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Crave TV: Beyond 1080p
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We always knew manufacturers wouldn't be content with 1080p. After all, once they've got your money, they need to invent some ways of getting you to part with more cash in a few years time. So with everyone going mad for 1080p at the moment, the industry is wondering about what the next step will be. The answer, it appears, is 4k. That is, televisions with four times the resolution of 1080p.
On our travels at CES this year we've seen a number of these TVs, and each of them makes cacky old 1080p look like utter rubbish. Okay, we're being daft, but these screens are technically capable of producing images of the same quality as those you would see at a cinema.
We visited Samsung, Sony and Panasonic, who all had TVs capable of displaying four times as much detail as 1080p. The Panasonic is so huge you could fit nine 50-inch screens in the same space. Frankly, the quality was amazing, and standing close to it can be scary, especially on aerial shots, where you can actually feel quite dizzy. Panasonic has some good reasons for developing the 150-inch TV. Apparently, its 103-inch model has sold over 3,000 units now -- and at $80,000 (£40,000) each, that's not bad business.
Of course, producing the TVs isn't the only problem. The storage, editing and acquisition of 4k video is a pretty big challenge, too. That would mean that TV production would need to move over to new, incredibly expensive systems. Let's be honest -- transmitting video that is 4,000x2,000-or-so pixels in size is going to be a challenge. We'll need something with more storage than Blu-ray to squeeze a film on to a disc. But then, perhaps by the time we're buying 4k TVs, we'll have some sort of holographic disc storage.
Despite the challenges, all the manufacturers agree that this format has a future. It won't be a mainstream product for some considerable time, but imagine -- at some point, we'll all be watching stuff recorded at four times 1080p quality. -Ian Morris
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AnonymousThu 24 January, 2008 11:33pm
@Anonymous
This is all true, but you are forgetting that if these are released as the high end TVs, then it should hopefully bring the prices of 1080p TVs down significantly.
But I do also disagree with the exaggeration you guys have made about this being the near future. The Blu-ray-HD-DVD format war is only just started to show a winner, and they all, as well as current generation games consoles, only output 1080p at the very most. Same goes for Sky HD and most other services.
I doubt that another change will occur so soon, as a complete shift in storage technologies will be needed, and even if on Demand services took over, downloading a movie that is 4x the size of a 1080p movie will take weeks to download, more likely longer since the average home broadband speed is 4Mbps
AnonymousFri 25 January, 2008 9:36am
This is never going to happen. You do not actually NEED more than 1080i unless you sit closer than three feet to your television, or you have a television bigger than 80" or you have upgraded your eyes so they can resolve more detail. Many people cannot even tell the difference between SD and HD at the typical 10ft viewing distance. The extra bandwidth required by 4K would mean that it could never be transmitted over the air, so it would only be useful for DVDs. You would also need a format which can store more than 600GB of data on a disposable disc. I can't see this happening any time soon as they are struggling to produce discs any larger than 50GB.
Because so few people will ever want a television bigger than 60" nobody will ever bother producing content in this format because it will be too expensive for such a small market.
AnonymousSat 26 January, 2008 10:06am
utterly pointless. 3d tv will be the next big thing. I like the bit where it says the screens will be technically capable of delivering the same quality as that in the cinema. Well at my viewing distance of 11 feet, my Fujitsu 'lowly HD ready' tv already displays a better, sharper picture than our local digital cinema.
AnonymousSat 26 January, 2008 1:13pm
4k is already becoming a film industry standard both for archive and high end film digital video cameras (Red). As such the standard already has a place and £40k for a display to see it on in this setting isn't excessive. (And I'm sure it'll be a status symbol for anyone wanting to waste this kind of money on home cinema - coming soon to mtv cribs).
AnonymousThu 24 January, 2008 8:56pm
Have these people stopped to consider that the human eye can't actually perceive that resolution at typical viewing distances?
Consider this: The average size of a billboard is 14 feet in height by 48 feet in length and the resolution of a billboard print ranges between 2 to 20 dots per inch (DPI). However, when we look at the billboard from the street, it looks sharp and crisp. Also consider this: The human eye can't tell the difference between a 150dpi photo and a 300dpi photo when examining it at a typical distance (half arms-length).
So how, in the name of Satan, is anyone going to actually see 1080p resolution from the distance between them and their sofa, let alone this new 4k resolution. Put a stop to this madness, CNET! What a horrible waste of time and resources.