Chi Mei Optoelectronics (CMO) of Taiwan announced it will soon begin shipping a 56-inch "super high resolution" TV panel known as QFHD (quad full HD). The QFHD format is situated between "regular" HD (1080i, 1080p, 720p) and Ultra HD (see this edition's lead story).
The QFHD flat-panel consists of 3840 x 2160 resolution for 8.29 million pixels -- about four times the resolution of 1080i. CMO said now the panels will be mostly used for medical purposes, public and/or mass display scenarios, and niche applications such as museum displays, semiconductor design and security controls.
CMO has sent prototypes of its 56-inch QFHD panels to some Asian retailers, with volume production (estimated to start up at only a few hundred units monthly) shipping to other Asian nations, and to North America, set to launch next fall.
Taiwan, unlike most other parts of Asia, still has mainly SD broadcasts, and was not part of the early HD push by Japan, South Korea, Singapore and China. Much of mainland China expects to air the entire 2008 summer Olympics in HD (not the QFHD kind). But the nation of 1.3 billion has yet to choose a national HD format for state-controlled CCTV.
