Consumer electronics manufacturers do love their acronyms - DVD, HD, LED, LCD, OLED, CLED, 3D to name but a few - in fact it’s enough to make the poor consumer think they’re looking at an optician’s eye test chart! This year at CES we were introduced to yet another acronym, with the manufacturers promoting their new 4K displays, but what exactly is 4K?
Well to put it simply, 4K is a new video format that uses an image with a resolution comprised of roughly four thousand vertical lines, hence the acronym 4K. In actual fact the precise resolution of 4K video is 4096 x 2160, which is why it also sometimes referred to as 4K2K, offering over twice the number of vertical lines compared to standard high definition video and effectively creating an image with more than four times the resolution. To put this in perspective, a standard high definition image has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and is capable of delivering an image comprised of just over 2 million pixels. However a 4K image, with has resolution of 4096 x 2160, can deliver an image that is comprised of a whopping 8.8 million pixels.
There have been a number of 4K capable displays released to date, with one of the first being launched by Panasonic Professional back in July 2010. The TH-152UX1 is a native 4K plasma panel with a diagonal screen size measuring an impressive 152” and including an equally impressive price tag of £500,000. Since then, Sony has released their VPL-VW1000ES native 4K projector, which was exclusively demonstrated to AVForums members in late November 2011 and retails for about £18,000. At this year’s CES, LG demonstrated their native 4K display, the 84” LM9600 Ultra Definition TV, which currently doesn’t have any pricing but will be released in the second half of this year. Toshiba are also about to release a native 4K panel, their 55” X3 QFHD (Quad Full High definition) TV, although the UK release date and pricing has yet to be announced. Sharp currently have a native 4K panel in development, which is expected to be released later this year and whilst Samsung also have a native 4K panel, which they refer to as Ultra High Definition, they currently have no plans to release it.
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