According to a Digitimes report analysts believe that 4K TVs, like the 4K Seiko TV pictured above, will not be useful for at least another year. The 4K resolution of 3840 by 2160 gives unprecedented picture clarity and detail but they are almost useless given that there is next to no 4K content available for them. Furthermore consumers and industries won’t start the 4K adoption until at least late year year if analysts are to be believed.
Currently there is very little TV that can be streamed in 4K from channel providers anywhere and furthermore BluRay and 3D movies are not available in 4K quality yet. The best solution for mass 4K content in the near future is going to be the upscaling of content using the widely available 1080p HD content that is now the industry standard. Digitimes states that:
TV vendors are aware of this and many such as Sharp claim they have ways to turn Full HD content into 4K content without virtually losing any quality. Sharp recently unveiled a THX-certified 70-inch 4K TV for US$8,000 equipped with a dual-core processor inside the TV, which is claimed to be able to upscale regular HD video into what Sharp calls “4K-like” 3,840 by 2,160 resolution. However, many market observers believe that this upscale technique is merely a marketing gimmick and that the 4K content is essentially lost, as the content is merely compressed into a different format rather than streaming at its appropriate resolution.
When asked what 4K TVs are useful for, analysts explained two things. The first is that they can stream 3D content at 1080p as current 3D content cuts the resolution in half due to pattern retarded technology currently used so in effect a 1080p 3D film would actually only be half HD in reality. The second thing is merely bragging rights.
Image courtesy of Seiko
I’m in no rush for anything like this. I’ll wait until it becomes mainstream then I’ll wait some more.