Comcast XFINITY TV → [HD] Get Ready for "Ultra-HDTV"

Man, you guys are going nuts talking specifics of 4k. 4K tvs are going to come down eventually like HDTVS did years ago in time. As for OLED tvs, don't hold your breath with those. It's still do expensive to cheaply manufacture. We are all wishful thinking...

While I wouldn't count the TCL 50-inch, 4K U-HDTV that's selling for only $698 on Amazon right now (»www.amazon.com/gp/produc ··· 0ES5Q6E2), along with all the other cheap, Chinese-brand 4K TVs that will start flooding stores this year, Vizio should be selling their 50-inch 4K U-HDTV for $999.99 MSRP soon:

Report: Vizio Sees Much Improved 4K TV Sales
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - January 21, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/tv ··· 2114.htm

Yea but I want a TV that will last longer than a couple years.

Yeah, but in a couple of years, 8K Ultra-Ultra-HDTVs will become available and you'll be throwing away your "old" 4K U-HDTVs then anyway!

That's right (at least if you live in Japan). But then again I'm usually a glass-half-full person. We should be shooting for holograms in 16k for 10 years from now (»www.smh.com.au/digital-l ··· k5o.html), so life-like that you'll have to duck out of the way of that light-saber coming at you.

lol. its going to be like Universal Studios theme parks and Disney in our houses in a decade.

FYI - This 4K set was on sale on Amazon for $50 less (and the price shown today is only $399.99 »www.amazon.com/Seiki-Dig ··· 0DOPGO2G ):

Seiki's 39-inch, 4K TV Now Available For $427
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - February 3, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/4k ··· 0314.htm

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Today's Gadget of the Day is the Seiki 39-inch, 4K TV, available today at Amazon.com for $427, the lowest price for any 4K TV to date.
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It should be noted that most display experts say a 4K picture can't be truly appreciated on a set this small. Although a 4K TV offers four times the pixels of a 1080p TV, some say it's difficult to detect the difference unless you're viewing it on a screen at least 65 inches.

However, at this price, many video enthusiasts may give the Seiki set a chance just to get a first-hand glimpse of a 4K TV in action. And as one Amazon reviewer notes, it could make for an interesting computer monitor.

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Oh well, they did this with the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London too, so maybe next Olympics then:

Winter Olympics: NBC Shooting Some Events in 4K — But Sorry, Ultra HD Fans, It’s for Demos Only
Comcast to host three invitation-only Ultra HD viewing parties to showcase technology
By Todd Spangler, Variety - February 6, 2014
»variety.com/2014/tv/news ··· 01089792

quote:

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... The Peacock is even capturing some of the action from Sochi, Russia, using the latest in TV tech: 4K resolution, which offers a breathtakingly sharp picture with four times the pixels of 1080p HDTV. That is to include the opening ceremonies on Friday, Feb. 7.

But while the Sochi Olympics are a fantastic backdrop to showcase Ultra HD TV, promising to capture all the glittering snow and ice in fine detail, the distribution infrastructure simply isn’t there to support 4K broadcasts today. And, just as critical, only a small percentage of consumers even have UHD televisions.

“We’re shooting limited 4K content from Sochi and making it available for demonstration purposes only, not for consumer or commercial distribution,” NBC Sports VP of communications Chris McCloskey said.

Shooting in 4K is common in the biz. Many TV productions use digital cinema cameras like the RED Epic and Sony F55 to capture footage in at least 4K and some post houses finish at 4K and then down-convert them to make the broadcast master. The missing links are on the distribution side, and in the living room.

Consumer-electronics makers are champing at the bit to make 4K the next big thing. A rash of new Ultra HD televisions cropped up at the 2014 International CES, in tandem with new content-delivery pacts for 4K content to feed into those sets. Among those were Comcast, NBCU’s parent, which announced plans to roll out an app for Xfinity TV Samsung 4K TVs later this year that will provide access to on-demand 4K movies and TV shows.

But neither Comcast or any other pay-TV distributor will be carrying these Winter Olympics in 4K. The satellite links needed to transport live TV don’t support 4K formats, while set-top boxes in the field don’t either. Comcast says it will upgrade its next-generation X1 boxes later in 2014 for 4K.

To see the Sochi games in dazzling Ultra HD, you will need to be lucky enough to be invited to a special showing. Comcast, for one, is staging three such viewing parties: in Washington, D.C. (Feb. 7), San Francisco (Feb. 12) and Philadelphia (Feb. 13). Those are invite-only events for media, partners, elected officials, employees and other guests, who will be treated to time-delayed 4K content shown on Samsung UHD sets.

