Sub-Zero

4K Resolution HDTV Will Cost You $36,000

Show those pixels who's boss with a 4096x2160 resolution.

June 20, 2011

by Justin Rubio

As technophiles, we are hardly ever satisfied with what current generation devices have to offer. 1080p displays may be something that some of us can live with, but not Eizo. The Japanese company has just revealed the DuraVision FDH3601, boasting a 4096x2160 resolution at the rather exorbitant price of roughly $36,000.

The LED backlit 36.4-inch display comes with two DVI-D ports, two DisplayPort inputs, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, and a 2-year (24 hours/day) life cycle. Not necessarily the most impressive specs, but if you have $36k to spend on a television, you may fall into the category of the more frivolous type of spenders.

For now, the DuraVision FDH3601 will remain in Japan and is set for a September release.

http://gear.ign.com/articles/117/1177230p1.html

PerryD

I'm not sure what the extra cost would be over just putting stitching together 4 1080p sets together. Consider a 47" 1080p costs only around $800, a 94" 2160p set should be around $3200. Maybe $400 more for a decent video processor/scaler?

RocShemp

That's all well and good but, beyond some Youtube videos, where's the content to push something like that?

Gerry P.

Pixel density.

brainee

I think I can hold off on this one Plus, there's the issue of how high a resolution do you really need in your home theater set-up. 4K makes sense for digital masters or theatrical projection onto a huge screen (where the audience will be experiencing a huge range of viewing distances). But in your home with a normal viewing distance?

PopcornTreeCt

No, they won't.

E Unit

Gotta love them early adopters who will be paying for it. I'll just wait a few years and pay what I paid for my latest set, a 55" 3D LED for $1300.

T-bone22

Only a grand an inch!

milo bloom

That's what she said!


(I'm so sorry )

Dumb question, but getting back on topic: is there any content that utilize this?

Spottedfeather

36 thousand for something that will last only 2 years ? You have to have a serious lack of brainpower to fall for something like that.

bluetoast

That's two years of continuous usage, so around 17,000 hours of viewing.

Jay G.

Going back to the viewing distance/screen size chart, you'd probably have to sit about 3' away from a 36" screen in order to get the full benefit of the 4K resolution:
http://hd1080i.blogspot.com/2007/01/...0-to-eyes.html
http://carltonbale.com/1080p-does-matter

Which leads me to think that this may be a great screen for film editing from a 4K digital source. Other than that, I don't see to much use for it currently.

Josh Z

1,000:1 contrast? Consider that manufacturers wildly inflate these numbers, that means the screen will probably have about 50:1 contrast.

Fok

If the media (Blu Rays) is only 1080p what benefit would a resolution like this provide?

Groucho

You are all getting ripped off. I know a guy who will sell it to you for $35,500.

lamphorn

Oh hell, get ready for the Kubrick 4K quadruple-dip.

Paul_SD

For the first time ever the other night, I could actually discern the pixels in certain areas of the screen while watching a movie on my front pj. In FPJ set ups, 4K would theoretically be that much closer to being able to removing any trace of barrier between you and the source. That is assuming of course that the scaling on non native 4K material is stellar.
Also, if the light supply is sufficient, I could increase my screen size from 8-9 feet wide to 13-14', substantially increasing the viewing angle.

As for the price- in 2004 Sony released it's first consumer grade 1080p projector...for $40,000. One year later they released the first 1080p @ a $10,000 price point- and a year after that the first sub $5K 1080p.
5 years later you can get a 1080p projector that will mop the floor with all of these for around $3500. Getting truly amazing performance out of the LED light sources may take a little while longer , but like everything electronics/computer related better and cheaper is just a matter of time.

JimRochester

Like Paul said, the first plasmas were $15000 plus for small sets. The price will drop. the big question is whether there will be enough high quality content in order to make it worthwhile.

E Unit

I guess the blu ray format could hold the data since I believe they are devloping discs with up to 5 layers, so at 25 gigs of space per layer they could hold well over 100 gigs of space. I just don't think any movie house will want to do yet again another HD remaster. And I don't see any cable company broadcasting at that resolution, except for maybe HDNet.

Jay G.

The modification of additional layers would require essentially a new disc standard, as would the use of higher resolutions. They're having enough trouble getting 3D Blu-ray off the ground as it is, and that's at least backwards compatible.

Many of the newer transfers are already being done in 4K for "archival" purposes and possible theatrical screenings. Movie theaters are where we'll see 4K video used for the near future.

Similar to Blu-ray, 4K transmission would fall outside the boundaries of current broadcast standards like ATSC, QAM, and I think even CableCard. I'd personally rather cable companies up the bandwidth of their current HD channels instead, as macroblocking and other compression artifacts are more of an issue than resolution.

Iron_Giant

I want one...

yoshimi

If I could afford one I would just go ahead and get two. One for the living room and one for the bathroom just to be a show off.

GenPion

Okay, I guess I could take one of these. Where do I whip out my checkbook and can the seller take several years to delay cashing the check? Thanks!

E Unit

FWIW, I remember reading an article about it a long time ago that any changes to the disc itself would requier no more than a firmware update and not to have a new standard. I tried to look but couldn't find the article though. Wiki had this tidbit. And of course, it says "sometime in 2010".

On January 1, 2010, Sony, in association with Panasonic, announced plans to increase the storage capacity on their Blu-ray Discs from 25GB to 33.4 GB via a technology called i-MLSE (Maximum likelihood Sequence Estimation). The higher-capacity discs, according to Sony, will be readable on current Blu-ray Disc players with a firmware upgrade. No date has been set to include the increased space, but according to Blu-ray.com "it will likely happen sometime later this year."[151]

On July 20, 2010, the research team of Sony and Japanese Tohoku University announced the joint development of a blue-violet laser,[152] which will help in creating Blu-ray discs with a capacity of 1 TB (dual layer).

Eric F

Be great for PC gaming.