2012: The Year of 4K

[Hrvoje Simic]

~ 300 PPI > handheld
~ 220 PPI > notebooks
~ 160 PPI > desktops
~ 80 PPI > TV

I'd say...

[Sergio Perez]

HD didn't make SD look worse, it just showed it the way it is. HD on 4K (or quad-HD) displays looks just like HD, you can't see the difference. Good upscaling algorithms can bring some benefits, just as we see up-scaled DVD out of Blu-Ray players looking pretty good, in many cases giving Blu-Ray titles a run for their money. The big issue we have here is that many HD sources and Blu-Ray releases are just not of very good quality. There are many factors, some of the biggest being over-compression and poor compression algorithms, clipped and compressed color spaces, that sort of thing. Apple is that wildcard rumor. And I actually do expect them to go 4K with their TVs when they launch. I don't think Apple will be launching their TV product in 2012. I bet it happens in 2013. What I do expect to see first is updated Macbook Pro and Macbook Air systems with "retina" or double-density displays. New iPad with the same. Next they will move on an updated iMac with double density screen and I also expect the new iMac to have many of the rumored TV features to be incorporated. Also expecting a 25" (yes, 25 inch) cinema display with actual 4K, 4096 pixels wide, resolution. ...I have my reasons/sources.




Blu-Ray consortium is hammering out the Blu-4K spec right now. RED *NEEDS* to launch RED-RAY (or RED4K, or whatever it will ultimately be called) this coming year.


Oh, and Toshiba is first to market with consumer 4K displays. They're officially launching them friday (less than 48 hours away) in Japan. Should hit state-side in about 5 months. The 55" no-glasses 3D model is their flagship display, but they also have a 55" 4K without the no-glasses 3D (I don't know if it does 3D at all) for 650,000 yen, or about $8200 USD. 4K is here.

Sony will be showing 4K out of a PlayStation3 at CES next month. Surprisingly, I'm not under NDA about that... I don't have details though. They should also be showing preliminary 4K Blu-Ray content.

Jeff, you really do know your tech and computer technology :) I trust your evaluation on this.
Have followed the evolution of videogames for the past 2 decades and have to say that the Playstation card is also a very important one. What PS2 did for DVD cannot be neglected, for example. The PS3, while having a slow start, is probably one of the main factors of the penetration of Blu-ray in consumer households.

I can see the PS4 getting 4K output cababilities, including 3D. Having also seen no-glasses 3D sets working I have to say they really are not that impressive right now. Have been to a couple of shows showcasing the technology and its just too limiting in terms of viewing angle. A good example for those wanting to see this in action is to see a nintendo 3DS. This "sort of" works because you as the user of the 3DS are constantly adjusting with your hands the screen in order to get the perfect 3D angle. Not so if you are in your living room.

Jeff, I have to disagree with you in one point, though. Watching SD Broadcast in an SD trinitron is much better than watching said broadcast in an HD LCD. Of course, watching the HD Broadcast in the HD LCD smokes the SD broadcast in the SD trinitron. I alos have a 50" Plasma that is only 720P and does wonders to the artifacts of HD broadcast, which can look bad in a 50" full HD recent model. The problem is not the sets, but the poor quality of the broadcasts. The audience doesn't know about the technicalities of this and just chooses what they feel looks best and worse. In order for 4K to trully penetrate the mass market, the audience needs to see a full, discernible difference with what they have now. Videogames are great for this because they introduce technology to a target audience that is much more open to innovation.

[Ryan De Franco]

Having seen digital projection of a film shot digitally a few days ago... God, was I happy it was shot and projected in 1080.

Intensity looks great in 4K. I've seen 4K projectors at their best--action films, sci-fi films, anything that calls for high detail deserves detail.

But human faces? Drama, comedy, hell anything involving a close-up of a woman? No one wants to see all that. Even at perfect 1080 there's often too many pores.

Today, a colorist at a major NY post house told me how many directors and clients diffuse their 4K scans because they see too much. On a commercial a few months ago, Steven Spielberg's gaffer Dave Devlin (who shot the first Epic short, Tattoo) suggested we thumbprint the back of the lens in order to cut the resolution down from 5K. Full BPM, CS filters were not enough.

