The Consumer Electronics industry is heavily marketing higher resolution displays to consumers for their next large-screen home TV purchase. Often called Ultra High Definition TV, UHD TV, or 4K TV, these displays have four times the resolution of HDTVs.

Producing content at this higher resolution will require changes throughout the content production workflow. Before those changes are made, the ETC’s content-industry member companies would like data on consumer response to the higher resolution image, as well as consumer response to other technical variables. The ETC is the ideal forum for conducting this study because it is a neutral, unaligned organization.

The objective of the ‘4K Plus’ project is to determine, using technically- and statistically-rigorous methodologies, which technical parameters of next generation audio/visual experiences consumers value. We plan to use USC students and faculty, as well as other volunteers, for A/B tests of various resolutions, white-to-black dynamic ranges, color gamut, and frame rates. Future studies may also include bit depth, vertical audio, and other technical elements of the audio/visual experience.