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NBC will air the 2016 Rio Olympics in 4K, HDR and Atmos
NBC has announced that it will make content from this year's Olympic Games available to carriers in 4K and HDR, however there's one little catch. In a setup that will seem familiar for early HDTV adopters who still can't get Sony's "we brought chips... and salsa!" ad out of their heads 12 years later*, 4K UHD footage of the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, swimming, track and field, basketball, the men's soccer final, and judo is coming home on 24 hour tape delay. NBC will provide a downconverted version of the 8K feed Olympic Broadcasting Services and Japan's NHK are experimenting with, to 4K, and present it in HDR with Dolby Atmos surround sound audio. According to NBC Sports president Gary Zenkel, "The Olympics have been a consistent driver of technological advancements, and Rio will be no different."
Some Olympic events will air in 8K and VR this year
Even though 4K content is only now arriving, parts of the 2016 Rio games in August will be shot in 8K video and virtual reality. The Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) confirmed that it will air around 130 hours of the Super Hi-Vision video (7,680 x 4,320) with 22.2 channel surround sound in Japan only. Coverage will include the opening and closing ceremonies, along with sports including judo, football, swimming and basketball. However, VR footage, including the opening and closing ceremonies and select sports, will be available to viewers around the world, whether they have headsets or not.
New DisplayPort standard leverages USB Type-C's blazing speed
DisplayPort standards are one of those things most of us don't think about a whole lot, but are pretty important in terms of how our monitors connect to computers. The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) has published the latest version of the transfer protocol, about two years after the last. Whereas version 1.3 focused pretty heavily on 4K in 2014, 1.4 is more about providing lossless compression and further leveraging relatively new connection methods like USB Type-C.
Making TV shows in 8K is about to get a lot easier
If you want to broadcast a TV show in 8K resolution, then you're going to need a whole room full of computers to encode the image. After all, a regular machine would struggle to process the 60, 35-megapixel images that need to be crunched every second. That's one of the many reasons that 8K video is currently limited to tech demos and the odd, one-off special event where the cost is justified. Japan's NTT, however, is claiming to have squeezed that room full of tech into a single box that's roughly the size of your average server module. Right now, the announcement is just that -- an announcement -- but this could mean we start seeing 8K broadcasts popping up well ahead of schedule.
CES 2016: TVs are finally taking a backseat
Where are the TVs? In my ten years of attending CES I've never had to ask this question, and to be fair, this year they were still front and center in a few booths. But Sony pushed TVs and projectors to the fringe of its spacious CES booth (ceding space for headphones and... turntables?) while Panasonic could only spare a couple of tables for the latest Ultra HD TVs. In the same space where Darth Vader stood in front of dozens of flat panels to announce a Star Wars Blu-ray, now Spartan Race athletes wearing action cameras took on obstacles, and electric scooters showed off fast charging. Instead of riding high as the primary electronics device on show, TVs, set-top boxes and Blu-ray players are settling in with wearables, VR, drones and the rest as just another thing that look to your phone for advice.
What you missed on day five at CES
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-482866{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-482866, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-482866{width:100%;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-482866").style.display="none";}catch(e){} The longer CES goes on, the weirder it gets -- and not just because five days is wayyy too much time in Vegas. Rather, the big consumer announcements have already been made, so we're left with the more prosaic technology. Luckily, that's often the most fun. We saw a motion simulator called Moveo that could help you explore virtual reality's full vomit potential, for one. If you'd rather keep your thrills more grounded, BMW launched a connected motorcycle helmet with a heads-up display. And now that you've finally accepted the idea of 4K, guess what? Here comes 8K! Let Editor-in-Chief Michael Gorman give you the lowdown on these and other stories, or read more in the gallery below.
