There was a good article in Telecompetitor about 4K television. We came up with some quick thoughts about how quickly (or not) this "UHDTV" will come to market:
- Much of the talk with 4K has been around sports and movies, and there will need to be some specific (and expensive) production equipment that has to be installed. Although several TV manufacturers are releasing 4K-capable TV sets, ESPN for example won’t be online with its facilities until 2014.
- Gaming may be one area where 4K resolution has its biggest in-home application.
- There are movie theaters that are starting to install 4K screens and projectors.
- The bottom line is these things will take time. Take, for example, the move by movie theaters to install digital cinema, the growth of HDTV, the slow growth of 3D TV, etc.
- For 4K to become commonplace? At least five years.
- For cable or satellite operators, bandwidth management is going to be critical. A compressed 4K file is going to require 17-24 Mbps, about four times what today’s HD signal requires.
