Ultra-HD Gets Lot Of Hype At CES
Manufacturers do their best to fuel excitement over 4K TVs at International CES — with decidedly mixed results.
Only 13% of second screen users say content synched with TV makes the experience more enjoyable, according to survey from CEA and NATPE.
In his appearance at the CES yesterday, new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said: “I think there has never been a more risk-free opportunity for an incumbent service provider to morph into the new digital reality than what the spectrum incentive auction offers. I hope broadcasters begin to see that.”
For all the hype around second screen, streaming video and online TV at the Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas this week, TV is still king, according to agency executives at a TV of Tomorrow panel hosted by AOL and Omnicom.
Your Next TV: Will It Be Ultra HD?
It’s the first TV format to be driven by the Internet video-streaming phenomenon, and at the International CES gadget show this week, major streaming players Netflix and Amazon said they’ll offer movies and TV shows in the format, and Sharp introduced a relatively inexpensive TV with near-Ultra HD quality.
New Internet-based entertainment services, including a streaming game service and a cloud-based TV service, highlighted Sony’s Tuesday morning keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show.
Exclusives
There’s a battle being waged for that much-maligned piece of furniture we all end up in front of sooner or later. Call it the Idiot Box, the Boob Tube or whatever you want — the majority of media consumption still happens in front of the television, and whether it’s gaming, movie watching, Netflix or just listening to the stereo, tech giants are fighting tooth and nail for a seat on your couch. Here’s what they’re bringing to the party.
Sony Touts Its Netflix Partnership
Netflix exec Reed Hastings says 4K streaming is “very practical with HEVC compression.”
Under its partnership with Comcast Corp., the country’s largest cable company, Samsung TVs would get 4K content through an app running on the Internet-connected TV, bypassing Comcast’s set-top boxes.
Its new Quattron+ technology doubles the vertical resolution of a high-definition set by chopping the existing pixels in half. Meanwhile, it uses a mathematical formula to double the horizontal resolution for everything but certain parts of an image. According to Sharp, that gives its Quattron+ televisions 16 million subpixels, versus 8 million for its Quattron line and 6 million for HD. It’s a middle ground before stepping up to a 4K TV, also known as “ultra HD,” which has 24 million subpixels.
While questions still swirl around Ultra HD television, the chief economist for the Consumer Electronics Assn. expects many answers to arrive during this week’s 2014 Consumer Electronics Show. In his annual presentation on CES trends to watch, Shawn G. DuBravac, chief economist and director of research for the CEA, said he expects at least 75 announcements related to UHD this week, and perhaps as many as 150.
