A Philips-branded Ultra High Definition TV should be announced by the end of the year, with parent company TP Vision targeting the IFA show in Berlin to reveal the existence what will likely be the new flagship 9000-series model.
There's currently no 4K TV model in the Philips range - it's flagship 8008 has a 1,920x1,080 resolution, putting the company behind the likes of Samsung, LG, Toshiba and Sony in the Ultra HD stakes. However, rather than rush out a "Me too" set to compete for early adopters, TP Vision is firmly focused on perfecting 4K upscaling before it launches a 4K TV. After all, with so little 4K content and no transmission standards currently in place, the majority of Ultra HD TVs are going to be playing upscaled 1080p video for the foreseeable future.
We saw an early prototype of the proposed set at TP Vision's Dutch headquarters, with the image processing being handled by a computer rather than on a chip inside the TV. It was upscaling both still images and 1080p video to full 4K resolution, sharpening edges and significantly improving picture definition, whether you were sat directly in front of the screen or several feet away.
Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures of the pre-production panel, but suffice to say 1080p content looked incredibly detailed once the upscaling magic had been applied.
We have learnt the set will ship with a screen size larger than the 60in panel being used for our demonstration - with 84in a possibility based on the displays currently in production from other manufacturers. 3D support is also practically guaranteed, although we don't know if this will be active or passive 3D - Philips TVs are available with both versions.
Although these panels are capable of displaying 4K footage at 60 frames per second, the current HDMI standard will only allow for 30fps video to be transmitted from a 4K media player. We'll have to wait until later in the year to see if the HDMI specification will be updated with greater 4K support.
There's a long way to go until we'll see a Philips 4K TV on sale - possibly at the tail end of the year but more likely early 2014. Even so, we're excited to see its progress and will be keeping an eye out for further details at IFA in August.
