MOMMY, Where Does 4K Content Come From? Ultra HD Streaming Explained

It's official: Ultra HD content will be soon be streamed from sites like Netflix and Amazon. This answers the question: Where's the content? But at the same time, it raises even more questions. Here' everything we know about Ultra HD streaming so far.

You couldn't take six steps at CES 2014 without running into something that had to do with Ultra HD 4K technology. Ultra HD, which offers four times the resolution of 1080p HD, is the future of television, and manufacturers of everything from televisions to Wi-Fi routers wanted to show off support for the new standard. But for consumers, many questions remain. Last year, one of the big questions was: Where's the content? This year, the industry answered: It is coming. And, for the most part, it will be streamed.

But an answer like that pries open a whole new can of worms. Who will stream it? How much bandwidth will it require? Will it be compressed? What will compression do to the picture quality? These are all good questions, and after putting them to execs from the industry's biggest players at CES, we know the answers.

Which companies will stream Ultra HD 4K content?

Netflix, Amazon, M-GO and YouTube are the four biggest streaming platforms with plans to stream Ultra HD 4K content this year. Expect a slow start from Netflix, as it is banking on a handful of nature documentaries and the second season of its original series, House of Cards, to get things started. Things look a little more promising with Amazon – at least at the start – as it has announced partnerships with Lion's Gate, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Discovery. M-GO is backed by Technicolor and Dreamworks Animation, so we can likely expect plenty of 4K animated features there. As for YouTube, it appears to be partnered with Sony, though it is unclear how Sony will reconcile any content it distributes through YouTube with its own Video Unlimited service, which is designed specifically for Sony TV owners.

What kind of TV will I need?

Broadly speaking, you'll need a 2014 Ultra HD television. The Ultra HD TVs that were released in 2013 (which are still being sold today) will not support the apps or the decoding chips necessary for viewing streaming Ultra HD out of the box. It is possible that manufacturers will have a fix in place for early adopters. Samsung, for instance, may offer an upgraded 'One Connect' breakout box to those customers who purchased a first-generation Ultra HD set.


LG's 77-inch 4K OLED TV

But as we dig a little deeper, things get a little more complicated. Each of the streaming services mentioned above are partnered with specific TV manufacturers, sometimes exclusively, sometimes not. M-Go, for instance, appears to be partnered exclusively with Samsung, while Netflix tends to be spread out a little more with Vizio, LG, Sony and Samsung on board. As for Amazon, its partnership appears to be restricted to Samsung right now, though we can't image that relationship remaining monogamous for long. Support for YouTube's Ultra HD content appears to be more widespread. The company showed off Ultra HD streams at LG, Panasonic and Sony's booths at CES 2014, and Samsung, Toshiba and Sharp have all been named as hardware partners as well.

What kind of Internet connection will I need?

Netflix and M-GO have both stated that their Ultra HD streams will require no more than a 15 Mbps connection. Amazon has been less specific, though in a forum at CES it was indicated the company's services would not require more than 20 Mbps. YouTube is different, though, because it will be using its own codec, called VP9. Though we do know that VP9 will be royalty-free (and, therefore, open for anyone to use), we're not certain what kind of bandwidth requirements it might impose. Likely, it won't exceed that of  the H.265 (HEVC) codec that Netflix and M-GO appear to be using.

Unfortunately, a speedy Internet connection is no guarantee of successful Ultra HD streaming. Much depends on the capability of a service's servers, as well as the capabilities and actions of a given Internet Service Provider (ISP).

Currently, Netflix customers are struggling to get reliable 1080p and even 720p HD streams, especially during peak hours. Our own rudimentary test of Netflix streaming indicates the issue likely resides with Netflix's servers. However, it has been noted in the past that some ISPs may be intentionally slowing down high bit-rate traffic from sites like Netflix. No matter which is to blame, the issue remains: If steady 1080p streams are unreliable, then Ultra HD streaming is little more than a pipe dream. Never mind whether the Internet infrastructure is ready, it's the politics between ISP's and streaming media companies that need to be sorted out.

What if I have a data cap?

If you have a data cap on your broadband Internet service, then Ultra HD streaming may not be such a good idea for you. If an Ultra HD stream consumed a steady 15 Mbps throughput for an entire hour (not likely), you would burn through 16GB of your data cap in one sitting.

What is compression and what will it do picture quality?

