[jdandy]

My take of the 4K push by television manufacturers has nothing to do with picture quality. The TV manufacturing industry has saturated the market with 720p and 1080p sets. Sales have peaked. There was a tremendous viewing advantage when moving from a typical standard definition cathode ray tube television to a 16x9 high definition wide screen television. Everyone immediately embraced the upgraded resolution and widescreen presentation.

The crux of the manufacturing issue now is, how do they get all of the present widescreen owners to continue to support their manufacturing facilities. Their idea now is to make everyone with a 1080p set believe it is obsolete, that 1080p is yesterday's news and 4k is the only way to go for a premium viewing experience. The real problem for manufacturers is most 1080p owners are completely satisfied with their present picture quality. The advance in picture quality from standard resolution to high definition was a quantum leap compared to the difference between 1080p and 4k. The visual incentive to scrap a perfectly good 1080p widescreen for a new 4k set is low.

Content is another issue. Sure, there may be some 4K content available on disc. Unfortunately the current Blu-ray players are incompatible so there is another purchase requirement in order to take advantage of the 4k resolution. Add to that the unlikely chance that broadcast television stations, having recently been forced to upgrade to new digital cameras, editing equipment, and transmitters, are not interested in scraping their 1080p equipment for 4k. The satellite broadcasters are unlikely to provide 4k content for the same reasons, not to mention the additional bandwidth required for uploading and downloading 4k content to their satellites which may or may not be able to process 4K, plus replacing all subscriber satellite receivers across the country. The possibility of 4k content from broadcasters appears non-existent.

If, by some magical mystery, the television manufacturers could suddenly have 4k sets in everyone's home by the end of this year with all content providers onboard and broadcasting, guess what? In March of next year these same manufacturers would be rolling out and demonstrating their all new 10k televisions. It is the nature of manufacturing to drive consumers to upgrade. They need the consumer demand to exist. Whether or not the general public continues to follow their lead is anyone's guess. I'll be staying with my 1080p televisions. I am satisfied with my picture quality. I have no reason to replace 1080p widescreen televisions that are serving me quite well.