‘Das Boot will be the first TV series to be released in 8k resolution and with Dolby Atmos’

Sky will release the third season of the German TV series Das Boot in 8k. According to the producer, Bavaria Fiction, it is the first international series in 8k and with Dolby Atmos. This third season will only be available in 8k to owners of Samsung QLED-8k TVs.

Sky reports that the first two seasons of the German series are already available in 4k resolution and with Dolby Atmos, but that the new episodes of the upcoming third season will be produced in 8k. The recordings have yet to begin. To enable the 8k production, Producer Bavaria Fiction is collaborating with Sky Studios and Samsung.

It is not entirely clear how viewing the series in 8k resolution will be possible for German Sky Q subscribers and owners of Samsung QLED-8k televisions. Sky and Bavaria Fiction do not provide further technical details. It seems that the Sky Q subscribers with such a TV from Samsung can only watch the series via their Sky Q decoder. That device has an HDMI 2.0 connection, so there is insufficient bandwidth to enable an 8k resolution with a frame rate of 24 or 30fps. It is therefore more obvious that an internal streaming app on the television will be used, so that an HDMI connection is not a limiting factor.

Incidentally, it is not unusual that series or films are recorded in 8k resolution. Netflix has used RED Helium 8k cameras for the second season of Lost in Space and David Attenborough’s documentary Our Planet. Amazon also used those cameras for The Tick. However, those productions were not released in 8k resolution, which must be the case with the third season of Das Boot.

Das Boot is a TV series that should be seen as the sequel to the acclaimed war film Das Boot from 1981. The series also revolves around a crew in a German submarine in World War II, but part of the story has a different perspective, in which the French resistance is central.