Audio Video News

Those lucky Brits. During the 2012 London Olympics, they'll receive BBC broadcasts in "Super Hi-Vision," on big screens across the country.

Japan's public broadcaster NHK and Britain's BBC are collaborating on Super Hi-Vision, a format reportedly 33 times more detailed than high-definition, the benefits of which can only be discerned on a screen 60-inches or bigger. That's because SHV, as we're dubbing it, has a resolution of 7,680 x 4,320. The format's audio spec includes 22 speakers, and is encoded at a rate of 24Gbps.

SHV experts claim the format isn't for home use. "It's for big-screen public broadcasts of concerts and sporting events. It's definitely not for the consumer market," a Screen Digest television analyst told UPI.

That's a bit short-sighted, isn't it? Well, we can still dream that some day every home will have a 10-meter by 5.5-meter sized screen like the one NHK is using to test its system. Japan's public broadcaster has a history of broadcasting firsts - including  putting an HDTV camera on a space shuttle and broadcasting live from the Antarctic - so we're certain they'll perfect SHV too. NHK says it might be able to start a full-time SHV channel by 2025, and by that time we fully expect to own at least one 103-incher. Where do we sign up? -Rachel Rosmarin

UPI