sharp 32-inch 4k igzo lcd monitors price

Sharp Corporation will introduce into the Japanese market a new 32-inch-class LCD monitor, the PN-K322B. This professional-use monitor features an originally developed high-sensitivity, high-precision touchscreen and delivers 4K resolution (3,840 × 2,160 pixels)-a level of resolution four times that of full HD.

The PN-K322B is Sharp"s latest ultra-high-definition display. Its high-precision touchscreen allows accurate onscreen handwriting of fine text and lines, with writing performed via a dedicated touch pen with a pen-tip width of just 2 mm. The display also supports multi-touch operation.

Thanks to IGZO technology and an edge-lit LED backlight, the PN-K322B boasts a slender profile with a thickness of just 36 mm*2-the thinnest in its class. An included stand allows the monitor to slide easily between two angles depending on the application: vertical for viewing the monitor or low-angle for onscreen writing and touchscreen operation.

The PN-K322B features a palm cancellation function that prioritizes pen input even when the user"s hand is resting on the touchscreen. Input connectors on the PN-K322B are compatible with the latest DisplayPort™ and HDMI™ interface specifications, enabling the monitor to display*3 4K ultra-HD content delivered from a PC via a single-cable connection.

Demand for ultra-high-definition 4K displays is growing for numerous business and professional applications such as graphic and video content creation and editing. To further grow demand for 4K displays, Sharp will propose usage applications in other fields too, such as in customer service applications at retailers and showrooms or in exhibition displays at museums and art galleries.

*1 IGZO monitors were developed jointly for mass production by Sharp and Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd. IGZO and the IGZO logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sharp Corporation.

When you"re surrounded by huge 4K TVs cranked to retina-damaging brightness, it"s easy to get desensitized to the high resolution. But, when you are standing in front of a 32-inch monitor (31.5-inch to be exact) at that same resolution, it"s a whole different story. In the gargantuan halls of CES, Sharp is showing off the 4K-resolution low-power IGZO LCD panels it announced November last year. They had two touchscreen versions on show -- one for Windows 7 and another for Windows 8 -- as well as one non-touch model. The touch versions were also slightly different in that you can lie them horizontally if you need to. Honestly, the resolution and color reproduction on the panels were absolutely incredible. They looked so good, in fact, that I fantasized about tearing it from the table and making a break for it, if only for a second.

That"s the only way I could end up "owning" one, as the non-touch model will be "at least" $5500 when it launches in February, and the touch models will be "at least" $1000 more when they arrive sometime in Q2. They aren"t really intended for general consumption, anyway, but for the medical sector, serious design pros and other commercial uses. The pics we got of them can be found in the gallery below, but unfortunately, it was hard to do the displays justice in the crowded, dimly lit Sharp den. %Gallery-175376%

Sharp has unveiled a new monitor powered by their ultra-thin IGZO technology that delivers an incredibly high resolution in a very sleek looking package. The professional-grade 32-inch (when measured diagonally, of course) PN-K321 display features a 4K resolution of 3,840 x 2,160 but you"ll need some pretty deep pockets if you want to bring one home (or, to the office).

The screen also includes DisplayPort and HDMI ports, we"re told. Sharp says this will be the thinnest 4K monitor on the market, measuring just 35mm thick. That"s largely thanks to the IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) technology named after the semiconducting material used to create it. This is the same process that Apple was rumored to be using on the iPhone 5 before it launched.

Sharp plans to use IGZO in a number of upcoming devices like tablets and smartphones. They will likely be showcasing the new monitor during the Consumer Electronics Show in January as it isn"t expected to be released until sometime in February.

LAS VEGAS--Sharp kicked off its media event at the 2013 International CES on Monday by revealing the future of the electronics giant"s display portfolio.

Specifically, that strategy is being spearheaded by IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) technology as Sharp unveiled a 32-inch 4K resolution IGZO LCD monitor.

Kozo Takahashi, executive vice president of Sharp Corporation, remarked during Monday"s press conference that IGZO is the "key to future of next-generation organic LED (OLED) displays."

