We haven’t heard much about Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) in the mainstream recently, but the next evolution in high-def is the subject of some industry speculation. Recent In-Stat research estimates content providers will be able to begin offering Ultra High Definition content for UHDTVs somewhere between 2017 and 2022.
Although it will be quite a long time before the technology hits any type of market saturation, In-Stat says there will be enough interest for companies to strategize long-term plans to develop Ultra Hi-Def as a marketable product.
The In-Stat research found the following (summarized):
- Early UHDTVs will begin being made available to consumers between 2017 and 2022.
- UHDTVs in Europe will approach 5% of households by 2021 (and over 28.2% by 2025)
- Japan is expected to be one of the early adopter countries of UHDTV
What is UHD? It’s an advanced video/audio technology that produces 16x the amount of current HD resolution. If you think your 1080p Blu-ray Disc is sharp, try multiplying that resolution by four or sixteen, and adding 4x the amount of audio channels.
Ultra HDTV will increase video resolution to either 3840×2160 lines (referred to as 4k) or 7680 x 4320 (8K resolution) — 16x what Blu-ray currently offers.
Now imagine a sound system utilizing 22.2 channels — not only are you watching high-definition, you are immersed in it.
Dr. Masaru Kanazawa of NHK (Japan’s broadcasting organization) is one of the original designers of HD. A few years back Dr. Kanazawa spoke of the emerging Ultra HD technology and was quoted as saying, “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.”
