4K TVs at £22k land on UK shelves

Often referred to as Quad HD, the next generation of TVs is chomping at the bit to arrive in our stores and living rooms. While Apple is content with packing more and more pixels into a smaller and smaller area, the TV companies seem more keen on delivering a regular-HD type experience, but to people who are sitting further and further back. KitGuru picks up an order of Optrex from Boots and goes to investigate.

Once upon a time (1970s), TV was made with cameras that cost much more than your average house and it was watched on TV sets which were the most expensive thing in most homes. In the 21st century, that's all changed. You can now shoot decent quality, full HD (1080p) video on a camera that costs less than £100 and watch it back on several devices dotted around your life.

TV manufacturers hate this ongoing erosion of their revenues/profits. They LIVE for the moment when a new technology grips the market and money flows like water from an English summer sky.

But then there's more pain, for in order to get to the Nirvana that is ‘selling large volumes of £1,500 TVs with major margins', they first need to develop the technology – and that means pain.

LG is the latest of the TFT giants to bite down hard and go for it with a new device, with the launch of its Ultra HD Cinema 3D Smart TV which boasts an 84-inch screen and 3840 x 2160 resolution.

This £14,000 TV will go on sale in the UK for £22,500 this week (sorry, LG has a special ‘screw the Brits' calculator which mis-translated the $22k price from the US to the UK).

At the time of writing, we can only find the ‘regular' LG cinema screens at £2,000 with a 55-inch 1080p screen, but we're assured by sources close to LG that it will be here soon. Our guess is that the first ones will arrive with Harrod's, in time for Xmas. Lucky Goldstar for those who get there early.

KitGuru says: Whether this new technology takes off will depend a lot of the content. While major-sized living rooms might be all the rage in the USA, Brits tend to huddle around the TV and something measuring in the 50-inch range will already take up more living rooms. To invest in a Quad HD screen, there needs to be content available at 4k resolutions. Remember when Blu-Ray launched and ‘Apple Trailers' in Quicktime were the only high quality material?

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