It’s getting harder to mock the electronics industry’s sales pitch for ultrahigh-definition (UHD) TV as just another exercise in TV shaming.
At this year’s CES, two of the biggest obstacles to making the leap to UHD (also known as 4K for its almost 4,000 pixels of horizontal resolution) now look smaller than they did when the format debuted at 2012’s CES.
But at the same time, potential upgraders also got another reason to wait until next year — or maybe even longer. Progress in the gadget business is like that sometimes.
HDR, by multiple monikers
The major flaw with UHD has always been the awkward reality that on many “smaller” screens — meaning below 50 inches — you just won’t see those extra pixels from your couch. And while the industry would gladly sell all of us 60- or 70-inch screens, displays of those dimensions won’t fit in many living rooms or budgets.
Last year, the industry began uniting around an addition to the UHD specification that you actually can see on smaller sets: HDR, short for high dynamic range. This expands the range of colors that a screen can display, getting much closer to the limits of human vision.
(Don’t confuse HDR with OLED, the screen technology championed by LG that also touts brighter colors; both LCD and OLED can handle HDR content.)
HDR is an obvious upgrade even from typical couch distance. And now that companies like Samsung are moving to add it to their entire product line, instead of reserving it for higher-end models, it should start getting more affordable.
By Rob Pegoraro.
Full story at Yahoo News.
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