The Ultra HD video streams we get will be very highly compressed, otherwise they could never be streamed over the Internet as we know it today. Unfortunately, the term “compression” has a bad reputation in the world of video, and is often misunderstood as being synonymous with poor quality. That doesn't necessarily have to be the case. In fact, most people have watched nothing but compressed video their entire lives and been perfectly happy with it … impressed, even.

For those not familiar, compression, at its most basic, is the processes of taking a huge file and shrinking it down to a more manageable size. Lossy compression, the technique used to shrink down video files, works by removing data we're not supposed to notice. Sometimes, it doesn't quite work that way. For instance, in overly compressed video, large, off-color blocks will be visible in what should be a solid pool of black. Bands of color will likely not move smoothly from one another. All kinds of tiny errors crop up during fast-moving scenes.



But that doesn't mean all compressed video is bad. The video on DVDs is compressed to anywhere from 15 to 30 times its original size, but it was still hailed as a massive step up from VHS when it arrived because of its higher resolution. Likewise, the HD video feeds we get from our cable or satellite companies are highly compressed, but still look vastly superior to standard-def because of their higher native resolution. Even Blu-ray, the least-compressed 1080p source the consumer can get his hands on, is still highly compressed, and we all agree it looks spectacular.

This isn't to suggest that the Ultra HD streams will be glorious. We will see the same compression artifacts that we see with compressed HD now. Still, detail will be enhanced, color will be a little deeper, and, at the end of the day, it will look better than the 1080p we see streamed now. Having seen compressed Ultra HD streamed in the flesh, we can confirm that it is, indeed, a leap forward from the status quo.

News Source: DIGITAL TRENDS

Relates Posts:

• The hottest gadgets of CES 3-D printers to 4K TVs
• Hisense announces Android-powered H8 and H9 UHD (4k) Smart TVs
• Akamai CEO on streaming 4K TV into your home (podcast)
• Forget 4K, it's an 8K TV you want

 

Computer users, not couch potatoes, will lead the way on 4K high-definition TV

From Yahoo Finance: Is the new high definition TV standard known as 4K dead on arrival, headed for the same fate as 3D TV? Not at all. It's just going to start out as a hit with computer users, not couch potatoes. Adding pixels to computer screens makes pictures looks sharper and text crisper, reducing eyestrain. And the added screen real estate that comes from higher definition screens enhances productivity.

Lenovo is dipping its toes into the 4K monitor pool with the competitively priced ThinkVision Pro2840m display.

The television industry swamped last week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with dozens of new super high-definition sets, but got in return a collective yawn from journalists, analysts and the buying public.

So is the new standard, known generally as "4K," dead on arrival, headed for the same fate as 3D TV? Not at all. It's just going to start out as a hit with computer users, not couch potatoes.

Adding pixels to computer screens makes pictures looks sharper and text crisper, reducing eyestrain. And the added real estate that comes from higher-definition screens enhances productivity.

That's why Brian Hauer bought two dozen new TV sets for his Web and mobile software development firm, TechEmpower in El Segundo, California. No, he didn't buy the Seiki 39" ultra-high definition televisions so his programmers could watch their favorite movies and sports. Instead, he's connecting the $500 screens to his programmers' computers.

More room for work

The Seiki TVs cost less than fancy 30" monitors made for computers and have double the number of pixels. And replacing pairs of 19" screens gives the programmers more room to work with on screen while taking up less desk space.

"Seiki is missing a golden opportunity to dominate the desktop display market by removing the television tuner, speakers and remote," Hauer says on his blog.

Technically, the TV sets Hauer bought are just short of 4K resolution, which is 4,096 pixels across by 2,160 pixels tall. The Seiki sets, designated as Ultra HD, have a screen ratio of 3840 x 2160, though they are often lumped into the 4K category. Today's common high-definition TV sets have a resolution of 1920 x 1080.

At CES, giant 4K sets from Sony (SNE), Samsung (005930.KS) and others crowded the aisles. But other companies are making 4K monitors sans tuners especially for computer users. Apple (AAPL) suggests buyers of its new high-end desktop system, the black cylinder known as the 2013 Mac Pro, buy a 32" Sharp 4K monitor for $3,595. It's just a matter of time before Apple starts selling its own 4K monitor, and Dell and Lenovo are among making cheaper 4K computer monitors, too.

