Inflight entertainment system providers are going great guns to roll out 4K HDR 10+ screens onboard aircraft to deliver crystal clear and stunning pictures to passengers. But whether 4K OLED, QLED or miniLED LCD displays are in play, a key part of the 4K narrative is lagging behind: the delivery of 4K content to the aviation market.
“It’s slow,” confided Safran Passenger Innovations (SPI) vice president of products and strategy Ben Asmar told RGN.
“I would say we’ve had some requests from some of our customers for 4K content, but the supply chain just isn’t there to get it consistently across all titles. It still seems to be ‘point by point’ deals for specific titles.”
Nor too, it seems, is the demand all there. “So, whilst it’s increasing, we’re still not seeing huge demand for it,” said Asmar. “I think cost is prohibitive still for a lot of airlines.”
As previously reported, SPI has a clever answer to the problem. It has enough processing power in its latest RAVE IFE hardware to be able to upscale lower resolution content.
“Based on the technology we use here, we do upscale. So, my recommendation to most of my customers is go get 720p content and let our displays upscale,” Asmar said. In short, SPI will take the content through the final 4K mile. And in testing, most people don’t realize upscaling has taken place: “most people pick 720p as the 4K content.”
Panasonic Avionics has also developed an upscaling algorithm for its nextgen Astrova IFE system that automatically enhances the viewing experience on the seatback screens, transforming 480p, 720p, and 1080p to 4K with what it says is “little to no discernible impact to picture quality for passengers.”
Passengers simply can’t tell the difference, Panasonic explains in a blog post.
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Featured image credited to Safran Passenger Innovations
