1080p HDTV Looking Tired Already

If you’re a gadget hound like me, you probably spent hours agonizing over the purchase of your TV.

It’s one of the few purchases in your home most people don’t intend to replace every year or so, so you make your choice and dammit you live with it.

But that 1080p flat screen TV you just bought is about to be obsoleted. BIG TIME.

The BBC and Japanese opposite number NHK have completed trials of Super Hi-Vision broadcasts across the world at a jaw-dropping 7,680 x 4,320 pixel resolution.

At sixteen times the quality of 1080p, this makes current high-def broadcasting look like analog television from 1965.

The bad news, and yeah, there’s always bad news, is that at 24Gb per second, the transfer cannot be sent via satellite, only high quality broadband internet lines. Also, you’ll need a 7,680p resolution TV, which doesn’t exist yet.

NHK is hoping the system will be ready in time for the 2012 Olympics, but are there really enough gadget freaks out there to support a jump to this level of quality, even if the cost is only marginally increased?