It's fitting that Apple would be a pioneer with 4K computer monitors, since it introduced the phrase "retina screen" back in 2010, with the increased pixel count of its iPhone 4. Other phone makers quickly started putting high-definition screens on their phones as well. Apple then added "retina" to its iPad and MacBook Pro laptop lines. Other computer makers followed suit.

The 'ah-ha' moment

The big "ah-ha" moment could arrive later this year when Apple is expected to update its popular consumer-oriented iMac line. Selling "retina" iMacs will ignite a legion of copycats, no doubt.

Then, the proliferation of 4K computer monitors will help the entertainment industry get over its usual chicken and egg problem with new formats. Because without counting computer screens, there aren't going to be many 4K ready viewers out there in TV land. The industry sold only about 2 million 4K and U-HD sets last year, according to market tracker NPD. And even with prices falling, only about 13 million will be sold this year out of a total market of 229 million, NPD says.

So far, entertainment companies haven't seen much to get excited about with 4K. Unlike computers users adding 4K monitors for immediate benefits, TV watchers have to scrounge to find anything to watch in 4K. Netflix (NFLX) has promised to start streaming a few shows in 4K this year, but the vast majority of programming won't make that step up for at least a few years. Sony was even giving away free copies of 10 movies with its 4K media player to entice buyers last year. The player stores 4K movies on a hard drive since there's no disc standard for the format yet.

To be sure, 4K will likely catch on among television viewers eventually, if for no other reason than the prices on 4K sets are dropping so rapidly that soon there won't be much of a premium to buy one. And if people start watching 4K content on their computer monitors, where much Netflix viewing already occurs, Hollywood will get the message sooner and start producing more 4K content.

Netflix was nearly the only company that got a positive response to its 4K efforts at CES. But 4K streaming content requires massive bandwidth, even with data compression -- more than many customers receive from their Internet service provider. And Netflix's 4K push comes just as some leading ISPs, such as AT&T (T) and Comcast (CMCSA), have made moves to curb data hogs. AT&T's recent "Sponsored Data" initiative to charge Internet content providers fees could be a premeditated strike aimed at Netflix's 4K shows.

But computer users don't need more bandwidth to enjoy the benefits of 4K on their desktops. They'll be the real 4K pioneers.

News Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/the-exchange/computer-users--not-couch-potatoes--will-lead-the-way-on-4k-high-definition-tv-170513628.html

Akamai CEO on streaming 4K TV into your home (podcast)

There were 4K TVs all over CES, but there is still a lack of 4K content available. Considerably more bandwidth is required to stream 4K video online, which is a challenge Akamai says it's working to solve.

Larry Magid speaks with Akamai CEO Tom Leighton (left) at CES.
(Credit: Larry Magid)

Just about every TV maker at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas was showing off 4K TVs. But to fully appreciate these Ultra High Definition (UHD) TVs, you'll need content that's recorded in 4K.

As far as I know, a 4K standard for broadcast, cable, and satellite isn't on the immediate horizon, nor is a standardized way to deliver the content via disc. So, the solution lies in Internet delivery. But that too raises a challenge because the amount of bandwidth required for 4K is considerably more than today's HD video.

Akamai, which has long specialized in improving performance of online video for high trafficked sites, has a couple of solutions. One is to bring the content close to the "edge," but storing the video feed nearer to the user.

Having the content cached on servers close to the user's home can greatly improve performance, said Akamai CEO Tom Leighton at CES last week. He added that even if customers have a "big pipe" from their Internet service provider (ISP), the "bottlenecks are in the Internet infrastructure." (Scroll down to listen to the full interview).

In addition to caching the content in the neighborhood, Leighton said Akamai is working with Qualcomm on a new class of home gateway that would cache content within the home for faster access. It can also be used to download software once for multiple devices, such as a new version of iOS that the user might want to install on several devices. Instead of downloading it to each device, you could download it to the gateway and install it on each device from there.

Find out what else Leighton had to say about 4K in the full 17 minute interview.

News Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30977_3-57617220-10347072/akamai-ceo-on-streaming-4k-tv-into-your-home-podcast/
  

4K Blu-ray confirmed by BDA as 4K porn gets the nod

The Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA) has announced that it will release 4K Blu-ray discs, while pornography company Naughty America has confirmed 4K porn is inbound.



4K was a huge part of CES 2014 this year with a wide range of 4K TV announcements and the news Netflix will steam its original content and Breaking Bad in 4K at some point this year.

