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Japan Starts 8K TV Broadcasts In Time For Rio Olympics (pcworld.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from PCWorld: Japan began the world's first regular 8K television broadcasts on Monday, five days ahead of the opening of the Olympic Games. 8K refers to broadcasts with a resolution of 7,680 x 4,320 pixels. That's 16 times the resolution of today's full high-definition (FHD) broadcasts and four times that of the 4K standard, which is only just emerging in many other countries. The format used by NHK, which it calls "Super Hi-Vision," also features 22.2-channel surround sound. Public broadcaster NHK launched a satellite channel that will broadcast a mix of 8K and 4K content as it prepares to launch full-scale 8K transmissions in time for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. The channel will be on air daily from 10am until 5pm, with extended hours during the Rio Olympics. Japan's early lead in 8K broadcasting is thanks to NHK and its Science and Technology Research Laboratories in Tokyo.
We have a long history of standardized naming. "720p" and "1080p" referred to the vertical resolution of 1280x720 and 1920 x 1080p, respectively.
Then some marketing idiot starting calling the horizontal resolution of 3840x 2160 as "4K" so they could sell more TVs. No, it is 2160p.
This shenanigans of "8K" continuing by referring to the horizontal resolution of 7,680 x 4,320 needs to stop. This is almost as bad as drive manufacturers when they refer to disk space using GB, instead of GiB to artificially inflate their numbers. 8 KB is 8,000, and 8 KiB is 8192, not 7,680. Either call it 7.5K (7*1024 = 7680) or call it 4320p.
Lastly, 4320p is a non-issue. Most people don't care about 4320p due to the chicken-and-egg problem:
* No content, no sales of TVs.
* No sales of TV's, no incentive to make content.
Rinse and repeat.
WRONG. I went to Tokyo in 2012. I stood in Akihabara and watched an 8K video of the London Olympics opening and Closing ceremonies provided by NHK on a 8K screen. I also own a 4K screen at home so I can say with absolute certainty. The difference was highly noticeable. The camera angles they were shooting took in the entire stadium. You could make out every face in the crowd. Could actually pick individuals with clarity in shots which would never be possible on a normal resolution or even 2-4k resolution screen. 8K resolution is perfect for cinemas. Admittedly it seems a bit pointless on a TV below 70-80+ inches in size. But the picture quality was stunning and to this day I haven't seen anything that looked as good. Japan has the right idea. By pushing technology and adoption of technology they are staying ahead of their competitors. Sure they're not wildly ahead, but they are still ahead of their competitors.