This is not to say 4K has a place. It absolutely does. But we have to be careful how we use this technology--I'm making extreme points here because the consumer audience will be incredibly turned off if all of a sudden they see too much human detail they never wanted to see. Take a point from the master cinematographers, filter your close-ups, keep your wide shots as 4K sharp as you want :)

[Joseph Ward]

2012 the year of 4k till December 21, lol.
2020 the year of 8k UHDTV
2030 the year of the Hologram, yes please!

Red makes Redray the new broadcast standard!

[Dominik Novotny]

I would love to have a 4 or 8k screen in my living room and watch the news in 3D ultra high quality. At the moment I am happy with my 55 Panasonic plasma watching TV in 720p. I am happy with my Epson EH-TW 5500 watching a Blue Ray Disc at FullHD resolution at the moment. I can´t wait for Red ray and the Red projector.

BUT!

I think, we as technical fetishists will have all new technical gadgets as soon as possible, but the normal consumer? In Germany only one out of ten discs sold is a blueray. In 2014 blueray is estimated to gain 50% of the market here. Yes, the internet is the way to distribute high quality content in future. But will broadcast stations spend again millions of Euros to switch their equipment from HD to 4k in this decade? They don´t even distribute 1080p in Germany.

4k - 2012 will be the year for us, 2025 for the consumer.

[Thomas Pohl]

We already recognized a growing demand on 4k footage. So I would agree with the headline. Let`s see what happens.

Thomas.

[Dominik Novotny]

I hope you are right, Thomas. BTW, I like your small Redcine workshop.

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Jeff, I have to disagree with you in one point, though. Watching SD Broadcast in an SD trinitron is much better than watching said broadcast in an HD LCD. Of course, watching the HD Broadcast in the HD LCD smokes the SD broadcast in the SD trinitron. I alos have a 50" Plasma that is only 720P and does wonders to the artifacts of HD broadcast, which can look bad in a 50" full HD recent model. The problem is not the sets, but the poor quality of the broadcasts. The audience doesn't know about the technicalities of this and just chooses what they feel looks best and worse. In order for 4K to trully penetrate the mass market, the audience needs to see a full, discernible difference with what they have now. Videogames are great for this because they introduce technology to a target audience that is much more open to innovation.

CRT and plasma have a unique look to them that does indeed seem to "enance" low resolution imagery or images that have a lot of anomalous artifacts and compression issues. Combine that with how most HDTVs treat SD signals -- very poorly, by design, and yes, it's easy to see why people didn't (and still don't) like to watch SD sources on an HD LCD.

But human faces? Drama, comedy, hell anything involving a close-up of a woman? No one wants to see all that. Even at perfect 1080 there's often too many pores.

I have to disagree somewhat. Take still photography, print advertising, etc.. as an example. Personally I think much of the processing done there is too much, but that's the thing to do these days. And no reason why it could not be applied to motion. With 4K and higher resolution, you have a creative tool at your disposal. All in how you choose to use it. Some people want to cover it up.

" anything involving a close-up of a woman? No one wants to see all that."

hire better looking women. Seriously though, I'm not sure I (or many of us out there) follow the same logic. In many ways, saying this is like saying your female subject is not attractive unless she is shot on camera at a resolution low enough to hide any skin features. I often wonder, do these DoP's / cinematographers thumbprint or wipe petroleum jelly on their eyeglasses when they're going to be around a group of women and talking to them face to face?

4K, even 8K, are still lower resolution than real life... It just gives us more freedom to manipulate pixels and create the desired images. I guess you could say that I'm not much of an old-school film guy. I try to NOT do any diffusion or image alteration at the camera level. While sometimes it makes sense because you know you need to in order to get the desired results, most of the time it's best to save it for post where you're not locked into such a choice made earlier.

[Subhadip Sen]

I often wonder, do these DoP's / cinematographers thumbprint or wipe petroleum jelly on their eyeglasses when they're going to be around a group of women and talking to them face to face?

Haha! Seriously though, most cinema - especially Hollywood - is so far removed from reality it doesn't really matter. That makes sense, but I would certainly love to see a few more realist films and capturing humans like they really look would be a good start. There are some incredible close-up shots in Nuri Bilge Ceylan's latest films shot on HD - I can imagine they would be even more involving at 4K. I may be crazy, but watching human faces like people I might run into is far more interesting to me than seeing artificially softened and excessively made up supermodels.

[Stuart English]

Sony will be showing 4K out of a PlayStation3 at CES next month.

Commentary suggests that will deliver 4K resolution stills (i.e. from early reports on Sony 4K home cinema theatre)