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Forget 3D. Your dream TV should be 4K - Yahoo! News
The 3D-TV fad seems to be fading -- and giant, cinema-style 4K sets are the newest cutting-edge tech marvels destined for your living room.
A truckload of new TVs, with screen resolutions four times greater than so-called full HD screens, are being unveiled at this week's IFA technology show in Berlin. The screens -- referred to as 4K or ultradefinition -- were among dozens of new gadgets on display for the 250,000 people who descended on Berlin's conference halls.
The show features gear ranging from big-screen smartphones to self-stirring cookware, but the big buzz this year is about 4K. The first sets should be available for preorder this fall. There were still plenty of 3D screens, including a 103-inch Panasonic set that doesn't require viewers to wear 3D glasses. The excitement over them, however, seems to be dying down.
The new 4K sets from LG, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, and Toshiba show a level of detail you'd expect on a movie screen; their resolution equals that of professional cinema cameras, like the Red One. The detail is stunning, and viewers can comfortably sit close to the screen. Even from only a few inches away, it's impossible to discern a single pixel.
Sony claims that chips in its flagship set can scour normal Blu-ray films and display extra details, producing pictures far sharper than what normal sets can offer. In demonstrations, films looked stunning on the new screens.
Not to be outdone, Panasonic teamed up with Japanese broadcaster NHK to create an 8K set -- with resolution four times greater than its rivals' and 16 times greater than Full HD.
There is just one problem, of course: storage. There is no media suitable for storing 4K films just yet. Normal Blu-ray discs aren't designed for the new format. In Berlin, most tech companies demonstrated their sets with slow-motion landscape videos.
A truckload of new TVs, with screen resolutions four times greater than so-called full HD screens, are being unveiled at this week's IFA technology show in Berlin. The screens -- referred to as 4K or ultradefinition -- were among dozens of new gadgets on display for the 250,000 people who descended on Berlin's conference halls.
The show features gear ranging from big-screen smartphones to self-stirring cookware, but the big buzz this year is about 4K. The first sets should be available for preorder this fall. There were still plenty of 3D screens, including a 103-inch Panasonic set that doesn't require viewers to wear 3D glasses. The excitement over them, however, seems to be dying down.
The new 4K sets from LG, Panasonic, Sony, Samsung, and Toshiba show a level of detail you'd expect on a movie screen; their resolution equals that of professional cinema cameras, like the Red One. The detail is stunning, and viewers can comfortably sit close to the screen. Even from only a few inches away, it's impossible to discern a single pixel.
Sony claims that chips in its flagship set can scour normal Blu-ray films and display extra details, producing pictures far sharper than what normal sets can offer. In demonstrations, films looked stunning on the new screens.
Not to be outdone, Panasonic teamed up with Japanese broadcaster NHK to create an 8K set -- with resolution four times greater than its rivals' and 16 times greater than Full HD.
There is just one problem, of course: storage. There is no media suitable for storing 4K films just yet. Normal Blu-ray discs aren't designed for the new format. In Berlin, most tech companies demonstrated their sets with slow-motion landscape videos.
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