[OT] 4K/8K broadcasting will begin in Japan soon

[Manbow Papa]

In Japan, 4K and 8K contents are going to be broadcasted this December.

Soon after Tokyo Olympic 1964, NHK R&D Center begun to research
Hi-Vision (2K). At the time, people thought that the standard was too
much for consumer products. Now, 2K HDTV is a norm.

In 1995, the R&D Center begun to research Super Hi-Vision (8K) that has
16 times the visual resolution of HDTV plus 22.2ch audio. Later, that
was standardized as UHDTV. Although 4K is a lesser UHDTV, its resolution
is tie to a theatre DPS.

8K is gradually used in medical and science field lately. Japanese
industry wants to offer UHDTV to the public soon in order to get in time
for Tokyo Olympic 2020.

For the UHDTV broadcasting, NHK and some stations will use the 21GHz
band of a new broadcasting satellite lauched last year. You need UHDTV
compliant parabolic antenna, receiver and monitor to view the contents.
NHK R&D Center suggested that other ways like cable, internet and
terrestrial will be available to broadcast the contents in the future.

The only 8K consumer product we can buy now is Sharp's 70-inch LCD TV at
about 1 million yen. Korean makers, LG and Sumsung, have a plan to sell
8K TV.

In this year's NHK R&D Center's anuual technology exhibition, I saw
UHDTV contents on OLED panels made by LG, the world largest OLED panel
supplyer. I don't know whether it's a 4K or 8K panel. JDI, the only
Japanese maker to manufacture OLED panels, has a low-cost technology to
print an OLED panel instead of a vapor deposition LG is using. Since the
JDI's technology is still in development, we won't get their affordable
8K products anytime soon.

Although 4K is becomming a norm for consumer products in Japan these
days, I'm quite satisfied by 2K anime contents so far. I think 8K fits
more for commercial use like public viewing or degital signage than
a consumer TV.

[David Johnston]

Post by Manbow Papa
In Japan, 4K and 8K contents are going to be broadcasted this December.

Our picture will be clearer than the human eye can see!

[Bobbie Sellers]

Post by David Johnston

Post by Manbow Papa
In Japan, 4K and 8K contents are going to be broadcasted this December.

Our picture will be clearer than the human eye can see!

That depends on size of the display more than
on the human eye alone.

bliss

[Hergen Lehmann]

Post by David Johnston
Our picture will be clearer than the human eye can see!

    That depends on size of the display more than
on the human eye alone.

Not really.
The human eye has only a limited field of view (especially if you
exclude the peripheral area, where it can barely recognize motion, let
alone any detail). The larger the screen, the larger the required
viewing distance to overlook the screen, the lesser the ability to
recognize small details. 8k may be great if you're having the misfortune
of sitting first row in a cinema, but it is completely pointless for any
reasonable viewing distance.

And to get back on topic: For most anime (TV as well as low-budget
movies) the difference between 720p and 1080p (2k) is already barely
recognizable, even on a large screen. There just aren't any details
drawn, which might show up on higher resolutions...