But IGZO isn"t being reserved just for TVs as executives highlighted new mobile devices sporting IGZO screens that were already unveiled in Japan last year.

Takahashi asserted that Sharp "will be first company to mass produce IGZO," but he acknowledged that "IGZO wasn"t made by Sharp alone." He cited Corning -- the maker of Gorilla Glass -- in particular as a major partner to help produce these IGZO displays for TVs, smartphones and tablets.

Sharp’s professional-use PN-K321 LCD monitor heralds an entirely new generation of displays that incorporate Sharp’s cutting-edge IGZO* technology. This technology offers two major advantages: extraordinarily high resolution and energy efficiency. At 3,840 x 2,160 pixels (4K Ultra-HD), the PN-K321 boasts four times the resolution of 1080p full HD. Users can now view the content of four full HD screens on a single, seamless display. This super-high resolution makes the monitor ideally suited to a wide range of professional applications in settings where detailed information needs to be displayed with tremendous precision. IGZO technology supports increased pixel transparency and reduced current leakage, resulting in lower power consumption.

The PN-K321 owes its stylish and slender design to IGZO technology and edge-lit LED backlighting. Measuring only about 35 mm at its thickest point, this sleek and lightweight monitor blends in effortlessly in almost any location. The PN-K321 comes with a stand and offers a choice of landscape or portrait installation*, allowing users to select the mode that best suits their display content and application.

On Wednesday Sharp introduced the PN-K321, a 32-inch professional LCD monitor featuring the company"s IGZO technology, a 3840 x 2160 (4K2K) resolution, and the industry"s thinnest profile design to date. So far pricing and availability is unknown, but the company said that it plans to unleash this display into the Japanese market first.

"The PN-K321 is Sharp"s latest ultra-high-definition display and features smaller transistors (TFTs) in the LCD panel compared to conventional displays, thereby increasing the amount of transmitted light per pixel," the company said. "Because 4K2K displays enable clear, crisp display of large amounts of information ranging from small text to detailed images on one screen, they boost operational efficiency by sparing users the need to scroll frequently."

Sharp said the upcoming 4K2K display features a main body approximately 35-mm deep thanks to Sharp"s IGZO technology. This tech is defined as "a semiconducting material which can be used as the channel for a transparent thin-film transistor." It replaces amorphous silicon for the active layer of an LCD screen, and offers smaller pixels to produce the higher resolution.

"Demand for ultra-high-definition 4K2K displays is forecast to grow for numerous business and professional applications, including creating and editing graphics and video, financial-related operations requiring intensive use of graphs and small text, and CAD services for displaying detailed drawings," the company said on Wednesday.

This new 4K2K display won"t land on Japanese retail shelves until February 15, 2013, so don"t expect to see it in the States until next spring at the earliest.

Today, Sharp unveiled the professional-use PN-K321 monitor, which boasts a 4K resolution of 3840×2160 and measures 32 inches diagonally. It"s also powered by Sharp"s ultra-thin IGZO technology to make for a ridiculously high-resolution but thin and sleek display. However, the new display comes with a hefty price tag of $5,500.

The 32-inch display with the 3840×2160 resolution works out to 137ppi, which doesn"t quite match the Retina MacBook Pro"s 220ppi, but the display should look pretty stunning once it becomes available. It"s expected to released in February 2013 in Japan for a price of 450,000 yen, but no word on release dates for the US and other countries — we should hear more on that front at CES in January.

The display has both HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, and Sharp claims that it"s the industry"s thinnest 4K monitor at just 35mm thick. That"s thanks to the company"s IGZO display technology, which is named after the indium gallium zinc oxide semiconductor on which the technology is based. The company plans to implement the new tech in a wide range of devices in the future, including smartphones and tablets.

IGZO is also a great technology because it uses less power than current LCD displays and it can prolong battery life in mobile devices. 4K displays are still in their infancy, and they most likely won"t hit mainstream for another couple of years, and with the prices the way they are for 4K screens, you can expect to wait a few years before you could really afford one in your living room or on your desk.

