HD envy

May 30, 2006

NHKI just ran across an article that perfectly illustrates my don’t sweat it attitude when it comes to 1080p and beyond. I don’t mean to imply that resolution doesn’t matter but I have to chuckle a bit when I see folks arguing over what is or isn’t “full” or “true” HD, instead of just enjoying what we have now.

Think that new wobulating Samsung 1080p, rear-projection television is the cats meow? It may be today but tomorrow is always up for grabs in the consumer electronics world.

Japan’s NHK (the fathers of HDTV) recently ran a test transmission of their ‘Super HiVision’ broadcast protocol at 7680×4320 lines of resolution. Yeah four thousand three hundred and twenty lines of vertical lines of resolution….

While the virtual broadcast relied on a hardwired fiber-optic connection for signal transmission, NHK has access to Japan’s experimental 21GHz satellite band and feels that they can easily transmit these Super HiVision signals at 250Mbps. To give you some perspective on the bandwidth NHK is using, typical HD signals transmit at 20Mbps or lower.

Ok of course there aren’t any commercially available sources that are capable of providing anywhere near 4k lines of vertical resolution but the same could be said of 1080p, at least until Blu-ray hits the streets. My point is there’s always something better in the pipeline, don’t let that stop you from enjoying HD today.



Posted by B.Greenway | | Filed Under HDTV


Comments

  • Marc
    I'm looking to upgrade to HDTV and I'm having a hard time deciding between CRT, LCD, and rear projection. I think I want a 42" and I don't want plasma because of the half-life and burn-in. The rear projections (e.g.: DLP) bug me, because the bulbs burn out once a year or so and cost a lot of money. LCD can have dead pixels. Sheesh - makes me just want to have a good old reliable CRT, except that they seem very hard to find now, especially in larger sizes.
  • B.Greenway
    Hey Dave,

    I'm not sure but if you divide .2 by the number of years it will take them to squeeze that much resolution into a 56” screen, we just might have an answer!

    Seriously though, it took manufacturers quite a while just to get 1080p plasmas up to speed but once they did it seemed like an afterthought.

    I'm not sure that 4000+ lines of resolution on any screen under say 70” inches or so would even be fully appreciable.
  • Dave
    Exactly how far away from a 56" set would you have to sit to notice the difference between 1080p and 4320p?
  • whodisbe
    I agree with that 100%. I was a semi-early adopter of HD. In my circle of friends, I was the first to get an HD TV, while everyone else was busy waiting for 1080p. All it took was an hour on Discovery HD, and by the next month I wasn't the only friend with HD anymore. Ironically, we were watching the Discovery HD special on Super HiDef.
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