China Will Dominate 4k and 8k TV Market (1 Viewer)

[Scott Hart]

Scott Hart

China Will Dominate 4k and 8k TV Market

China will continue to dominate the 4K TV market, with 42% of all TVs in 2017 expected to ship with 4K panels, according to a white paper released by IHS Markit, ahead of Cable Congress 2017.

In 2016, more than 25 million 4K TVs shipped in China. By 2020, that number is expected to almost double to 44 million, the same as the next two regions (Western Europe and North America) combined. In Western Europe, more than 8 million 4K TVs shipped in 2016, forecast to increase to 19 million in 2020. North American shipments are forecast to more than double, from 11.7 million in 2016 to 25.9 million in 2020.

“China is on a different trajectory to the rest of the world when it comes to 4K TVs,” said Paul Gray, principal analyst, IHS Markit. “It is getting hard to buy a large screen TV in China without 4K. Japanese set makers also aggressively switched to 4K product ranges, especially in their domestic market, but shipments in Japan remain constrained by consumer preferences for screen sizes too small to support 4K.”

“Aggressive competition in the LCD display industry is fueling a pixel race,” Gray said. “Panel makers have added 8K resolutions to their road maps and product plans, a process that will accelerate as new Chinese LCD fabs start production.”

However, the IHS Markit white paper highlights a few challenges for 8K. The high pixel density demands that either a very large screen or short viewing distance is necessary.

China will dominate 8K shipments as its early-adopting consumers are likely to be eager for new features. 65-inch will be the dominant 8K size, driven by affordable pricing in China. While Japan is planning 8K broadcasts from 2020, for most regions 8K video content will remain scarce for the foreseeable future.
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[Dave Moritz]

I am sick and tired of so many things being made in China and the only reasons companies went there in droves is cheap labor. I also doubt the quality coming out of China and honestly really do not trust it but since everyone is making things there what are the options really. Would I like to see some options made here in the US, yes I would but I would be ok with made in Germany, Switzerland and even Japan just to name a few. But one thing I am not willing to do is purchase China brands! For TV's I stick with mostly Sony and Samsung but since LG seems to got there act together on there TV's I will now consider them. For A/V gear I will stick with brands like Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, Pioneer, Rotel and some Sony gear but no Sony receivers. No China brand TV's period!

As far as the pixel race goes and as far as what I am looking to get out of my home theater 4K is the end game and I really do not see a need for anything above 4K resolution for media. Not planing to own a 8K display but not going to say I will never own one but I also do not plan on going 8K for any movies in 8K! At some point they will start selling 8K displays and if the phase out 4K displays I will most likely end up with an 8K display not because I feel I need it but because that is what is available. But for movies I do not see myself buying 8K resolution movies that especially would end up replacing 4K versions. Any titles in 1080p or 4K will be the versions of the movies I will keep and not replace with 8K versions and besides anything taken from 35mm film will not have the resolution for 8K media. Another reason for not upgrading to 8K media is 4K is my end game and the money that constant upgrading consumes is money I want to use to go on some nice trips to Germany for example. And with the average scree sizes most people use here in the US how many people are even going to be able to see the difference on a small screen size when we get to 8K, 16K or even 24K if they are crazy enough to try and say we need 24K video? Then at what point to we get into 3D holographic projection that has no physical display but produces a true 3D image in a open space? At what point do we say enough is enough and how close to real life do we need it before our brains start confusing it with reality? And just like on the audio side how many channels will be enough? I feel currently formats like Atmos and DTS-X are more than enough but sound coming from the floor might be cool. But back to the topic and when 8K arrives which hopefully they will not bulldoze over 4K media while consumers are still deciding to upgrade to 4K. Many people are tired of the constant upgrading and sooner or later it will really be good enough and people will not see it as a must have! If I ever get a 8K display I could see a 80" 8K display in my future but am not in a hurry to get there.

Right now there is not alot of 4K content out there and for streaming services trying to even get 4K content to consumers can be very tricky! There are plenty of people that do not have the bandwidth for 4K video and there are maybe one or two channels on satellite that are 4K. I can not even imagine how much bandwidth 8K would chew up and what kind of super efficient codex would be required to deliver 8K content to a 8K display.

 

[TJPC]

I agree with what you say, but replace 4K with1080p and 8k with 4k.