Four Billion Pixels A Second – The Future Of Films?

When we watched Avatar it’s fair to say that most of us were pretty amazed – the graphics looked stunning and the whole experience was beautiful. Now though, a new camera developed by Japanese broadcasting company NHK looks set to make that look like nothing more than a page from a schoolboy’s sketchbook as it shoots 33 megapixel footage at 120 frames per second.

The initial plans were to create a camera recording at 60 FPS, but this was doubled when it was decided that it might make fast moving objects a little blurry – and it’d be unfortunate if the developers went through all that work only to produce an image which looks like you’ve forgotten to put your glasses on.
A frame rate of 120 per second is huge; cinemas tend to show film footage at 24 FPS, which is exactly one fifth of what the new camera is capable of.

The camera is one of a small handful of technologies which represent a push towards something beyond high definition. A select few films are already being shot at a 4k resolution (just under 4 times the resolution of HD), and NHK appear to be stretching the boundaries even beyond this.

Whilst the filming technology is there though, the technology to replay it is not. The best screens on the market can dish out 4K resolutions for a hefty fee, but the only way you can utilise it is by watching the select few shows filmed in such high definition. There are currently no video players capable of running it, but that shouldn’t be too much of a problem because there isn’t a single DVD formatted to it either.

What’s more is that the processing power required is so vast that both the camera and computer which deals with it need to be huge. Because of the massive bitrate, a new analog to digital converter was also required. That said, if you shell out enough for a top of the range laptop then YouTube can host it – so there’s hope yet.

What’s in the future?

It seems like bluray has barely reached infancy before it’s being taken back down off the shelves again. The 2012 Olympic Games represent a fantastic opportunity for a range of new potential resolutions to be trialled and there will probably be a fairly big weighting put on the results of that.
Whatever the decision, we can expect to hear about it in 2013 when the new sets are expected to be in Japan. The rest of the world will be waiting anywhere from 2-7 years to get their hands on one, so don’t sell off your current TV just yet.