Repeat after me: 4K TV does NOT require native 4K media. Again: 4K TV does NOT require native 4K media.

The reason I’m repeating myself — not only in the previous sentence, but also in echoing other articles I’ve written — is that self-styled experts continue to say that 4K TV will not be successful until native 4K media is widely available. They are wrong, obviously wrong, and for an obvious reason: High-quality 2K-to-4K up-conversion is so good that experts can’t see the difference in side-by-side tests from distances of three feet or more. Even at nose-on-the-screen distance, the differences are subtle.

Good up-conversion has remarkable quality but it isn’t expensive. Seiki, the Chinese company with a Japanese name that introduced the first sub-$1500 4K TV set last year, has an HDMI cable with a converter chip built into the cable that sells for $59.95! This is not any converter chip. It’s the Marseilles Networks video processing chip with Technicolor up-scaling certification that was introduced to high acclaim at last year’s summer PEPCOM Digital Experience show in New York.

Inexpensive, high-quality 2K-to-4K up-conversion is available from Seiki. (Photo: Ken Werner)

Inexpensive, high-quality 2K-to-4K up-conversion is available from Seiki. (Photo: Ken Werner)

There is a back story here. When Seiki introduced its sub-$1500, 4K, 50-inch set last year, people were impressed with the screen and price but

appalled at the low-quality built-in 2K-to-4K conversion. Seiki acknowledged the problem and worked with Marseilles to produce the up-converter cable, which it then gave to purchasers of the initial 4K sets.

In addition to including the Marseilles up-converter in its 2014 sets, at CE Week in New York in late June, Seiki introduced a Blu Ray Player with the Marseilles chip built in at the impressive MSRP of $99!

Seiki’s Sung Choi told me that Seiki is also introducing 28-, 32-, and 40-inch 4K monitors. Sales will be through Walmart, Sears, Best Buy, Amazon, and Costco. I asked Choi one of my standard questions: “Who makes your display panels?” All of the major suppliers, he said, including Sharp and CSOT. “It depends on pricing.”

Vizio and TCL have also promised 4K TV sets at $1000-ish prices by Q3 or Q4 of this year, and we can certainly expect others. Tier 1 brands aren’t going that low yet, but their prices are trending downward, too, and probably faster than they would like.

Set-makers know they don’t have to wait for native 4K media before they sell 4K TV sets. It’s time for the self-styled experts to stop doing their readers the disservice of feeding them false information and erroneous analysis.

Ken Werner is Principal of Nutmeg Consultants, specializing in the display industry, manufacturing, technology, and applications including mobile devices and television.  He consults for attorneys, investment analysts, and companies entering or repositioning themselves in industries related to displays and the products that use them.  You can reach him at [email protected].