Although 4K Ultra HD content streaming may be the future, you can guarantee you'll be able to get 4K disc-based content from Blu-ray. 

However, despite the BDA's announcement, it could be some time before the 4K Blu-rays will be released.

"The BDA recently approved the addition of 4K/UHD to the Blu-ray Disc specifications, and the effort to get this done is moving forward in earnest", said Andy Parsons, BDA spokesperson to Twice. "It's too soon to know any of the details yet, as this all needs to be sorted out by the BDA technical groups. But we are excited to have a decision in hand, and are looking forward to sharing more news about it once the specification process has been completed."

"[It's] not just looking at delivering the requisite number of pixels, but at the range of features that contribute to the overall consumer experience – factors such as high dynamic range, bit depth, colour gamut, content protection and mobility and digital bridge opportunities," added Victor Matsuda, the BDA's Global Promotions Committee Chairman.

Elsewhere, those who fancy a bit of saucier 4K content will be pretty pleased to hear of Naughty America's commitment to shooting 4K porn content.

If you sign up to Naughty America 4K's website you'll get access to a wide range of naughty 4K content including (and I quote) "full cinematic 4K videos". 

There's also a 4K Naughty America trailer to view, if you so wish. Naughty America recommends you hook your PC to a 4K UHD TV to watch its range of 4K content.

New Source: http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/4k-blu-ray-confirmed-by-bda-as-4k-porn-gets-the-nod

The hottest gadgets of CES 3-D printers to 4K TVs

Here are the hot trends, from wearable tech to 3d sugar printers to driverless cars, that emerged from the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Juergen Boyny of Germany watches a video clip with a personal viewing device at the Sony booth at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS — The biggest gadget trade show in the Americas wrapped up on Friday in Las Vegas after swamping the city with 150,000 attendees. This year, "wearable" computing was big, along with various 3-D technologies, especially 3-D printing.

Wearable devices in the shape of smartwatches and head-mounted displays have been a staple of the show for a long time, but manufacturers were excited this year because the field is finally gaining traction with consumers. Fitness bands were a breakout hit last year. The 3-D printing section bustled with activity, and it was clear that even though most people won't be buying a printer any time soon, they may be enjoying 3-D printed products, such as jewelry, wedding cakes and dental braces, in the near future. Meanwhile, TV makers were heartened by the support they received for their new ultra-high-definition TV sets.

Here are some of the most notable products and services revealed at the show:

DRIVERLESS CARS — The state of the art in car electronics is in systems that eliminate or ease the task of driving. French company Induct demonstrated its Navia driverless shuttle, which putts along at 12.5 miles per hour on a pre-programmed route. It's intended for university campuses, airports and other locales with enclosed roads.

Related: Electronics show flashy but evolutionary

What about road safety? When a staffer walked slowly in front of the Navia, the vehicle slowed down, rather than coming to a full stop, because it recognized that the pedestrian ahead was moving, too.

Then there was Audi's automated parking demonstration. With a press of a button on a smartphone app, the German automaker's computer-equipped car squeezed into a tight space between two other cars, a situation that would give many drivers pause. The car has multiple cameras and ultrasonic sensors, giving it a 360-degree view. It puts rubber-necking and looking through the side-view mirror to shame. The car executed a three-point turn flawlessly —and the driver didn't have to worry about dinging other cars' doors, because he had already exited the car.

UV-SENSING WRISTBAND — The wearable computing trend has unleashed a lot of creativity. One example is a wristband with a "gemstone" that measures exposure to ultraviolet light, the kind that causes tanning and skin cancers. Using Bluetooth wireless technology, the Netatmo June sends readings to the owners' smartphones, warning, for instance, when they're approaching their daily limit of UV exposure. The battery lasts for six weeks. Netatmo, a French company, hopes to sell the device in the U.S. for $99, starting in the second quarter of this year.

CES visitors examine confections made with a ChefJet Pro 3D food printer. The candies are made with sugar, food coloring and a single flavor.

ULTRA-HIGH-DEF NETFLIX — Netflix demonstrated ultra-high-definition, or 4K, video streaming. The company will offer relatively easy access to shows that take full advantage of the 4K TVs set to go on sale later this year. (The 4K TVs on the market today don't have the chips necessary to decode the picture.) Netflix's 4K content will stream at 15.6 megabits per second, so viewers will need a relatively fast Internet connection.

