The future of cinema and TV: It's game over for the hi-res hype

By Benjamin Craig | 26-Jun-2013

Not deterred by receiving a 'meh' from the marketplace after a big advertising push for 3D televisions, the consumer electronics industry is busy trying to get everyone excited by the next big thing - 4K screens. Digital video expert, John Watkinson, debunks some of the current (and previous) received wisdom regarding resolutions and framerates in this fascinating piece.

The next time you watch TV or go to the movies, bear in mind that you are not actually going to see any moving pictures at all. The movement is an illusion and it's entirely in your own mind.

What is actually on the screen doesn't move. It is a series of still pictures that are each held there for a short while before being replaced.

Currently, the obsession is for ever higher pixel counts, an approach that disregards how we actually see moving images. If broadcasters have their way, we could be on course for some ridiculous format decisions.

Intuitively, you would think that the frame rate - the number of pictures per second - would have quite a large bearing on the quality of the illusion, and you would be right. Equally, you might think that the film and TV companies had done a lot of research into human vision in order to choose those rates that have been in use unchanged for decades. Unfortunately, you would be wrong.

Read the full article at The Register.

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