Boasting an "Ultra HD" resolution of 3840x2160, the 60-inch ICC Purios LC-60HQ10 will certainly turn heads – but so will the price tag. Weighing in at a hefty $2,625,000 Yen (or about $31,400), it's obvious Sharp's latest UHD (ultra high-defintion) offering isn't intended for your average consumer. It appears TV-maker is counting on the ICC Purios being outside the reach of most mortals though, as the television will be made-to-order only.
And if you don't think that's impressive, a number of companies are also planning to launch 85-inch UHD televisions in the near future. We don't know what the price will be for those just yet, but one thing is for sure: they won't be cheap.
UHD (3840x2160) doubles both the width and height of 1080p (1920x1080p). As such, UHD is nearly equal to the "4K" video footage typically stored on masters by professionals. Instead of video footage spanning 4096 pixels across though, the industry has settled on 3840 pixels being the next standard for consumer equipment. The reason? 3840 is a nice, even multiple of 1920 (a common width for 1080p). Numerically speaking, this makes 2160p an ideal successor to 1080p.
Although UHD is very cool (tech enthusiasts typically love big numbers, right?), there's one major caveat to owning a UHD television though: finding UHD content.
Blu-rays are still universally stamped out at only 1080p, although a UHD Blu-ray standard seems to exist. Current digital broadcast signals don't have adequate bandwidth to deliver UHDTV content, so don't expect to see any native UHD broadcasts for awhile. Additionally, although HDMI cables are physically capable of delivering UHD video, there isn't an HDMI standard for it yet. In other words: early adopters beware.
Despite the holiday announcement, the LC-60HQ10 isn't expected to hit the shelves until February 20. Time to start saving!