We first seen Sharp’s 8K TV back in January at CES in Vegas, but no cameras were allowed and they certainly weren’t talking price at that stage. Today we get news that from next month, Sharp will begin selling the 8K TVs and if you’re not paying attention, that’s 7,680 pixels by 4,320 pixels.
If you’re a successful business owner, high-paid athlete or have won the lottery, you’ll be keen to secure a piece of the future. Unfortunately the first 8K TVs will be offered to broadcasters and video production companies from October 30th.
The 8K TV from Sharp features HDR and will use four HDMI connections to deliver the image that’s 16x the resolution of Full HD. The 85” display will measure almost 2 metres wide and weigh a massive 119kg.
If you’re thinking 4K content is still being sorted out, you’re right, but it’s not the end destination, it’s a bump in the road. Japanese public broadcaster NHK already has plans to begin test broadcasts in 8K next year and you can bet there’s already conversations at Netflix about their future show production and distribution qualities.
By the time the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo rolls around, 8K will be here and as one of the limit number that have actually seen 8K, let me tell you, it is stunning. The demonstration footage I seen was shot at the last Olympic Games and the level of detail in crowd shots allows you to see the facial expressions of individual people.
There will be people who say the human eye can’t resolve more than 4K quality. Those people are wrong. It’s awesome, and Sharp are the first to price 8KTVs and will be the first in the world to produce and ship these to the public.
One more thing.. if you’re house currently has 2 or 3 TVs, fast forward to 2020 where their content is coming from over the internet and ask yourself, still think that FTTN NBN is going to cater for all your needs ?
Oh yeah, the price tag.. is US133,00. Converted into Aussie dollars, that’s A$157,656.11 plus our friendly GST that’s a massive A$173,421.72.
More at Sharp Japan via PCWorld and The Verge.
