At IFA 2015, TCL exhibited a TV that it claims can produce over 90% of the Rec.2020 color gamut, which is almost twice as the size as the current Rec.709 color gamut used in traditional TVs. It is made possible by QD Vision’s quantum dot technology.

Rec.2020 is a much larger color gamut
TVs nowadays use the Rec.709 color gamut, which was defined in the late 90s. The color gamut is not very big and only covers a portion of the colors that the human is capable of seeing (see the graph on the right). Recently, some TV manufacturers have gotten close to DCI P3, which is a larger color gamut used in cinemas.

Rec.2020 is even larger and Chinese TCL claims that it is getting very close to fully supporting it ahead of the industry goal for year 2020. In fact, TCL and QD Vision exhibited a TV at this year’s IFA 2015 show that claims to support “over 90% of Rec.2020”. The TV uses quantum dot technology from QD Vision to make it possible; a technology that is scalable to the mass market.

- “We are on a clear path to achieving the full Rec. 2020 standard, and we look forward to our continued work and expanded relationship with TCL,” said Matt Mazzuchi, Vice-president of Market and Business Development, QD Vision.

There are no TVs today capable of reproducing full Rec.2020.


We saw the TV at IFA and while it certainly looked bright and colorful, even able to reproduce shades of colors that typical TV cannot, we have no way to confirm the claim until we get a closer look. Still, we are excited that TCL is getting much closer to realizing Rec.2020, which will be a major step forward in picture quality. TCL provided some details here.

It seems that 2020 will be here before 2020.