Technicolor to launch first 4K STB next year

Technicolor is due to commercially launch its first 4K-compatible set-top box in 2014, after demoing the technology at IBC this year.

Speaking to DTVE at the Amsterdam trade show, senior vice-president of solutions, strategy and portfolio management for the connected home, Pascal Portelli, demonstrated a working prototype of the MediaPlay DST839 box.

However, when this does come to market, updates will be implemented so that it will run at 60 frames per-second, as opposed to 30 in the demo, and will support the new version of HDMI 2.0, he said.

“The only limitation so far is the processor doesn’t naturally support 60-frames per-second yet; there’s a new version coming later this year that will support it,” said Portelli.

He added: “We need to have the new version of HDMI 2.0 that has enough through-put to support this. Essentially at 60-frames per-second you need double the through-put than at 30-frames per-second.”

Portelli said that the box will come to market next year to coincide with the the advent of the pay TV operator-launched 4K channels – which will come “probably at the end of the year.”

The demo version of the box at IBC ran a Sky 4K test feed over Astra SES, which is not commercially available today.

Portelli said Technicolor was already in talks with operators about the implementation of the box, but would not reveal further details.