Have $40,000 to spend on a new TV? Get a new 4K Ultra HD set <http://www.thecanadianpress.com/> Description: The Canadian PressBy Michael Oliveira, The Canadian Press | The Canadian Press
TORONTO - There probably aren't huge numbers of Boxing Day shoppers scouring
flyers for a deal on a 4K Ultra HD TV, the next standard of high definition
video.
December 26th is a day for seeking out bargains and history has shown crowds
of consumers will shiver for hours in the cold if it means snagging a
cut-rate TV even if it's a low-end model made by an obscure manufacturer
for a few hundred bucks.
4K Ultra HD TVs, which display four times as many pixels as 1080p HD TVs,
will attract a different kind of shopper.
The cheapest 4K Ultra HD TV sold through a big box store retails for about
$4,000 for a 55-inch set when it's on sale while the top-of-the-line
85-inch model made by Samsung goes for a dollar shy of $40,000.
That's not a typo: $39,999, plus tax.
And much like when the original high definition TVs first went on sale,
there's not a ton of content available to take advantage of the new
standard.
Netflix hopes to change that, at least gradually.
Unlike 3D TV, which has been a total flop, Netflix believes 4K adoption is
inevitable and is investing in producing and delivering Ultra HD content.
"Whether it takes 18 months or five years people are going to adopt this
technology. It's something we want to be on the forefront of, it's our guess
that ultra high definition is going to happen in a pretty significant way,
unlike 3D," said chief product officer Neil Hunt in an interview earlier
this year.
"We're not doing everything (in Ultra HD) but certainly the significant
stuff, so 'House of Cards' is one of those things we're shooting in 4K. And
as we look to new shows, we have a couple of other things lined up for
shooting later this year or early next year that we hope to be doing in 4K
as well."
For those who haven't seen 4K Ultra HD in person yet which is most
consumers Hunt promises the enriched level of detail will be impressive,
which is posing challenges for filmmakers.
"We certainly found even with some of the original stuff we've done that the
sets didn't stand up to ultra high definition," he said.
"So it really is something that starts right with the cast and the makeup
and the set and then the cameras and the editing and the special FX all the
way through to the coding, the staging, the delivery."
Of course, data consumption will be a major concern when Netflix begins
offering the new format to customers. The current highest quality stream
eats through about 2.5 gigabytes an hour, while an Ultra HD stream is
expected to use up to seven gigabytes an hour.
It would also require a very fast and steady Internet connection to play
without buffering, but Hunt believes ISPs will be offering more robust plans
by the time Ultra HD is ready to be fully rolled out.
"Moore's Law is the rule of thumb that says technology seems to advance by
doubling in price performance every 18 months and you can pretty much plot
the performance of broadband on that spectrum over a 10- to 20-year period
and it does seem to track," he said
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