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Doctor Who In 4K? |
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#1 |
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Join Date: Nov 2008
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Doctor Who In 4K?
With Netflix starting to stream content in 4K http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/s23...oAWbLuHVjicyO3, do you think the BBC should start making Doctor Who in 4K as well?
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#2 |
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Join Date: Aug 2005
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Nope, not when you consider the limited penetration of 4k, coupled with the fact that 4k won't be transmitted, and the fact that budgets are tight as it is, without the additional cost of equipping the production team and production suites for 4k..
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#3 |
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Join Date: Nov 2012
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Nope, not when you consider the limited penetration of 4k, coupled with the fact that 4k won't be transmitted, and the fact that budgets are tight as it is, without the additional cost of equipping the production team and production suites for 4k..
No need to say any more on the matter.
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#4 |
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Quote:
With Netflix starting to stream content in 4K http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tech/s23...oAWbLuHVjicyO3, do you think the BBC should start making Doctor Who in 4K as well?
For the UK market, I would expect the promotion and marketing to focus on Sport. Apart from technical trails the BBC (and our other broadcaters) won't be going anywhere near this for years. |
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#5 |
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For Netflix, 4K is possibly a revenue source. The TV manufacturers need content to sell sets, and as all the new 4K TVs are smart Internet connected devices, the new services such as Netflix are natural commercial partners. They're probably receiving some support on the additional production costs, along with promotion on each new set sold.
For the UK market, I would expect the promotion and marketing to focus on Sport. Apart from technical trails the BBC (and our other broadcaters) won't be going anywhere near this for years. They haven't already brought out 4K TV sets now, have they?What's the point? You couldn't get any better than HD quality, surely? |
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#6 |
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What?
They haven't already brought out 4K TV sets now, have they?What's the point? You couldn't get any better than HD quality, surely? ![]() Not really practical for me
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#7 |
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Yes, 4K is much better than HD quality but I've heard you only really notice if you have a really big screen (at least 55" I think). I'd have trouble even fitting a 55" in my living room never mind sitting far enough back that I can see the whole thing
![]() Not really practical for me ![]() I can sort of see the potential for DW to eventually be in 4K, but people would have to spend a lot of money on 4K TV sets. I've got Sky+ in my house, in my main sitting room so I can record whatever I want, but I can only record one programme at a time. I can also rewind and pause live TV. As for HD channels, I can get the 'free' ones, like BBC1 HD, BBC2 HD, and so on, but not other ones like Sky Atlantic HD and any HD Movie channels. Ab Fab on 'Gold' last night at around 12.30am was really good. It was the one from series 4 when Saffy put on a play about her life. I think that's my favourite Ab Fab episode ever! Anyway, that's for another thread in the general TV forum. |
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#8 |
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Join Date: Mar 2009
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4K is yesterday's news. It's all about 8K these days
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#9 |
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 14,764
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Why not 4K 3D?
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#10 |
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 410
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What is 4k ?
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#11 |
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Join Date: Jul 2004
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What is 4k ?
(This is an enormous over-simplification I hasten to add!) Most movies are now shot using 4k (or even now 8k) video cameras instead of 35mm film. The new version of House of Cards was also shot in 4k for Netflix, but it's rarely used for TV at the moment.
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#12 |
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There's also the issue that SFX are more expensive at higher resolutions, because they've got to paint so many more pixels, and Doctor Who is an effects-heavy show. Doctor Who dragged its feet switching to HD because it wasn't budget-friendly, there's no chance it'll be at the vanguard of 4K with the BBC suffering under a Tory government.
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#13 |
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There's also the issue that SFX are more expensive at higher resolutions, because they've got to paint so many more pixels, and Doctor Who is an effects-heavy show. Doctor Who dragged its feet switching to HD because it wasn't budget-friendly, there's no chance it'll be at the vanguard of 4K with the BBC suffering under a Tory government.
At least, not until the next General Election, at the earliest.We may get DW in 4K if Labour win, but I won't get my hopes up. The Tories may stay in power. But all of this is over a year away yet. |
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#14 |
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As far as I am aware, the BBC has embarked upon some very limited 4k trials with Sony (I think), these are simply "proof of concept" trials (mostly aimed at large outdoor screens for events such as Wimbledon), and in no way signal any move to 4k production. In any case, even if programming is being shot and produced in 4k (aka UHD), broadcast bandwidth would always be an issue, and would make 4k a premium product that only a limited number of people could view. So I doubt very much if the BBC Trust would see this as in the best interests of the Licence Fee payer. Plus, to get the most out of 4k, you really need a very large screen, and a large room in which to house it!, or sit very close to the screen! Quote:
What kind of demand do you anticipate for 4K from license payers? Could the technology present difficulties in terms of funding? There's more here: http://www.iptv-news.com/2013/11/mar...ery-seriously/
I very much doubt we’ll find license-fee payers writing in saying ‘I demand 4k!’. Most consumers have not even heard of such a thing – and would in any case find such an ugly, technical label hard to understand. What audiences expect from the BBC is quality programming. ‘Quality’ can be hard to define, but it means a range of things from the storytelling and presentation to craft standards and picture quality. In the picture quality part of this, ensuring our programmes get through the distribution chain in good shape to the device the consumer is using is as important a focus as the technical detail of how many pixels there are. The financial challenge for a national public service broadcaster like the BBC is how to retain its commitment to universality (serving everyone, wherever they are, and however they consume our output), while remaining at the leading edge of quality. |
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#15 |
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Basically a 4000 line TV system, with double the resolution of HD, which can be thought of as 2k (1920 lines).
![]() HD is 1080 (or 720) "lines" of course. 2k is not the same as "normal" HD.
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#16 |
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It is confusing because when they talk about 4k or 8k they mean the horizontal resolution, whereas 1080p refers to the vertical resolution. The new terminology is nothing more than a bit of marketing-speak to make the improvement in resolution sound greater than it really is. (A bit like the 16:9 vs 4:3 diagonal screen size measurement con).
Full 1080p has 1080 pixels vertically (1080 lines) and 1440 pixels horizontally (if anamorphic) or 1920 pixels horizontally if using square pixels. So, in "k" terminology, today's 1080p is nearly 2K. Funnily enough, they already shoot with Arriflex digital cameras that have a higher native resolution than 1080p, but not yet "4k". This gives greater flexibility later when in post production, or even in camera too, as they can reframe shots, selecting a 1080p frame from a larger captured image. |
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#17 |
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I'd never even heard of 4K before I read this thread...
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#18 |
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Quote:
I'd never even heard of 4K before I read this thread...
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#19 |
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They will probably start shooting the show (and indeed all BBC shows) in 4K in a few years. The last series of Red Dwarf was shot in 4K with RED Epic cameras and they had a pretty small budget compared with DW.
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No need to say any more on the matter.
They haven't already brought out 4K TV sets now, have they?

At least, not until the next General Election, at the earliest.