Beyond HD: 8K Super Hi-Vision

People have a hard time understanding what I do… But to be honest I have a harder time explaining what I do but usually I explain I work for BBC Research & Developement, that usually gets either a oh ok I didn’t know the BBC had a R&D department, oh so your like a TV researcher? or finally whats R&D?

Usually by the time we get to the 1st one, (I didn’t know the BBC had a R&D department) I spin off a load of examples of what kind of things R&D has been instrumentally involved in the past. One of the many examples is Freeview HD and Freesat HD. So usually we get around to the question, so whats next?

I usually have to caveat this prediction with this is just looking at Screen technology and not much else. Super Hi-Vision which is a area of work BBC R&D and Japan’s NHK have been working together on…

Well finally Sharp just built a 85inch LCD TV to display Super Hi-Vision signals.

While Japan’s NHK has been working on the successor to HDTV, Super Hi-Vision, for years, there haven’t been any direct-view HDTVs capable of showing its full 7,680 x 4,320 pixel resolution until this prototype unveiled today by Sharp. Its 103 pixels per inch may be just a fraction of those found in some of the pocket displays we’ve seen at SID this week, but that’s still far more than the 36ppi of a 60-inch 1080p HDTV. If estimates are correct, we’ll still be waiting until around 2020 for that 33MP video and 22.2 channel sound to actually be broadcast, although there’s a possibility of some demonstrations happening during the 2012 Olympics.

Beyond HD: 4k projection

Sunflower projected at 4k

A couple of my friends and family are very much into their True HD (1080p) content and displays. I'm not that bothered because, lets be honest I'm unlikely to buy a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player, my primary media player (xbmc) doesn't play back HD without dropping frames (nice looking frames that they are) and I'm honestly happy with 720p from the distance I would sit. Anyway, like always there is always something better that what you can buy. So feast your eyes on 4k projection (4mpx image every frame) Tony, Che, Lucas, Nico, etc…

Two 2k projectors side by side

3712 x 1080 @ 50fps progressive. Yes stitch two 2K projectors together, give them half the image and then using machine logic display them exactly side by side. Thats what our research and innovation team have done to create a panoramic picture with the density and richness only ever seen in DLP cinemas. The pictures I shot don't do it any kind of justice, but if you thought that was amazing. Just remember the sunflowers were shot with a 8k NHK super HiVision camera and scaled & cropped for this lower quality version. So if you want to be top dog, you'd better save up your money for one of these badboys and setup Super-HiVision-bits.org because HD-bits.org isn't going to cut it.

Rugby game on a 4k projector

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]