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telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

Re: [HD] Get Ready for "Ultra-HDTV"

said by telcodad:

Walmart Taking Pre-Orders On Vizio's $999 50" 4K TV
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - September 14, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/vi ··· 1414.htm

quote:
Walmart is now taking pre-orders on the highly-anticipated, sub-$1,000 Vizio 50-inch 4K TV.
:
Walmart says at its web site that the 50-inch 4K set costs $998 and is likely to ship on September 25. ...

FYI -An update:

Should You Buy a $999 Vizio 4K TV?
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - September 25, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/vi ··· 2414.htm
quote:
Vizio this week began taking orders on five relatively inexpensive 4K TVs, including a 50-inch model for just $999. ... Many readers have asked me if they should buy one of the new Vizio sets. While the price is right, I would recommend waiting for two reasons:

1. The TVs have not been tested for quality.
Journalists this week got a chance to eyeball the sets at a New York art gallery party and the initial reviews ranged from impressed to wow.

But gazing at sets hanging on a gallery wall in pristine conditions is not the same as seeing how they do when put through a series of tests from a display/calibration expert. In the coming weeks, or days, experts from publications such as CNET.com, Consumer Reports and others will give the sets a first-hand test spin.
:
So let's see what the test reviewers find. Do they like how 4K looks on a Vizio 4K TV? And, more important, do they like how HD video looks on a Vizio 4K TV? There's no guarantee that HD video will upscale well, as our story here demonstrates.

2. The 50--inch 4K TV may not be a good deal.
Sure, at $999, the Vizio 50-inch model looks like a winner. But display experts have found that watching a 4K TV on a screen smaller than 60 inches may not look much different than watching a similarly-sized HDTV. The 4K TV offers four times the resolution (pixels) than a 1080p HDTV but the naked eyeball will have trouble detecting the difference in the two sets unless it's a large screen and/or you are sitting very close to the screen, perhaps as close as three feet. ... Again, let's wait on those display tests. ...
telcodad

telcodad

MVM

I've been trying to understand why some manufacturers feel the need to produce some of their 4K U-HDTV sets with curved screens, but it appears it's being seen more and more now as just a gimmick, without any clear advantages:

The Curved-Screen TV: The Next 3D TV?
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - October 2, 2014
»tvpredictions.com/curve1 ··· 0214.htm
quote:
... But that brings up another problem with the curved TV. What exactly are the attributes?

Display experts have been asking that question ever since the sets began appearing at trade shows a few years ago. While the curved-screen arguably adds a certain panache to a living room decor, it's hard to discern any significant picture benefits to having the set tilt slightly inward at its sides.

The TV makers say the curved-screen does a few things that the traditional flat-screen set does not.

One, they maintain the curve creates a wider viewing angle so people sitting in different areas of the room will basically see the same picture. "Not a bad seat in the house," says Sony.

Two, the curved-screen is supposed to create the effect of immersion, meaning your eyes will gravitate towards the middle of the screen and you will be more likely to 'lose yourself' in the movie or show.

But CNET's David Katzmaier, a noted display critic, writes that "the impact of the curve on the picture is subtle and it provides no increase in immersion." He did say that the curve can help reduce picture reflections, but overall, his judgment is that the curve is "cosmetic."

Slashdot.com reports that Paul O'Donovan, Gartner's principal analyst for consumer electronics research, says that "curved-screens are a gimmick" while Paul Gray, director of European research for DisplaySearch says the science does not support the TV makers' claims on immersion.

Consumer Reports and David Pogue, the former New York Times columnist who now pens for Yahoo, agrees, saying most viewers won't be able to tell any difference in the picture. ...
telcodad

telcodad

MVM

said by telcodad:

Should You Buy a $999 Vizio 4K TV?
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - September 25, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/vi ··· 2414.htm

FYI - On the Zatz Not Funny! blog site today:

Amazon Instant 4K Hits Vizio P Series
By Dave Zatz, Zatz Not Funny! - October 7, 2014
»zatznotfunny.com/2014-10 ··· -series/
quote:
As expected, Amazon Instant streaming has gone 4K this month… via a number of award-winning blockbusters such as Vendetta and Time Runners. ... 4K video is designated via a small UHD banner in the upper left of the box. Although ... the label is inconsistently applied and I’m not certain if the content is natively 4K or if the video has been upscaled from 1080.

Irrespective, the future is here… should any of these titles appeal and our bandwidth caps be sufficiently generous.
telcodad

telcodad

MVM

From:
Black Friday: Best Deals May Be 60-Inch [1080p] TVs
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - October 7, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/de ··· 0714.htm
quote:
Black Friday is still seven weeks away but the predictions are already coming in on what CE retailers will offer on the big holiday shopping day.

DealNews.com, a web site the has tracked holiday shopping discounts for years, says some 32-inch HDTVs will be available for as low as $99 on Black Friday while some 70-inch sets will go for $949.

But the site adds that the best deals may come in the 60-inch LCD category
:
The site has some predictions for the new 4K TVs, too.

"This November, you can expect to see its fleet of cheap 4K TVs everywhere, perhaps even dropping as low as standard 55" LCD prices" the site says. "It's also likely that a few name-brand 4K sets will see discounts, but keep in mind that 4K content is still scarce and many budget 4K TVs still use an outdated HDMI spec."
telcodad

telcodad

MVM

Unlike the previous TV advancements of adding color or moving to a high-definition widescreen (16:9) format, to the average viewer/consumer, do the current 4K U-HDTV sets provide enough of an improvement to have them flock to the stores and pick one of those up?

The addition of multi-channel audio (MTS) to the NTSC broadcast standard in the mid-1980s wasn't much of a sales driver, it was just a nice feature to be included when people needed to purchase a new set.

4K TV: The Search For a Better Picture
By Phillip Swann, TVPredictions.com - October 9, 2014
»www.tvpredictions.com/tv ··· 0914.htm
quote:
Over the years, I have sharply criticized TV makers for pushing sets that offer everything from 3D visuals to motion control to oddly-phrased features that could only be appreciated by white-coated technicians working in the bowels of MIT.

Consumers really want just one thing from their TVs -- a better picture. It's why Color TV became a hit in the 1960s. It's why people dropped their rabbit-eared TV antennas in the 1980s and signed up for cable TV. And it's why High-Definition TV has now become a staple in American homes. Each advancement provided an improvement -- and sometimes a dramatic one -- on the picture we watched so religiously in our living rooms.

The lesson should be clear now. TV makers won't improve sales unless they can deliver something that will once again improve the picture. ...