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Think twice before buying a 4K TV this year

Published Mar 19th, 2015 9:00PM EDT
Should I Buy A 4K TV

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4K TV prices have been falling lately but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the right time to buy one. DSLReports‘ Karl Bode makes a good case that you should probably hold off buying a 4K TV this year unless you do a good amount of research on it beforehand. 

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The biggest issue, Bode writes, is that 4K TV standards are still “a mess,” which means any gear you buy for your 4K TV right now “may not be 4K TV-capable tomorrow.”

“For example, many 4KTV vendors are shipping sets that claim to have fully HDMI 2.0 compliant ports, yet the actual ports are only ‘HDMI lite’ — only capable of 10 Gbps of the full 18 Gbps the standard is supposed to deliver,” he explains. “As such these sets are being advertised as absolute cutting edge and future proof, but they can’t actually deliver full full 4k 4:4:4 chroma at 60p. Worse, many of the biggest manufacturers can’t be bothered to advertise this fact.”

There also just isn’t that much content that’s optimized for 4K TVs right now, although this can be a chicken-or-egg thing where studios don’t want to invest in filming in 4K if they think that no one owns a 4K TV.

All the same, Bode’s argument about holding off on getting a 4K TV is sound. Check it out by clicking here.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.