The High Definition standard is currently penetrating more and more markets, but it isn't standardized yet. And when everyone thought HD will have a bright future, NHK proposed, in 2003, the Super Hi-Vision, commonly known as Ultra Hight Definition Video. The new format is 4 times the height and 4 times the width of the maximum 1920 X 1080 HDTV resolution. The resulting video content translates into a 16 time higher resolutions of 7680 X 4320 pixels or approximately 33 megapixels, framerates of 60 f/s, 22.2 audio channels and a 21 Ghz frequency bandwidth of 500~6600 Mbit/s.

Sweet resolution, but how about that storage space? For now, there's no such thing as UHDV for the common people. Want 18 minutes of uncompressed UHDV content? Make some space for 3.5 Terabytes. Too much? Ok, you could try 194 GB for 1 minute. Not satisfied yet? Try upgrading to a 12 cm Holographic Versatile Disc reader (due in several years) which stores up to 3.9 TB of data, which would be enough for 11 hours of MPEG-4 compressed UHDV. For comparison, 200 GB 8 layer Blue-Ray discs (due in a couple of years) would be able to store a mere 36 minutes of MPEG-4 compressed UHDV.

This week, at IBC Amsterdam 2006 show, Sony demonstrates a projector that is compatible with UHDV specs. The demonstration was done using a 300-inch super screen and a sound system featuring 9 channels above year level, 10 at year level, 3 below ear level and 2 low frequency subwoofers (22.2 channels). The privileged assistance was clearly impressed, and some viewers got motion sickness because the image was so close to reality.