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Looking topic on Ulra Hi-def display


George Ebersole

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The year before last there was a lot of talk about the final word in display technology. Today I saw a Sony UHDTV for around $3200. It was a 4K display.

 

But I seem to recall a lot of people here talking about a higher resolution technology, but I can't seem to find the discussion nor the links that were posted.

 

Does anyone remember what I'm talking about?

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You might be thinking of NHK's 8K Super-Hi Vision:

http://www.sportsvideo.org/2015/10/16/super-hi-vision-update-answering-the-eight-biggest-questions-on-nhk-8k-production/

 

But for the home, 4K HDR is coming first before 8K, which seems to me to be more of a special venues sort of thing.

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Thanks David.

 

I think that was it. I was going to put "8K display" in the topic title, but I wasn't sure if that was right or not.

 

And yeah, I actually was debating about whether or not to invest in a 4K TV or wait for the 8K tech to come to the home. But if it's reserved for conventions and jumbotrons and stuff, then maybe I'll snag a 4K this summer.

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There's barely any 4K content available right now, basically just Netflix streaming and YouTube, so I think there's not much point in waiting for 8k to become available if you want a new tv soon. Heck, I can barely stream highly compressed 8-bit 1920x1080 content consistently on those services anyway, so 4K content that's not hardware-based is a total non-starter for me.

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True, but if I recall the exchange here, there was some talk that either 8K or 16K was the highest resolution that your eye-mind could interpret. And if that was the case, then I was wondering if I'd be wasting my money on a 4K display now when a new standard was around the corner.


I see you're in San Francisco. Are you streaming YouTube stuff via a nonsecure wifi network or something?

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I think that 8k/16k talk is most likely just speculation and not based in hard science. Are there even any existing 16k displays that would make such a study possible? (shrug)

 

It seems to me that the biggest factors in being able to perceive a high resolution image would be the size of the screen and the sitting distance of the audience. If the screen is only 50" diagonal and you're sitting 8' away, I'm not sure 8K vs 4K would make any visible difference.

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I think that 8k/16k talk is most likely just speculation and not based in hard science. Are there even any existing 16k displays that would make such a study possible? (shrug)

 

It seems to me that the biggest factors in being able to perceive a high resolution image would be the size of the screen and the sitting distance of the audience. If the screen is only 50" diagonal and you're sitting 8' away, I'm not sure 8K vs 4K would make any visible difference.

That's kind of what I was thinking. I held off on getting any kind of HD TV until last year. Heh, all those gigs I did at Apple, Intel and Autodesk, and I was still trying to nurse my old SONY from 1983.

 

I purchased a relatively small (34"? ... it's packed away right now) refurbished HDTV for a couple hundred at about the time I was reading the posts here on higher def technology. And even though it gives a much better picture than the old 480 raster displays, when I get close to it I still see pixilation. Down at Fry's in Stanford / Palo Alto, they got a 4K SONY listed at $2998 (roughly $3200 with tax) that when I got close to it I didn't get the same pixilation that I see with so many other displays.

 

I was really impressed. Even if there isn't 4K content out there, the image quality has just in general got to be better than current displays.

 

p.s. I was in the San Mateo area, and had ATT Uverse. I really got angry with being 20 minutes away from YouTube's HQ and getting dropped feeds as well. It appears to be cleared up now.

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You might be thinking of NHK's 8K Super-Hi Vision:

http://www.sportsvideo.org/2015/10/16/super-hi-vision-update-answering-the-eight-biggest-questions-on-nhk-8k-production/

 

But for the home, 4K HDR is coming first before 8K, which seems to me to be more of a special venues sort of thing.

Wasn't there talk of 8K being the ultimate in display technology? I remember someone on this board saying that your eye and brain couldn't take in the definition offered by 8K. I'm not sure I got the paraphrasing right, and even if I did I'm not sure I agree with it.

 

Does anyone remember the conversation I'm talking about?

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I'm sure one could appreciate an 8K image just as one can appreciate an IMAX image, the real question is viewing distance. There are plenty of articles on the topic, like:

 

http://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/size-to-distance-relationship

 

I may not have the numbers right, but if 7' away is optimal for a 50" 1080P monitor, then I think it would be something like 3.5' away from a 4K monitor that size and 1.75' away from an 8K monitor if it is 50" -- in other words, if you sit any further away than 2' let's say from a 50" 8K monitor, you won't see the difference between it or a 4K monitor.

 

Or going the other way, if you like to sit 7' from your TV set, you have to start looking at a 200" monitor at minimum to gain any benefit to 8K -- do you have room for a 16' diagonal TV screen in your living room? (My math is probably off but you get the general idea). Which is why 8K makes more sense for very large display presentations, assuming you even have true 8K material to show on it.

