4K TV. What is it in the first place? While most
of you may be familiar with LCD and LED TV’s
being sold out there, you would also know that
they are available in three variants—HD Ready,
Full HD and 3D.
While HD Ready TVs have a resolution of 720
pixels, a full HD TV can produce 1080 pixels.
3D televisions are usually full HD, but have a
capability of producing picture frames on the
screen at twice the speed of conventional LCD
televisions.
Television broadcasting all over the world is
beaming out HD (720p) and Full HD (1080p)
content as a basic feed. However, India is still
receiving 1080i and not full true HD as yet. All
DTH providers in India are presently offering
HD content since most households today own
an LCD TV which is capable of HD and Full HD
resolutions and feature the HDMI port.
The next generation televisions available today
are curved OLED televisions and 4K UHD
televisions. 4K TV, or UHD ultra high-definition
television, can produce four times the picture
resolution than what today's Full HD offers.
This means, four times the number of pixels on
the screen, the tiny points that make up the
entire image, a greater array of colours and a
sharper contrast. Viewing 4K content on a 4K
display is mind-blowing.
However, the cost of the television is not as
cheap as a large-screen Full HD 3D TV. A
regular, large-screen 4K television from
leading brands costs nothing less than an
average 3.5 lakhs. Affording one at home is as
good as opting for a small hatchback.
Nevertheless, opting for a 4K television may be
great, and you feel that you have bought the
best viewing panel for your home. But look
around you—do you have 4K content available
as easily as your 4K TV?
The answer is no—4K content is available, but
is limited. YouTube has opened up a 4K stream
a while back and there are a few movies and
videos that you could watch from some online
websites. Also pirated movies can offer 4K
videos and flicks. However, it won’t come in
cheap either. In order to 4K enjoy content on
the web, you would require a minimum of 15
Mb/s broadband connection.
A 4K TV does not have an affordable price tag
as yet. The technology is relatively new and
hence the sky-high prices they demand.
Television manufacturers are backing the next-
generation 4K television technology since it
does not require any special glasses, like 3D,
for viewing the content. Those who would opt
for a 4K TV today will definitely have a set that
is future-proof for a couple of years at least.
Similar to the Full-HD revolution, it will take
time for 4K content to be readily available,
and it will be coming in for sure. At the pace
of internet speeds going up and the broadband
prices coming down, it wont be surprising if
4K makes its way into the households faster
than Blue-ray and Full HD did.
Videocon DTH and Tata Sky, both announced
4K television broadcasts and 4K DTH Set-top-
boxes on the 3rd and 4th of July 2014
respectively. While Sony gave out a demo of
the live broadcast of the FIFA World Cup at the
launch event, Sony Pix was the broadcaster to
give the 4K link feed. Tata Sky announced that
the 4K service will go live around January
2015.
So are you ready for 4K as yet? Well, we say,
if you have the money, go ahead. If you have
the patience, we suggest you wait for a while.
Let all DTH service providers and channel
broadcasters get their systems upgrade to 4K
with sufficient content. And also since the
technology is fairly new, the costs of the 4K
television sets will also go down by time.
Competition and sales will definitely make the
prices of the 4K TVs dip. So if you want to be
smart, hold on to those horses and save on the
money as long as you can. http://www.deccanchronicle.com/140705/technology-latest/article/it-good-time-invest-4k-tv