“The industry isn’t really there yet in terms of TVs,” a Comcast rep said. “On the heels of the Samsung announcement at CES, we’re working to showcase where the future of TV is going.”
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For now, 4K remains on a slow ramp: In the U.S., just 57,000 Ultra HD 4K-compatible televisions were sold in 2013, according to a CEA projection, with sales projected to increase to 485,000 in 2014 and 1.25 million in 2015. ...

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I wonder if NHK went ahead with its announced plans for a test 8k transmission of these Winter Olympics...

 
Today, what Phillip Swann says are the 5 reasons why you shouldn't buy a 4K TV right now:

5 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Buy a 4K TV
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - January 10, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/tv ··· 0714.htm

His list (see the article for the details/explanations):

quote:

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1. Cost
... [with cheaper sets] at 50 inches, you won't get what you're paying for and that's a picture that purports to offer four times the resolution of that 1080p set. ..
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2. Picture
There's still a vigorous debate in the industry over whether 4K's picture is truly a significant improvement over the 1080p HDTV. ...
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3. Decor
... if you are going to buy a 4K TV, you'll want one with a [very] large screen ... And that creates another concern. Would [such a large-screen] TV fit with the decor of your living room? Would it even fit through the front door? ...
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4. Content
Okay, let's say you're going to buy a 4K TV no matter what. What are you going to watch on it? ...
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5. Standards
... Michael Zoeller, Samsung's senior director of sales and marketing in Europe, basically advised people not to buy current 4K sets. ... Zoeller said "no IHD (4K TV) today will be compatible with the UHD (4K) standards to come." ...
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Given the lack of 4K content right now, Phillip Swann helps answer the question of how current HD video looks on these new 4K U-HDTVs:

How Does HD Video Look On a 4K TV?
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - February 10, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/an ··· 1014.htm

quote:

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... Some 4K TV makers, such as Sony and Samsung, say their sets include upscalers that stretch the data in each pixel of the lower-pixeled HD video so it will fill the entire 3820 x 2,160 4K screen. Consequently, the TV makers argue, the HD video on a 4K set will look even better and more detailed.

Ready to buy? Hold on. The definitive answer to your question is not that simple. I asked several display experts for their opinions and they varied wildly.
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Finally, I asked Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate Technologies, for his expert opinion. Soneira said all HD images will "look somewhat better on 4K" because the upscalers will interpolate the 4K pixels rather than use "straight pixel replication...so the images will appear less pixelated."

Soneira notes that "not all TVs are created equal and deliver excellent picture quality, so a mediocre 4K TV will produce inferior picture quality HD images than a high quality HDTV." But he adds that a "high quality 4K TV will produce better picture quality for all content regardless of what its native resolution is."

Before you get too encouraged, though, Soneira says you may not notice the better picture when watching any video on a 4K set unless it's displayed on a big screen and/or you are sitting closer to the screen than you are used to.

Bottom line: It's too early to answer [the] question with any degree of confidence. There are not many 4K TVs in homes yet and even many of the industry's experts don't own one. I think we need to wait a year or so to get more data and first-hand observations on how HD video really looks on a 4K set. ...

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Found this article about that today:

NHK tests 8K at Winter Olympics
By Chris Forrester, Advanced Television - February 17, 2014
»advanced-television.com/ ··· lympics/

quote:

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... NHK has a small technical team at the Sochi Winter Olympics testing and recording events in 8K, Super Hi-Vision. The engineers have built a special theatre in the main Olympic complex at Sochi and equipped it with a Panasonic 145” display, plus 22.2-channel surround sound. Viewers can see recordings made at the opening ceremony and figure skating competitions.

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Hey, they're using the same tv as what I have at home...

quote:

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... The engineers have built a special theatre in the main Olympic complex at Sochi and equipped it with a Panasonic 145” display, plus 22.2-channel surround sound. ...

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Wow, your media room must look something like this then!

Exactly, except my theater also has a popcorn machine & nicer carpeting...

A report on the MCN site tonight on the Philadelphia Ultra-HD viewing party:

Comcast Serves Up A Taste Of 4K
Viewing Party Features Ultra HD Clips From The Sochi Games Running On Samsung TVs, Panasonic Tablets
By Jeff Baumgartner, Multichannel News - February 21, 2014
»www.multichannel.com/dis ··· k/148441

quote:

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Comcast showed two examples of 4K/Ultra HD video-on-demand clips running on its QAM video network ... and an IP version running over its DOCSIS 3.0 network ...

