The Reality Behind 8k Video
Photo by Circle ID
What is 8K?
8K has become a recognizable term, but what really is it, where did 8K come from, can you use 8K now, and what will the future look like? The technology for 8K exists now but it has been a slow process that has taken decades and still isn’t fully ready for the common consumer. Right now, 8K is too advanced, not worth the investment, and not changing much of anything in society. However, in the future, as 8K evolves it will be easy to use, cheaper to own, and change the way we interact with one another as a whole.
The most important basic information about 8K is that it is a resolution for screens. To talk about 8K any further we really need to have a basic understanding of pixels and resolution. A pixel is a cell containing three colored lights (red, green, and blue), and with these, any other color on a screen can be made (Greenwald). So, each individual pixel is like a very small lightbulb that covers a miniscule part of the screen. The lower the number of pixels, the more noticeable they are, but the more pixels there are, the smaller they get and the harder they are to see and the more accurate the picture will be. A resolution is the number of pixels on a screen. The higher the resolution, the higher the number of pixels. The overall pixel count on an 8K screen is 7,680 by 4,320 (Greenwald). Although the numbers are below 8,000 the first number is rounded up and is why we call it 8K, the same is true for 4K. However, the resolution of 8K is four times that of 4K, which is also four times that of 1080p (Greenwald). That makes 8K sixteen times anything in 1080p, which is as of today still the most common in most devices (Greenwald). So, a screen with a resolution of 8K would be sixteen times the quality of what most people are used to seeing regularly in the modern world.
History of 8K Video
It would be difficult to talk about the complete past of 8K because that has not really happened yet. 8K has not become the standard in current society. It is not in a vast majority of homes or even very common at all. Of course, we can discuss when it was invented, and the evolution that lead to its existence in different technological forms. It is worth keeping in mind that a lot of the history of 8K just hasn’t been written yet, especially in terms of economy and sociology. There aren’t mass consumer sales for 8K, and the majority of people have not upgraded to 8K and will need many new technologies to do so.
That being said we can trace the beginning of 8K to the start of the switch from analog TVs to digital TVs (DTV). Analog TVs were the very first electronic TVs, starting in the early 1900s and in only black and white, with the resolution being a mere 60 lines, a significant increase from the previous 12 lines in earlier versions of TVs (Creative). Analog TVs would continue to be upgraded and stay around for quite a long time, eventually evolving from a system where signals sent from ground broadcasts from TV towers to a satellite system in 1962 (Telstar, Intelsat and the first global satellite broadcast). Those are what people might remember as the large bulky TVs where in order to watch cable television, an actual cable would need to be provided and set up by a cable company with a satellite connected to the roof of their houses. The official switch from analog to digital TV in the U.S.A. began in 2009 when a law was made stating that all broadcasting of terrestrial television programming needed to be exclusively digital (Silva). The upgrade to digital TVs was a completely different system that introduced the ability to use higher quality because it is transmitted as data bits of information, similarly to the way video is written on a CD, DVD or Blu-ray Disc. It no longer mattered how far away a signal was from a transmitter. The signal in digital TVs is either on or off and not reliant on signals via satellite (Silva). Digital TV made many upgrades over the years and today there are many different kinds. These started with SDTV, moving to EDTV, then upgrading to HDTV, and now the most recent, UHDTV. Each of these kinds of TVs has many different resolutions with different display modes, such as i for interlaced and p for progressive scan, the most realistic and smoother version available today (HDTV vs UHDTV | Difference between HDTV and UHDTV). All this being said, 8K is the newest commercial advancement in screen viewing with very sharp, lifelike images and smooth viewing.
It is unclear exactly when 8K was invented, however we do know that it is not necessarily a new concept. A broadcast company called NHK, Nippon Hoso Kyokai (which translates to Japan Broadcasting Corporation) has actually been working on 8K since 1995 (Allard). Starting in 2005 8K images were screened at various shows and conventions such as the EXPO in Aichi Japan as well as in the Kyushu National Museum to display stills of art pieces (History). For many years 8K would continue to be displayed in various places, but in 2012 there were a handful of important milestones to the evolution of 8K. Including in May when the first compact camera with the ability to shoot 8K was developed, July of 2012 where the first live public viewing trial of 8K took place of the London Olympics, and in August when the International Telecommunication Union Radiocommunication Sector recommended 8K as the national standard for television (History). Then in the years to come many more trial runs of different Olympic Games, World Cups, and even the 2016 Super Bowl would help in the beginning of 8K development. Then in 2018, the start to 4K and 8K satellite broadcasts helped push 8K further (History). As of December 2020, NHK has been broadcasting in 8K on a permanent basis and even has a special channel dedicated to 8K where only 8K content runs exclusively. (Allard).
