Japanese Socionext Inc. has developed the HV5 family of chips, the world's first HDMI 2.1 compatible ICs designed for transmission and reception of 8K video.

Socionext provided live demonstrations of the HV5 series at the CEATEC Japan 2018, held in Makuhari, Chiba Japan starting October 16. The company will start shipping the HV5 products in March 2019.

The HDMI 2.1 specifications were defined in 2017. It has 48Gbps bandwidth, 2.7x of conventional HDMI 2.0, and enables the transmission of extremely large data sets, including 8K video, with very low latency, while maintaining high image and sound quality.

The HV5 series represents the industry's first video processing IC with built-in HDMI 2.1 compatible Tx / Rx.

The SC1H05AC series is a family of interface bridge ICs, which enable transmission of 8K video with built-in HDMI 2.1 Tx. The SC1H05AC01 is for HDMI 2.0 input, and the SC1H05AC02 for V-by-One input. Existing 8K video equipment requires 4 lines of HDMI 2.0 cables to deliver 8K images, and that is one of the major restrictions for installation and handling of the equipment. The SC1H05AC allows the connection with a single cable.

The SC1H05AT1 is optimized for the use in 8K TV sets. The device supports the Advanced BS 8K Broadcasting, which is scheduled to start in Japan later this year. It is also equipped with the video processing functionalities for 8K video inputs from external sources. SC1H05AT1 is applicable with V-by-One input and output, as well as with HDMI 2.0/2.1. In addition, the up-scaler functionality and Socionext's proprietary high picture quality technology of HV5 are capable of supporting the playback of Full HD (2K) / 4K video content on 8K panels.

Socionext plans to propose a variety of video systems built around the HV5 series, including 8K TVs in Japan where the commercial 8K broadcasting will commence.