Both Samsung and Sony, leader and major player in TVs respectively, have huge amounts of money invested in 4K. Right now, 4K TVs represent potentially big profits, not costing that much more to make than 1080p LCDs, yet selling for much higher prices.
One of the main reasons 4K adoption is slow is the lack of content. The same was true with 1080p. So what to do? Well, offer people 4K content. That’s logical. And Sony and Samsung are doing just that.
Except…both companies are making the 4K content proprietary. As in, Sony content is unwatchable if you don’t have a Sony TV, and Samsung’s requires a Samsung TV.
What?!?
The hardware for the software
In order to entice shoppers to buy a 4K TV, when there’s so little 4K content, Sony and Samsung currently offer special 4K media boxes.
Last year’s Sony FMP-X1, the first such box, enables a user to download from a selection of more than 200 4K titles from Sony’s own library, called Video Unlimited 4K. The service offers titles such as “American Hustle,” and “The Amazing Spider-Man,” as well as a few TV series, like “The Blacklist” and “Breaking Bad.” Pricing for movies is typically $7.99 to rent for 24 hours or $29.99 to buy.
The FMP-X1 was not well received. It has an amusing [Keep reading…]
Source: Cnet.com |by Geoffrey Morrison