Quote:
Originally Posted by Hans Tucker
The progression from UHD to 4K was relatively rapid but alas the same can't be said for 4K to 8K ... it seems to have stalled with no progress over the year.
|
It comes down to content.
About the only streaming 8K content readily available at the moment
are demos on YouTube.
But 4K content has become ubiquitous, with an increasing number of
movies on services such as Netflix and Apple TV available in Ultra HD.
In the case of a smart TV, streaming service apps for Netflix and alike
are typically preinstalled. Pay for your subscription with the 4K premium
and off you go.
If you play content via some connected device, such as a home theatre
computer via a HDMI connect, it of course needs to support 4K. Older
computers aren't often fast enough.
A Foxel box offers 4K on sports and some movies.
Even consumer video cameras have no shortage of 4K offerings including
many in the sub-one-thousand-dollar range.
But in home video, there are now no shortage of 8K offerings as well.
Less than $1500 will buy you a Nikon camera that can shoot 8K at 30fps.
No free to air TV stations in Australia are broadcasting in 4K at the
moment. Elsewhere in the world there are trials of CODECs that support
4K but require the TV's to have tuners that support them. But if you
buy a 4K TV and watch mainly free-to-air, then you are really only watching
HD which the set then upscales.
In Japan, NHK has an 8K channel.
And an increasing number of movies are shot in 8K on high end
cameras from companies like RED.
At the end of the day, the take-up of 8K comes primarily down to
the small amount of 8K content and the bandwidth required.
Plus it is on the back that 4K itself is relatively new-ish and a lot of
consumers probably still have not so old 4K sets and many HD sets
that have reliable and they are not about to part with.
My eyesight at a distance is pretty good. The last time I had an eye
exam the optometrist said, "Your vision exceeds that of the requirements
of a fighter pilot". It made such an impression that on the drive home,
all other vehicles looked like targets.
Seriously though, whenever I have shown 4K content streaming
on a TV here to friends and family, their reaction has always been they
find it stunning compared to HD.
It's a self-evidently dramatic improvement in image quality that makes it more realistic.
Hmmm. For those who can't see the difference as dramatically obvious, it
might be time for that eye check-up.