Both VOD streams were encoded in HEVC/H.265 ... Execs here said the QAM VOD 4K feed absorbed about the same space required for a regular HD channel. The IP version was delivered to a new D3 gateway (internally referred to as the “XB3”) [the Cisco DPC3939 »[Equip] Has anyone ever seen or received a Cisco DPC3939 ] that’s capable of bonding 16 downstream channels and is outfitted with a dual-band 802.11n router. Comcast estimated that the 4K IP video stream was coming in at between 18 Mbps to 22 Mbps. ...

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I wonder if this ViXS "XCode" system-on-a-chip (SoC) will be used in those "next-generation X1 boxes" to handle 4K U-HD?

ViXS To Bring 4K To The RDK
Becomes Latest Chipmaker To License The Comcast/TWC-Managed Platform
By Jeff Baumgartner, Multichannel News - February 28, 2014
»www.multichannel.com/tec ··· k/148587

FYI - A major price drop for LG's 55-inch OLED HDTV (1080p) set - now only $4,999 and available at Amazon and Best Buy:

LG's 55-inch OLED TV Now Going For $4,999
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - May 27, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/lg ··· 2714.htm

While Netflix had previously said that a 15 Mbps downstream speed was the minimum requirement for 4K streaming, they are saying that a speed of 25 Mbps is now needed to do it:

4K TV: For Most, The Stream Is Still a Dream
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - June 26, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/4k ··· 2614.htm

FYI - A follow-up:

How Does Regular HD Look On a 4K TV?
or "I Watched a 4K TV - And Lived to Tell About It!"
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - July 13, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/tv ··· 1314.htm
The results:

quote:

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1. DIRECTV Did Not Look Good On a 4K TV
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2. Blu-ray Looked Very Good On a 4K TV
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3. SD Video Looks Better On a 4K TV
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they should of tried ESPN HD and not Travel Channel HD

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Welcome to America this is how company nickel and dime you every penny you are worth for tv.

I guess I should be happy that Comcast doesn't charge a "Color Technology" fee.

LOL, if cable companies had been around in the 1960s when color was a new feature, you bet they would have.

That's a pretty poor article. The author either doesn't know how digital video processing works or he's being ridiculously simple for a non-tech audience.

His repeated use of "filling the screen" is an odd choice, because it makes it sounds like the content is being stretched to fill the screen like 4:3 to 16:9, and there may be black bars or something.

Naturally overcompressed sat looked bad on a large high resolution TV (it would on any large HD or higher screen), especially because I presume he sat fairly close to it, to properly see any resolution benefits from 4K.

The other one that seems off base is the SD stuff, he only says SD looked better because of what sounds like a ton of processing that the TV had turned for SD sources. It sounds like the TV had aggressive noise reduction and some of the goofy auto contrast and color enhancing modes turned on. So it became more esthetically pleasing to him on a superficial level. This is not unique to 4K TVs, which he implied it was. Any TV can have all kinds of video processing junk turned on to smooth over digital noise and boost colors, etc..

FYI - The price is down to only $339 on Amazon now, but as the article states, CNET's review of it was not good:

Are 4K TVs Too Expensive? Well, Not This One
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - July 20, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/tv ··· 2114.htm

Then, on the other end of the price spectrum:

Samsung Unveils a $120,000 4K TV
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - July 23, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/sa ··· 2314.htm

quote:

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Samsung has announced that its monster 105-inch, curved-screen 4K TV is now available for pre-ordering.

The cost: $119,999.
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... the press release says each set is "built to order" and Samsung's "field engineers" will come to your home to "optimize" it if you buy one.

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Consumer Reports also says that 1080p-HD Blu-ray looks better on U-HDTVs:

Ultra HD TVs: Best picture yet
10 things you need to know before you spend a bundle on one
Consumer Reports - July 2014
»www.consumerreports.org/ ··· ndex.htm

quote:

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... [4K content/programming will be limited for a while] Until then, you’d be watching a lot of high-def programs on your UHD set.

Hmm. How is that going to look?

You might be pleasantly surprised. We found that Blu-ray movies actually looked a bit better on a UHD TV than on an HD set. That’s because 1080p content is upconverted to the ultra HD TV’s higher resolution, and the greater pixel density of the 4K screen enhances the detail. (Note that the quality of upconverted HD will vary depending on how well a particular model handles the video processing.)

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Also:

4K detail looks great on a huge Ultra HD screen, even up close
With Ultra HD TV screens, go big for the best viewing
Consumer Reports - July 25, 2014
»www.consumerreports.org/ ··· ndex.htm