While 4K UHD TV's have been growing at an exponential pace, content producers and broadcasters have yet to kick production into high gear. 4K hardware is so far ahead of 4K broadcasts that one wonders if the gap will ever be bridged.
Today most 4K hardware owners are mainly watching upscaled HD content. That's essentially the same thing as watching upscaled SD content on your HDTV.
When HDTV came out, the most content was from broadcasters and then from optical disc and then from streaming. The majority of 4K content today is from streaming providers like Netflix, Ultraflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video. While it is debatable if 4K streaming with the high compression rates is really a match for optical disc 4K (if and when it ever ships) the biggest problem is that a large contingent of 4K hardware owners simply do not have enough bandwidth on their internet connections. To adequately stream 4K content the recommend bandwidth is 20Mbps with only 19% of US households have even 15Mbps connections (Source Akamai).
If you paid attention to CES announcements new 4K TV's abounded while 4K content announcements were scarce. There was about six new 4K TV's announced from every major manufacturer.
It's a sad state of affairs to see content lagging so far behind the amount of hardware out there. It was the inverse situation with HDTV. It's a primary reason I am still holding off on purchasing a 4K TV. I might as well wait for some interesting content to emerge and get a better 4K TV at a cheaper price when it does.
How many own a 4K TV today?
Today most 4K hardware owners are mainly watching upscaled HD content. That's essentially the same thing as watching upscaled SD content on your HDTV.
When HDTV came out, the most content was from broadcasters and then from optical disc and then from streaming. The majority of 4K content today is from streaming providers like Netflix, Ultraflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video. While it is debatable if 4K streaming with the high compression rates is really a match for optical disc 4K (if and when it ever ships) the biggest problem is that a large contingent of 4K hardware owners simply do not have enough bandwidth on their internet connections. To adequately stream 4K content the recommend bandwidth is 20Mbps with only 19% of US households have even 15Mbps connections (Source Akamai).
If you paid attention to CES announcements new 4K TV's abounded while 4K content announcements were scarce. There was about six new 4K TV's announced from every major manufacturer.
It's a sad state of affairs to see content lagging so far behind the amount of hardware out there. It was the inverse situation with HDTV. It's a primary reason I am still holding off on purchasing a 4K TV. I might as well wait for some interesting content to emerge and get a better 4K TV at a cheaper price when it does.
How many own a 4K TV today?