Sharp And NHK Offer World's First 85-Inch Direct-View LCD That Works With Hi-Vision

Years ago at CES when HDTV at 1080p was the big thing, I remember walking into a booth where they had a TV set up offering twice the resolution of HD sets of the day. That prototype was really cool and the picture was fantastic. Sharp and partner NHK have announced that they have developed the world's first 85-inch Direct-View LCD compatible screen that is compatible with Super Hi-vision. That last spec is the important one here.

If you aren't familiar, Super Hi-Vision is a TV format that offers much higher resolution than HDTVs that are available today. Super Hi-Vision packs in 7680 x 4320 pixels for very life like images. That resolution is a total of 33MP making it 16 times higher resolution of HDTV today. Sharp's Sharp's UV2A*2 LCD technology was used in the project. The new screen has 10-bit color and a brightness rating of 300 cd/m2.

The pixel pitch of the screen is 0.245mm and the panel is LED backlit. The new screen is being displayed at the NHK 2011 STRL Open House in Tokyo. The screen is very impressive; I don't see any transition to a higher resolution format anytime soon though. I think that 1080p serves most viewers well and broadcasters are going to implement 3D before we see any push to higher than current HD resolutions.

[via AV.Watch]