[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.
