TP Vision, the company that develops Philips TVs is sceptical about curved TVs and Ultra HDTVs smaller than 50 inch. Despite that, 8K, the successor of Ultra HD is already in the works. The information comes from an interview of the Dutch website NU.nl with Danny Tack, head product planning and strategy at TP Vision.
According to Tack Ultra HD becomes the norm this year for large TV manufacturers like Philips, Samsung, LG and Sony. Ultra HD is available on the majority of new TVs but the average screen size is only 43 inch so consumers don't fully benefit from the higher resolution.
The improved sharpness of the imagery because of the higher resolution of Ultra HD is not noticeable by the human eye on a screen size below 50 inch, according to Tack. Despite that, he doesn't rule out also Philips will sell Ultra HD TVs with displays below 50 inch, because there's demand from consumers.
The development of higher resolution will continue nevertheless. "I've already heard from Chinese supplier that at the end of 2015 they'll release 8K panels with screen sizes of 55 and 65 inch", according to Tack.
Full HDTVs have a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels, Ultra HDTVs have screens with 3840 x 2160 pixels and 8K TVs are able to show content with a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels. According to Tack, TVs with these high resolutions should become available on relative short term, maybe as early as 2016.
According to TP Vision and Philips, screen sizes should drastically increase to fully benefit of the increased resolution of 8K. Tack expects that TVs will become larger the coming years. To fully benefit from 8K, Tack states a screen size of about 75 inch would be pretty good.
"I doubt whether Europe is ready for this, afterall our living rooms don't become bigger. But in the the United States we're confident you'll see these large 8K screens."
Another trend that Philips and TP Vision have spotted but where they're sceptical about, is the curved TV. "We fastly believe in image quality and on flat TVs that's the best, however some consumers like curved TVs because of the design." Because of that, Philips will also sell curved TVs.
Curved TVs can cause image distortion on the edges of the screen and additionally reduces good viewing angles. During CES Philips also announced it will use Android TV on 80% of the TVs the company will release in 2015.