8K Attack: LG's and Samsung's super high-res TVs are here
We're barely emotionally adjusted to the existence of 4K, but already tech companies are looking to the next big thing. Sharp put its $130,000 8K TV on sale last year while this week both LG and Samsung showed off "real" 98-inch Super Hi-Vision screens. LG said its 8K television would go on sale in the second half of this year, but it didn't specify a price. Samsung doesn't have a release date or price for its TV either, but the bigger question of what you can even connect to these behemoths also has no answer. The last time I saw an 8K broadcast, it needed an Internet2 connection and a decoder the size of a doghouse just to work, so it's probably still a few years away from being feasible. Still, if these hit the market, maybe they can take a hint from Dish's Hopper 3 and watch four 4K videos at once. [Photos by Will Lipman]
'Guardians of the Galaxy II' to be shot with Red's 8K Weapon
Red and director James Gunn revealed that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 will be the first movie shot on the company's Weapon 8K digital cinema camera. The original film, which grossed nearly $800 million worldwide, was captured on Arri's Alexa XT camera. While directors like Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Nolan still demand celluloid film, digital cameras haven't exactly been sitting still. Red's 8K Weapon arguably rivals the resolution of 70mm film, even though the Vista Vision-size sensor is smaller. Arri, meanwhile, recently released the Alexa 65, a 6K cinema camera with a huge 65mm sensor.
LG's 2016 TVs include its first production 8K set
Forget all the hype about 4K at CES last year -- this year's trend is 8K. LG has revealed some of the first details about its 2016 TV lineup, and the highlight is its first production-grade 8K model, the UH9800. The Korean tech giant isn't saying much about what this 98-inch monster will offer or when it ships, but it's safe to say that this won't be an impulse purchase when Sharp's 8K screen costs about $130,000.
These 8K displays may end up on your next tablet
Most of us have barely touched 4K content, but the keen folks in Japan are already showing off some 8K displays, and we're not just talking about those of conventional TV sizes. At CEATEC, NHK brought along three upcoming 8K panels that may end up on future tablets, laptops and monitors. These include JDI's 17.3-inch LCD that was just announced last week, as well as Ortus' insanely sharp 9.6-inch LCD (that's a whopping 915 dpi!) from May, and Sharp/SEL's 13.3-inch OLED display. Even though the OLED panel was unveiled back in June last year, it's still by far the best 8K display out of the three; it's as if you're looking into another world, thanks to the combination of high contrast, strong vibrancy plus insanely sharp resolution. Alas, there's no launch date for any of these just yet, but a spokesperson from NHK hopes to see these come out before the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which will be broadcast in 8K.
Japan Display crammed 8K into a 17-inch LCD
In 2015, we want our displays to be sharper, brighter and even wrapped around the edges of our smartphones (maybe). Now, Japan Display has pushed the limits of screen resolution yet again by announcing a 17.3-inch 8K LCD module capable of running at a smooth frame rate of 120Hz. If you're trying to get your head around how many pixels that involves, JD is way ahead of you: it's 510 pixels per inch. The manufacturer says that the high resolution will offer an element of depth to images, and that it could be ideal for video-editing, medical displays and even as gaming screens. Unfortunately, that's all we know for now, but the LCD will be at CEATEC 2015 with all its millions of pixels on show.
The first 8K TV will go on sale soon for over $130,000
Sharp has demonstrated Super Hi-Vision 8K displays before (as seen above during CES 2015), but today in Japan it announced an 85-inch version is going on sale October 30th. Dubbed the LV-85001, it's a monitor (it has a tuner so you could call it a TV, but that can't actually receive 8K video) for professional use only, mostly since there aren't really any broadcasts or content to watch in 8K. Coming in at 16 times the resolution of 1080p screens, the 7,680 x 4,320 pixel LCD panel uses Sharp's IGZO technology. To actually watch any 8K video, you'll need to plug into all four of its HDMI inputs at once just to have enough bandwidth. If you're interested (and why wouldn't you be, even though there's almost nothing to watch), just contact Sharp's business-to-business sales unit, and bring along a check for 16,000,000 yen, or about $133,034 US.
