The difference is that 1080p TV's had the benefit of a masive insdustry wide push for HD content.   We had a new movie medium, the switcch from analog to digital TV, the most from CRT to LCD based TV's, the jump to HD consoles...and it all cost several hundre billion dollars to pull off.   And even then we re still mostly a 1080i or 720p content industry.

4k does not have those factors coming along with it.  So the cost of the TV's will not come down as quickly. 

4K also requirees a massive TV just to even see a difference above 1080p.   Anything below 60" will have no real discernable increase in picture quality over 1080 to the average viewer.   And most TV's purchased over the last several years have been in the 40" range.   

When you stop and think about it all in business terms, 4K will not make much sense for a very long time.

No, actually it is impossible...

Comparing the adoption rate of LEDs to 4k TVs is highly erroneous.  You're comparing advancements to LCD panels based on the same existing resolution/infrastructure of content to an entire new era of content required to take advantage of these new sets.  

People don't seem to realize that HDTVs first hit the market back in 1998.  Over 10 years later in 2009, the adoption rate was still just under 50%.  The industry just spent hundreds of millions billions to adapt the entire infrastructure to 1080p resolution (blu-ray, cable/satellite, etc) as the current standard.  Anyone thinking that 4k TV - specifically 4k content, which is what is going to move them -  will somehow become the mainstream standard in 3-4 years is kidding themselves, regardless of what Sony does with the PS4.

While SD to HD was very noticeable, I am uncertain people will see value in 4K displays, especially if they cost a great deal more.

4K will mostly be beneficial to pc users. Apple is already up to 2880x1800. 1080p is really rather low for big pc monitors. 1600x1200 was already common in 1997 on 17" monitors.

Tv's are getting bigger all the time. 6 years ago the high end model was 42", I had to place a special order to get a 52" tv. Now there are cheaper 70" LED models, and 60" models for less then half the price.

It all depends how close you sit. Sit at the recommended THX range and you will easily be able to see the difference.


But you're right about the content. Apart from pc games and 1 movie (Timescapes) there isn't anything to watch on 4K screens except your holiday pictures. The development of HVD has slowed down, 2016 is rumoured to be a launch date.

As for HDTV, it has only gotten worse over the years. The infrastructure desperately needs an upgrade. Most 'HD' channels nowadays are 7-8 mbps 720p or 1080i mpeg2 streams. Analog broadcasts looked better during high speed action scenes. (Let's say nothing of the crappy digital SD version we get now after analog has been nixed, some SD channels are worse then 360p you tube videos)

There is one little benefit to 4K screens, 720p and 1080p content can both be shown on it at native res. No more upscaling softness from 720p to 1080p.

In consumer terms, I'm ready to upgrade my projector and play some pc goodness in 4K. But I guess I'll still be waiting a while until 4K projectors become affordable. Hurry up with those fibre optic cables already. (Actually I do have fibre optic cable, to read my frigging electricity consumption remotely, tracked and billed by the hour. Yay.....)

K4 is many years away, 90 percent of ps3 games are not even in1080 .
Why show 4k.

PS4 $5999 confirmed lol.

lol. 

well while i'm sure it looks great, i won't have a 4k tv for quite a long time.  my tv just broke so i'll be buying a new (1080p) tv this year meaning 4k is at least 5 years away.  beside, i don't think i really need 4k for a mere 40 inch tv.

Ummm just so you know, gran turismo 4 was one of the games the ps2 could render in 1080i  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_turismo_4 so the jump from 4-5 wasn't really what you said at all, also the time between those two games was absolutely over the top considering when GT5 was due to come out on the ps3. If sony sacrifices anything to add 4k resolution to the ps3 games just to try and sell their new line of Screens it will be only a bad thing for the majority of gamers who might be lucky enough to have a 40-50inch 1080 screen. The average gamer probably has far less a size screen than this in their gaming area so they are just going to be shelling out more for a console capable of rendering something you could watch in a cinema and waiting months longer for the completion of games to be rendered at this size.

You know the costs and time it takes to create the games we have now which are for the most part far less than 1080, now imagine literally multiplying those costs and time by 4 and expecting to still turn a profit on any games.

Also as for the rapid growth of HDTVs which is now at around only at around 50% of people with Tvs sure it just took 32years for that to happen, it flew by :D http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_sub-Nyquist_sampling_encoding  sure it was only 1035i but it was started in 1979

1080i alternates 540 lines of resolution. The horizontal resolution from gt4 is upscaled from 640 pixels. (simply repeat each pixel 3 times) Each frame renders one half of the 640x1080 image. It's 640x540 internal per frame in 1080i, as opposed to 640x480 normally.

As for costs, it doesn't cost anything extra to increase the resolution. It's a good way to reduce aliasing. Dark souls can run at 3840x2160 on pc, downscaled to 1440p or 1080p to fit current monitors, after just a little bit of work from an enthusiast.
I don't expect any AAA games to run at 4K though, we'll be lucky if we get 1080p next gen. However a few might as maybe some arcade games and a time trial mode in GT5 might support it. PD has always been pushing the resolution, why stop now. (You can take 3840x2160 pics in GT5 already)

It's a lot smaller step now to go from a 1080p lcd screen to a 4K lcd screen then it was to go from a CRT tube to 852x480 plasma (1997) to 1080p lcd screens (2005). 1080i CRT tv's were not practical. I still have a 160 pound 32" HD ready monster sitting in the basement.

the problem with anything higher is that most TV doesn't even use 1080p. So a 4k TV would have a limited amount of things that would actually look better on it.


On PC you can already play some games in 4k... beings 4k is the resolution from horizontal pixels. Anything that allows custom resolutions you can put to play it across multiple monitors. And there have been monitors at 2560×1600. That have been around for a while that is fairly common.