4KTV Standards Are a Mess and Only 41% Even Know What 4K is

While 4K Isn't the Gimmick 3D TV was in the Eyes of Many Consumers, a New Study Shows the Standard has a Lot of Work to do before Sales of the Sets Ramp Up. According to New Data from Leichtman Research, just 41% Have Even Heard of 4KTV, though that's Up from 30% 1 Year Ago. According to Leichtman, 26% of those Who Have Seen a 4K HDTV are Interested Getting One -- Compared to 6% of those Who Haven't Seen a 4K TV. With 4KTV's Slowly Coming Down in Price, Adoption is Expected to Start Climbing Steeply this Year. Though be Careful: Real 4K Content is Limited, Standards Remain in Flux and the 4K TV Gear you Buy Today May Not be Truly 4K-Capable Tomorrow. For Example, Many 4KTV Vendors are Shipping Sets that Claim to Have Fully HDMI 2.0 Compliant Ports, Yet the Actual Ports are Only "HDMI Lite" -- Only Capable of 10 Gbps of the Full 18 Gbps the Standard is supposed to Deliver. As such these Sets are being Advertised as Absolute Cutting Edge and Future Proof but, they Can't actually Deliver Full Full 4k 4:4:4 Chroma at 60p. Worse, Many of the Biggest Manufacturers Can't be Bothered to Advertise this Fact.


Similarly, while Netflix has Stated that High Dynamic Range (HDR) May actually be More Important than 4K, the Standard -- which Provides Brighter and More Varied Color -- has Yet to See a Coherent Unified Definition, Yet Implementation in Most 4K Sets. There's also HDCP 2.2 Copy Protection to Worry about; that Standard is Intended to Protect 4K Content from Piracy, Yet it Hasn't been Implemented in Most Receivers. In Other Words, there's probably Millions of Consumers Buying a "4K Compliant" Receiver that actually Isn't Truly 4K Compliant. Every Component in the Chain will Need HDCP 2.2 Compliance for upcoming 4K Content and Many Users will be Annoyed to Learn their Brand New Receiver Can't actually Carry Fully 4K Content. And that Brings us to the Biggest Impediment to 4K Adoption: there's Hardly any 4K Content to be had. While Netflix and Amazon Have Started Offering 4K Content via Embedded Smart TV Apps, Set Top Players like Roku and Apple Have Yet to Support 4K (and HDMI 2.0 and HDCP 2.2). Game Consoles Can't Push Games in 4K and Both the XBox One and PlayStation 4 May Need Hardware Upgrades (Read: you'll Need to Buy a New Console Revision) to Fully do so.


And Forget Broadcasters -- Most Aren't Able to Send Even True 1080p Signals Yet so, 4K Broadcasts Remain Years Away. That Said, Leichtman's Quick to Highlight that Most of the Growth we've Seen in Traditional HD Adoption only Came in the Last Few Years. And that's Very Clearly Going to Happen Again here as Most of these Standards Start to Fall in Line and Prices Drop. "While HDTV now seems commonplace in the US, much of the growth of HD has come in recent years", States Bruce Leichtman. "Over the past five years, more than one-third of all US households got their first HDTV, and HDTV's share of TV sets used in US households grew from about 24% to 65%." If you Have to Have 4K Now, do your Homework and Make Sure the Set Supports True HDMI 2.0 (and HDR, if you've Got the Money). Still, your Best Bet Remains to probably Wait until Next Year Once Standards Solidify, or the Year after that for When Much Better Quality OLED Sets, Finally Start to Materialize at a Sane Price Point.




Info Sources:

http://www.leichtmanresearch.com/press/031315release.html

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/null