Sharp is jumping on the "ultrahigh definition" bandwagon by introducing two super-clear TVs and one ultra-HD computer monitor that will give PC users something to brag about to Apple fans in love with the high-resolution Retina display.

At the annual International CES gadget show in Las Vegas, Sharp is showing off a 32-inch monitor that uses its IGZO technology, based on a semiconductor material called indium gallium zinc oxide.

Sharp Corp. touts IGZO for its high resolution, low power, and very accurate touch response. The monitor measures 3,840-by-2,160 pixels, giving it about 8.3 million pixel. Apple"s largest MacBook Pro with Retina display boasts 5.2 million pixels on a 15.4-inch screen.

I still think 4K should mean 4### x ####JizzlerNice. Now I really hope I win Powerball tomorrow!Haha me too $500 mill would be nice, I never play, but I"m gonna give it a try.

The price really doesn"t worry me, at all. Remember when 1080p TVs used to cost just as much? It really wasn"t that long ago, like 4-5 years... Now you can buy one for under 500$ and I think the same will happen with 4k monitors - people are tired of 1080p and want 4k, but not at prices like that, so sooner or later they will drop the prices so they actually sell these beasts. :D

Master_of_TimeThe price really doesn"t worry me, at all. Remember when 1080p TVs used to cost just as much? It really wasn"t that long ago, like 4-5 years... Now you can buy one for under 500$ and I think the same will happen with 4k monitors - people are tired of 1080p and want 4k, but not at prices like that, so sooner or later they will drop the prices so they actually sell these beasts. :DEXACTLY... 1080p will be around for a bit, but this price will of course drop as well. :toast:

Sharp’s professional-use PN-K321 LCD monitor heralds an entirely new generation of displays that incorporate Sharp’s cutting-edge IGZO* technology. This technology offers two major advantages: extraordinarily high resolution and energy efficiency. At 3,840 x 2,160 pixels (4K Ultra-HD), the PN-K321 boasts four times the resolution of 1080p full HD. Users can now view the content of four full HD screens on a single, seamless display. This super-high resolution makes the monitor ideally suited to a wide range of professional applications in settings where detailed information needs to be displayed with tremendous precision. IGZO technology supports increased pixel transparency and reduced current leakage, resulting in lower power consumption. * IGZO (InGaZnO) is an oxide comprising indium (In), gallium (Ga), and zinc (Zn). Thin and Stylish The PN-K321 owes its stylish and slender design to IGZO technology and edge-lit LED backlighting. Measuring only about 35 mm at its thickest point, this sleek and lightweight monitor blends in effortlessly in almost any location. The PN-K321 comes with a stand and offers a choice of landscape or portrait installation*, allowing users to select the mode that best suits their display content and application. * The monitor must be unscrewed from the stand when switching between landscape and portrait installations. 4K Ultra-High Resolution The small size of semiconductors made with IGZO technology enables smaller-sized pixels, which in turn provide stunning high resolution. Simple, Advanced Interface The PN-K321 supports both DisplayPort and HDMI. 4K Ultra-HD video signals can be transmitted via a single easy-connecting, clutter-reducing cable. MST Mode for 4K Ultra-HD Video at 60 fps The PN-K321 supports MST (Multi-Stream Transport) mode as specified by the DisplayPort 1.2 standard. A single DisplayPort cable can transfer 3,840 x 2,160 video signals at 60 fps, re

Sharp announced two new 4K LCD monitors, which will display images at close to four times the overall resolution of traditional 1080p high-definition monitors available Monday.

The new 32-inch LCD monitor series will display images at a 3840 by 2160-pixel resolution, Sharp announced at the International CES show in Las Vegas. The monitors will be available in touch and non-touch models, and pricing was not immediately available.

Sharp refers to the new class of ultra-high resolution displays as UltraHD, which is the standard name being adopted for the next generation of high-definition TVs and displays. Sharp also said it is will show off a prototype UltraHD TV set at CES.

