Super Hi-Vision TV.

[ToonyLoons]

I just saw this on another forum and thought I would share it here.

An article from IGN Gear. http://gear.ign.com/articles/792/792478p1.html

Super Hi-Vision Crushes 1080p
Next HD standard will sport massively higher resolution.

May 29, 2007 - It goes without saying that just when HDTV has gained widespread public acceptance with more than 25% of Americans polishing their sexy displays, it's time to announce a new standard that makes even the sexiest 1080p display look like junk. Courtesy of the researchers at Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK-Japan's national TV network), the recently unveiled Super Hi-Vision standard features a video resolution of 7,680 x 4,320—16 times higher resolution than 1920 x 1080 (1080p).

NHK was the original originator (in 1969) of the HD standards we know and love today. Just as it took a solid 30-years for our current HD technology to become available to consumers, Super Hi-Vision is unlikely to be gracing home theaters any time soon. Merely capturing video in such high resolution requires new imaging sensors which NHK only possesses in prototype form at the moment. Once captured, a raw SHV signal has a bit-rate of 24-Gigabits-per-second, an unimaginably massive signal in practical terms when cable and satellite providers are already struggling to provide more than 30-channels of 1080i material. Compression will be the solution, but even with best of what's available today (MPEG-4 AVC), SHV is reduced to a still intimidating 128-megabits-per-second. Several generations of bandwidth increasing breakthroughs will be required before such massive pipes will be available to the public. A final hurdle involves the encoding / decoding hardware on both sides of the signal, which is currently nowhere near consumer friendly size.

This isn't a technology upgrade that should have anyone putting their HDTV-purchasing plans on hold. Super Hi-Vision is decades away from availability, though it's nice to know there's something to look forward to. The camera technology for capturing Super Hi-Vision will likely be the first component to mature, so when 2037 rolls around and we're looking for content to watch on our spray-from-a-can, nano-machine-assembled OLED displays, there may be a decent backlog of future-classics to enjoy.