Vizio said Monday it will soon add three additional 4K Ultra HD streaming services for its P-series Ultra HD TVs. Amazon Instant Video, Toon Goggles and UltraFlix will join Netflix as Vizio’s streaming 4K channels available via Vizio Internet Apps Plus. Vizio is also adding picture quality enhancements that will allow users to customize black levels and contrast, regulate sharpness, and control motion on video and film-based sources, Vizio said. In addition, apps including AirCastLive, Amazon Instant Video, iHeartRadio, Hulu Plus, Netflix, Plex, Spotify and YouTube are being updated to give consumers quicker access to content with a “more fluid” user experience, Vizio said.

Futuresource sees global 4K TV shipments reaching 100 million units in 2018, when they’ll be just under 40 percent of the total TV market, the research company said Friday in a report. That’s based on a 72 percent compound annual growth rate for the next four years, it said. For 2014, the company sees 11.6 million 4K sets shipping globally, up nearly 700 percent from the relatively few sets shipped in 2013, it said. China will account for more than 70 percent of worldwide demand this year, with Western Europe 10 percent and North America 8 percent, it said. "An indication that 4K is quickly becoming mainstream was the availability of many sets at discounted prices during last month's Black Friday," Futuresource said. Sales of 4K TVs are expected to be concentrated on the bigger screen sizes, generally 50 inches and larger, but screens below 40 inches will become more widely available with 4K in the coming years, particularly in markets outside North America, it said: "Native 4K content remains scarce and many consumers are currently buying sets on the basis that they can upscale HD content and will be future-proof, in preparation for when native 4K content is more widely available."

Comcast launched Xfinity in UHD, an Ultra HD on-demand programming app for Samsung Ultra HD TVs, Comcast said in a Thursday announcement. Debuting with full current seasons of TV shows from NBC and USA Network, the Xfinity in UHD app library will continue to expand with on-demand programming "across multiple networks and studios and is completely free to Xfinity TV customers whose video subscription includes participating networks," Comcast said. Xfinity TV customers who own 2014 Samsung UHD TVs can download the app, log in and immediately begin streaming episodes of Chicago Fire (NBC), and Suits and Covert Affairs (USA), with Parks and Recreation (NBC) to debut in February, it said. The Comcast deal is Samsung’s second exclusive partnership on Ultra HD content delivery in as many months, following its mid-November agreement with DirecTV on the launch of 4K VOD content (see 1411130039).

Public broadcasters in the Czech Republic (Ceska televize) and Slovakia (Radio and Television Slovakia) will begin test transmissions of Ultra HD under a collaboration with satellite provider SES, the companies said Monday in a joint announcement. Ceska televize said it believes Ultra HD adoption "will be much faster than HD and is eager to make sure it arrives soon in the Czech Republic."

THX launched a new 4K interconnect certification program for passive and active cables capable of supporting HDMI 2.0 bandwidth requirements and beyond, the company said in a Monday announcement. The need for the program cropped up when THX engineers began testing Ultra HD TVs and found that "common cables" that performed "flawlessly" with HD content began showing "faults" when attempting to pass higher-bandwidth 4K test material, it said. "This discovery led THX to launch a program focused on identifying the current and future capabilities of HDMI cables and their potential effects on 4K entertainment experiences. Our finding is that a significant portion of HDMI cables available today, specifically in lengths of five meters and greater, can demonstrate faults when passing high bandwidth content such as 4K 60fps." The Australian brand Kordz is the first to land THX certification for its HDMI cables, THX said. But "due to the extremely stringent specifications THX expects only a small percentage of current HDMI interconnects to pass certification testing," it said.

SES plans a Feb. 12 Ultra HD conference in London to focus on sorting "out the reality from the hype," the satellite provider said Thursday. The conference will feature keynote speeches and panels on such issues as whether broadcasters will "go for 4K now, or wait for 8K in a few years," and whether the "significant boom" in Ultra HD TV set sales is "being driven by consumer ‘PULL' or manufacturers ‘PUSH,'" SES said. Speakers for the conference include representatives from the BBC, Cisco, the EBU, Ericsson, Samsung, Sky Deutschland and Sony Professional, in addition to those from SES, it said. SES has been active in early Ultra HD broadcast experimentation. The Linkin Park concert Nov. 19 at the O2 World Berlin arena was the world’s first live concert broadcast via satellite encoded in HEVC with a resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels, 50 frames a second and a 10-bit color depth, said SES and Samsung, which teamed up for the event (see 1411130035).

