This is the most depressing thread? I have been enjoying it and it's very interesting to get everyone's perspective.
So you talk about picture quality. Let's talk about picture quality shall we? It seems like you are focusing on quantity over quality. I would guess that you were upgrading your DSLR camera every time they increased the megapixels (more resolution is better right?). The problem with that, is that more pixels does not always mean higher quality. It can mean the opposite actually. With the increased megapixels, there is often increased noise in images. Also many cameras had more megapixels, but inferior lenses. I can tell you that my 6MP DSLR took MUCH better photos than my friends 14MP point and shoot camera. He had more pixels (and his camera was newer), but my images were sharper and had much better quality (confirmed by my very friend with that camera, and many of my family and friends who loved the photos from that 6MP DSLR). Now sensors have finally caught up and images have improved as a result. But it took about 10 years for the higher resolution noisier sensors to improve and get there.
I think many of us here are fighting for quality, and the push to UHD/2160p/4K/8K could actually set us back in terms of beautiful image quality (and I'm speaking mostly to home entertainment and not so much about theatrical presentation). It's going to take more time for the consumer bandwidth pipelines (where most of the content is actually viewed) to increase on a major level. Until the pipeline receives a major upgrade (Think HDMI 3.0, Fiber internet to the home, etc.) the push to UHD/2160p/4K/8K will actually reduce quality. I'm sure compression will improve with time, but I will bet that it will not improve enough to compensate for the extra pixels (which you probably can't see anyways at normal TV viewing distances). Thus we will see more blocky compressed video (which I think looks absolutely terrible).
I would much rather see an increase in actual video quality. To achieve that, we need much better compression all the way to the consumer's viewing device (TV in many cases). We need to abandon 8bit video and move to higher bit depths. That will reduce banding, and other video noise. A wider color space would also help improve picture quality.
I was able to do a side by side test at my local electronics store. I saw the Sony 65" UHD set, setup near a same size HD set. It was showing the latest Spider Man movie. In all honesty, the UHD set did not look ANY better at all. There was alot of compression noise, and some strange smearing going on. Also the black levels were not as good as the Plasma set I was comparing it to. So to me, the UHD set had lower quality.
Now when we get to the point where the compression ratio, bit depth, contrast ratio, black level, etc. are better on the UHD sets (or 8K or whatever it is by then) I would consider buying one for my living room.
For now (and likely the next 5-8 years) I will stick with my plan on buying a great OLED 1080p set (once the prices drop to more reasonable levels). I will continue to push for higher bit depths, lower compression, and wider color spaces. I just don't think that UHD/2160p/4K/8K means higher quality for home entertainment.
I hope my comments don't depress you. It's just good debate, which is what makes the L2 such a great group!
-Peter Berg
--- In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, mike parsons <mikeparsons.tv@...> wrote:
>
> I think this thread has been one of the most depressing I have ever read on
> the Avid-L
>
> For a group of forward thinking industry leading creatives and engineers I
> do not for one second understand the Luddite sentiments expressed.
...
> People care about picture quality. They really do. As pros we might care
> more but its not just marketing hype that drives people to buy more mega
> pixels than they need. Its a desire to document their lives and their
> experiences with as much fidelity as possible. Its a desire to get as close
> to the experience of being there at a sporting event on their 55 inch
> plasma. Its a desire for an immersive entertainment experience. And for
> that folks you can never have too many pixels or too big a TV. You can
> never have too big a tv or too much money.
>
> Its made me sad to hear smart people here saying 'I'll never need to edit
> 4K'. Well you don't actually need to edit HD. AVR70 is perfectly good for
> editing decisions it is after all 'broadcast quality'. Im particularly sad
> to hear 'tv manufacturers just want to move product' because whilst at some
> fundamental business level thats true I'm pretty sure thats not what drives
> the engineers when developing new technology. From spinning disks to Philo
> and his brother in law blowing glass to shadow mask and trinitron, plasma,
> OLED, LCDs and onwards display technology has been a constant unbroken line
> of technological leaps the like of which has not been seen in many other
> industries. 4K is just the next step down that path.
...
> At the end of the day I'm with Barry Stevens, I'm glad my career lasted
> from composite analogue vtrs to float images off compact flash cards. I've
> enjoyed the ride and I'm looking forward as eagerly to the next leap as the
> ones we've all taken so far. Come on guys, get on board.
>
> Mike
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 11:36 PM, Terence Curren <tcurren@...> wrote:
>
> > **
> >
> >
> > --- In Avid-L2@yahoogroups.com, owen <owen@> wrote:
> >
> > "With all that power, you'll be able to do things like seamlessly edit
> > full-resolution 4K video while simultaneously rendering effects in the
> > background"
> >
> > I can't wait to see how you are going to do that over thunderbolt. And
> > what type of drive array you will need.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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