Your Next TV Purchase Will Almost Certainly Be a 4K TV

June 2, 2016, 12:29 PM EDT

Consumers have bought only six million ultra high definition TV sets since the the so-called 4K resolution screens hit the U.S. market a few years back, but interest is rising rapidly and exponential growth is on the way.

Awareness of 4K sets has grown above 50% of U.S. adults this year, while interest in using a 4K TV set of one’s own hit 33%, according to a survey by the NPD Group.

The heightened interest in 4K, which displays about four times as many pixels than now common high-definition television displays, comes as prices have fallen and retailers are finally selling movies and TV shows in 4K-compatible quality. Best Buy  BBY 0.92% is selling 4K sets for under $700, for example, and a fully 4K-compatible Blu-Ray player for $400. New movies coming out in 4K Blu-Ray editions like “Deadpool” and “Batman vs Superman” are priced at $30.

“We’re seeing growing awareness, interest, and sales,” says John Buffone, an industry analyst at NPD. “All of the metrics around 4K TV are pointing towards growth.”

The increasing amount of 4K streaming content may be even more important than the Blu-Ray discs. Netflix NFLX -0.94% and Amazon AMZN -0.56% are sending customers their original shows and some other features in 4K, while disk sales have been falling, dropping 12% last year. Live television is farther behind, though AT&T’s DirecTV unit started offering a small slate of major league baseball games in 4K this year as well.

Until now, 4K adoption has been quite slow. In the United States, fewer than one in 20 households had a 4K TV last year, but market tracker IHS projects penetration will rise quickly, hitting 10% this year and 33% by 2019. Worldwide last year, shipments of 4K-capable sets surged 173%, but that still represented only 32 million out of 224 million total sets, according to IHS.

http://fortune.com/2016/06/02/your-next-tv-purchase-will-almost-certainly-be-a-4k-tv/

The issue is that it does make it a tougher sell for me cause now I have to think about whether or not I should save that $100 towards a 4k Bluray player. My parents do still rent/buy bluray discs and they do watch the TV more so than I do so...

But 4K streaming is available from the getgo :| Or am I missing something?

Nice article, thanks for sharing, was a good laugh.

4k streaming is build into my 4k television, no need for an xbox or a ps4 for that :P

shit, i forget.  are reaction threads bannable these days.  i feel like it is. 

i appoligize for my offensives.  lock the thread and i'll see the rest of you all in a week.

It upsets me. I legitimately am hurt, because now this means i have to get an XB1S for 4K discs.

But who knows, maybe I'll be fine with just streaming. Will it do Vudu 4K?

I wouldn't worry about it, the other thread got locked thanks to the Xbox community. 

I own a sony 4k television 65" and I have tried 4k streaming, it looks genuinely good but a friend has a 4k player, he brought that over with some 4k blue rays and I can tell you.... its an experience wel worth paying extra for, it looks amazing!