Is 5K resolution even relevant?

In certain situations more pixels are very helpful. For example when editing HD video, you have enough screen real-estate to view the video in it’s native resolution and have enough room on the sides of the screen for the video-editing UI. When developing iOS apps, you run into a similar situation with retina resolutions. On a lower res screen (even if it’s big) you have to scroll to see the full UI.

Well, 4K is alive and well on TVs and games. So it helps when developing that content for extra room for pallets and window chrome.

edit :: what gp said.

4K will be, it’s what will eventually make most of us want to get new equipment.

Photographers will use all the pixels you can give them.

Consumers aren’t going to go and replace their TVs any time soon. That’s why 3D failed, that’s why 4x (or 8x) are going to fail for another 20 years.

We were jerked around in 2005 to all buy new TV sets because of digital TV. That was motivated by electronics suppliers and was the scam of all scams.

Right now there is mo compelling use case for the general public to acquire equipment for these higher resolution formats.

@elbanditoroso there has been and will always be individuals with money who are addicted to high-tech gadgetry, closely followed by jealous people wanting to emulate the wealthier. It is not need. Seldom is there utilitarian value in the attractive objects. Ego motivates acquisition.

@Bill1939 – sure, no doubt. But the question was one of relevance. And for 99.98% of the population, 5K isn’t relevant and won’t be for 20 years.

@elbanditoroso, I started out with an Apple II. Eight bit bytes. Forty years later and my PC uses 128-bit bytes. The rate of the advance of computational power and memory from then to now was not linear. The same amount of progress in forty years will take place in twenty years or less.

I don’t know about relevance. Home computers once were toys for geeks and those seeking novelty. Now being connected to the internet is as much a necessity for most people as electricity and water. Today cell phones have more computing power than was available to the Apollo Mission, and they are almost to the size of Dick Tracy’s watch communicator.

While I cannot imagine that an iWatch will ever be relevant to me, my cell phone is permanently attached to my right hip. Twenty years ago I would never imagined I would have a need for one.

It depends on the size of the screen. I have a 32” screen and 1080p looks a little pixelated at arms length; about my normal distance when I am using it as a computer monitor. As many home theater systems have screens considerably larger than me (about 69 pixels per inch), a 1080p image will look “jaggy” at longer distances as each pixel gets larger.

When it comes to computing, I am relatively casual compared to those who do things like hardcore CAD/CAM or professional image editing, and while I am a gamer, I’m not the type to spend a couple of grand to have a pair of top-tier video cards in SLI just so I can run around on Maximum at more frames per second than the screen can draw. In other words, even though my demands are a little higher than most people, even I’m not geeky enough to be part of the target audience for this.

But a lot of people are using a PC as a home theater system, and like I said before, many of those have huge screens; 50 inches or more. If you take the same number of pixels I have and try to cover three times the area, those pixels will grow quite a bit, so it makes sense to have higher resolutions… but only on large screens. My 69ppi is alright for me, but I really wouldn’t want a monitor that had less than 60ppi and those fussier than me would want something with the pixel density of the average smartphone (over 300ppi) to look more like analog film with effectively infinite pixels per inch.

So it’s not just the photographers, movie editors, and hardcore gamers that would have a use for 5k resolution. Anyone who uses their computer to watch videos on a flatscreen that’s 40 inches or larger has some skin in the game as well. Now, how many people have both large TVs and either Netflix or cable? Enough to make 5k financially feasible to produce as there will be enough demand to turn a profit.

Part of the problem I think that is going to really hold the tech back is the absolute dismal state of broadband here. We have good broadband here (relatively) and we struggle to pull down 2 concurrent 1080P streams from my plex server in the the morning. One stream at 7PM is a non-starter.

@johnpowell Yes, that is a problem with the US infrastructure, but there are still plenty of people in Europe and Asia where the broadband is better.

@jerv this is changing

@ARE_you_kidding_me Not really. I mean, that is old news and look how widely available gig-bit technology is now in the US; practically no more than it was a couple of years ago. Maybe by 202 we’ll catch up with where other places were 5–10 years ago.
Also note that the big guns aren’t big on revamping their networks. The Chattanooga gigabit net is a community-owned thing; no Verizon, no Comcast, no Time-Warner or Cox. But that kind of reeks of Socialism, so I don’t expect municipally-funded gigabit internet to spread here, at least not until the rest of the world has terabyte internet.

@jerv, I think you’re a little confused on how resolution works. Resolution can be applied to media and screens the same way 1920X1080 is 1080p. 1920 being width and 1080 being height, both measured in pixels. That’s why a large flat screen tv looks grainy up close but a smaller computer monitor looks fine art a closer distance. if you’re viewing at the right distance, the image is at max quality. Viewing distance is a ratio. Media at 1080p will look fine no matter what screen size at the correct distance. Now if you take lower quality media and put it on a screen that is bigger than it was made for( the media has less pixels than the screen) the screen will use more pixels for each single pixel in the media, like zooming in on a photo. Now at a point, you get too far from a screen you can no longer focus on it. 5K would allow a larger screen, say 100” at the same distance, but that’s ridiculous.