Well, they’ve done it again. The 4K LCDs are coming; LCD flat panels that have four times the resolution of HD (high-definition) video. Some manufacturers are naming them 4K panels, while others are calling them Ultra HD (UHD). Imagine four HD panels arranged in a quad — remove the bezels, stitch the pixels together behind the glass, and you’ll get a good idea of just how impressive these panels are. HD (high-definition) video has a pixel resolution of 1920×1080, so we’ll round that off to 2 million pixels (or 2 megapixels). Ultra HD has a pixel resolution of 3840×2160, which rounds out to 8.3 megapixels. Although several manufacturers have produced 4K panels in the past few years, targeting high-end medical and graphics applications, this new wave of 4K devices targets the consumer and pro-sumer markets. Demo models are just starting to reach showrooms in the U.S. Some current 4K panels have four DVI ports, or four HDMI version 1.3 ports. HDMI version 1.4a, released in 2009, supports 4K resolutions (3840×2160) plus audio and 3D — on a single connector. I imagine that most new 4K panels at CES will be equipped with HDMI 1.4 input ports.
—From “Video World” by Paul Berliner, PLSN, Dec. 2012
