4K UHD TVs Are Being Adopted Faster Than HDTVs (venturebeat.com)

Now this may surprise some: 4K Ultra HD televisions are expected to double sales to 15 million units in the U.S. in 2016, and the next-generation TVs are now being adopted at a faster rate than predecessor high-definition TVs. 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray players are also selling at a fast rate, according to Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, the big tech lobbying group, VentureBeat reports. From the report: At a press event in San Francisco, Shapiro said that 62 percent of consumers plan to buy a consumer electronics viewing device in the next 12 months; 33 percent plan to buy a smartphone, and 29 percent plan to buy a TV. "Consumers are showing a strong preference for 4K," which has four times as many on-screen pixels as HDTVs, Shapiro said. "It's faster and more robust than HDTV." By 2017, 4K UHD TV sales will hit 20 million a year in the U.S. That number will grow to 23 million in 2018, and 26 million by 2019, Shapiro said. The 2016 growth rate is 105 percent above the units sold for 2015.

Comments

Cool, and no 4K content

[Anonymous Coward]

TV is still 720. Movies are 1080. What's the point of 4K again?

Re:Cool, and no 4K content

[Carewolf]

TV is still 720. Movies are 1080. What's the point of 4K again?

Future proofing. And pretty cheap at that, with a FHD 50" TV selling at €350, and the 4K at €400, it is not that more to pay something that might come in handy in a year or two.

Re: Cool, and no 4K content

[Anonymous Coward]

The point is irrelevant. Manifacturers arent offering many non-4k options aside from low end stuff, so of course people are buying lots of 4k.

Re:Cool, and no 4K content

[sdguero]

The upscaling is pretty impressive. A good 4k upscaler looks significantly better on the same 1080 source. That said, 1080p give a pretty sharp picture in it's won right. I don't think 4k is very noticeable in typical size family room (i.e. viewing from 10-14 ft away) unless you have a 75" or larger TV. Similarly, if you have 42" or smaller TV 720p is probably OK unless you are sitting 6 ft away from it.

Re:Cool, and no 4K content

[Carewolf]

Future proofing? WTF? 4k TV would be only cheaper in the future....

I don't need a TV in the near future, I needed a new one now, and therefor bought the 4K screen, since my TVs last somewhere from 5 to 10 years.

I think a lot of people are in that situation, they need a new, or want a bigger TV. 4K sales are exploding because they have become very competively priced in the last year.

And even without the 4K content, the onscreen menus have much sharper rendered text. It is actually a bit painfull to look at TV text menus at 1080p after using them in 4K.

Re:Cool, and no 4K content

[Anonymous Coward]

Once you see 720p content on a 4K where it's an integer scaling instead of a fractional scaling, that 720p content looks a LOT better.

4K is a 'sweet spot' where 720p is perfectly tripled, and 1080p is perfectly doubled, so the scalers are a LOT better in general since they don't need to deal with 'fractional' scaling.

That's the main reason 1080p TVs don't have the "punch" claimed: There's sooo much content that's 720p, and it looks fairly rubbish due to the 1.5x upscaling.

720p content on a 4K UHD TV looks crisp and sharp, 1080p content looks crisper and sharper, native 4K content (which NetFlix and Amazon both offer quite a bit of actually) looks and in fact is better than most digital IMAX theatres right now. :)

- WolfWings, still too lazy to login

Sort of stupid actually

[keltor]

The 4k TVs basically directly replaced the HDTVs, as in they just replaced the same model that was $899 last year with a new $899 model that is now 4k. Instant 4k Adoption. You're also probably getting some generational effects where people with older 480p and 720p flat screens suddenly need new TVs because they hit that magic it's 10 years OLD effect.