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8K Growing Pains
The transmission of 8K content is still quite rare, with the few sources, primarily OTT streaming services, and one broadcast network, the BS8K system in Japan, run by NHK. The 8K service is available in Japan and will used for upcoming Olympics, but is relatively limited in its offerings, which tend to be travelogues and a few movies (West Side Story) that were shot in native 8K. The remainder are OTT services with YouTube being the biggest and offering a variety of travel and exploration 8K content plus a few movies, NASA’s 8K channel, France’s The Explorers Channel (VSAT), and an 8K channel from Rakuten. Some game consoles offer 8K resolution output, but there are only a handful of games that support 8K rendering.
There are different standards for 8K, mostly due to smartphones that record in 8K, but are able to record relatively short (3min – 5min) clips and there is little 8K editing software that can make any changes. For raw 8K footage, meaning uncompressed, it takes 121.5 Gb/minute of capacity, so a 1 hour movie would take up 7.3 terabytes of disc space, and since a Blu-ray 3.0 disc has a capacity for 100Gb, raw 8K is currently impossible, which means some form of compression is needed. The positive news is that many movies are shot in 8K even though the release is mostly in 4K, which allows the producer and editor the option of blowing up a portion of a scene without losing too much detail, so when 8K storage and streaming products are available, many films will be able to be released in 8K format.
Typically, TVs have a useful life of 8-10 years and new resolutions are introduced very 6-8 years. While 8K content is limited as it was for each new resolution at their introduction, eventually the content becomes available. Today, as we have reported most films are shot in 8K. With each resolution’ generation, the down conversion algorithms get better, so FHD and 4K content are performed with no artifacts. Some even think that 4K content shown on an 8K TV monitor is an improvement. Others disagree. But the future will be 8K streaming, so 8K content can be viewed in its natural format. Buying an 8K TV becomes a function price vs. future proofing.
The transmission of 8K content is still quite rare, with the few sources, primarily OTT streaming services, and one broadcast network, the BS8K system in Japan, run by NHK. The 8K service is available in Japan and will used for upcoming Olympics, but is relatively limited in its offerings, which tend to be travelogues and a few movies (West Side Story) that were shot in native 8K. The remainder are OTT services with YouTube being the biggest and offering a variety of travel and exploration 8K content plus a few movies, NASA’s 8K channel, France’s The Explorers Channel (VSAT), and an 8K channel from Rakuten. Some game consoles offer 8K resolution output, but there are only a handful of games that support 8K rendering.
There are different standards for 8K, mostly due to smartphones that record in 8K, but are able to record relatively short (3min – 5min) clips and there is little 8K editing software that can make any changes. For raw 8K footage, meaning uncompressed, it takes 121.5 Gb/minute of capacity, so a 1 hour movie would take up 7.3 terabytes of disc space, and since a Blu-ray 3.0 disc has a capacity for 100Gb, raw 8K is currently impossible, which means some form of compression is needed. The positive news is that many movies are shot in 8K even though the release is mostly in 4K, which allows the producer and editor the option of blowing up a portion of a scene without losing too much detail, so when 8K storage and streaming products are available, many films will be able to be released in 8K format.
Typically, TVs have a useful life of 8-10 years and new resolutions are introduced very 6-8 years. While 8K content is limited as it was for each new resolution at their introduction, eventually the content becomes available. Today, as we have reported most films are shot in 8K. With each resolution’ generation, the down conversion algorithms get better, so FHD and 4K content are performed with no artifacts. Some even think that 4K content shown on an 8K TV monitor is an improvement. Others disagree. But the future will be 8K streaming, so 8K content can be viewed in its natural format. Buying an 8K TV becomes a function price vs. future proofing.
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Barry Young
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