ENVELOPING PHOTO BOOTH — At the Nikon exhibit, Los Angeles-based photographer Alexx Henry set up a small tent with 68 inward-facing, off-the-shelf Nikon cameras. When a subject steps inside the xxArray photo booth, an operator triggers the cameras simultaneously, yielding an image of the subject from all angles. Computers then process the images and create a 3-D rendition of the subject, which can then be posed in the computer as if it were an action figure. The 3-D model can also be imported into a game. So instead of playing with a generic game avatar, you may someday see yourself running around, blasting bad guys.

Industry-watchers expect setups like the xxArray to become more common and coupled to 3-D printers. In a few years, when you go to a photo studio, you might come home with a statue of yourself.

SUGAR PRINTER — A company called 3D Systems showed off the ChefJet, the first restaurant-approved food printer. The device uses water to melt sugar into shapes as complicated as the mind can imagine. The company's booth featured a wedding cake held up by an edible lattice-work tower that would have been nearly impossible to create by other means. The ChefJet can print complex works in chocolate, too. Unfortunately, the samples the company handed out didn't taste very good, but party planners and restaurateurs will likely be excited about the possibilities culinary 3-D printing opens up.

SONY'S HEAD-MOUNTED DISPLAY — Sony's head-mounted display looks like an enormous pair of glasses. When you strap it on, you take on the perspective of a motorcycle driver racing through the English countryside. Looking down shows the pavement speeding by, looking up shows the clouds. When you swivel your head to the right or left, you may feel like waving to the crowds along the road. All this is enabled by a sensor attached to a strap that tracks your head movements and adjusts the wide-angle picture accordingly.

Related: Gadgets galore at the Consumer Electronics Show

Although there were a few kinks that marred the illusion, the demonstration gave a taste of what's possible when "wearable" displays and computers combine with movement sensors.

HEAT SENSING IPHONE — FLIR Systems Inc., the leading maker of professional imagers that "see" heat, is bringing out its first consumer-level product: a jacket for the iPhone that contains a heat camera. Temperature differences show up in different colors on the screen of the phone. For instance, you can set it to show hotter things in yellow, medium-hot in red and cold in purple. It can discern temperature differences as small as one tenth of a degree. The FLIR One will cost $349, which compares with $995 and up for FLIR's professional thermal imagers. Practical applications for the camera include identifying leaky insulation and moisture. Fun applications include spotting wildlife, high-tech hide-and-seek, and crazy party pictures. ("Everyone was so hot!")

ANKI DRIVE RACING GAME — In this very high-tech update to Scalextric slot racers, your iPhone doubles as a controller for cars that zip around on a track painted with an infrared pattern the cars see with small cameras on their undersides.

Somehow, the cars fly around without rails, unless you do something really crazy. You can shoot imaginary weapons with rapid-fire tapping on your screen, disabling cars in front of you so you can race ahead. For kids, the game is a mind-blower that could inspire them to create their own gadgets, the way Erector Sets once did.

News Source: http://news.msn.com/science-technology/the-hottest-gadgets-of-ces-3-d-printers-to-4k-tvs
  

Forget 4K, it's an 8K TV you want

4K has been the talk of CES and looks likely to go big in 2014, but is it needed?

A few years ago the BBC invited me to go and see a screening of the Olympic opening ceremony in 8K. At the time, very few 8K TVs existed in the world and the number of cameras capable of recording in the format were even fewer.

As such, there were only two different camera angles used for the entirety of the opening ceremony footage. However, this didn't matter as it would've been stunning if there was only one camera used.

Viewed on a cinema-sized screen, the amount of detail available in 8K is incredible. You could watch the cinema screen from just a metre away and not spot a single pixel. Given the amount of time it took HD to get into the home (the 1984 LA Olympic Games were shot in experimental HD), we thought 8K would be a long way off.


Sharp 8K TV

Not so. Tucked into nearly every TV manufacturer's stand at CES has been some sort of 8K television. Acting like a bit of a kick in the teeth for the audio visual obsessed, these 8K TVs are a reminder of all the saving you will need to do when you re-purchase everything in the new even higher resolution format.

Invest in 4K now and you can be sure that it'll only be a few years before a more expensive 8K set, with 8K movies, seems necessary. Such is the rate at which formats evolve now that HD TV is pretty much still a teenager by TV standards.

