????艾斯派林說：“沒什么能阻止4K電視機價格的下跌。這些電視機只不過是采用了下一代芯片組和最新的屏幕而已，所以價格肯定會跌，尤其是如果中國能夠大量銷售4K電視的話。目前，它仍然是優秀的產品，也不會是好市多（Costco）賣場的最低端產品，但中國制造的4K電視會把價格壓下來的。”

????4K電視機的浪潮將幫助海信成為美國市場的主要競爭者。不過目前還不清楚中國品牌能否像過去十年中的韓國三星（Samsung）和LG一樣取得成功。艾斯派林說：“中國市場看起來不會出現那樣的情形，因為它的整體性不強。而且中國最強的電子品牌聯想（Lenovo）在電視領域并沒有很強的競爭力。所以，最大的品牌現在甚至還沒有進入美國展開競爭呢。”

????4K電視機想要普及，仍有著不小的障礙。這種技術還需要與之匹配的高清視頻內容，否則大多數消費者都無法體會它的好處。質量較差、價格較低的4K電視機可能無法很好地處理當下的全高清1080p視頻內容，甚至可能比現在的電視機更糟糕——對消費者來說，這一點肯定不能當成賣點。

????蓋格南說：“4K電視的屏幕上有更多的像素點，所以視頻內容需要先向上進行轉換（upconvert）。上轉換的質量非常重要。低端4K電視的轉換效果可能不會那么好，因此看起來不如優質的1080p電視。”這也是中國可能在美國取得優勢的地方。

????艾斯派林說：“中國傳統的付費電視市場基礎不深。但中國人會在網上看電視，而4K電視在網上發展很快。這個因素潛在地推動了市場的進一步發展。”

????諷刺的是，電視校準專家及電視產業顧問凱文?米勒表示，4K的分辨率實際上是所有產業都在討論的問題。他說：“每個人都對分辨率感到激動萬分。但我甚至不想把它們叫做4K，因為這個數字只體現了分辨率。實際上，分辨率是最不重要的部分。這些超高清電視有著更出色的色彩深度，這比只是分辨率翻了兩番要重要得多。”

????電視的圖像質量還取決于電視制造黑色色階以及強對比度的能力。米勒說“只有在這些方面才能真正看出電視機的差距。坦白地說，最好的2K（1080p）顯示器在圖像質量上完勝早期的4K電視。而分辨率只是生產商們制造噱頭的地方。”（財富中文網）

????譯者：嚴匡正

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????"There is nothing to stop the eroding price," Espelien said. "These sets merely have the next-gen chipsets and the latest glass, so the prices will fall especially if the Chinese can build volumes of sale. It is still going to remain a premium product for the time being, and it won't be in the lowest end sets at Costco, but Chinese 4K sets will drive the price down."

????The 4K push could help establish Hisense as a major player in the U.S. market. But it isn't clear that a Chinese brand will be able to emerge quite as successfully as South Korea's Samsung and LG were able to over the past decade. "The Chinese market isn't going to look like that," Espelien said. "It is too fragmented, and the strongest Chinese electronics brand, Lenovo, isn't a big player in TVs. So the biggest brand isn't even competing in the U.S. right now."

????There remain hurdles. 4K technology requires high-resolution content to match. Without it, most consumers won't see the benefit. Worse, cheaper 4K sets may not handle today's Full HD 1080p content very well, and perhaps worse than today's sets -- not exactly a selling point for the consumer.

????"There are more pixels on the screen so content needs to be upconverted," Gagnon said. "The quality of that upconversion matters a lot. The low end sets might not handle it as well, and as a result, a low-end 4K set might not look as good as decent 1080p set."

????Here, too, is where China could have a leg up on the U.S.

????"The traditional pay-TV market in China is less entrenched," Espelien said. "But in China people are watching TV online, where 4K is picking up steam. That potentially helps the market even more."

????The irony, said the professional TV calibrator and TV industry consultant Kevin Miller, is that the 4K resolution is all the industry is really talking about. "Resolution is what everyone is excited about," he said. "I don't even like to call these 4K, as that only addresses the resolution. It is actually the least important part. These UHD sets will have better bit depth, and that is going to be so much more important than just four times the resolution."

????Picture quality on a television is also determined by a set's ability to produce deep black levels and a strong contrast ratio. "It is in these areas where you'll really see the difference," Miller said. "Frankly, the best 2K [1080p] displays can destroy the early 4K sets in picture quality. But resolution is what they can hang their hat on."

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