What is BT.2020
What is BT.2020?
Put simply BT.2020, or Rec. 2020, is a set of specifications covering various aspects of video broadcasting which the ITU recommends as standards for Ultra HD projectors and televisions, along with any gear related to their broadcasting.
You can think of them as a way for the ITU to get everybody involved in Ultra HD-related ecosystem on the same path. They include recommendations for resolution, frame rate, bit depth, color range, as well as other values, the main ones of which are detailed in the table below:
Though BT.2020 encompasses the various specifications listed above, most discussions that currently involve BT.2020 mainly refer to the color range aspect of the BT.2020 specifications. This is due to the fact that while the values defined by BT.2020 in terms of resolution, frame rate, and even bit depth are all already available (if not commonplace) on the market, BT.2020’s color range specifications are a dramatic step up from the color range of the BT.709/Rec. 709 standards that preceded it, standards which are currently universally used. In this way BT.2020 acts as a lodestar for color representation in projectors and televisions, which means products now and into the future will tout their color capabilities using BT.2020 as the standard.
