OT -- 4K2K projector from Sony

[Steve Mullen]

Washington, D.C. (September 7, 2011) --
Sony today introduced the world's first 4K Home Theater projector that offers a picture with 4096 x 2160 pixels, roughly four times the resolution of today's best HDTVs.

The CE company said the projector, model VPL-VW1000ES, will begin shipping to custom installers and CE specialty stores in December and will cost around $25,000. Sony unveiled the projector today at the CEDIA conference.

"Sony continues to push the boundaries of high resolution video from the lens to the living room," said Mike Abary, senior vice president of Sony Electronics' home division. "In similar fashion to our industry leading 4K Digital Cinema projectors, our new VPL-VW1000ES 4K home theater projector has been created to not just meet but exceed the needs of the most discerning and demanding home entertainment enthusiasts."


Sony's new 4K projector.

There have been several movies produced in 4K, such as The Social Network and District 9, which have played in movie theaters equipped with 4K digital projectors. But the 4K films have yet to be released on any home video disc that can handle 4K. So while new 4K owners will have difficulty finding 4K content for sometime, Sony said the projector features an exclusive Super Resolution 4K "upscaler" that dramatically enhances 2D and 3D 1080P content on Blu-ray discs.

"(The projector) will allow (4K owners) to become totally involved in the viewing experience and much closer to the action on the biggest Home Theater screens with images that deliver considerably more detail and fewer artifacts," Abary said.

Because the projector offers 2,000 ANSI-lumens of brightness, the projector can display images suitable for screen sizes up to 200 inches diagonally.

The VW1000ES also employs a new SXRD 4K panel, which produces outstanding deep blacks; when combined with Sony's Iris3 technology, the projector can achieve an incredible 1,000,000:1 dynamic contrast.

[Mike Burgess]

Star Treks' Holodeck(sp?) can't be that far away.

[Steve Mullen]

I wonder how long before Blu-ray carries 4K2K 24fps movies. Sony's got a huge library to re-release.

The standard also needs to change to support 1080p60.

Will it also support 4K2K p60?

That's 8X more data than 1080p30.The current 40Mbps limit would need to become 320Mbps. Can the disc spin that fast?

[Steve Mullen]

Washington, D.C. (October 19, 2011) -- Ultra High-Definition TV, the new picture technology that offers 16 times the resolution of current HDTVs, has taken another step forward to its ultimate goal of landing in your living room.

BusinessInsider.com reports that the International Telecommunication Union has announced that an industry-affiliated group of scientists and engineers have reached an agreement on "most" of the standards for the new television. That may sound like geek-speak to you, but before the sets can be mass manufactured, the industry has to agree on which standards it will follow.

Still, although the BBC plans to broadcast part of the 2012 London Olympic Games in UHD in select locations, most analysts don't expect UHD sets to show up in stores for five years or so. But the technology's remarkable picture breakthrough already has the industry giddy in anticipation.

“UHDTV promises to bring about one of the greatest changes to audio-visual communications and broadcasting in recent decades. Technology is truly at the cusp of transforming how people experience audio-visual communications,” said Christoph Dosch, chairman of the Broadcasting Service Study Group, which is involved in developing the technology.

BusinessInsider.com writes that a recent demonstration of UHD displayed 33 million pixels, compared to the two million pixels you might see from the best HDTVs on market today.

If you can't wait for UHD, TV makers are busily working on new 4K sets which purport to offer a resolution four times better than today's sets. The 4K sets are expected to be featured at this January's Consumer Electronics Show and will likely make their way into stores sometime in 2012.

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No wonder Sony -- et all -- keep pushing photosite count upward each year. We long ago passed the need of photpgraphers. Let's hope Intel can keep up! Fun ahead!