Watching Ultra HD 4K content—with 2,160 lines of vertical definition—on a Ultra HD 4K TV set is impressive. But 8K—four times the total pixels—is so incredibly realistic that it feels like you’re looking through a window into real life, as demonstrated by this film screened by the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK).
Its name is The Chorus, a choral drama filmed with a still camera that looks into a Wes Andersonian building cutout. According to Kaleem Aftab, watching it is an incredible experience:
What was immediately striking was that the image was so crisp that it was possible to distinguish the leaves on the trees in the background. Rather than making the image seem flat, the clarity gave the picture a depth hitherto unseen on digital projections. The colours were also magnificent. The whites and blacks were stunning.
After the movie screening, the tech crew gave some really interesting insight into what this technology means:
The 8K resolution covers almost the entire range of vision (induced visual field) which influences the human grasp of spatial coordinates. The pixel structure remains invisible to the unassisted eye even when viewed across a horizontal angle.
8K (Super Hi-Vision) should truly come into its own in sports coverage. In a sport such as football (soccer), for example, it is possible to view the whole pitch at once and follow the motion of the ball and every player clearly.