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These very high resolutions have application in VR. If you're going to produce an image to fill a human being's entire field of view, including eye rotation, you need a lot of pixels for it to look reasonable. VR headsets using 1080p displays per eye are often criticised for insufficient resolution.

 

P

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I personally love the resolution game, it just shows how people are influenced by numbers and hype, rather then reality.

 

The reality is, we're a solid decade away from UHD becoming the norm. Display technology is making a huge transition in the next few years, away from LCD/Plasma and into OLED. The quality and longevity of these display systems will get better over time. Early generations will suffer from the typical high pricing and high failure rate like most new technologies. Buying al LCD UHD monitor isn't a great idea.

 

Once displays are up to snuff, the next big hurtle is distribution. Currently the internet as a whole is not fast enough to stream 8 bit 4:2:0 UHD @ 50Mbps H265, which would be acceptable quality. I know that sounds insane, but with so many people hitting servers at once, we struggle to stream 15Mbps from sites like Vimeo and Youtube, which as we all know, look like crap. So internet speeds are the big problem and honestly it's both the servers AND home connections which need to be changed. In the last 10 years, internet speeds in the US have increased by a measly 20%, that's the smallest gain of speed in a decade. The booming speed changes of the late 90's into the 2000's are over. The average home connection is still 25Mbps, which is unfathomable when it doesn't cost the internet providers any more money to provide a better service. So that's the first big technology shift which will be needed for UHD presentations at home. Obviously we already have UHD BluRay, but only Sony has signed on for releases.

 

Finally and the biggest thing is the content itself. As everyone well knows, the vast majority of content is produced and distributed in 1080i/60, not even progressive, not even 24fps (1080o/50 25fps in europe). So we're still doing 3:2 pulldown, we're still interlacing on broadcast and we're still lower then 2k resolution. So content makers need to buy all new equipment, cameras, switchers, editing solutions and broadcasting equipment. Content owners and libraries need to spend billions doing the same thing THEY JUST DID with BluRay and re-scan tens of thousands of films. Heck, from 2000 - today, the vast majority of digitally acquired products are finished in 2k or less! So there is no way to get a real 4k final out of them.

 

These are the reasons I don't see anything happening for a decade. I honestly think it will take that long before all three of these issues are resolved to the level where UHD makes sense. 4k and 8k at home with 4k and 8k sources? That's so far away, it's not even worth discussing. Lets get all the movie theaters upgraded with 4k laser projectors, lets get the minimal requirement for DCP set to 4k and then we'll start building solutions for the future. Until then, we're living in a 1080 world... and I think we'll be here for A LONG TIME as broadcasters are sick and tired of upgrading after the mandatory switch from 480i to 1080i.

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I'm sure one could appreciate an 8K image just as one can appreciate an IMAX image, the real question is viewing distance. There are plenty of articles on the topic, like:

 

http://www.rtings.com/tv/learn/size-to-distance-relationship

 

I may not have the numbers right, but if 7' away is optimal for a 50" 1080P monitor, then I think it would be something like 3.5' away from a 4K monitor that size and 1.75' away from an 8K monitor if it is 50" -- in other words, if you sit any further away than 2' let's say from a 50" 8K monitor, you won't see the difference between it or a 4K monitor.

 

Or going the other way, if you like to sit 7' from your TV set, you have to start looking at a 200" monitor at minimum to gain any benefit to 8K -- do you have room for a 16' diagonal TV screen in your living room? (My math is probably off but you get the general idea). Which is why 8K makes more sense for very large display presentations, assuming you even have true 8K material to show on it.

That's kind of what I was thinking. As an example, I have a lot of animated features. They actually look terrific on regular DVD on my computer monitor. I repurchased a number of the on bluray, and where the image is certainly much sharper, at a certain viewing distance the DVD seems just as enjoyable as the bluray.

 

To be fair I did notice that the remastered bluray disks were using fresh clean prints with no grit or other junk on any of the frames. Even the film grain was gone (which actually doesn't bother me).

 

So I got to wondering how much more definition am I going to really perceive on a huge 4k TV verse an 8K display? Personally I don't much.

 

Another example. Two DVDs; "King Arthur" and "The Last Legion". I had both on DVD. Both looked great on my hidef TV. I then bought the bluray disks. They were slightly sharper, but to be honest I was just as happy with the DVDs.

 

Older films with fresh prints might benefit, but it doesn't like stuff shot today needs it.

 

Just my opinion.

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To be fair I did notice that the remastered bluray disks were using fresh clean prints with no grit or other junk on any of the frames. Even the film grain was gone (which actually doesn't bother me).

 

Isn't it sometimes even desirable, as it adds a certain charm?

