Seiki has come up with a unique and effective way to offer consumers a high quality 4K viewing experience at a mass market price. The company pairs good, low-end 4K displays made in China with an HDMI 1.4 cable that contains a high-end up-res converter chip. The booth rep freely said that the 55-inch 4K set (MSRP $899) has a mediocre built-in up-res chip. They licensed Marseille’s high-quality up-res tech and built it into the Seiki-branded HDMI 3.0 cable (MSRP $49) to provide a superior experience at a low price point.

The chip is powered through a separate USB connector that is built into the HDMI cable. The HDMI cable delivers a 4K signal to the set, thereby avoiding the built-in up-res chip.

This solution is Technicolor 4K Image Certified.

Seiki does not have an exclusive deal with Marseille, so any low-end 4K display vendor could also offer this solution.

Seiki offers 65-, 55-, 50- and 40-inch 4K TVs. The company also offers a 39-inch 4K TV on Amazon (MSRP $599). Amazon reported to Seiki that 85 percent of the 39-inch 4K TVs were sold for use as computer monitors.

In our judgment the up-res’d image is remarkably good for the price. The ETC will work to get a demo unit into the Lab for our members to see.