
8K means 8,192 x 4,320 pixels, so four times as many as 4K, and 16 times as many as 4K. The maths isn't difficult, because you just double the length and width again.
HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTO THEATER MOVIE
There are a handful of 8K projectors and video cameras around, an even an experimental movie theatre or two, but it's still going to be several years before we see 8K hit the mainstream (the mainstream being the cinema you go to on a Saturday). That said, it's inevitably going to happen one day, just as HD eventually made way for 4K: it's just a better, more detailed picture. We've only just seen the first movie shot on 8K - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. There's no huge rush to take the next step. When is 8K going to arrive?ĨK cinemas are still some way off - we've already mentioned that better resolutions only make a difference on huge screens, and cinemas and filmmakers are still getting used to the 4K format.

On smaller screens, the quality your eyes can detect will be more or less the same.
HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTO THEATER TV
It's the huge screen, powerful magnification and other tweaks that make the IMAX experience so immersive.Īnd - as with your smart TV at home - it's only when the screen gets to a certain size that you can notice any difference between 2K, 4K, IMAX and film reel projections anyway.

IMAX demonstrates this difference rather well: it can be used with 70mm film as well, but when recorded digitally, the screen resolution is only 2K or 4K. The idea is to put across a certain set of standards for projecting and displaying a digital movie that cinemas can then follow, guaranteeing a particular level of quality for the filmmakers and audiences.įor example, the best screens in most Odeon cinemas use 4K projectors (opens in new tab) producing almost 9 million pixels, but the difference between a projector and the smart TV you might have at home is that the screen size isn't fixed - it's up to cinemas how big the picture appears. The standards of digital cinema are controlled by a body called Digital Cinema Initiatives, which a lot of the major studios have a stake in.

It's difficult to say without ringing them up and asking, but most major cinemas in the UK and a lot in the US will now use 4K digital projectors, and will have been doing so for several years.
