While consumer electronics makers and pay-TV companies complain about the dearth of available 4K programming needed to grow the market, 8K video has already surfaced on YouTube.
The clip Ghost Towns was uploaded by filmmaking tutorial specialist Neumann Films and was shot using a RED Epic Dragon camera. With enough bandwidth and the right monitor, users can see the clip in 8K Full Ultra HD video (7680 x 4320 pixels).
U.K. publication ISPreview found the bandwidth speed threshold for streaming the 8K video was a minimum of 50 Mbps. Also kicking the tires by running the video at its highest resolution, Digital Trends wrote that it "encountered stuttering on every desktop we tried, including several powered by Intel Core i5 quad-core chips and Nvidia GTX 900 series graphics."
This doesn't even mention another current limitation to 8K viewing--as Digital Trends notes, 8K displays don't exist right now.
Still, the 8K market is pressing ahead in places like Japan, where the TV industry has pledged to make the resolution standard widely available in time for the 2020 Olympic Games.
Japanese public broadcaster NHK is currently leading experiments in 8K transmission--or what it calls "Super-Hi-Vision." In May 2014, NHK demonstrated an 8K cable transmission by using three 6 MHz channels (two 256 QAMs and one 64 QAM) to transfer one 105-Mbps 8K stream through J:Com's 21 km HFC line.
For more:
- read this Next Web post
- read this Digital Trends story
- read this ISPreview story
Related articles:
Dutch media company Bravia launches world's first 4K/Ultra HD channel
U.S. broadband homes fast enough for 4K up to 19%, Akamai says
Japan aims for ubiquitous 8K in time for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games