Features of 8K Video
In present times there are a few different types of content shot in 8K, and there has been for a few years, but it isn’t really meant to be viewed right now and it isn’t available to the public. We just aren’t there yet. When we buy a new device, we expect it to have about a 1080p screen and 1080p video is high quality today, but 4K is seen as a bonus not a necessity or a standard for the common consumer. For instance, phones are barely using 4K shooting and viewing is still a bit below 4K a majority of the time. Top of the line laptops are still only in 4K and aren’t in 8K at all yet. A hand full of monitors have 8K capability, but there aren’t many options, and gaming hasn’t really even reached 4K yet. TVs are still in 4K a majority of the time with only the most expensive TV’s in 8K at about $5,000 and upwards. But that is in smaller screen sizes where 8K wouldn’t really matter anyway.
To get the full effect of an 8K a screen it should be between 75-100 inches, but that doesn’t really exist right now. 8K TVs right now start at around 55-85 inches with the exception of one TV made by LG that is 325 inches, but also carries a price tag of 1.7 million dollars (Hood). After spending that money, you would also need to invest in the extra cables, at least 100Mbps internet service, and make sure you could get enough bandwidth, and even still there isn’t a way to stream 8K content in 2021. Even if there was a way the monthly cost would be absurd to upkeep (Hruska). There is not even 8K content available for consumers (Greenwald). So owning an 8K TV now would just be a waste. Unfortunately, this is the reality of 8K currently. Yes, it technically exists, for instance someone could have an 8K TV, a PC capable of running 8K, an 8K monitor, and 8K camera, and maybe get a VPN so they could watch that Japanese 8K channel, assuming they could also get all of the equipment needed to stream 8K, but at what cost? That would have to be within the 1% of people, and it certainly wouldn’t be convenient. Overall, 8K is just a bit too advanced for the average consumer to use and right now (and for it to be worth the investment, time, and tech knowledge). Using 8K now, would not be the fun exciting upgrade it should be, but rather a long hassle with little pay off.
However, despite this, 8K content is still being created professionally. For instance, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was the first feature film to be shot in 8K and that was back in 2017, but why did the director/producer go to all the trouble? Well, it’s so that the movies can stay relevant and keep up with the upgrades in the future when 8K inevitably takes over. Shooting in 8K now, gives a sort of security. It makes the films future proof. The movies, TV shows and anything else will not fall behind with future upgrades in quality (4K to 8K: Is it Overkill and What Does it Mean to Our Industry). Right now, the world is still transitioning to 4K, and we aren’t even all the way there yet. Currently the only logical use of 8K is really just preparing for the future. Other than that, there isn’t much else to discuss about the present of 8K, because we are still living in the midst of its creation.
What is the Future of 8K?
However, the future of 8K is where all the interest is. It is reasonable to assume that 8K will follow in 4K’s footsteps at the least. It is also important to note that the first 4K TVs started selling commercially in 2012, but it wasn’t until the past few years that 4K content started streaming consistently (Anders). That means it took about 10 years for 4K to become available in TVs, monitors, laptops, cameras, and video games. And 10 years to fully utilize 4K capability through streaming 4K content. Even now, 4K is still advanced and mostly just in the top-of-the-line products. 1080p is now starting to become the minimum requirement. However, after 4K is a standard, I think 8K will become standard soon after. Because there is already 8K filming in movies coming out today, it is smart to assume that will continue and increase in the next few years to come as well. With time, 8K will become more available, cheaper, and make more sense for everyday use. As more advancements are made, the more 8K products will be produced, the wider the availability, and the cheaper the products will become overall. Just as with any new technology. But in order for 8K to fully take off commercially people will need to actually be able to buy it, but a majority of people just can’t do that in 2021.
However, the movie and professional industries will tell a different story. Just as The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was filmed in 8K, so will more and more content until, 16K and 32K equipment is released. As new and better cameras come out, the industry will use it first and continue to use the highest quality and top of the line filming equipment even if consumers can’t view it yet. Even if the standard for in home use, does not move to 16K, or 32K, the industry will be prepared just in case, just as they have with 8K filming in recent years. Future proofing will always be a continuous need.
