3D TV was a bust, but the UHD Alliance promises 4K will be different

[Mr. Analog]

From what I understand the word coming out of CES this year is that television innovation technology is mostly considered dead after the failure of 3D as a marketable tech and the next big thing is supposed to be Ultra Hi-Def (aka 4k HD)

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/05/uhd-alliance-4k-video-television-sony-samsung-warner-brothers-disney

Is this going to be the decade+ long HD switchover again? Thoughts?

[Thorin]

Yeah, it's going to take a decade or more for people to switch over.  Why buy a new TV when the old one still works?  Especially when the only real change is the new one has higher definition, but there's no content at that higher definition, so it'll look the same as on the old TV?  Hell, get the absolute basic cable package, and almost all the channels are still low definition.  So then the higher definition is only helpful with streamed services (but do you know how much bandwidth it'll take to stream UHD Netflix?) or disc-based (but there isn't anything higher than Blu-Ray's 1080p yet, is there?) or media-center-based (but even there, how many higher-than-1080p sources have you downloaded?).

The big benefit of UHD (aka 4K) over FullHD (aka 1080p) is that there's more detail, which only matters when you sit close enough to see individual pixels.  Somewhere else on this forum, Lazy posted a chart that showed how close you have to sit to notice the pixels at different screen sizes.  Well, there are only going to be a select few videophiles who will blow scads of money to upgrade their pixel size before their current TV actually bites the dust.

Me, I plan on using my 720p plasma for another ten years, and then we'll see what the cheapo alternative is at that point.

[Lazybones]

I have a 50" 1080P LED set and a 51" 720P Plasma..

Sitting at the couch AKA normal viewing distance I would challenge almost anyone to tell me the difference in resolution.. In fact more people will probably favor the more consistent illumination of the Plasma.

[Melbosa]

Most home entertainment electronics won't push a 4K TV anywhere near its potential, and maybe even to the determent of the viewer.  We have brought in 4K monitors here at work and unless the computer has a high end video card in it, we get complaints of nausea or motion sickness.  Seems the 4K Monitors at 60-120Mhz cause a majority of people to feel sick after 20+ mins of use.  We've also tested these on high end Quadro and nVidia 870s and they seem fine on them, but I don't think the average person's cable box is going to have that degree of video power for a 4K TV... but then again maybe 4K TVs won't require the same as a 4K Monitor.  Distance is also a factor in the difference between the TV and Monitors as well I would guess.

I also think until broadcast standards are forced into a 4K resolution digital standard that people will look to replace their 3-4 year old TV.  My DLP is on its 9th year, and only had one ballast replacement. I think I'll be staying with it for a while yet.

[Tom]

I'm only slightly interested in 4K. If only because I use my TV more like a monitor than a TV. Youtube is on it a lot, and there is /some/ >1080p content on youtube. But really, my TV is more than good enough for the time being.