Samsung Electronics is warning that some television manufacturers are passing off 4K-resolution ultra-high-definition (UHD) TVs as the real thing when in fact they are “pseudo 3K UHDs”.
These poorer quality TVs have found their way into the South African market, Samsung said. “A pseudo UHD TV is in fact misrepresented and uses inferior 3K resolution that delivers 25% less pixel power,” said Samsung Electronics South Africa deputy MD and the company’s head of consumer electronics, Matthew Thackrah.
True UHD TVs offer 4K resolution of 3 840×2 160 pixels, Thackrah said. “The inferior pseudo UHD TV only offers 3K resolution of 2 880×2 160 pixels. This is because the substandard 3K technology uses RGWB (red, green, white and blue) technology in order to minimise production costs. The technology replaces some of the RGB subpixels with white subpixels and reduces the resolution significantly.”
Thackrah said that although 3K sets “might offer improved brightness and resolution compared to traditional TVs, some manufactures are misleading consumers because they aren’t producing and selling true UHD TVs, thus misleading consumers and the wider UHD TV market”.
“The risk to consumers is that they aren’t getting what they pay for. The pseudo UHD might seem more affordable in the short term, but the quality and additional functions you get when you purchase a true UHD more than justify the investment.
Samsung said consumers can test in-store if a TV uses true UHD technology or not. They can do this by asking:
— What is the resolution? A true 4K UHD TV has a resolution of 3 840×2 160 pixels.
— What is the aspect ratio? A true 4K UHD TV has an aspect ratio of at least 16:9.
— What is the colour bit depth? A true 4K UHD TV has 8-bit colour depth.
— What is the frame rate? A true 4K UHD TV has a 24p/25p/30p/50p/60p frame rate. — (c) 2015 NewsCentral Media