UHD Alliance Formed

[SteelCrysis]

http://hdguru.com/multi-industry-ultra-h...r-next-tv/
Read the interview too.

We’re only about four years into the market launch of high resolution 4K Ultra HDTV, but TV manufacturers, content producers and engineering consultants made it clear at International CES a few weeks ago that we’ve only just started to see what this new display ecosystem can deliver.

Learn the details and read an interview with a UHD Alliance member spokesperson after the break.

Platform stakeholders want to prove that Ultra HD is about more than just pixels, and whether or not you’re in the market for the best picture quality an Ultra HD TV can deliver today or tomorrow, you might want to consider what the industry has coming just ahead.

Since the launch of the first 4K Ultra HD sets, content producers, engineers and the media have debated whether or not the average consumer is really deriving a perceivable benefit from typical TV screen sizes capable of producing four times the resolution (1920×1080 vs. 3840×2160 pixels) of the previous Full HD benchmark.

To help put some of those concerns to rest, set manufacturers have started developing UHD TVs that address other areas of the picture to make them look more realistic, such as adding more colors from a wider swath of the visual color spectrum, and more detail in the deep black and bright white ranges of the image. Some of these areas are being addressed in new technologies like Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display panels, LED/LCD TVs using quantum dot technology and other approaches.

The results are as varied as the different approaches in play, and what has been glaringly lacking is the absence of input from the content side of the equation.

For this reason, representatives from multiple companies in multiple industries have put aside their differences to work together to develop a best of breed framework. This so-named UHD (Ultra HD) Alliance is seeking to create a functionally competitive environment through which TV manufacturers and content producers can enhance the images produced by all of those extra pixels with new levels of expanded color bit depth, a wider and more natural color palette, higher frame rates, new 3D audio sound and the inclusion of techniques for adding high dynamic range for greater image detail. (See CES Recap: Thoughts On Color for more on this).

Ironically, these added side benefits aren’t necessarily 4K Ultra HD resolution dependent. The same or similar results can be achieved on Full HDTVs. But from a business standpoint, adding those extra benefits to a technology treading dangerously close to commoditization wouldn’t give manufacturers a lot of room for profit and could add prohibitive cost to a low-margin display technology, when time and again the market has shown bigger resolution spec numbers inspire TV upgrades. In time, however, many of the benefits derived from this body will undoubtedly move into mid- and even low-end ranges of the TV market. Just don’t hold your breath waiting.

[RolloTheGreat]

None of it means anything without content, and content is glaringly absent.

[SteelCrysis]

Speaking of which, more 4K content is on the way, as a 4K UHD download service is on the way: http://hdguru.com/scsa-readies-formal-la...d-service/

[RolloTheGreat]

http://www.rtings.com/info/4k-ultra-hd-u...ull-hd-tvs

The closest viewing position in my living room is 11' from the tv. The chair I sit in directly in front of the tv is 15' from it. The closest you could sit to a tv in my home is still over 9' in my basement rec room. (and that one's is my son's 60" that gets used for 99% console gaming, I've never watched a tv show on it)

So you want me to buy a another 60" tv for my living room, even though I'm happy with the one I have there, move all my furniture to the middle of the room so I can see the difference? On content that isn't widely available yet and won't be for years?

http://www.techradar.com/us/news/televis...tv-1048954

Is it me or are those options are almost comically limited?

It's not you.

And that's from a PRO 4k article, where they also say:

Which means we've been in this weird in-between time, waiting for significant numbers of people to make a relatively illogical decision to buy an extra-expensive TV that will only look marginally better than their old one for the next year or two.

No thanks. I have plenty of cash to buy a tv, but one of the reasons I do is I don't throw it away on "Jump through hoop A, hop around on one foot for 5 minutes while patting your head and reciting the Chinese alphabet backwards, and THEN you will see some difference" solutions.

It's just not there yet dude, and I'll wait until it is. Look what happened to the "Everything will be 3d!" craze of a couple years ago. Never happened.

[RolloTheGreat]

4K may well be standard content delivery some day, but my guess is the tvs out now won't be what I want to have when it is. Not to mention that visible difference chart is pretty troubling. Will NOT be moving the furniture into the middle of my living room to say "Ooh! Higher detail!"- it's not like 1080p looks like video games. Current hi def content looks pretty awesome as it is.

I think TVs are getting kind of like cell phones. Once you have a ~"5 screen and a fast processor, you're at a point of diminishing returns.

With tvs in a normal size room, once you have a 60-70" set at 1080P, tough to improve on this with current tech. I probably won't shop tvs until my son leaves for college in a few years and takes his 60"/stereo/consoles in the rec room with him.

I'll move the living room stuff down there then and buy whatever makes sense at that time.