A rather stellar Conn’s report on Ultra HD sales performance for the month of November was buried beneath the disclosures of poor credit risk oversight Tuesday that caused the retailer’s shares to plummet 40 percent and see its chief financial officer depart the company with little warning (see 1412100040). November same-store sales of TVs at Conn’s increased 6 percent, CEO Theo Wright said on an earnings call Tuesday. That put TVs on par with the 7 percent Q3 same-store sales rise in furniture and mattresses, the categories Conn’s flocked to years ago as a hedge against declines in CE sales. "The Black Friday weekend was outstanding," Wright said. "Television sales trends reversed and TV comps were positive for the weekend with a strong Ultra HD performance." Ultra HD "is the big winner for us so far in the holiday period," Wright said, citing two models of curved Samsung Ultra HD sets that recorded "higher sales in one month than any other SKU in the company's history. We're excited to see a new television technology that is generating consumer enthusiasm. With prices below $2,000 and larger screen sizes, we could see a meaningful replacement cycle."

Consumers who snatched up 4K TVs in Black Friday deals have more Ultra HD content to watch on them. Amazon announced Tuesday that its long-awaited Ultra HD streaming content is now available to Amazon Prime customers, for free under their $99 annual membership fee, and starting at $19.99 per movie for non-Prime members. Amazon Ultra HD content currently available includes the Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live! Concert -- sponsored by LG -- along with original series from Amazon including Alpha House and Transparent. Other 4K content available on Amazon includes Orphan Black from the BBC; and Sony Pictures movies such as After Earth, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; and This Is the End. Amazon Ultra HD movies and TV shows can be accessed on compatible Ultra HD smart TVs, “including models from LG, Samsung and Sony, with more added next year,” said Amazon. It didn’t immediately respond to questions about compatibility with other brands or streaming media players.

Early Ultra HD consumer satisfaction grades are high, Strategy Analytics said in a report Tuesday, citing the results of online canvassing it did last month of 2,000 U.S. adults. Consumer awareness of Ultra HD is "growing steadily," and 93 percent of those polled who said they have seen the technology found it extremely or somewhat impressive, the company said. Respondents who are aware of the term "Ultra HD" rose from 39 percent in January to 57 percent in November, it said. Awareness of other terms such as "4K TV" and "UHD" also jumped, but remains lower than that of "Ultra HD," it said. Twenty-three percent of respondents claimed to have watched TV or video on an Ultra HD TV, either in a retail store, in a home or elsewhere, it said. Of those who have seen it, 53 percent rated the video quality as "extremely impressive" and 40 percent as "somewhat impressive," it said. "These are extremely high ratings for any new technology," said David Mercer, the company’s principal analyst, who wrote the report. "That nearly everyone who has seen an Ultra HD TV is impressed is very encouraging for TV manufacturers and retailers and bodes well for a strong end to the 2014 holiday season."

Finalizing for Version 7.0 of the Energy Star TV spec "allowance" that permits 4K TVs still to be Energy Star-certified if they consume up to 50 percent more incremental power than comparably sized and featured regular HD sets (see 1412040035), the EPA resisted a call from some to designate a similar "adder" in Version 7.0 for 8K TVs, the agency said in documents released last week. The agency said two commenters lobbied EPA during the yearlong process to devise Version 7.0 so that 8K TVs "could benefit from the same UHD adder as 4K as long as there is no maximum resolution limit on the adder." EPA sided with three others who didn’t support creating Energy Star allowances for 8K TV in Version 7.0. EPA "is not providing a separate allowance for 8K Ultra HD at this time, given the limited amount of available data and limited number of products that are currently 8K," the agency said. "EPA will continue to monitor the market going forward to determine the appropriateness of such an adder." Though EPA won’t formally declare the Version 7.0 TV spec finished until late December, the agency already has begun looking beyond Version 7.0 toward the next revision, Verena Radulovic, CE product manager for Energy Star at the EPA, told us in a Monday email. "We typically do a full revision (in this case, it would be Version 8.0) when we are making changes that impact qualification of currently eligible models, such as the stringency of the power consumption limits," Radulovic said. "However, if we expand the scope of the spec without impacting current qualification of eligible models, then we are able to do a .1 revision (7.1)." When it comes to how to account for Energy Star treatment of 8K if and when it arrives on the market, "we will have to see what data comes in over the coming year or two in order to make the determination of whether we would do a .1 revision or if we would fold in consideration of 8K TVs into a full specification revision," Radulovic said. As for the life expectancy of a new TV spec version until the development of the next version, "typically," she said, "we evaluate the TV specification at least 18 months from the time we finalize a specification revision to determine if it is ready for another revision based on the number of available ENERGY STAR models in the marketplace."