New SDXC And SDHC Memory Cards Support 4K2K Video

The SD Association today announced a new high-performance option and symbol specifically designed to support a wide array of 4K2K television and video products. A new Ultra High Speed (UHS) Speed Class 3 (U3) symbol will indicate products capable of recording 4K2K video and will operate exclusively on SDXC UHS-I and UHS-II memory cards and devices and SDHC UHS-I and UHS-II memory cards and devices.

The UHS Speed Class 3 defines a sizzling fast 30 Megabytes per second constant minimum write speed to ensure high-quality video recordings. This means 4K2K video, live broadcasts and content can be recorded on high-performance cameras such as Digital Single Lens Reflex (D-SLR), Digital Single Lens Mirrorless (D-SLM), camcorders and video cameras and then played back smoothly. Consumers will benefit from a single card that is capable of meeting all of their video, photo, music, document and data storage needs.

"The world's favorite SD memory card continues to evolve and meet shifting industry needs," said Brian Kumagai, president of the SD Association. "Our new UHS Speed Class 3 standard will give consumers and businesses more flexibility and capability as the market shifts to 4K2K video formats. Both SDXC and SDHC memory card standards already offer the massive storage needed to support 4K2k video with enough room to store photos, music, documents and other data on a single portable card."

New devices offering the UHS Speed Class 3 will be backwards compatible and will work with existing SD memory cards. The SD Association continually meets the challenge of providing a comprehensive menu of standards to meet the needs of a wide variety of devices with different capabilities. Selected features are marked with performance symbols that appear on products to help users identify feature functionality.

UHS Bus Symbols:

UHS-I and UHS-II symbols indicate bus interface for data transfer. UHS Speed Class symbols, such as U1 and U3, indicate minimum write speeds for real-time video recording.

UHS- I bus speed makes the massive storage found on SDXC and SDHC memory cards manageable and even more portable. This symbol is used on SDXC and SDHC products capable of supporting data transfer speeds between the memory card and the device of up to 104 Megabytes per second. Users should pair their devices with memory cards having the same symbol for optimum performance.

UHS-II bus speed makes the massive storage found on SDXC and SDHC manageable and even more portable. This symbol is found on SDXC and SDHC products capable of supporting data transfer speeds between the memory card and the device of up to 312 Megabytes per second. Users should pair their devices with memory cards having the same symbol for optimum performance.

UHS Speed Class Symbols:

UHS Speed Class symbols are found on SDXC and SDHC products with either UHS- I or UHS-II symbols. The U1 denotes a 10 Megabytes per second minimum write speed, and U3 denotes 30 Megabytes per second minimum write speed. Users will achieve optimum video recording performance by pairing their devices with the appropriate SDXC or SDHC memory cards with the same marks.

Legacy Speed Class Symbols:

The existing Speed Class symbols for non-UHS SD bus mode (this includes non-UHS bus mode operation of UHS memory cards) are Class 2, Class 4, Class 6 and Class 10. They refer to the minimum write speed performance of the memory card for video recording. The symbols are found on SD, SDHC or SDXC memory cards and devices.

Last updated: Apr 7, 2020 at 12:08 pm CDT