UltraHD TVs are also referred to as 4K TVs and made a splash at last year’s IFA trade show in Berlin with companies such as Sony and LG announcing TV sets with ultra-high resolutions. More UltraHD announcements are expected at CES with companies like Toshiba, LG and Samsung set to announce new TVs.

Sharp’s new monitors will have two HDMI (high-definition multimedia interface) and one DisplayPort port. The monitors will use IGZO (Indium Gallium Zinc Oxide) technology, which improve the responsiveness and brightness of displays, according to the company. The 4K monitors will be particularly useful for specific applications requiring high-definition graphics, such as video editing and computer-aided design.

As part of its new 2013 TV lineup, Sharp also announced close to 20 Aquos high-definition TVs, with a standard feature being the ability to browse the Web and watch movies from Internet streaming services like Netflix. The 6-, 7-, 8-Series Aquos TVs will have Wi-Fi, and support Flash and HTML5 web content.

With a thickness of 35mm, Sharp releases PN-K321 -a  professional-grade 32-Inch panel with a 4K/ 3,840 x 2160 resolution. The panel comes with 137 PPI pixel density as pointed out by

The panel uses DisplayPort and HDMI as input. Sharp says that this is the thinnest 4K panel in the market because the panel uses Indium gallium zinc oxide (hencce IGZO) technology.

Apple has made clear its intent to support ultra high-resolution displays with the latest Mac and OS X products, but without a 4K display of its own (yet) the company sells only one UHD monitor as a go-along with its flagship Mac Pro: Sharp"s PN-K321.

Still largely the domain of professionals and well-heeled prosumers, 4K displays are expensive and often considered overkill for the everyday consumer. In fact, with the current OS X 10.9.2, browsing the Web and checking email on a 3,840-by-2,160 pixel monitor is a less than ideal experience.

From resolution to color gamut, these ultra high-definition monitors — specifically the 32-inch Sharp PN-K321 — offer specs far surpassing those of mass produced displays, and for that you pay a premium. They are tools, not consumption devices.

Being a monitor targeted at professionals, the Sharp puts function over form. This is not to say the display is ugly, but its unassuming exterior design and no-frills construction may make it less appealing to the average user accustomed to flashing lights and glossy screens.

Where a Dell or Samsung product would have bright front-facing LEDs or a polished bezel, the PN-K321 makes do with matte finishes and a muted color palette. The bezel is neither ultra-slim, nor is it unduly thick, but just the right width to adequately provide support for the 4K panel below.

For those users who prefer portrait orientation, the Sharp can be mounted upright by removing four hex screws on the back of the unit. The setup is more permanent than other products as there is no way to easily switch between landscape and portrait, though we don"t imagine many users will need to do so with such a large screen.

An official number for panel life expectancy is not published, but because it is a professional product, Sharp tells us lifetime is one step below tolerance for a 24/7 duty cycle. Basically, it is more likely that a new resolution standard will be adopted before the monitor needs replacing.

For anyone who hasn"t seen a 4K monitor in action, the Sharp is quite the spectacle. Even for pros accustomed to working with super high resolutions, this display is special and what we would consider best in class.

Sharp was the first manufacturer to successfully roll out efficient indium, gallium, zinc-oxide (IGZO) thin-film transistor technology, which lets more light generated from the LED backlight to pass through the LCD and onto the user. Combined with bright, even edge-lit backlighting and a matte LCD panel, the IGZO PN-K321 offers startling results.

We can"t help but imagine what a full-array backlight with local-dimming would do for color consistency and brightness, though adding such components would no doubt increase thickness, thermal levels and power requirements. As it stands, the IGZO panel, manufactured by Sharp"s Seibi factory in China, grossly outperforms the competition.

Product specifications claim an output of 350 candelas per square meter (cd/m2) and a contrast ratio of 800:1. Compared to other high-density screens we"ve seen (and even some 1080p monitors) the Sharp is noticeably brighter and can easily be viewed even in sunlit rooms.

Perhaps more important than sheer brightness, Sharp did a great job in enhancing backlight transmission without degrading color accuracy, something that has been troublesome for other brands. Without the correct color saturation — and a wide color gamut — a bright display is not even worth looking at for most professional applications.

