News 8K Going Mainstream? What YouTube for Android TV Support Means for Next-Gen High-Res

[Admin]

YouTube for Android TV supports 8K, but there are still many hurdles to climb before relevant content is mainstream.

8K Going Mainstream? What YouTube for Android TV Support Means for Next-Gen High-Res : Read more

 

[N0Spin]

While I and many others with a specific interest in cameras and video processing will most likely find news and articles like this forward looking and therefore interesting, I believe it might make real sense to ground such articles with further qualification and discussion about exactly how and where a user might actually be able to perceive a true benefit from 8K video.

I know there were some basic concepts in the past about requiring at least a 40-50" screen (I believe?), before many users could even truly recognize much of a difference between a 1080p and 4K video, let alone between 2k and 4K.

Now for cinemas that want to push the envelop, etc. I completely understand where this can and will have it's place, I truly wonder just how large a TV or home projection screen would be required or recommended to best utilize 8K, let alone what consumer level processing hardware is truly up to the task to properly deliver up such content at a meaningful level of quality.

 

[voyteck]

Not sure about TV/Cinema since too much detail can spoil the experience (steal the viewer's focus) but I would really want to have 8K in my desktop display. It might be just enough to turn off font smoothing completely. Ultra HD on a 27" screen might seem sharp enough but it's not, even with subpixel rendering. It's not only about seemingly smooth edges because even in Ultra HD the thickness of letters changes, as well as blank space between them, which in turn affects more or less readability and understanding (depends on the font choice).

 

[N0Spin]

I could definitely understand your point for graphics or print production professionals, though I can't say I've actually witnessed the impact myself.

Currently my main home PC has a decent couple year old 27" 2K display which unfortunately appears to have a single dead (dark) pixel at this point. One of the things which reinforces my view about the value (at least for me) on increasing resolutions is the fact that while sitting 1-2' from my screen, unless the image surrounding that one pixel happens to be a completely white field I can 't even find it, and even then, it is so small I have to literally go looking for it.

As for movies and video content, I can see where 4K TVs make some sense, but even that (at least AFAIK) seemed to really require at least a minimum of around a 50" TV to truly appreciate it. Once again though the amount of real 4K content which is actually available over cable etc. appears to be somewhat limited as far as I've seen.

 

[voyteck]

By the way, there is a simple test. Download IntelliJ and watch in a live view how different font smoothing settings change the content or the sample text. It's really startling. I'm not even sure 8K will be enough to get rid of smoothing entirely.

Even comparing laser print to screen reveals substantial difference at how fonts look. Obviously, the smaller the print, the bigger the difference. Everything might seem perfectly sharp from two feet away but some letters (lines) seem thicker than others even if they shouldn't. For example, m can have three different stems and i can swell either to the left or to the right. Which, as I said previously, changes the intended distance between letters, which, in turn, needs to be compensated somehow by the brain (provided the original font has been truly optimized for readability).

That's why proofreaders and copy editors have (or had?) always tended to read a printed copy at least once.