Sharp Unveils 64'' Quad HD TV: Four Full HD Panels in One Screen

Sharp has been showing off a prototype Quad HD TV, measuring a huge 4096 x 2160 pixels.  Today's Full HD TVs can show moving images where every frame contains 2 Megapixels, but in Quad HD, that figure approaches 9 Megapixels.

According to Sharp, the new TV will also have a contrast ratio of 1 000 000:1.  We don't think that's very likely, but that's what they're claiming anyway.  The other interesting detail: it's a 64'' TV.

Technological progress, but who benefits?

After Toshiba's announcement concerning glasses-free 3D TVs, this is the second piece of bad news from a big Japanese manufacturer in as many days.  Why do we say it's bad news?   How else do you explain to consumers that today's Full HD TVs, whether they come with 'ordinary' 3D requiring viewers to wear glasses or not, are soon going to be out of date?

The TV industry has got into the habit of renewing the basic technology very (too?) often.  It's no longer a case of updating existing products with incremental improvements, but reinventing the wheel every time.  In no time at all, we've gone through the following steps:

• the first LCD TVs,
• were replaced by 720p HD Ready TVs,
• which were pushed out by 1080p Full HD,
• which nobody wanted without a built-in TV tuner,
• which then had to be HD compatible ...
• Then came 3D,
• and we're expecting to 2011 to be the year of the connected TV
• but just yesterday we saw the first 3D TV without glasses
• and now Quad HD is here ...

Are you still keeping up?

Except it's not quite as simple as that: glasses-free 3D TVs and Quad HD won't be anywhere near your living room for several years to come!

So you can take a deep breath.  Some of today's TVs can show video in 3D if you have the glasses to go with them, and many have a network connection.  It's this last element that's set to grow next year, but we're not expecting any revolutionary changes soon.

There's little chance of Quad HD TVs reaching a reasonable price for several years to come, while the time-frame for glasses-free 3D is closer to a decade ...

> Buyer's Guides: Our Pick of The Best Products