I might be dead by the time Ultra HD hits the markets…but it is something to look forward to! In fact, I’m optimistic that we will get there faster than the designers of UHD have announced (could UHD be a good acronym? maybe I should use Ultra HD). The BBC published a story on Sept. 11 announcing a demonstration of the new technology. Ultra HD delivers a whopping 7680×4320 pixel image. That is 16x that of the current HD resolution.
New audio technology was also introduced…using an advanced surround system that incorporates 24 speakers. Is that overkill? I mean, would your head explode if you were really listening to sound from 24 speakers at once?
Well according to Dr. Masaru Kanazawa, of NHK, one of the original designers of HD (which was conceived 40 years ago), this new technology is meant to make people believe that they are actually in the scene. He says “When we designed HDTV 40 years ago our target was to make people feel like they were watching the real object. Our target now is to make people feel that they are in the scene.
Is this the holograph deck coming into fruition?
[Update: “Ultra HD” (and UHD) came to be the term used for 4k TVs with 2160p resolution, not 4320p as described above. That technology is still too way out of reach for consumers.]