We ran the usual battery of tests when trying out the Sharp, connected to the all-new redesigned Mac Pro and late-2013 MacBook Pro with Retina display.

In addition, the upcoming maintenance update adds new "pixel-doubling" scaling that solves a lot of the issues we saw in graphical and native app assets. After testing out the new features, we can say 10.9.3 will be a drastic improvement over Mavericks" current 4K support.

As for apps themselves, Final Cut Pro X and Photoshop are joys to use at high resolution. As expected, working with native 4K footage on the Sharp is significantly better than lower resolution displays. Intricate details and flaws are easy to spot, while the huge pixel count offers a large easel on which to work.

We found positive results for Photoshop and Illustrator as well. Once again, the 4K resolution is a boon for detail-minded professionals looking to squeeze perfection out of every pixel of their work. In most cases, we found ourselves manipulating images without the need for in-app magnification as the smallest details were readily apparent.

As for basic apps like Web browsers and Mail clients, the software has not yet caught up to 4K. We saw undersized formatting, font issues and aberrations not befitting UHD displays. OS X 10.9.3 makes things much more usable, however.

Put simply, if you"re in the market for a 4K monitor, Sharp"s PN-K321 is the one to get. Even Apple chose the display to showcase the new Mac Pro"s abilities in its retail locations and is the only 4K display option to "add to cart" when purchasing the new pro-level desktop from the Online Apple Store.

While we did not experiment with older Macs, the PN-K321 takes a powerful graphics card to drive. As noted by Apple, only the new Mac Pro and late-2013 Retina MacBook Pro can officially handle 4K output. As with many cutting-edge products, the display is not built to be an all-around general purpose device and is unlikely to work perfectly with older software and hardware. If you do have the right equipment and suite of professional software, however, Sharp"s monitor is highly recommended.

Overall, after spending some quality time with the PN-K321, we came away with the impression that Sharp"s pro A/V team poured a majority its R&D money into panel tech rather than creature comforts; in bleeding edge display technology, not modern design. Whereas other brands cobble together parts from various manufacturers, Sharp tells us the technology in the PN-K321 — from the IGZO chip to the LCD array — was developed entirely in-house. And we are more than OK with the results.

As a side note, Sharp has just announced a touch-enabled version of the PN-K321, dubbed the PN-K322B, that we are told is shipping out to distribution channels. With an edge-to-edge glass design and funcitonal rocker/slider stand, the multitouch version looks to have a lot of potential. Pricing is set at $4,675.

Sharp"s PN-K321 has a manufacturer"s suggested retail price of $3595 and it"s currently available at only a handful of select online electronics stores. As of press time, the lowest prices we could find were $2,990 from B&H Photo (tax-free outside of NY) and $3,088 from Amazon.com (tax-free outside AZ, CA, KS, KY, MA, NC, NJ, NY, ND, PA, TX, and WA.). It"s also available at MacMall for $3,079.99 (tax-free outside of CA, NY, IL, WI, MN, CO, TN, NC and GA).

Ahead of this month"s debut of the revamped Mac Pro desktop, which can drive up to three 4K displays, Apple is selling a new 4K "Ultra HD" 32-inch LED IGZO monitor from manufacturer Sharp in its online store.

The Sharp PN-K321 4K monitor is currently available in various Apple online stores across Europe for 3,999 euros. It"s also found in the U.K. store, but is not yet available in the U.S.

The 32-inch IGZO display is advertised to have a 1.07-billion color palatte with 350 cd/m2 brightness and an 800-to-1 contrast ratio. It also sports built-in 2-watt-per-channel stereo sound, and supports landscape and portrait modes.

The 4K resolution monitor packs in so many pixels that it"s advertised to be able to view the content of four full-HD 1080p screens across a single display, all while reducing power with the use of IGZO technology. Its availability was first noted on Friday by IDG News Service.

Availability of the 4K display through Apple comes as the company is preparing to launch a revamped cylindrical Mac Pro desktop this month. Apple has boasted that the computer, which will start at $2,999, will be capable of driving up to three 4K screens.

