NASA Launching 4K TV Channel

An anonymous reader writes: NASA has announced that it's partnering with Harmonic to launch a new TV channel that delivers video at 4k resolution (4096x2160). The channel is called NASA TV UHD, and it'll go live on November 1. Content will be generated by cameras at the International Space Station and on other NASA missions, as well as any 4K content they can remaster from old footage.

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[Blaskowicz]

I bet there a good market for DVRs (or components like tuner cards) and cybercafés there

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[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

I can't even drink water before it freezes, too cold in Canada.

Where to watch?

[NotJohnBoy]

That sounds great, but DirecTV still doesn't even carry NASA TV in HD.

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[ls671]

Chris Hadfield here, the important thing: will it stream to the ISS?

Re:Where to watch?

[gweilo8888]

And Comcast doesn't even carry it at all. Apparently a bunch of shopping and religious channels that are willing to pay them a pittance are worth more than something even slightly educational.

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[Lije Baley]

Thanks, this is just what I was thinking. What, do we still need to set up the Big Ugly Dish to watch NASA?

A pity UHD screens are only 3840 pixels wide

[D4C5CE]

Pan&scan back with a vengeance?

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[BlueTemplar]

Except that the NASA page has this picture :
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/defa... [nasa.gov]

Showing SD, HD, FullHD, and "4k 4096x2160" sizes and "4k is Four Times the resolution of Full HD", which is technically wrong (see my comment below).

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[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

Obligatory [youtube.com]

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[BlueTemplar]

Harmonic press release (submitted by an AC below) mentions "4k UHD" and "2160p60" (and never 4096x2160), so it's UHD-1, not 4k.
http://harmonicinc.com/news/na... [harmonicinc.com]
It's NASA's press release that used a confusing picture... (and the Slashdot summary then re-used the wrong information)

And the confusion goes on...

[BlueTemplar]

4k and UltraHD are not the same format!
http://www.extremetech.com/ext... [extremetech.com]

(Digital Cinema Initiative) 4k resolution means 4*1024=4096 columns, and generally 2*1080=2160 lines (with a resulting aspect ratio of ~17:9). It has been used for several years in movie projectors.

UHD-1 means 3840x2160 (16:9), which is 4 times the "Full HD" of 1920x1080 (or, as it's often abbreviated, 1080p, with 1080 for the number of lines, and p for progressive, 16:9 ratio implied)
(While there's also UHD-2, which is 4 times UHD-1 at the gigantic 7680x4320.)

Most screens sold as "4k" are in fact only "UHD-1", except some specific ones, generally used for very high-end video editing, now usually advertised as "True 4k" (which includes a larger color gamut, among other things).

There's also an issue that if you run at 4096x2160, 60Hz, 12-bit JPEG2000 colors, the overwhelming majority of HDMI and DisplayPort cables won't be able to carry the signal due to insufficient bandwidth (it would seem that some monitors can use two cables as a workaround).

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[rossdee]

I would like a monitor that does 3840 x2400

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[Maddog Batty]

There are plenty of UHD monitors around. I've got a £600 32" IPS (BENQ BL3201PT) which I can't praise enough. It is a fantastic display. There are many more at 28" with prices £250 upwards.

I used to have a dual monitor setup but there is no way I'm going back to that now. It is that much better.

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[toddestan]

Those are 3840x2160 monitors. 3840x2400 would be the famous IBM T221 and its variants.

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[BlueTemplar]

That doesn't nearly carry the rage that some people have for having black borders on the side of the screen.
(Thankfully for them it's the smaller UHD-1 that seems to become widespread in consumer screens, rather than the larger 4k, and the 4k source sides will probably just end up being cut on UHD-1 screens, rather than the 4k source being scaled down, which would result in (some) blurriness...)

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[philmarcracken]

Yep in between all the marketing dribble its HEVC, Main 10 profile. No vp9, licensed codec. Don't even care if the fees aren't that make, it's a lost battle in the war for a standard codec.

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[BlueTemplar]

I fear that the power requirements to broadcast a 8Mpx/s signal from Mars towards Earth might be a bit steep?

Audio important as well

[Mandrel]

I hope they also get some good microphones, and allocate decent audio bandwidth, so space feels less like the technological frontier it was 50 years ago, and so you don't need an interpreter to work out what they're saying.

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[ChunderDownunder]

In space, no one can hear you scream because there are no microphones?

"Content will be generated" -- by Photoshop!

[Thing 1]

NASA knows there is a boundary; we can't get into space. Everything NASA produces is "generated", it's virtual reality, nothing is real.

Great!!

[rabbin]

Now I can watch "VIDEO FILE" and "EDUCATION FILE" in 4K!