Planes take to the runway in a glorious 8K 360-degree video
We haven't even had a chance to fill our homes with 4K TVs and already YouTube is moving on to 8K. To get an early jump on the coming wave of mega-high resolution videos, Dubai360 says that it has posted the world's first 8K 360-degree video. World's first or not, it's mesmerizing to watch a 24-hour time-lapse video of a busy airport that you can spin in 360 degrees. The video was created using 88,000 individual shots to create four time-lapse videos. Those videos were then stitched together into a single spin-at-your-will extravaganza. Like its earlier 360-degree time lapse from atop Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world, Dubai360's airport video requires multiple viewings to really get the whole experience.
YouTube has an 8K video (that almost no one can watch)
The equipment to shoot it might not exactly be widespread, and the displays needed to view it at home are even less so, but 8K video has made its way to YouTube. It's a feature the outfit announced way back in 2010, but only just recently did a clip surface that actually uses all of those lines of resolution. The clip's called Ghost Towns and it's a slow-panning journey through what looks like a recently abandoned mining settlement. Mountain View told 9to5Google that the 8K label was added earlier this year, but 4320p footage has only appeared pretty recently. The video description notes that Ghost Towns was shot using a RED Epic Dragon 6K camera in portrait orientation and to hit the higher resolution, some of the footage was upscaled or stitched together with Adobe's After Effects suite.
Red's latest 'Weapon' is an 8K full-frame camera
Red launched the first mainstream 4K camera when 1080p seemed like overkill, and now that this whole 4K thing might work out, it's got an 8K RAW model. The Weapon 'Vista Vision' features a mind-boggling 8,192 x 4,320, 35-megapixel sensor that can do up to 75 fps, widescreen 8K. The chip is also 40.96 x 21.6mm or Vista Vision-sized, considerably larger than the full-frame sensor on a camera like the Nikon D810. Video can be recorded in RAW and scaled-down ProRes formats simultaneously, just as with the company's 6K Weapon models.
LG may have just outed an 8K iMac
Apple's suppliers take a $50 million blood oath on new model secrecy, but it looks like someone from LG didn't get that memo. In a press release explaining why 4K is now passé (really?), the company's display division inadvertently leaked an iMac with an incredible 8K screen. While discussing its own 98-inch 8K TV, it said "Apple has also announced that they will release the 'iMac 8K' with a super-high resolution display this year." Unfortunately for LG, Apple announced no such thing, meaning the Korean company may have revealed information meant for its eyes only.
Daily Roundup: Google's robotic dog, one-way trips to Mars and more!
In today's Daily Roundup, we marvel over the impressive stabilization abilities of the latest robot from Google-owned Boston Dynamics, get all the details on why people want to go on a one-way trip to Mars and review BlackBerry's latest phone, straight out of 2011. All that and more past the break.
New video spec clears the way for 8K laptop screens
Think your 4K laptop or 5K iMac is hot stuff? If specification developers have their way, both will soon be old hat. The Video Electronics Standards Association has unveiled Embedded DisplayPort 1.4a, a new format that lets all-in-ones and laptops use 8K screens (7,680 x 4,320, if you want to be exact). The technology uses compression to squeeze more data into the video feed, and it can divide displays into two or four segments to help the pipeline cope with all those extra pixels.
4K, quantum dots and more: see the TV technology of CES 2015
Every year at CES, some of the most stunning visuals to be seen come from the TV manufacturers, and 2015 is no exception. Sure, 4K was the name of the game at this year's show, but there were also displays with four times that resolution on offer, too. And while most of the TVs were of the LCD variety, there were stunning sets using OLED and quantum dot tech to deliver better, brighter pictures, too. If you want to see more than just the TVs of CES, check out our 2015 Field Guide.
MHL's new adapter can handle 8K video and link your devices
If you thought MHL's existing adapter spec could handle just about everything under the sun, you ain't seen nothin' yet. The MHL Consortium has taken the wraps off of SuperMHL, a new connector format that's ready for hardware you can't even buy yet. It can play gigantic 8K videos at 120 frames per second, and it's also ready for wider color ranges (up to 48-bit) that present a more natural-looking picture. Also, you can link multiple SuperMHL devices -- it's possible to steer your TV, receiver and Blu-ray player using one remote. Think of it as a supercharged version of the years-old HDMI-CEC control standard.