However, unlike 8K I don’t think 16K or 32K will become a consumer standard anytime soon and maybe not even ever at all. I think 16K, 32K, etc. will be brought to places like movie theatres, sports areas, concerts, and other big social events. In fact, a 16K TV has already been made by Sony with the intentions of cinema placement. It is 63 feet long and available for in home installation as well, but it is unlikely a typical home will have a place for screen of that size. The price has not been officially released but the estimated price is upwards of 5 million dollars. It is a fair assumption that a TV like that is more likely to be owned by a business or company than a typical household. It would be smart for social entertainment businesses like movie theatres to get their hands on a similar screen (other 16K screens or even 32K when available), before the public can, to have a bigger appeal to costumers. Especially with movie theatres potentially dying out from digital downloads and streaming from home. Maybe the exclusivity of 16K or 32K screens/viewing would be enough to save the business. However, I don’t think there will be a need for anything past 32K at all and doubt it will be developed. At that point screens would have to be so big that it would likely only be able to go in a theatre or social entertainment auditorium anyway. Screens could continue to get bigger, and they would have to for 16K or 32K to matter at all and there will be a point when screens would need to be so big that the cost of production wouldn’t be worth the pay off. For that reason, I think 8K will be the max for general consumers, 16K will likely be in theatres and 32K will likely be the absolute max professionally and in social entertainment events like concerts or sporting events. Each genre for tech will have different resolution standards because of the different desirable screen sizes and uses for each.
What about phones and gaming?
For instance, if we look at why gaming is so far behind now. Most games cannot run in 4K especially on consoles. The same will likely stay true with 8K and beyond as well. It takes longer to develop games in such high quality and most people’s PC’s and consoles won’t be able to handle it until there are further tech advancements and that will take years to get. That’s all assuming a person would want to game on a 100-inch screen which is a long shot especially for first person shooters, or any competitive gameplay. Any screen smaller than 100 inches wouldn’t have a noticeable difference in quality and would just slow the PC/console down, create lag, input delay, etc (Shafer) . There would be no need for a 16K monitor for general use at all and it would only cause problem. So the max resolution for gaming is probably going to be capped at around 8K because of the screen size issue and because gamers will likely always prefer better performance over graphics quality, especially in competitive play.
As far as cell phones and laptops, there is a similar issue. The screen is so small it just wouldn’t matter or be noticeable at all past a certain point (depending on the product). There wouldn’t be a point to make phones with 8K screens or laptops with 16K screens because it wouldn’t be noticeable at all and production cost wouldn’t be worth the profit. So for the future I’d predict the standard will cap at around 4K for phones and that laptops will be capped at around 8K.
However, I do think phone cameras will go past 4K filming, start to include 8K and probably go up to 16K at some point. We already start to see some of this in a handful of phones out already like the Samsung Galaxy S20 Series, LG V60 ThinQ, Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro, and Nubia’s Red Magic 3s which can all already film 8K video (Seth). As new cameras are developed (which is inevitable as production quality will always be advancing) phone cameras will start to include the capabilities as well, just as we have seen decade after decade with 720p, 1080p, and 4K slowly being added to our phones.
I also think it is worth mentioning that as higher quality cameras are added to cell phones, laptops, etc. there could be more of a class divide in the future. For instance, the rival between Apple and Android will likely continue to grow especially as other companies produce better products than Apple. Also, the ideology of bad camera quality being associated with being poor, and similar false assumptions that come with not having the highest quality devices. The more cameras evolve or the higher the standard resolution gets, the worse these issues could grow behind them.
On a more positive note, it could also increase remote work and video calls between people. We could see a massive increase in popularity in social video calls, activities, and livestreams. With life like resolution surrounding us, we could feel more connected to those on the other side of the screen and be more likely to do virtual activities. This could come with an increase in virtual activities all together, maybe virtual training workouts, long-distance work gatherings, and parties with friends streaming special life events. Concerts could see an increase in venue size as well (with bigger higher quality screens there could potentially be more people fit into the back of venues), or movie theaters and sports arenas could get bigger as well. There would be greater virtual opportunities all around, and an increase in big in person events.
In Conclusion…
Resolution has come a very long way, especially in the past few years. However, there is a lot of work to be done to actually be able to use 8K, see 8K products in stores at reasonable prices, and in the homes of regular people. There is even more evolving to do to see 16K or 32K as well. Although 8K is not very common or worth it in the modern world, it has come a long way in the grand scheme of things. The present times are just the very tip of the iceberg for 8K and beyond. 8K will become just as common as 4K at the least and will eventually become the new expected standard for screen resolution and viewing quality in many different entertainment markets. Even if 16K or 32K take over the professional entertainment industries, 8K will be the main general consumer quality standard. The world is changing, and with it 8K is arriving and sticking around for the long haul.
References
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