4K Seems Like Too Much

• Jul 27th, 2010
• Posted by JR Pelkola
• Posted in JR Wrote a Blog, Video, YouTube

The internet has an incredible innate ability to make people feel that their lives are inadequate, or otherwise lacking, on a regular basis. In most cases, technology seems to be paced with consumer demand, but here’s a case where the sheer abilities of technology seem to be outpacing the need or even availability of content. Basically, everything about the whole situation is completely absurd – and when I say “situation” I don’t mean the guy from Jersey Shore, I mean 4k video content.

For those who don’t own an IMAX movie theater, 4k video is video with a resolution of 4096×3072. That’s basically 4x current 1080p HD standards and equates to an optimal video viewing size of 25 feet. Here’s a breakdown of the current hurdles that make the format basically useless to users:

Display – Sure, displays for 4k content are available to consumers and the prices are coming down…from a quarter million. JVC just released a new compact 4k projector that’s a steal at only $175,000.

Content – YouTube launched the service with 5 videos. This is about the extent of publicly available 4k content. Forget movie studios catching up and releasing their content quickly for a format that no one has the capability of even using.

Production – It seems that the equipment to create videos of this quality starts at $20,000 and easily can skyrocket over the $100,000 mark. Obviously movies are made in these formats all the time, but don’t count on widespread adoption anytime soon.

Broadband – The file sizes for 4k videos are obviously tremendous and it will take an improved broadband network before streaming these files is even practical in America.

The better question to ask than “why?” is “why not?” In typical Google form, they just release their capabilities to the consumers and see what they can do with it. These moves never seem to be about a larger strategic move, but rather opening up their platform and hoping for innovation on the part of the masses.

And of course, despite every ridiculous obstacle I’ve listed above, I still want to purchase every single one of these contraptions I’ve mentioned.