NHK's already transmitter Super Hi-Vision over satellite. That's 7,680 by 4,320 pixels, or so-called "8K." They bypassed 3D, saying 8K is so good it won't be needed, and will also ignore 4K too.
The difference between this, and NHK's tests, is that NHK used a completely proprietary environment, most likely encrypted. This 4K test feed sounds like it will be free-to-air, using the DVB-S standard, so any common European can tune in to it.
I would definitely like to see 3D 8K. I believe 8K is indeed the final resolution for home video before we move to some kind of futuristic resolution-less medium or holographic technology or something.
At over 33 million pixels it ought to be able to saturate human vision.
However, it is going to be quite some time before processing power and bandwidth catches up to 8K. I believe 4K is an important stepping stone to 8K, like 720p was a stepping stone to 1080p. 4K is just 8 million pixels. Leaping from 1080p's 2 million pixels to 4K's 8 million pixels is a much easier pill to swallow than leaping from 2 million pixels to 33 million pixels.
I think we are ready for 4K. Verizon FiOS, Google Fiber, and DOCSIS 3.0 cable products all have enough capacity to handle 4K video. DVB-S2 does too. 8K video would need a DVB-S3 standard or something.
All my current computer equipment can handle 4K with ease. Even my laptop has no problems playing back a 60 Mbps L5.1 H.264 4K test video I have (it actually uses less than 10% CPU or GPU usage when playing it back...)
8K though, I think would be a different story. Unfortunately I have been unable to locate 8K test material.
Although, something I've noted since moving to the U.S. is the high-def picture carried over cable here is vastly inferior to the HiVision signal all the Japanese networks put out. They maintain a very high technical quality of signal at something like 20Mbps over terrestrial, and more over satellite.
The signals coming over cable, which is what the majority of American homes watch, have many more compression artefacts and pixelation.
I don't know how accurate this is anymore. I have numerous HDTV recordings from Korean and Japanese channels. They all seem to be MPEG-2, just like us. WOWOW is the only one with a high bitrate of 20 Mbps, and they appear to be just as full of compression artifacts as our TV. FujiTV seems to be 9 Mbps H.264, NHK 13 Mbps MPEG-2, BS12 is 1440x1080 I think? So, really, Japanese HDTV isn't impressive at all right now, but I applaud NHK's initiative with 8K and I hope they are able to bring Japan back to the forefront of high definition television.
One thing that's very disappointing about Japanese TV is the audio seems to be stereo AAC at 192 Kbps most of the time. As I have tons of concerts from Japanese TV the inferior audio is pretty disappointing. American AC-3 5.1 audio @ 384-448 Kbps is definitely superior.
It is the Europeans who are the gold standard of HD right now. All their channels are H.264. Canal+ is 15 Mbps H.264; Sky Sports can go over 20 Mbps. This is quality similar to what we can only see on a backhaul here in North America.
I don't hold out much hope for 4K if it's going to be compressed like current signals.
Assuming the pathetic American television operators bitrate-starve 4K TV the way they do 720p/1080i TV, I think the crap 4K they push out will be a trojan horse for good "old" 2K HD because it ought to be on the level of good 1080p. Bitrate-starved 4K TV channels will at least have the benefit of finally bringing Blu-ray quality video to American TV.
All the cable providers could easily deliver 4K channels which aren't bitrate-starved by switching to an IPTV based system. (except AT&T and their pathetic U-verse product...) Surely you don't think they will be on QAM forever?