I wonder if 4K is going to make every other type of flat screen TV obsolete, as digital did with CRT televisions in 2009. My 19" Insignia FP has worked quite well since it was new in August 2011; I would hate to think I may have to give it up and get a new 4K set in another year or so.
I'm thinking 4K just might render today's flat screens obsolete in the blink of an eye, since television transmission standards keep changing every so often. I think this is just a way the TV industry has of getting people to buy new sets every couple of years, even if the one they have works perfectly well. I live on a fixed income and cannot afford to replace my TV so often, just because some organization comes up with a new, whiz-bang transmission standard that they think is so much better than the last one.
I do not think 4K will catch on any time soon (if ever) in homes. Digital signage, sports scoreboards, yes, but not in American living rooms, except as status symbols.
I don't see the practicality of curved 4K TV screens, either. Samsung has been beating the drum for its 4K UHD curved TV for some time (I see the ads in flyers in my Sunday newspaper), but I have yet to see any other manufacturer marketing a curved 4K display.
Sheeeesh! I wish the TV industry would quit trying to reinvent the wheel again, and again, and yet again. We got along for over 50 years with 4:3 NTSC television; the first improvement (color) was practical, but the next one, stereo sound, was not, IMHO. (The MTS stereo sound system built into my Insignia FP TV drives two three-inch speakers that face downward, so the speakers are talking to the top of my TV stand.) Now we have flat screen TVs with 70-, 80-, 90-inch screens, 700-watt-plus, 5.1 (?) channel sound systems, and who knows what else may be down the road..............?
BTW, some programs on NBC and ABC are apparently being transmitted with black bars at each side of the picture. My TV's zoom adjustments fail to zoom the picture to fill the screen. Is this a preview of some new transmission standard, such as 4K (!), that ordinary flat screens cannot process? An example is ABC's "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown" annual special, telecast late last month, just before Christmas. I tried all four of my TV's zoom settings, but none of them zoomed the picture enough to fill the screen.
Some NBC programs telecast this year show the same thing. I honestly believe this may very well be the industry's method of telling people that the TV they have is obsolete, and to get the best possible picture (or, in some cases, any picture at all), will be to buy a new TV capable of decoding whatever new standard may be in vogue at that time. Now it's 4K, but who knows what's next? Look what's happening to 3D HDTV. These sets aren't being mentioned much anymore; in fact, that format could well be on its way out, as were 3D movies in theaters in the 1950s. Three-dimensional television has the same problem 3D motion pictures had: the viewer had to wear special glasses to get the full 3D effect. I believe that is what killed 3D television, as no one wants to wear any kind of special glasses just to watch a couple of hours of TV each evening. It's okay, I guess, for the first night of viewing, but I don't think anyone is going to put up with it for any length of time.