8K: Plenty of Pixels For Everybody!

[Iannis Holwech]

Good article about the progress of the 8K format from Display Daily.
Shows that RED is on the right track when it comes to the future of UHD megapixel Cinema cameras.

8K: Plenty of Pixels For Everybody!
November 2nd, 2009
By Peter Putman of Roam Consulting.

During the SMPTE Fall Tech Expo last week in Hollywood, I chaired a session on trends in display technologies. One of the four papers in my session discussed the ongoing efforts by NHK to develop an 8K camera-to-screen system, in conjunction with Canon, Astro, and Fuji, while another paper detailed a companion 8K LCoS projection system, developed by JVC.


The 8K camera system, which was shown at NAB back in April, is of interest because it uses a mastering and acquisition design philosophy, i.e. all video production in the future would rely on 8K cameras and reference displays, with downconversion to 4K and 2K an integral part of the system.

NHK’s Ultra-High Definition TV (UHDTV) employs red, blue, and dual green-channel sensors, with the G1 and G2 sensors offset from each other to pick up additional detail. The camera delivers images with 33 megapixels of resolution and can transport a 22.2 surround sound mix. That’s a tremendous data payload, and it requires 16 HD-SDI connections over optical fiber just to move the 7680×4320 frames (59.94p frame rate) from point to point.

The NHK format converter, developed by Astro, delivers real-time downconversion to 3840×2160 and 1920×1080 formats in three ways. The first is a straightforward downconvert to 4K or 2K from each master 8K video frame. The second process divides the image into quadrants and delivers any quadrant as "cut-out" 4K content, while the third process extracts any of 16 screen areas for 2K imaging, also as "cut outs."

4K and 2K format downconversions aren’t just limited to specific image sections. The Astro format converter can also pan across any part of the screen and extract 4K and 2K sections as needed, including zooming and cropping any part of the full frame 8K images.

The pan/tilt/zoom functions are also lined to a robotic camera control system, as shown in a demo tape of a soccer match. While the main 8K scenes were being captured, a smaller 2K "tile" moved about the screen, grabbing and extracting real-time footage of activity around the goal and at midfield.


Canon’s custom zoom lens developed for this camera has a zoom ratio of 10x and can resolve 250 line pairs per millimeter, with a minimum focal distance of 2 meters, or 50 millimeter in macro mode. A companion wide-angle lens also offers the same resolving power and has a 100-degree field of view, with minimum focal distance of 0.4 meters.

JVC’s companion 8K D-ILA projector uses three brand new 1.7" VA LCoS panels, each with a pixel pitch of just 4.8 µm and resolution of 8192 x 3420 pixels. Switching transistors have gotten smaller, undergoing a 30% reduction in size. JVC has also come up with a smaller capacitor design to fit in the boundary between the reflective electrode and each transistor, and the gap between pixels has been reduced to 0.24 µm. All of these developments have increased the aperture ratio to 93% while boosting peak (sequential) contrast to 20,000:1.

A new optical engine was designed for the 8K system, employing a 3 kW xenon lamp and wire grid dichroic filters, similar to those employed in JVC’s home theater projectors. According to JVC, this has resulted in a luminous efficiency of 3.3 lumens/watt, with ANSI contrast specified at 400:1 and ANSI brightness specified at 10,000 lumens.

All-new optics are also part of the package, with a 40mm prime lens providing a projection throw ratio of 1:1 to screens ranging in size from 8.3 feet to 42 feet. The data transfer rate of 72 GB/s required a custom fiber optic interface using 16 HD-SDI channels, with 12 bits per pixel sampling and a 60p frame rate. The transport format conforms to SMPTE-2036 and allows for a scalable, layered 8K/4K/2K structure.

Although JVC and NHK didn’t touch on 3D during their papers, this 8K platform should easily be extensible to 3D acquisition and display. The D-ILA panels have an LC twist time of 4.5 ms, and interlaced or segmented left eye/right eye sequencing could easily be employed for 4K effective resolution, using the standard 60p frame rate. (No word on support for faster frame rates, such as 120 Hz for full 8K 3D - but that’s wishful thinking for now!)

Neither the camera system nor the projector has been commercialized just yet - they’re still in the prototype stage. But the images they produce are mind-blowing and a fascinating glimpse into the future of video beyond HDTV…a time that’s much closer than you think.

 

[Tom Lowe]

The more pixels the better, but I believe that 4K display will be the gold standard for a long time to come. Reason? With 4K, you can (at least in theory) scan 100 years worth of movies, TV shows, and music videos shot on 35mm, 65mm, Vista Vision, etc, to 4K resolution. Whether they will actually hold up at that resolution depends on how recently the movie was shot, on which format, and so on. For example, a copy of Clint Eastwood's "Any Which Way But Loose" from the 70s probably will not again much by being scanned to 4K, but the "Dark Knight," shot on 35 anamorphic, might.

No such arguments can be made for scanning to 8K res. I don't care what anyone tells you, no film format other than 15-perf IMAX really benefits from an 8K finish. Sure, you can scan 35mm anamorphic at 8K or 6K, but there is no need to finish at anything above 4K. I'm sure some guys at c.com will try to claim that film can resolve to 6K or whatever, as we have seen with the 8K scan of "Baraka" (originally shot on 65mm), the film looks great at 1080p, but I seriously doubt it would look any better with an 8K finish vs a 4K finish.

8K might be great for live sports coverage, moving wall displays, digital IMAX, etc, but probably is a long ways off for home display, or even general cinema display.

 

[Stephen Williams]

Sure, you can scan 35mm anamorphic at 8K or 6K, but there is no need to finish at anything above 4K. I'm sure some guys at c.com will try to claim that film can resolve to 6K or whatever, .

Hi Tom,

I often scan S35mm film at 6k then downrez to 4k given the budget, I also shoot with 5DMKII & EX1/3's. Horses for courses. I know a facilitiy that do the majority of their film work above 4k, there is a demand & people will pay.
Another client with HDCAMS & EX3's has a Sony 4K projector in his home cinema!

Stephen

 

[Tom Lowe]

Hi Tom,

I often scan S35mm film at 6k then downrez to 4k given the budget, I also shoot with 5DMKII & EX1/3's. Horses for courses. I know a facilitiy that do the majority of their film work above 4k, there is a demand & people will pay.
Another client with HDCAMS & EX3's has a Sony 4K projector in his home cinema!

Stephen

Hi Stephen,

The term "Horses for courses" was officially banned from use on this forum two weeks ago. Please check your inbox for the memo.

I agree that film can be scanned at 6K, but only to a 4K finish. Hell you can scan at 1,000,000K, but the results will not really benefit by finishing at anything above 4K, IMO.

An 8K camera is great, because it will produce a pristine 4K finish. But 8K displays will not be useful as home displays for the reasons I laid out above. I think 4K will be the display gold standard for some time to come.

 

[Joe G.]

This hints at a future technology for users to pan and zoom into the content as they please. With a joystick or some other type of controller, they could see different experiences of the same film by choosing which parts of the image to view.

For sports broadcast, this could be revolutionary, too.

 

[Zack Birlew]

I've discussed this topic of zooming and panning into footage in a previous topic about the Epic 645 and 617. I believe it is in the cinematography forum but could be in the Epic forum too. Lots of good discussion about it. Can't wait to actually see the results! =)

 

[Joseph Ward]

Unless the display is a projector, I don't think most will be over 4K.