The Ultra HD landscape is still difficult to navigate, but manufacturers are hoping that Ultra HD logos can help. LG, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung and Sony have all confirmed that they will start using the European Ultra HD logo and support its minimum requirements.

The European logo will happen
The European logo has been defined by DigitalEurope  that also defined the previous ”HD ready", "HD TV", "HD ready 1080p" and "HD TV 1080p" logos. The new Ultra HD - or UHD - logo defines the minimum requirements for an Ultra HD TV.

LG, Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, and Sony have now confirmed that they will support the initiative. The same manufacturers also agreed to use the previous logos along with about 200 other companies that have yet to confirm support for the new logo.


- “We are delighted that so many prestigious brands have adopted our UHD logo. Momentum is building behind the new technology. We anticipate a similar uptake of the Ultra HD logo that we saw with earlier logos.” said John Higgins, Director General at DigitalEurope.

It is worth noting that HEVC - the successor to mpeg4 – is not included in the requirements. A different logo will be used in the US, which has two classes; one of which includes HEVC decoding. Without built-in HEVC you will need a separate player to playback 4K content.

The minimum requirements are:
Resolution: Minimum 3840x2160 pixels at 16:9 aspect ratio
Colors: Minimum 8-bit and Rec.709 color gamut
Signal processing: Must be able to process a 4K in up to 60Hz from start to end – no down-conversion
Input: Minimum one HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 copy protection 
Sound: Minimum PCM stereo