A little over a week ago we wrote this article about the London Olympic Games being broadcast in Super Hi Vision on three screens across the UK.
We mentioned that Super Hi Vision technology was still a long way off in terms of Home Entertainment, but Sharp were currently developing an 85-inch prototype model.
That prototype was on display last week at the IFA Consumer Electronics event in Berlin, giving attendants a glimpse of the future of television and home entertainment. The 85-inch beast was mounted in the Sharp booth at the show, displaying its 8k4k (8000 x 4000) resolution for all to marvel at.
‘Super Hi Vision’ is the next ‘High Definition’. The next progression in incredibly detailed, sharp and clear television. The best we currently have in the home is Full HD 1080p, so to give you an idea of how good Super Hi Vision quality is, think 16 times better.
The Sharp 8K4K TV falls into the ‘Ultra High Definition Television’ (UHDTV) standard that is currently being developed by Japanese broadcaster NHK. This standard of TV displays up to and over a jaw-dropping 33 million pixels on one screen.
Those who were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of the 8K4K TV at the IFA event were shown some demonstration footage taken from a festival in Japan. Currently there is only one camera in the world that can shoot footage in the same quality as 8K4K, and it has been developed by NHK, the same Japanese broadcaster developing the Ultra High Definition Television standard.
Unfortunately we’re still a long, long way off seeing UHDTV or Super Hi Vision quality in our homes – NHK says that multiple technology breakthroughs will need to happen first before TV of that quality can be captured and even broadcast.
Currently our Freeview spectrum can only handle 5 High Definition channels due to the large amount of bandwidth that they use – think how much a Super Hi Vision channel would need!
We’re still extremely excited for the next generation of TV, are you?
Source: CNET