中国力量引领全球4K电视机市场

    艾斯派林说：“没什么能阻止4K电视机价格的下跌。这些电视机只不过是采用了下一代芯片组和最新的屏幕而已，所以价格肯定会跌，尤其是如果中国能够大量销售4K电视的话。目前，它仍然是优秀的产品，也不会是好市多（Costco）卖场的最低端产品，但中国制造的4K电视会把价格压下来的。”

    4K电视机的浪潮将帮助海信成为美国市场的主要竞争者。不过目前还不清楚中国品牌能否像过去十年中的韩国三星（Samsung）和LG一样取得成功。艾斯派林说：“中国市场看起来不会出现那样的情形，因为它的整体性不强。而且中国最强的电子品牌联想（Lenovo）在电视领域并没有很强的竞争力。所以，最大的品牌现在甚至还没有进入美国展开竞争呢。”

    4K电视机想要普及，仍有着不小的障碍。这种技术还需要与之匹配的高清视频内容，否则大多数消费者都无法体会它的好处。质量较差、价格较低的4K电视机可能无法很好地处理当下的全高清1080p视频内容，甚至可能比现在的电视机更糟糕——对消费者来说，这一点肯定不能当成卖点。

    盖格南说：“4K电视的屏幕上有更多的像素点，所以视频内容需要先向上进行转换（upconvert）。上转换的质量非常重要。低端4K电视的转换效果可能不会那么好，因此看起来不如优质的1080p电视。”这也是中国可能在美国取得优势的地方。

    艾斯派林说：“中国传统的付费电视市场基础不深。但中国人会在网上看电视，而4K电视在网上发展很快。这个因素潜在地推动了市场的进一步发展。”

    讽刺的是，电视校准专家及电视产业顾问凯文•米勒表示，4K的分辨率实际上是所有产业都在讨论的问题。他说：“每个人都对分辨率感到激动万分。但我甚至不想把它们叫做4K，因为这个数字只体现了分辨率。实际上，分辨率是最不重要的部分。这些超高清电视有着更出色的色彩深度，这比只是分辨率翻了两番要重要得多。”

    电视的图像质量还取决于电视制造黑色色阶以及强对比度的能力。米勒说“只有在这些方面才能真正看出电视机的差距。坦白地说，最好的2K（1080p）显示器在图像质量上完胜早期的4K电视。而分辨率只是生产商们制造噱头的地方。”（财富中文网）

    译者：严匡正

    "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."