Sharp’s lineup of TVs has been pretty lacklustre so far. Oh! Except for this 85-inch 8k television, which is made up over 33 million pixels that look so shockingly good I actually felt ill.
The 8k set is a prototype, but the technology is real. Really, really real — and 16 times the resolution of 1080p. Which already looks fab.
I’ve simply never looked at a thing like this before. What’s the point in using superlatives? How many times can I write sharp, clear, gorgeous and vivid? Human faces look like they’re in front of you, smiling through an enormous science-fiction window. Look as close as you want at that crowd scene — there will always be more details. Footage of a dragon puppet looked more “there” than any 3D set has ever been.
3D is supposed to be immersive, right? Fuck your immersion. No TV will ever be more immersive than an enormous one that actually looks like real life — no kooky daggers and baseballs flying out at your face required. No gimmicks. Just 33 million pixels in one place.
A nice lady who works for Sharp said it might be about five years until we can buy this.
Sean
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 9:43 AMHow many years before we get 8k content?
david
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 10:19 AMIt will be driven by video games for sure. The next gen consoles will surely do 4k and the ones after 8k.
Imagine how real games could look! And it won’t require an enourmous new storage format, just better textures.
I just bought my first Full HD screen about 3 months ago too lol
wsDK_II
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 10:38 AMimagine the processing power required for 4k gaming
Chair
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 10:51 AMActually David TV will push this technology, I believe in a couple of years Japan will be the first to start broadcasting TV in 4K. Once that happens people will buy sets. Generally video game consoles follow the trend… look how late xbox 360 was to the HDMI game.
Sketchy
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:06 AMThe next consoles will most likely be 1080p as standard, with a 4k support option added on later in an update.
Greg
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 1:13 PMnext gen consoles will surely do 4k
hahahahahaha what are you smoking?
Ash
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:19 AMIt will most likely be driven by games and the porn industry. Anyhoo, an 8K resolution screen would probably need to be 80 inches or greater. So unless you have that much room in your oversized lounge room, I wouldnt really worry about this tech yet.
Sicarius123
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 4:49 PMAs I’ve said before, the “You sit this far away from your TV” and the “You can’t tell the difference in resolution on a screen bla big” bandwagons are the two most boring bandwagon out there.
an 80″ TV would be fantastic in most lounge rooms.
Matt
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 10:02 AMIt’s hard enough getting 1080p content now and it’s been around for years.
Matt L
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:53 AMWhat? How hard is it?… If you’re talking about a 1080p copy of cassablanca or some other movie over 5 years old you’re probably right.
Incredibad
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 10:06 AMCracks me up when someone posts “screenshots” of a cutting-edge 8k resolution TV that are 640×360 pixels. Surely that will give us an idea of what it’s really like………
AAron
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 4:20 PMJust what I was thinking. What’s the point
Stuart Lynch
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 10:11 AM8k at 8192 × 4320 is 16x higher total resolution when compared to 2k
But it’s really 4x more dense in terms of pixel count.
jackatron
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:56 AMNice! Imax quality at home :)
Megamind2
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 11:59 AMHow many stars darling?
Neil N
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 12:41 PMWhat about content delivery?
Either we need new ways of delivering high bandwidth content, or content providers are going to use compression ratios so high that it won’t look any better than current HD content. And don’t get me started on compression artifacts!
Ozoneocean
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 4:19 PMWhat about the NBN?
catfood
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 2:14 PMThis is when 1Tb USB3 thumbdrives step up. Go to a video shop with your thumbdrive, download a movie to it. Plug it in your TV.
John
Thursday, January 12, 2012 at 5:03 PMStop. Stop now. Stop creating even higher definition versions of high definition 1080. I can’t afford to be replacing my movie collection AGAIN! My wife will divorce me.
Craig
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 9:21 AMThis is for Digital Film production. We already use 4K monitors in the industry. This is the next step up. Soon we’ll have Full HD passive 3D Cinema Experiences
Craig
Friday, January 13, 2012 at 9:21 AMThis is NOT for the Consumer. Its for the Industry