 

 

So I got to wondering how much more definition am I going to really perceive on a huge 4k TV verse an 8K display? Personally I don't much.

 

 

What do you perceive when you walk into a shop with all those shiny new TVs, and they're showing one of those special videos and DVDs or Blu Rays made to showcase the TV's resolution?

Edited by Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos
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Isn't it sometimes even desirable, as it adds a certain charm?

 

What do you perceive when you walk into a shop with all those shiny new TVs, and they're showing one of those special videos and DVDs or Blu Rays made to showcase the TV's resolution?

 

Charm? Maybe for some. To me persistence of vision and smooth motion is more important than keeping an artifact of the photochemical process.

 

If grain is endemic to the artistic presentation, then I think it's okay. Otherwise I see it as a layer of information that isn't needed.

 

Example; I have two copies of Disney's "The Rescuers Downunder"; DVD and Bluray. The DVD has a layer of light brown grain over the image. It's like someone dabbed every frame of the film with a sponge dipped in brown ink. It's not really too bothersome because it is the result of using that specific print. The bluray edition has none of that, and is crystal clear, which actually makes the film more enjoyable.

 

Personally, I think grain is more of a nostalgia blast for people. I grew up when film grain was a fact of life. But seeing older films get cleaned up and given new life via digital restoration, again to me, enhances the viewing experience.

 

Seeing it on a 4K display makes it that much more pleasurable.

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Tyler; I think it's more a case of industry wanting to squeeze out every last dollar they can out of the current technology verse wanting to bring new product to market for the sake of satisfying the consumer.

 

We saw it with the computer industry in the 90s (and a little in the 80s) where the minute a new PC or component for the PC architecture was put out, it was already obsolete. The companies were in an R&D frenzy trying to out compete one another to gain the largest market share and cash in.

 

Here it seems to be more of a cooperative effort because unlike computer tech firms these companies need one media standard for various formats.

 

Side note; I remember dumping a lot of money into Hi-8 way back when and getting burned. I'm wondering if some people here are investing in 4K when 8K may or may not be coming in a few years.

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Not a 4K camera thats for sure.. they have all got alot cheaper than ENG,s were 5 years ago.. ok lenses went up.. but they have a much longer shelf life.. I wouldn't buy an Amira now .. as there is alot of 4K being shot.. mostly for HD delivery but people want to future proof and muck around with the 4K image .. for good or for bad..

 

I worked with a cameraman from NHK.. Japanese national tv channel.. run as its own planet it seems.. but he said NHK were pissed off they didnt invent or get into 4K .. and now 8K has become their next plan to lead the world in camera spec,s and prestige .. and thats tax payers money so they will just keep on spending it..

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Tyler; I think it's more a case of industry wanting to squeeze out every last dollar they can out of the current technology verse wanting to bring new product to market for the sake of satisfying the consumer.

I so wish that was the case, but it's really not. The sad truth is that we really don't have a lot of content finished in UHD. If there was a lot of content, we'd see every BluRay being available in UHD. We'd see HBO, Cinemax, Showtime and On demand channels pushing UHD to customers (which they have done tests of). We'd see every sporting event broadcast in UHD as well. Sure, the super bowl will be in UHD this year, but that's the number one broadcast event of the entire year! Some of the infrastructure is there and works fine, it's the content which sets us back.

 

Unfortunately content owners, aren't willing to go through their libraries once more and create new masters. A lot of them just did it with BluRay and it will be A LONG TIME before they do it with UHD.

 

When you watch HD content on a UHD television set, you are actually loosing quality, you "soften" the image substantially because you're using the monitor's built-in scalers. With CRT's, scaling isn't such an issue, but with digital displays, all scaling does is lower the quality of the image because they're not very good. It's far better to watch 1080p on a 1080p monitor without scaling, then it is to watch 1080p on a UHD monitor.

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Well, I guess what I'm saying is that the product is being left on the market to dump inventory until the new standard is ready. But like David pointed out, so far, it appears to be special venue gear only.

 

My guesstimation is that once it becomes feasible for high end customers, that we'll see a phasing out of 4K, or perhaps keeping it around for lower-mid income households.

 

In terms of camera gear ... I guess that's anyone's guess, but it'll probably cost about as much as a moderate home.

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There is hardly any 8K material to distribute, it would have to be movies made in the future on some future 8K camera because out of anything made today, only IMAX movies could be converted to 8K for distribution. I don't think that's enough of a catalog to get consumers excited.

 

So I don't see 8K coming to homes, not for a decade or so, and only for people who feel the need to watch the Superbowl shot and shown in 8K and want to have a screen the size of an entire wall. We're getting into future predicted in "Fahrenheit 451" where people watch wall-sized TV's of reality programming where they participate in the story.

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