Sharp has announced the first commercially available 8K display, which is set to go on sale in October.
Sharp is one of a number of companies that have developed "super hi-vision" displays, and the display itself is said to create an image that is so detailed that it can appear three-dimensional.
The device is called the LV-85001, and while it does have a receiver and could be used as a TV, there is no TV available in 8K at this point. It offers 16 times the resolution of a 1080p display, and offers 7,680 x 4,320 pixels. Once there is 8K content for you to watch, you will need to use all four of the HDMI inputs on the TV just to have enough bandwidth.
For those frustrated that they just bought a shiny new 4K TV that is now redundant, don't worry too much. The display is 16 million yen, or about $133,034, so it's unlikely that 8K will be the next big thing for at least a few years. Not only that, but 4K technology is still on the rise, with Ultra HD Blu-ray movies on the way. Most suggest that 8K displays won't likely be a serious option for consumers until around 2020.
"We're not expecting 8K TVs targeted at consumers to be released until at least 2016, and we don't expect they will cross one million units until after 2019," said Abhi Mallick, from IHS Technology in an interview with BBC.
The image itself is 104 pixels-per-inch. While this is only around a quarter of the density of displays on modern smartphones, considering the standard viewing distance between the user and a TV compared with the distance between a user and a smartphone, the display will appear much sharper.
Via: Engadget
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr
