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[Celcius]

4K TVs have been the norm for while now. I have a 4K monitor and I play my games at 4K, I watch YouTube videos at 4K, etc… even my work laptop has a 4K screen. Most TVs for sale are probably 4K now. When are TV channels going to be 4K and does anyone remember how long it took them to transition to HD once HDTVs became the norm? I remember stations having to transition from analog to digital during that time and seems like it was mandated by the government if I recall correctly?

 

[Rival]

4K broadcast tv being the norm? Maybe around the time we send people to Mars.

 

[Tmack]

TV channels must speed up their transition... it`s not like the previous technological jump where people didnt had acess of the better technologie...

Today people spend hours watching 4k content in other mediums...

Even some crappy videos from youtube have better image quality than any pay tv content. Thats ridiculous.

 

[AJUMP23]

Right now I doubt broadcasters care because they take the bandwidth of the wave and place other channels in the spectrum. So the bandwidth they would need for the 4k information is being used other places.
They also know people can’t really tell the difference. I can but the average consumer cannot. I went to a guys house to watch the Super Bowl he said he had a HD tv. And he did but he put a 480 signal on it. And it sucked. I left at halftime.

 

[Insane Metal]

10 years from now maybe. Nah, more probably.

 

[Tmack]

Right now I doubt broadcasters care because they take the bandwidth of the wave and place other channels in the spectrum. So the bandwidth they would need for the 4k information is being used other places.
They also know people can’t really tell the difference. I can but the average consumer cannot. I went to a guys house to watch the Super Bowl he said he had a HD tv. And he did but he put a 480 signal on it. And it sucked. I left at halftime.

True, but people are getting more used to quality image quality because they are daily exposed to youtube and netflix. Over the time most people will recognize that cable tv image quality sucks.

Most paid tv not even have HDTV quality image... they might have the resolution, but very low bitrat makes the image looks bad in most cases.

 

[dorkimoe]

4K broadcast tv being the norm? Maybe around the time we send people to Mars.

Honestly you may be kind of joking, but this is probably true. I think Comcast (the biggest provider) would have to relay a ton of cable, i dont know if the current infastructure can do it. Not to mention, they already nickel and dime with bandwidth so I cant imagine they are in any rush for this. I always see people on youtube in the UK watching 4k Sky news or something and its insanely clear. Our channels are such shit.

 

[Rival]

Honestly you may be kind of joking, but this is probably true. I think Comcast (the biggest provider) would have to relay a ton of cable, i dont know if the current infastructure can do it. Not to mention, they already nickel and dime with bandwidth so I cant imagine they are in any rush for this. I always see people on youtube in the UK watching 4k Sky news or something and its insanely clear. Our channels are such shit.

I was a little but I Actually I wouldn’t be surprised if we never got 4K broadcast across most channels here. I’m pretty sure Directv and Comcast are mostly like 720p still. My Directv offer like two channels in 4K and I think a couple Ppv channels.

 

[ManaByte]

Cable still is 1080i.

 

[Aesius]

1080p at this point would be a massive improvement.

 

[Drew1440]

Biggest issue is bandwidth. Most channels on Virgin/Sky are in MPEG2 SD, although Virgin recently phased out many SD MPEG2 channels, they still operate a hybrid fibre/coax network which limits them to VHF to 860Mhz. Newly cabled areas are full fibre though.
Another issue is the codec, despite HEVC being more efficient, a 4K HEVC channel requires much more bandwidth than a HD MPEG4 channel, VVC should help improve this, although this means new equipment is needed.

Then there's the modulation schemes used, with many satellite providers still using QPSK, despite 8PSK being viable. The difference being 33Mbps vs 54Mbps.
For cable many providers max out at 256QAM DVB-C, which can provide 51Mbps per channel. Again the C2 standard allows 4096QAM to be used, but with the higher data rate means the signal is more suspect to noise and interference, so unless the cable network itself is in excellent condition, higher QAM rates will not be viable.

 

[Jezbollah]

Live TV quality will always be held up by regional programming - where smaller studios and locations have to upgrade their equipment to provide a minimal quality source. In the UK, the main BBC channel (BBC1) has yet to fully switch over to HD because of this. (there is a BBC1 HD channel, but it's not outright 100% HD in terms of its programming. They often have placeholders for anything not HD). 720p/1080i HDTV pretty much caught along starting in 2005 so this is 15 years later.

It also depends on the demand for 4K. with 720p/1080i, the demand for larger flat screens drove this format demand, because there was a massive difference to the laymans eye. 4K may be a harder sell because to many "standard" HD may be sufficient.

 

[West Texas CEO]

2035

 

[T8SC]

2034.

Because I'm not a pessimist like West Texas CEO .

 

[Kerlurk]

nvm

 

[Elysion]

I haven‘t watched TV for many years, and I’m not familiar with any of the technical stuff, so forgive my ignorance, but wouldn‘t the easiest solution be if TV channels simply switched over to pure online streaming? If random Youtube channels can livestream in 4k, why can‘t TV studios do the same? Don’t modern TVs already connect to the internet? I always thought the future would be you turning on your TV (or another device), selecting a channel, and receiving an HD online stream, be it 4k or 8k or whatever.

Again, I’m completely ignorant when it comes to things like broadcasting, cable, TV etc, but I have no idea why TV signals aren‘t just all transmitted through regular internet connections.

 

[Hatemachine]

Honestly I'd be surprised if it happens this decade. And if it does it'll be a compressed mess.

 

[Master Of Illusion]

Cable bandwidth is so bad that after I switched to Hulu Live, I went to someone's house to watch football (who stll has cable) and the image was so crushed with pixellation it looks like Potatovision in comparison.

You're better off switching to satellite or a livestream service, because 4K will NEVER happen on cable (and if that day comes, it will look like shit).

 

[Kenpachii]

people still watch tv?

 

[Mistershine.]

I haven‘t watched TV for many years, and I’m not familiar with any of the technical stuff, so forgive my ignorance, but wouldn‘t the easiest solution be if TV channels simply switched over to pure online streaming? If random Youtube channels can livestream in 4k, why can‘t TV studios do the same? Don’t modern TVs already connect to the internet? I always thought the future would be you turning on your TV (or another device), selecting a channel, and receiving an HD online stream, be it 4k or 8k or whatever.

Again, I’m completely ignorant when it comes to things like broadcasting, cable, TV etc, but I have no idea why TV signals aren‘t just all transmitted through regular internet connections.

Mainly because the Internet is a variable that the broadcaster can't control. How fast is the end users Internet? Do they have third world Internet with data caps? What happens if 5 people want to watch different channels?

BT have at least 1 4k channel that streams live sport via a bt vision box, I think it runs at about 40Mbps.

 

[Ozzy Onya A2Z]

Some cable channels down under deliver great 4K content e.g. sports channels of live events.

I'm wanting them to push into more interactive and control of content. An example would be I want to select which live camera feed ad I please or setup a quad display or picture in picture of two feeds of my choice.

It would really separate pay TV and live events from subs or online apps and provide a compelling reason to keep that cable set top box around.

 

[Burning Blade]

Wasn’t NHK going to be broadcasting in 8k last year during the olympics? I would imagine places like Japan and Korea would have the speeds for broadcast 4K, but the US is probably at least a decade behind infrastructure wise.

 

[Haint]

With no FCC mandates in place, mid and small market broadcasters will probably take 5-10+ years, slowly upgrading as components die. Traditional cable probably won't offer 4K until they rebuild their systems as internet only, and serve TV as Streaming/IPTV.

 

[tuco11]

Follow Tyler The Antennaman on Youtube.