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Jiji Press
Katsuaki Watanabe, chairman emeritus at the Next Generation Television & Broadcasting Promotion Forum, right, presses a button to start 4K TV test broadcasting in Tokyo on Monday.
7:48 pm, June 02, 2014
Jiji Press The world’s first 4K television broadcast, which has four times the resolution of the conventional full high-definition TV, started on a trial basis in Japan on Monday afternoon.
The broadcast started at 1 p.m. Although Internet 4K video distribution services are already provided in the United States, this is the first time 4K content has been broadcast, via a communications satellite.
The 4K TV shows higher-resolution and smoother video since it is projected at 60 frames per second, double the rate for the conventional TV.
Because of delayed commercialization of tuners, however, 4K broadcasts can be watched for the time being only on TVs at outlets of consumer electronics mass retailers and some other places.
SKY Perfect JSAT Corp. plans to broadcast 4K programs on travel, music and sports on its Channel 4K for about six hours a day, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., free of charge.
The multichannel satellite broadcasting company is considering airing four matches of the World Cup soccer finals in Brazil on the channel, including one between Japan and Cote d’Ivoire as well as the final.
To watch 4K TV broadcasts at home, a 4K-enabled TV and a special tuner are necessary.
However, Sharp Corp.’s launch of a video recorder equipped with a hard disk and a tuner at a retail price of around ¥130,000 is the earliest 4K home product to be launched. It will likely take some time for 4K TV equipment to become popular.
SKY Perfect JSAT plans to start a fee-based 4K TV service as early as next spring after TVs that can receive the ultrahigh-definition broadcasting are commercialized.
Katsuaki Watanabe, chairman emeritus at the Next Generation Television & Broadcasting Promotion Forum, which promotes 4K technology, said at Monday’s ceremony that the forum will work to make 4K and 8K TV services available across Japan before the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.