI 1.3 facilitating this feature at Dolby Laboratories in
December 06 in New York City, Mitsubishi announced plans to incorporate the
standard into their HDTVs beginning in April, some use lasers rather than LEDs or
regular lamps.
It was commented that broadcasters are also preparing their systems to be xvYCCcompliant,
and that pre-recorded media, such as Hi-def DVDs might eventually take
advantage of the expanded color palette and the hi-bit support provided for that
purpose with HDMI 1.3.
Features like Deep Color are also part of the benefit, which smoothes out the fine
gradients between shades of colors.
More details of Deep Color and xvYCC are covered in the section dedicated to HDMI
1.3 digital connectivity, a connectivity requirement that source and display devices
must have to been able to transport the higher requirements of Deep Color and
xvYCC.
I discussed with Silicon Image, HDMI Licensing LLC, and HDMI the issues of what
consumers should know when buying HDMI suited products, such as TVs, players,
etc.
Some consumers demand that HDMI be 1.3 without looking at the features of the
products. Specifying the existence of 1.3 in a product spec is not enough to
determine if a TV is able to do everything the 1.3 specification can facilitate, such as
xvYCC and Deep Color, therefore is recommended and necessary for manufacturers
to clearly indicate the implemented features rather than just indicating (or
consumers requesting) only a 1.3 HDMI specification version.
LG’s MPH (Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld)
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