DIRECTV 4K Update: Mid-2017

Boy is this going to be a short article.

DIRECTV is still the leader in 4K television, but that distinction is seeming weaker and weaker since there still hasn’t been any new 4K content announced, not, you know, ever. With three 4K channels, all produced by DIRECTV themselves, DIRECTV leads every other provider in terms of true 4K content. That hasn’t changed, and neither has the fact that while streaming services do offer a lot of 4K content, there’s no guarantee of the quality you’ll get unless you have a 100Mbps connection.

In a recent article DIRECTV’s reps stated that 4K with HDR will be coming in the future, but there’s no firm date for that. There’s plenty of satellite capacity for the super-high bitrates required for true 4K HDR, but so far there isn’t much to show.

I’ll say it now just as I’ve said it in the past, it generally takes a year or two for a 4K channel to really get up and running once it’s announced, and so far there haven’t even been any announcements. That’s where we are at, folks.

I know that there is a lot of demand for 4K among Solid Signal Blog fans, but I think the regular public is probably getting a little tired of waiting for this new technology. At this point 4K televisions are so cheap that you may as well buy one if you’re in the market for a new TV, but if you aren’t, I wouldn’t worry about hanging onto that HDTV for another year.

Anyone want to predict how the next article I write in the winter will go?

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.