http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/07/sonys-4k-handycam-and-hxr-ifr5-4k-interface-unit-prototypes-eye/

@fix

Sorry, I don't understand. (Are you saying graphics take more man-hours in 4K?).

Apart from what can be generated by interpolation algorithms, simple gradients or even ray tracing, I can still imagine a case where CG artist might decide to to add more detail manually (like more actual people to a scene as in a naive folk tapestry or more actual pebbles on a beach).

This sounds like a good idea and I'd like to see this.

LG Display at CES 2013 will focus on the themes of high picture quality resolution and design minimalism. Among other innovative products, LG Display will showcase the lineup of Ultra High Definition (UHD) panels, a technology widely viewed as the future of TV, in 55-, 65- and 84-inch sizes.

At 3840x2160, UHD utilizes an incredible 8 million pixels or four times the resolution of existing Full HD. With 55- and 65-inch sizes added to 84-inch as part of its UHD lineup, LG Display is poised to dominate the emerging UHD premium display market. Also integrated across its range of UHD TV displays is the company's acclaimed FPR (Film Patterned Retarder) 3D technology for a truly peerless offering.

LG Display's advancements are not limited to TV, but extend across the IT (Information Technology) sector. In addition to UHD TV displays, the company will unveil a 30-inch 4K2K monitor, which at 4096x2160, is the highest resolution computer monitor to date. With unparalleled viewing clarity, the monitor is anticipated to be utilized by professionals in fields like medicine, design, and more.

Creative COW's Debra Kaufman talks about what it takes to work with full-res files larger than 4K in real time -- on multiple workstations no less!

(An unashamed plug for the proprietary Light Iron system)

This is among the largest 4K movies ever delivered, if not the largest. At 2 hours and 38 minutes, it consists of almost a quarter of a million frames at 45 megabytes each.

CIONI: A common question I hear is, are we a 2K or 4K industry? Most people say we're 2K but we're going towards 4K. That is to say, the technology is in transition. To do a 4K movie now we temporarily need both projectors. The 4K technology hasn't matured enough to use it exclusively.

It's also becoming very popular for audiences to see 4K projectors even though they're not seeing 4K content. Sony has sold 17,000 4K projectors, and several theatre chains have stated their intent to switch to these projectors. 2K content looks better on the 4K projector because the distance between pixels is reduced, so the perception of higher resolution goes up because there's less negative space. Dragon Tattoo was shot one-third with the RED Epic and the rest with the RED MX; these are essentially extremely low signal-to-noise-ratio cameras, very quiet, so they scale really well. So, although Dragon Tattoo will be released in 4K, it's worth noting that 4K sourced projects that master in 2K scale up well to 4K.

In a data-centric world, clients have looked into our machine room, saw a couple of Mac towers and thought they could do it on their own. But the complexity of technology has increased. In actuality, their ability to do it themselves is as out of touch as when we printed film. Working in 4K is like 2K was several years ago, only four times bigger and six times more dynamic.

from http://magazine.creativecow.net/article/4k-di-on-the-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo

@goanna "With the render farms studios use, any extra render time for 4K is zero and the cost is trivial.... just 20 or so rack- mounted PCs and some storage."

Seems to contradict what Dariusz Wolski (DP of Prometheus) said in his interview for The American Cinematographer:

"Although he shot Prometheus in 5K at 5:1 compression (occasionally switching to 3:1 compression for scenes with very fine detail, like water or foliage), he notes that the original photography had to be converted to 2K in post to match the resolution of the visual-effects work. “On a movie with this many visual effects, going to 4K would have quadrupled the visual-effects budget,” notes Wolski. “ "

With the render farms studios use, any extra render time for 4K is zero and the cost is trivial.... just 20 or so rack- mounted PCs and some storage.

You won't be doing a 4K feature on your MacBook alone, but using $10K render farm you can have a good crack at it.

And outsource rendering your files by the hour is getting faster and cheaper too. Why build? Moore's Law hasn't gone away.

Why 4K ...report from Sony PDF

Does 4K really make a difference? 4K digital projection in the theater environment

Sony Electronics Inc. Broadcast and Production Systems Division

http://pro.sony.com/bbsccms/static/files/mkt/digitalcinema/Why_4K_WP_Final.pdf

www.sony.com/digitalcinema

@azza_act "Are 4K TVs where the action is or do we have to wait for 8K projectors see to a real difference?"

What you really have to wait for is some amazing gene manipulation process that will create super humans with eyes capable of distinguishing more detail. As of now, there is a limit of what we can really see, sorry to ruin it for you.

Watched Skyfall last night in 4K last night. I was right in the middle row, wasn't very impressed at all with the image and the movie... I remember watching casino royal on bluray (my first bluray) and it had this wow factor. Since then I only watch blurays. So I was expecting the same "wow" factor with 4K. Nope. I was hopping for LED bluray image: sharp with amazing colours. The bond film was flat and wasn't crisp like a BD, very underwhelming.. It's better then the old 35mm projectors I guess, but I thought I would be blown off my feet with excellent IQ. Are 4K TVs where the action is or do we have to wait for 8K projectors see to a real difference?

@fix , exactly the same experience. As the example of someone here saying the 4k image of prometheus was fantastic. In fact it was only 2k uprez. This 4k thing is only for marketing reason. Sony will show you dozen of studies etc. that will tell you that you need 4k because now they are promoting and selling 4k system from cameras, cinema projectors and Tv. With the 3d fail they had to find another way to sell there goods.

I don't say that 4k is not better, but we are really feeling diminishing returns above 2k. Many mostly geeks, cannot comprehend that we human beings have limit so they always feel that they need more for it to be better. Even, to the bigger industry like Hollywood they are downsizing 4k to 2k for vfx budget. But in the indie world (like most of us here), it is absolutely unnecessary. What is necessary on the cinematography side, is better DR and lighting knowledge.

I see people on forums taking all there money to have barely usable redone mx for $ 8k+. While it would have been 10 times better to buy a BMC or gh2/gh3 and a set of HMI, kinos or Tungsten light.

You know it takes 5 minutes to do a search

http://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/July2012/Prometheus/page1.php

@NOMAD "Of course fps are more important. But 4K offers more positions for the bird to occupy. Spatial rez counts as well for smooth motion to a smaller degree."

The bird will not have more positions to occupy because how many positions this bird has is dictated by the frame rate, not the spatial resolution. If you have a 1920x1080 screen vs 4K or even 400000K and the frame rate is the same each time, let's say 24fps, then in one second you'll see no more than 24 positions of a bird, no matter what the resolution is. Another example: let's imagine it takes 1 second for a bird to fly across the screen horizontally. Then even in HD resolution (1920 x 1080) you would need 1920fps to actually start getting close to running out of your spatial resolution and bird positions. In 24fps, 48fps, 60fps you are not even getting close to a situation where spatial resolution affects the motion rendering.

From what I gathered the whole prometheus was filmed on red and the files were reduced to 2k because all the CGI was done in 2k because it would cost 4 times more to render. So most probably people saw uprez 2k version.