The first HD TVs went on sale in 1996, but it wasn't until ten years later that major broadcasters like Sky started to support the format. Now that might still seem like a fairly lengthy process, but when you think the first color TVs emerged in the 1950s, you start to realize just how new HD is.

4K then, despite all of Netflix's talk of embedding the format into Smart TVs, clearly still has a long way to go before it's ubiquitous enough for the BBC to pick it up.

The average consumer also clearly has a long wait before they can enjoy conventional television in 4K. The manufacturers, on the other hand, seem only a few years off being able to release affordable commercial 8K televisions, which is perhaps even more irritating.

Given the rapid rate of evolution, not only in broadband speeds but display technology itself, coupled with the rate at which the price of Ultra HD TVs is dropping, 8K seems like it will be genuinely affordable within the next decade.


Netflix

The problem is, will the broadcasters support it? It took years for the major UK services to get on board with HD, so expect 4K to be just the same. 8K, that seems like a bit more of an ask.

This is a problem, because the image quality and viewing experience is so drastically improved over HD, and even 4K, that we almost wish they would just ditch the format altogether and start chasing the highest resolution possible. It would save plenty of TV fans money at least.

Don't let us put you off 4K, as if you are yet to see it, the difference between it and HD is still definitely exciting. Expect it to be another three to four years before prices start to match today's HD TVs, however, and perhaps even longer for the format to be picked up by the likes of Freeview and Sky.

In the meantime, make sure you get saving, as for 4K to be properly impressive, you need a big TV.

News Source: http://www.digitalspy.com/tech/news/a543255/forget-4k-its-an-8k-tv-you-want.html

  

Dell's new display is the most affordable 4K monitor yet

Editor's note: This article was originally published on 1/8/14 but was updated on 1/9/14 with details about the monitor's refresh rate.

Dell's making good on its promise to deliver a sub-$1,000 4K PC monitor during CES 2014—and amazingly, "sub-$1,000" didn't mean "999." Dell's new 28-inch UltraHD monitor is priced at $699 and is going on sale worldwide on January 23. The new monitor features the same resolution (3840-by-2160) as Dell's UltraSharp 24-inch and 32-inch monitors announced in December.

With a $700 price tag, the consumer-focused 28-inch P2815Q won't gouge your pocket book quite as much as its pro market predecessors. Those two monitors are currently priced at $3,500 for the 32-inch UP3214Q and $1,300 for the 24-inch UP2414Q.

Just how Dell was able to get the price of the P2815Q down to almost half of the UP2414Q is unknown, as Dell hasn't announced detailed specs for the new 28-inch monitor yet. But we'll do our best to find out what this monitor is packing and what corners Dell had to cut when we talk to the company at CES this week.

Dell is promising the same "screen performance" in the P2815Q as in the UltraSharp models that preceded it. And just like the other 4K models, the P2815Q also comes with Dell's Premium Panel Guarantee that promises a straight-up exchange if you find even a single pixel misbehaving during the warranty period.Porting to 4K

When Dell introduced the UltraSharp models in December they both came with an impressive array of ports, including HDMI, DisplayPort, mini-DisplayPort, four USB 3.0 ports, and a 6-in-1 media card reader.

Is this where the "budget" 4K model will take a downgrade? Perhaps. Then again, when Dell first teased the P2815Q in early December, the company said the monitor would offer "multiple input ports…to display content from smartphones and…connect laptops, PCs and essential accessories." We're also intrigued to see the monitor's refresh rate.

(Update: And the catch is known: The monitor has a refresh rate of just 30Hz at full 4K resolution, which isn't good if you're into gaming. The refresh rate jumps to 60Hz if you downgrade the monitor to 1080p resolution, but why would you buy a 4K display to use it at 1080p?)

Even if the P2815Q turns out to be the 4K monitor of our dreams, a 28-inch monster is still awfully large for most of us who stand or sit little more than a foot away from our computer screens. It's not as overwhelming as a 31.5-inch flat panel, mind you, but it's certainly not as comfortable as a 24-inch model would be.

At $699, Dell's UltraHD monitor is the cheapest 4K panel to show up at CES this week, although Lenovo and Asus aren't far behind with separate 28-inch UltraHD monitors priced at $799 and rolling out in the spring. Whether 4K enthusiasts should drop their dough on Dell's monitor or wait for Asus or Lenovo's models to arrive should become clearer as CES winds on.

Source: PC World