This standard defines the mapping of the image formats of 3840×2160 and 4096×2160 pixels listed in Table 1 into eight parallel 10-bit data streams (known as data stream one, data stream two, data stream three, data stream four, data stream five, data stream six, data stream seven and data stream eight) of an 80-bit virtual interface, followed by the mapping of these eight 10-bit data streams onto the Quad Link 3 Gb/s Serial Interface (3G-SDI Link 1, Link 2, Link 3 and Link 4) via four 20-bit virtual interfaces.

This standard also defines the carriage of ancillary data such as the audio data, the audio control packets, the Payload Identifier and the time code.

It is not necessary for implementations to include support for all formats that are included in this standard. Implementers should indicate supported formats in commercial publications.