Perhaps in 8-10 years a new 4K optical format and 4K displays will be a option

[HDTV1080P]

Perhaps many years in the future a 4K display will be available for consumers to purchase. A new 300 GB optical disc technology might be needed to support 4K.according to page 36 of the April 2008 Sound and Vision magazine. 4K displays have 4,096 X 2,160 pixels (which is 8.8 million pixels) versus a 1,920 X 1080 pixel 1080P display that only offers a little over 2 million pixels.
Of course owning a 4K display one is going to need a larger screen like 100-150 inches+ to see a huge difference in picture quality. Some high-end movie theaters offer 2K and 4K displays. Watching a 4K front projector in a movie theater looks much better then 1080P. Many theaters that upgrade their film projectors to digital projectors unfortunately are going the cheaper 2K route which is only slightly better then 1080P with 2,048 horizontal pixels instead of 1920 pixels.

It might be another 8-10 years before a 4K optical disc format appears that challenges 1080P BLU-RAY

People that witnessed at CES the 4K prototype displays with over 4X the resolution of 1080P mentioned the image was so clear that it looked like one was looking into a window. The fact is there is no consumer 4K display available for sale yet. Many of the first 4K displays will cost $100,000 or more which is out of the reach of mainstream videophile’s budget. Then without an optical disc format that offers 4K resolution one can not take full advantage of a 4K display. Perhaps in 5-8 years a under $30,000 4K display will appear on the consumer market under ideal conditions. Then maybe in 8-10 years from now a 1TB optical disc format will launch that offers true native 4K quality to take advantage of the new 4K displays.

[MSG33]

Interesting. I have actually viewed a 4k projector at a Calit2, a playground for AV fanatics who get to build 220 megapixel displays at taxpayer expense and call it research . The only problem is that it looks worse than a 1080p projector, since they are merely running upconverted 1080p content most of the time.

I would like to see a 4k computer monitor in the neigborhood of 30", though it would probably take dual dual-link DVIs to run one. Essentially screen real-estate would be comparable to a 2x2 "grid" of 1920x1200 monitors, without the seams.

[Zipzap713]

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/14179

Looks like 4k is being released to consumers in 2012 before the Olympics. And will only be available in 60" from what I understand. And its called SHV (Super Hi-Vision).

[MSG33]

Originally Posted by Zipzap713

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/14179

Looks like 4k is being released to consumers in 2012 before the Olympics. And will only be available in 60" from what I understand. And its called SHV (Super Hi-Vision).

That format is muhc higer resolution than 4K

1080p is 1920 x 1080 -- 2 Megapixels
4K is 4096 x 2150 -- 8 Megapixels
SHV is 7680 x 4320 -- 32 Megapixels!

26 GB/s uncompressed. They can reduce that though by sending a compressed signal and having a decoder built into the display. Even with that though, a dedicated fiber-optic link will likely be needed.

[ManUtd]

I will upgrade my Kuro when 4K is affordable...and that could be a very long time.

[Daredevil666]

I'm looking forward to the day when 4K will be the norm, by then, every disc will be like the master negative of the movie, no film shall ever be lost.

[J_UNTITLED]

This is the biggest downside of evolving technology; having to upgrade your personal collection of films and TV series again, again and again. When will it ever end?!

[emm7th]

SD to HD is a bigger upgrade than a 1K HD to 4K HD... what I'm interested in, is the upgrade from HD to UHD...

[DetroitSportsFan]

It's probably going to be longer than 8-10 years.