It's no secret that the Japanese are into their high-definition televisions — they've been able to watch HD for years now.
They even had an analogue transmission for HD in the late 80s, beating the rest of the world by some considerable margin. It's no surprise then that they quickly got bored of HD, and came up with something called Super Hi-Vision, which is even better.
Super Hi-Vision, which will be showcased at September's International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam, features a native resolution of 7,680x4,320 pixels. This means pictures are made up of a staggering 33 million pixels, and are transmitted at a frame rate of 60 times per second.
Super Hi-Vision has been demonstrated at the conference before, but this year it will feature live broadcasts for the first time. The live material will come from a camera in central London, which at these resolutions will surely pick up all manner of naughtiness, like people drinking booze on buses, and an awful lot of nose picking.
The live footage from London will be mixed with video, transmitted via satellite from a storage server in Torino, Italy and will be mixed with pre-recorded footage from Japan and then projected by an 8k projector. A downscaled feed will be seen at some stands at a much more reasonable resolution of 3,840x2,160 pixels — still twice as many lines as 1080p.
As every movie fan knows, sound is 50 percent of the experience, and super-mega-ultra-high-definition also features 22.2-channel surround sound for a truly immersive experience. Above ear level is 22.2 audio comprised of nine speakers, 10 speakers at ear level and five speakers lower than ear level, including stereo subwoofers. You might want to start the begging process with your other half now, because if they don't care for 5.1 sound, we're certain they won't take well to an additional 18 speakers knocking around the lounge.
The video will be compressed using MPEG-2, and transmitted over an ultra-broadband fibre. We can only hope they've gone for an unlimited broadband package, as stepping over their limit could be very costly indeed.
So what does this have to do with Australian consumers? Well, we very much doubt we're anywhere near getting Super Hi-Vision TV shows, and even if we were, you'd need a screen the size of your wall to even come close to making it worthwhile. And who wants to watch Neighbours that size? Underbelly we can understand. But not Neighbours. UHD could have some uses though, such as immersive virtual reality — we're sure there's a pornographic use too. There usually is.
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Dean
23/05/2008 09:50 AM
Trust the Japanese to come up with a name like "Super Hi-Vision" :-)
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short_ray1
25/05/2008 07:19 PM
great article thanks
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bitlifter
06/06/2008 08:57 AM
I've seen Super Hi-Vision at NAB in Las Vegas in action and it truly is astounding. The picture becomes so crisp and clear that it has 3D like qualities.
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Playa4eva
13/06/2008 04:37 PM
I saw this technology 1 year ago when i was on holidays in japan, i just couldnt believe how real the image was, HD does not compare, it really shows how far back the rest of the world is in technology. I wonder what the japs will come up with next.
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