I see your 84-inch 4K TV, and raise you one 145-inch 8K Super Hi-Vision monster of a display. First seeing light of day back in April, this collaborative effort from Panasonic and Japanese national broadcaster NHK has a resolution of 7680 x 4320 (more than 33 million pixels), and, being a plasma screen, is the first 8K display without need of a backlight. Naturally, Gizmag jumped at the chance to see it in the flesh at IFA 2012.
It has to be said that as fair as banquet table-sized televisions go, this is a good one. Showing a rotating loop of blossoming trees, strutting peacocks, captive lions and shiny clocks with elaborate mechanisms, the epic TV is hiding in a dark, isolated corner of Panasonic's hall at IFA 2012.
The display is mounted behind a bed of pebbles (emanating unmistakable "keep off" vibes) calculated to be comfortably deeper than the reach of a leaning technology journalist holding a camera on maximum zoom at arm's length (determined to find evidence that the thing actually has pixels. Needless to say, photos don't do it justice. The colors of the plasma display are vibrant, too.
Still, there's one thing to be said for more sensibly-sized (relatively, that is) 4K televisions. They're at least hitting the market soon ... though the availability of 4K content is still likely to be a chain dragger.
But, my DVR [an HR24] has sufficient hard drive space dedicated to DirecTV's use that a couple dozen of the latest films are always on hand in 1080p to watch as instant PPV.
Point being that those are downloaded via broadband connection at night when there ain't much happening in the living room anyway. That's a process which can provide 4K cinema to my next TV - if and when I buy one with that capability. And there are beaucoup films available that can be downloaded at that resolution without resorting to optical media.
Sharp should have a set on the market this autumn - and I have my fingers crossed for the Apple TV set when it becomes available. I'd love to have that level of movie-watching in the home.
8K? Yeah - you're right. Long-time coming; but, that's what we all said when NHK started processing HDTV.