• Thursday, 28 November 2024
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IMAX in your living room: the future of TV

IMAX in your living room: the future of TV
A new television technology known as Super Hi-Vision offers viewers a picture 16 times the resolution currently available on HDTVs.
Japan's public broadcaster Nippon Housou Kyoukai (NHK) demonstrated the technology that they have pioneered on the world's largest plasma TV, a 145-inch screen made by Panasonic.
You don't have to go square-eyed watching TV on a screen the size of your entire living room wall, though. The 33 megapixel (7680x4320 pixels or '8k') pictures are equally stunning (and slightly less disorienting) viewed on smaller screens, such as the 85-inch LCD TVs by Sharp.


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/digital-life/hometech/imax-in-your-living-room-the-future-of-tv-20120530-1zifk.html#ixzz1wiVfVsxG
"The incredibly detailed images on the giant screen will immerse the viewer in a virtual-reality-like experience," Sharp said in a statement.
If 85-inches still sounds too daunting for you, rest assured, there's something for everyone. NHK have taken the concept of tablet computing to the big screen by designing a touch screen interface that allows viewers to zoom, pinch and pan around the picture.
Speaking of zoom, you can zoom into a Super Hi-Vision picture up to 16 times while still maintaining the same clarity currently available on a Full HD 1080p TV.


Read more: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/digital-life/hometech/imax-in-your-living-room-the-future-of-tv-20120530-1zifk.html#ixzz1wiVk16vf
"Super Hi-Vision will be a wonderful future and will be a part of daily life," Dr Keiichi Kubota, Director-General of science and technology research laboratories at NHK, told the BBC.
While NHK has been showcasing prototypes, the technology will be put to the test publicly for the first time during the London Olympics, with Super Hi-Vision screens being erected across the UK, US, and Japan.
Despite this trial, NHK says the technology will not be available to the public until at least 2020, and as such are keeping mum on the costs involved.
We will be able to see the precursor to Super Hi-Vision much sooner though. Panasonic recently announced the world's smallest and thinnest 4K x 2K panel (about half the resolution of Super Hi-Vision), a 20.4 inch prototype that displays 8.29 million pixels on a 3.5 millimetre thin panel.
But without any programs shot in Super Hi-Vision, owning one of these gargantuan TVs seems a little pointless. So how exactly do you capture footage in such staggering high quality?
Currently, the few cameras that do have the ability to shoot in such high-definition are extremely large and heavy, not to mention expensive. NHK, it seems, has thought of everything though, partnering with Japanese tech giant Hitachi to develop the world's first shoulder-mounted Super Hi-Vision camera.
The gobsmacking resolution of Super Hi-Vision could also revolutionise the 3D TV dream, which has thus far been met with a lukewarm reception by consumers and critics alike.
NHK's technology, 'Integral 3D', uses thousands of tiny lenses to reconstruct an image filmed from multiple angles, as opposed to using stereoscopic screens and glasses to direct different images into each eye.
Basically, you will be able to adjust your perspective of the action on screen based on your position instead of the fixed perspective offered by current 3D technologies.
Broadcasting such high-resolution vision is extremely data-intensive. It requires approximately 10 bits of data per pixel, which means a 30 minute broadcast would require about 6 terabytes of data.
But don't worry about tossing your brand new LED LCD 3D smart TV to the curb just yet. NHK doesn't except Super-Hi Vision to be widely available commercially for at least another eight years, and Integral 3D until 2030.
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