CES Live: 4K bringing theater experience home

Jan. 10, 2012, Consumer Electronics Show—With almost every new HDTV that manufacturers are highlighting in their booths at the electronics show in Las Vegas, the buzzword—or to be more accurate, buzz-alphanumeric combo—is “4K.”

Put simply, 4K is higher definition than what we’ve come to know as high definition, and it looks to be on course to become the new HD standard. About 4,000 pixels are lit up across a screen, and that produces a picture that delivers resolution that’s four times greater than what most current HDTVs provide.

But the technology isn’t limited only to TV and computer screens. At the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), JVC is showing off what it touts as the world’s first home-theater projectors that display 2-D content with 4K resolution. The projectors landed on the market last month (the MSRPs on JVC’s three models range from $3,499 to $11,999), so that might give them some cover in making the “first” claim, but they won’t be the only game in town for long.

Sony announced today that it will release this year a 4K home-theater projector, the same standard that already has been put to use in thousands of large-scale cinemas around the country. The company didn’t indicate a price for the projector at CES.