SD Association Ups SD Card Video Recording Speed to 8K

The SD Association, a consortium of companies that sets standards for SD memory cards, has launched its fastest speed class to deliver real-time multi-file recording and to support for 8K video resolutions.

The SD Association called the new card specs, the Video Speed Class, which can handle 4K, 8K, 3D and 360-degree video recordings for both professional and consumer video camera operators.

Users are told to match the Video Speed Class mark on their recording device to an SD memory card with the same Video Speed Class mark. The new marks will appear on SDHC and SDXC UHS-I and UHS-II memory cards.

The new Video Speed Class ensures guaranteed minimum performance levels, as do today’s Speed Class and UHS Speed Class card systems. Minimum speeds will range from 6MB to 90MB per second. The fastest options, V60 and V90, support 8K resolution, while V6, V10 and V30 capture high-definition and 4K resolution.

With Video Speed Class, SD device and memory card manufacturers can offer video recording to keep pace with the video resolutions offered today and anticipated tomorrow, said Brian Kumagai, the SDA’s president. “New products leveraging the capabilities of Video Speed Class will be based on the high storage capacities offered by SDHC and SDXC memory cards,” he said.

Video Speed Class, part of the latest SD 5.0 specification, gives SD manufacturers flexibility in using the latest flash memory technology to support a range of current and expected video applications. The SDA said it anticipates and encourages market transition to the newly introduced Video Speed Class as the choice for future applications.

The group said it expects video recording device and card manufacturers will offer the first products supporting Video Speed Class soon. Video Speed Class marks will be located on supporting devices and memory cards, product manuals or packages so users will know what type of card should match their device, assuring their video is recorded at their devices’ highest quality.

A new white paper, “Video Speed Class: The new capture protocol of SD 5.0,” outlines how the latest SD specification enables Video Speed Class. The white paper can be downloaded here.

The SD Association is comprised of nearly 1,000 technology companies charged with setting interoperable SD standards. 

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