Ultra HD TV's Could Fall Flat

Companies are promoting 4K TV's at the Consumer Electronics Show - hoping the evolution of HD TV's will spike demand.

Published

5 months ago

Categories

Technology

Topics

Consumer Electronics

People

David Katzmaier

Companies

Samsung C&T

Transcript

2013 = 4K TV. A formula the television industry hopes will help finally get consumers to sit up, take notice- and upgrade. 4K TV's are being promoted as ultra high-definition TV's- that companies say have four times the resolution of the 1080p HDTV format. But global TV shipments are expected to have declined 6 percent in 2012- and to be flat this year, according to NPD DisplaySearch. Despite the still weak economy- prices remain high. The average LCD selling price will have fallen a very mild 2.7 percent last year. And the new 4K TV's will be pricey: CNET's David Katzmaier: SOUNDBITE: DAVID KATZMAIER, SENIOR EDITOR, CNET (ENGLISH) SAYING: "These 84 inch TV's are about $20,000, $25,000. Even the smaller 55 and 65-inch TV's we expect to be around 5, 7 thousand dollars. That's not going to make much of a dent in TV sales at those prices." TV's have evolved a lot throughout the years- and recently, makers have promoted everything from 3D to Smart TV to OLED to try to excite consumers- This year its 4K. But is there even any demand for 4K? SOUNDBITE: DAVID KATZMAIER, SENIOR EDITOR, CNET (ENGLISH) SAYING: "One of the other problems with 4K UHD is that there is no content available. There is no 4K distribution system. You can't watch 4K on your television. There are no 4K Blu-ray standards. There is not even a standard to connect 4k devices to one another yet. So it's still really in its infancy. It's going to be another couple of years before those things all get ironed out, and I don't know how it's going to be before you get an actual 4K channel on TV. " Samsung however is optimistic about the overall television business-saying it hopes to sell 55 million flat screen TV's this year- up from 51 million last year. Samsung showed off one that was 110 inches. No price on that one just yet.