4K TV?

[1/28/15] Testing 4K TV.  I’d wager that at least half of America has never heard of 4K. And those who have don’t have any idea how it works, what there is to watch, and where we are on the great global road to 4K.

So I decided to spend a week immersing myself in 4K. I decided to round up 4K sets from different manufacturers at different prices. I’d have them all professionally calibrated in the same room at the same time. I’d fit them with a signal splitter so they’d display the same video simultaneously.

I’d try every conceivable video source on every screen. I’d do side-by-side-by-side comparisons (I’d even include a 2014 HDTV set to compare them to). I’d try different distances from the screens. I’d invite a parade of people to give me their impressions.

By the end of the experiment, I’d know exactly where we are in the 4K transition — and I’d be able to suggest whether or not it’s safe yet to buy one. After all, the Super Bowl is coming up, which can only mean one thing: Thousands of Americans will have an excuse to buy a new TV, and thousands of stores will offer Super Bowl TV sales.

Here’s what I learned.

[12/29/14] It takes Katie Couric to explain.

There are currently four main resolutions:

SD (standard definition): 480 x 720 (that's an odd aspect ratio of 2:3, but turns out it's the DVD video stream.)

HD (high definition): 720 x 1280 (that's an aspect ratio of 9:16).

Full HD (full high def): 1080 x 1920 (also 9:16).

4K (ultra high def): 2160 x 3840 (double the Full HD, so four times as many pixels).

[9/1/12] BERLIN - 3D TV? That's so 2011. 4K technology was the talk of IFA, with LG, Sony, and Toshiba all showing off 84-inch 4K TVs. We stopped by Sony's booth this afternoon to take a look, and also checked out the 20-inch 4K TVs Panasonic had on display.

4K sets are four times the resolution of a standard HDTV. Current HDTVs display content at 1080p (1,920 by 1,080 pixels), or slightly lower 1080i or 720p resolution. 4K video is the next step in high definition, with a resolution of approximately 4,000-by-2,000 to 4,000-by-3,000, quadrupling or sextupling the number of pixels in the picture.

At this point, 4K-based TVs are limited to business users, thanks in part to their hefty price tags. LG's 4K TV, for example, will set you back $22,000. But as PCMag's Will Greenwald pointed out recently, 4K is "the high definition we'll be using in five or 10 years."

Sony had its 84-inch 4K TV set up in the middle of its massive IFA booth. The flashing, overhead lights made it a bit more difficult to evaluate the screen, but despite the distractions, the picture was clearly stunning. If you have an extremely large living room and equally large bank account, the Sony set would definitely punch up an episode of Breaking Bad or the latest action movie.

Over at Panasonic, the company opted for a museum-like tour of its emerging technology, starting with four, 20-inch 4K TV sets running images of blooming flowers. In contrast to Sony's setup, the sets were located in a dark, quiet corner of the Panasonic booth, where I was able to get a closer look at the screens. Indeed, the blooming roses looked like you could reach out and touch them, and as close as I got to the screen, I couldn't detect any pixels.

*** [7/29/13]

The current resolution for Full HD, 1080p HDTVs is 1920 x 1080 pixels. UHD doubles each dimension to 3840 x 2160 which although is technically not 4K (4096), it is close enough to be called “4K.”. Although there is lots of 4K content being produced including movies which are shot with 4K cameras like the Arri Alexa and Red Epic and then shown in movie theaters across America, 40% of which have 4K projection systems. Distribution to homes will be one of the challenges of 4K TV requiring new compression techniques, new optical discs and even a new over-the-air broadcast standard; all of which are in development. It’s a common believe that 4K only make sense for the home on very large TV screens like 70 – 80-inches and for viewers sitting very close to the screen.

In addition to providing 4K content to outlets that can currently display it, most studios and content creators are migrating to 4K and putting a “4K master in the archive.” We understand that many TV shows are now shot in 4K including many sporting events and have read about a possible 4K transmission of the 2014 World Cup match. In a recent article in Trusted Reviews listing some good reasons why 4K TV is on the move, John Archer mentions that employees at Sony’s Colorworks facility say, “it’s only once you get up to the 4K pixel level that you can scan 35mm film into digital form without losing significant amounts of the texture, detail, graduation subtlety and color refinement contained in the ‘analogue’ celluloid image.” According to TVNewsCheck, ESPN “is building a brand new, massive sports production center that Chief Technology Officer Chuck Pagano says will be future proof — able to handle upcoming 4K and 8K production.”

Getting 4K content into the home will be a major challenge for cable and satellite providers as well as disc makers. For $699 you can buy a Sony Ultra HD Media Player that comes pre-loaded with 10, 4K movies and some other 4K “bonus” material but a more affordable solution will require a new Blu-ray standard or other medium like a flash memory-based media card. Currently Blu-ray is limited to 50GB however, a compressed 4K movie may require twice that (100GB) and for an uncompressed movie it could run in the 200GB range.

Word is that the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) is expected to announce support for a new Codec (compressor/decompressor) called H.265, more commonly referred to as High Efficiency Video Coding or HEVC which will be the successor to the current H.264 or MPEG4. The Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) is also working on a new broadcast standard called ATSC 3.0 which will include UHDTV broadcast signals for over-the-air reception.