What 4K lacks is not standards but the maturity of the ecosystem

Recently, the National Radio and Television Product Quality Inspection Center and the China Electronic Commerce Association jointly issued the "Ultra-High Definition Display Certification Technical Specifications". Some people call it "the first 4K TV technical standard in the domestic market". In fact, last year, home appliance companies such as Skyworth and TCL have jointly launched their own 4K standards with relevant institutions, and internationally, 4K is not without standards to rely on. From this perspective, what 4K lacks is not standards, but the maturity of the ecological chain.

China's transformation from a manufacturing power to an innovation power has not yet been completed. Looking at the home appliance industry in this context, it is not difficult to understand why white appliances generally have a better life than black appliances. The technological innovation of the black appliance industry (mainly color TVs) is too fast. Just when home appliance companies are working hard to transform a product from technology-oriented to cost-oriented, another new concept follows. Therefore, the black appliance industry is always full of concepts, and various technical terms are accompanied by the marketing saliva of various manufacturers, one after another.

4K is one of the latest concepts in the color TV industry that has evolved along the vein of display technology. Looking back a little, the Chinese are no strangers to bulky CRT TVs, and from an industrial perspective, the so-called "eight color tube factories" followed them. The replacement of CRT by LCD TVs once put color TV companies in a difficult position in the face of first-mover competition from foreign capital. This is because the LCD screen, which accounts for 70% of the cost of LCD TVs, has long been in the hands of Korean, Taiwanese and Japanese manufacturers. The nightmare of LCD screen shortages and price drops has kept many companies awake at night.

Now, South Korean panel companies such as LGD are selling the OLED concept everywhere. OLED is the English abbreviation for organic light-emitting diode TV. Compared with the mainstream LED LCD panels currently on the market , it does not require a backlight system due to its active light emission, so it can be lighter and thinner. At the same time, active light emission can also improve the image quality in terms of contrast and high color gamut. However, there are still certain technical difficulties in the large-scale production of OLED panels for large-size TVs. The yield rate is not high enough, resulting in high costs. The price of OLED products from foreign manufacturers such as Samsung and LG is around 60,000 yuan. This market is still a niche market.

During the transition period of OLED from the niche market to the mass market, 4K, a technical upgrade of LCD panels, has become another concept promoted by many panel companies and color TV companies to the public. 4K is more accurately called 4K/2K, which means a resolution of 3840×2160 and an aspect ratio of 16:9. According to the 4K standard defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the total number of pixels can reach four times the HD resolution of 1920 ×1080.

In the first quarter of this year, first-tier color TV companies such as TCL, Skyworth, and Konka were not doing well, with sales declining. Some companies even made personnel adjustments. The reason is that the stimulus policies such as home appliances going to the countryside and energy-saving subsidies launched by the country in the past few years for the purpose of maintaining growth had been withdrawn one after another by May last year. When the total market size declined, the pursuit of so-called "quality" growth in large-size, new technology and other fields became the marketing goal of color TV companies. This provided soil for the continuous fermentation of new technologies and concepts such as 4K and OLED.

But the marketing machine of color TV companies can't wait for the market to mature. At present, users who have bought 4K TVs can't actually enjoy 4K very much. Most of the program content does not even reach 4K resolution, let alone high definition. Since it is difficult to see 4K content on 4K TVs, "pseudo 4K" has room to survive. For example, some color TV manufacturers cut corners to cater to the market's enthusiasm. Although most 4K TVs use 4K screens, they still maintain 2K configurations in terms of chips and image engines.

For this reason, LeTV TV, which emerged as a disruptor in the TV industry, emphasized its 4K ecosystem when launching its new 4K products, including the fact that the new work of famous director Zhang Yimou will be produced in 4K. However, to fundamentally solve the 4K content problem is a systematic project, involving the update of shooting equipment and the upgrade of transmission channels, which is not a one-day job. Before this problem is solved, 4K will probably become a decoration like 3D function.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.