Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/147928
Blu-ray technology now allows the added storage capacity necessary to support 4k. This was a bit uncertain when Blu-ray was originally proposed. n 4k TVs exist today, and will come quickly. When Blu-ray was originally released, most HDTVs were 720p, not yet supporting 1080p. n 3D looks much better at 4k levels, stirring additional demand for 4k Blu-ray. Fihn says, "Bottom line, there's no sense about debating 'if' – it's just a question of 'when,' and I believe it will be quicker than most analysts are currently predicting." n More and More Color The other issue prompting discussion with 4k displays is the color range, or gamut. Several of the 4k displays are publishing a specification of 1.07 billion colors. It's difficult to find the color standard the 4K displays are supporting. Michael James, president of Portrait Displays and an expert on color, comments, "Although there is no certainty with standards, the film and video content is captured and archived in DCI-P3 color space, which contains the widest gamut of all of the emulated color spaces. The REC2020 standard, which specifies two resolutions, both with a 16:9 aspect ratio: 3,840 x 2,160 (what everyone calls '4k') and 7,680 x 4,320 ('8k'), has a color gamut beyond what current technology can achieve with emissive displays. Neither OLED or Quantum Dots (QD) can hit the RGB points called for. And from a sales perspective, color will trump resolution in the showroom. Resolution is distance-dependent, color is not. Saturated colors appeal across the showroom floor." James notes that this was demonstrated at SID, where the QD displays used red to show the difference that an expanded color gamut makes. "The problem with DCI-P3 is the technology required to reach the color gamut," he says. "The only systems we have seen that can show a DCI-P3 color gamut are RGB backlights, QD, or OLEDs." According to Soneira, the frequently advertised number of displayed colors is a specification designed to intentionally mislead consumers into thinking that the display has a large gamut. "It is actually just the number of possible displayed intensity combinations, and is just the bit-depth cubed, which is 1.07 billion for 10 bits," he says. "Those 10 bits may be just the final display register. Other than CRTs, I've never seen a display actually deliver a visual 8 bits on the screen (because intensity irregularities are larger than the least-significant bit)." Soneira has an article in the next issue of SID Information Display Magazine on how the display color gamut and image contrast vary in ambient lighting (rather than the dark), and how to automatically compensate for it dynamically. (See Soneira's article, "Understanding Misleading Display Specs," at www.displaymate. com/news.html#9.) Lately, there are issues surrounding the pixels themselves. A 50inch screen will have pixels that are 0.023 inches – that's almost a thirty-second of an inch and easily visible if you get close. Therefore, I think content creators are going to have to take a little added care and employ higher super-sampling techniques to avoid artifacts. 8K UHD 4K UHD FHD SD ■ RELATIVE SCREEN resolutions (assuming the same physicalsize pixel). So, what comes after 4k? Why 8k, of course: 8k UHDTV (4320p) has a resolution of 7,680 × 4,320 (33.2 Mpix), 16 times the pixels of current 1080p HDTV, which brings it closer to the detail level of 15/70mm IMAX. NHK of Japan advocates the 8k UHDTV format with 22.2 surround sound as Super Hi-Vision. In April 2012, NHK (in collaboration with Panasonic) announced a 145-inch (370cm) display (7,680 × 4,320 at 60 fps), which has 33.2 million 0.417mm square pixels. No doubt about it, 4k is coming like a freight train, and it's going to get here sooner than most people realize – much faster than HD did. Why? There's a combination of reasons. First, the panel makers can. Second, they have to pump out a lot of big screens to get the ROI on the huge fabs they built over the past five years. And third, the industry and, hopefully, the consumers are ready for the next great thing. But if 4k screens are going to be big, 80 inches or more, will 8k require much bigger houses? Maybe for some, but most likely those will be reserved for theaters and science. Lastly, there is the issue of vision. 20/20 is an average, not a limit. Those with good vision can resolve 20/10. Even if a person can't resolve an eye chart, Japanese research shows improvements in "apparent reality" at 2.5 times the resolution of 20/10 – five times the resolution of 20/20. So get ready to "see" the present and the future. ■ CGW Jon Peddie is president of Jon Peddie Research, a Tiburon, CA-based consultancy specializing in graphics and multimedia that also publishes JPR's "TechWatch." He can be reached at jon@jonpeddie.com. CG W July / August 2013 ■ 57