NEWS: Rakuten to stream 8K movies this year

I'm not ready for 8k later this year or for another few years still and I bet most people wont be ready either.

I only just bought a new 4k TV last year (LG oled 65C8) along with a new AV receiver (Denon x3500h). For me to upgrade to 8K will mean buying a new TV, AV receiver, upgrading my internet speed and other equipment such as a media player, a new Apple TV 8K perhaps, and a new 8K compatible media player for my rips....na I'm good with 4k for another 4years at least!
 
There’s only a sea-change coming if Joe public is stupid enough to buy into 8K. Even if there were a wider variety of 8K TVs available, no one would be able to tell the difference between what 4K has to offer compared to 8K, not unless the panel is larger than what most homes can already either afford or accommodate.

Even when 8K TVs do become more commonplace, they'll not be adopted as readily as 4K sets were and there'll not be much incentive for services to facilitate 8K streaming services.

Even those who've had access to 8K TVs state that the benefits are more to do with scaling lesser resolutions than they are about portraying 8K video. The very large panels that best benefit native 8K will remain expensive niche products as opposed to becoming mainstream consumer norms. There's definitely not going to be any physical disc based media in association with 8K and I'd be very sceptical about the likes of the BBC or even SKY wanting to facilitate 8K broadcasts?

Isn't it also a fact that current 8K TVs lack HDMI 2.1 which they'd need if wanting to access 8K from an external source? Some manufacturers such as Samsung have said that they'll make a free hardware update available if you buy a set now, but this doesn't appear to be the case with all of them?

Rakuten's announcement is a bit of a nothingness. While it may intrigue those who've already gone and bough an 8K TV, I cannot see it giving those without one an incentive to rush out and buy into 8K? Maybe I'm getting old, but 8K isn't anything I'm particularly desperate to get involved with or spend money on. I don't want an 8K TV so why would I want an 8K streaming or rental service?
 
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I'm far more interested in 4K with HDR becoming more available. That's where the focus should be. Trouble is, broadcasters want to grab the headlines with news about their 8K offering so they don't look like their lagging behind rivals.

8K is happening too early for consumers, too early for movies and games and only the very best broadband speeds will carry streams anyway. Why is this a thing??? Argh
 
Streaming quality is mostly about the bit rate and little to do with the resolution. UHD streaming can't compete with the quality of a well mastered 1080p blu ray disc. I really doubt 8k streaming will look any better.
 
I wonder if they've thought about internet connection speeds?

It'd be interesting to see what sort of speed would be needed for 8K.
 
I think this is good news for those that have bought an 8K TV, but as other have said, it is not much news for the majority. I am glad to hear 8k streaming is beginning to be addressed, so that once they become the de-facto rez tvs people really will have something to watch, more than just a handful of You tube clips and demo clips.

As for whether 8K should be in the wild is another matter. I am of the opinion that this FOMO affecting the manufacturers is pushing the video/broadcast industry way too hard. The need to be the world' first is just so painfully childish to me.

I get that there are plenty of people living in areas around the world, with sufficient bandwidth, enough disposable income and also want the very latest "thing", so the manufacturers can justify financially doing it, but it is Hollywood and the TV companies that struggle with the cost of recording at that resolution and the distribution.

I just get annoyed that tech in the AV world is not allowed to mature and that my TV, for example, 2 years old, is not going to receive any further updates and will be outdated in 3 years time, long before it's useful life is up.

I mean I bought a Samsung Galaxy S4 tablet, earlier this year and I am not even sure that will get upgraded to the latest Android version.

Anyway, things will roll on regardless of opinion and is best accepted, we can all choose to stick with what we have until it's really obsolete, and I am pretty sure we will all enjoy the 4K that is available and to come all the same.
 
Are there any 8k movies? There aren't many movies that are true 4k. Resolution doesn't add much to a movie, it's HDR and Dolby Vision that make the bigger difference
 
A few points to make...

The recent Japanese 8K broadcasts and those they intend to broadcast later this year will not HDR. So it will be interesting if the likes of Warner, Disney, Sony et al are going make available HDR versions of their 8K scans for Rakuten.

Other than films originally shot 65/70mm and scanned at 8K, 8K material is going to be thin on the ground. Heck, most films are still mastered using 2K DI's.

The new more efficient codecs for 8K (AV1, VVC and MPEG 5) will not be available until sometime in 2020 at the earliest. So Rakuten will have to rely on existing compression codecs, which may not be a bad thing, albeit bandwidth demands will be large for a decent 8K stream.

But that's progress...….:rolleyes:
 
I hope 8k is a rip roaring success. The spin offs to get it to market could present a lot of benefits for 4k.
 
Snakeoil
 
If the industry wants 8K to be a thing and be more available then it will be a thing. Nothing is going to stop that. It doesn't effect people with 4K sets so it shouldn't be an issue. The plus side though is people with 8K sets will have some actual 8K to watch which is great. Look at how many top companies are coming out with 8K sets this year. Its happening and its only going to grow more and more. Its the same with High Frame Rate. This is a big feature of HDMI 2.1 and will be on a lot of sets this year but there isn't really much you can do with it at the moment.
 
I was in Korea last week. 4K is entry level, 8k sets everywhere. Hotel room TV had nearly 100 UHD channels iirc albeit many were just showing :) Small living rooms, big screens, yup it makes sense to me.
 
There are lots of arguments against having 8K any time soon, but I would be intrigued to see a side by side comparison on a 75" screen. I guess it would be almost impossible to tell the difference on anything smaller, unless you viewed from a couple of feet away.
 

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