The ability of the Mac Pro to drive three 4K displays has fueled speculation that Apple could update its own Thunderbolt Display to a Retina-caliber 4K resolution. Supply of the Thunderbolt Display has been tight throughout 2013, further driving hopes that an update could be forthcoming, though Apple has unsurprisingly not indicated any such information.

Sharp is currently a player in the nascent UHDTV business, but has also begun manufacturing smaller 4K LCD monitors. One of the first to ship is the PN-K321, a new 32-inch 4K workstation display. This monitor employs edge-lit, light-emitting diode backlight technology, just like all late-model LCD television sets. The actual pixel resolution is 3840 x 2160 pixels, otherwise known as “Quad HD” and the input interfaces are 100 percent digital—no VGA or component video connectors here.

Sharp was the first company to employ indium-gallium-zinc oxide (IGZO) thin-film transistors (TFTs) in their LCD displays. Oxide TFTs have been in development since the 1980s and have many advantages such as smaller size, lower power consumption, and faster switching speeds. They also take up less room on each LC pixel, resulting in a larger aperture ratio. This means more light can pass through the pixel.

This “speed limit” is more of a limitation of the display interfaces—specifically, the HDMI format, which currently can’t handle a 4K signal with greater than an 8-bit color depth and a 30 Hz frame rate. That works out to be about 7.5 Gbps of data passing through each of the two HDMI interfaces. (HDMI 1.4 has a maximum data rate of 10.2 Gbps.)

The Sharp UHD monitor also comes with a DisplayPort input, similarly limited to a 30 Hz refresh rate. You can double up the two HDMI inputs to “stitch” together a Quad HD signal at 60 Hz, or run the DisplayPort input in multistream mode to accomplish the same thing. In effect, you wind up with two desktop images.

I found Sharp’s PN-K321 UHD monitor to be a really intriguing product. It can easily be used as a desktop multiviewer— Sharp has already demonstrated it in a post-production setting at the InfoComm event—and its grayscale and gamma performance, once calibration is performed, proved to be very stable and accurate across a wide dynamic range, making the unit suitable for gamma and color correction applications.

Even though the display’s EDID (extended display identification data) says that its maximum refresh rate for 4K content is 30 Hz, the monitor doubles the rate to 60 Hz—that’s OK for static images, acceptable for static video images, but somewhat iffy for use with fast-motion video. Computer graphics should be fine, as well as the checking of image parameters. Sharp really needs to upgrade the HDMI inputs to v2.0, so that 60 Hz 4K video can be displayed.

After reviewing the Sharp PN-K321 Ultra HD monitor, the CRN Test Center liked its 3,840-x-2,160 resolution for medical imaging, CAD/CAM, video production and other intended applications at a list price of $7,395. But at its new price of $5,250, we like it a whole lot more. With the new list price announced Friday, Sharp expects the PN-K321 to be selling on the street for around $4,000. That"s $1,000 for each of the full HD windows it can display on its single 32-inch IGZO panel.

That"s IGZO, folks, another acronym to start hearing about. IGZO stands for indium gallium zinc oxide, and it was developed by Sharp as a thinner, more translucent and responsive alternative to the amorphous silicon used in most of today"s LCD panels. A thinner active layer means more light can pass through more pixels, which means greater-resolution displays with faster refresh rates that use less energy to run, and require less cabinet space to keep cool.

That"s according to Steve Brauner, senior product line manager for professional displays at Sharp. During a phone briefing with the CRN Test Center, Brauner explained that without a new technology, today"s thin-film transistor (TFT) displays had hit a wall. "To increase the number of pixels, you have to increase the light that goes through," or darken the viewing environment, Brauner said. "That"s why viewing high-resolution X-rays requires a dark room." Each pixel has a transistor behind it, so displays packed with pixels also are packed with light-blocking transistors. "The IGZO TFT dramatically reduces the size of the transistor, allowing more light to pass through," he said.

Side effects of the new technology actually have useful benefits, said Brauner. Aside from reducing the required light intensity, Brauner said that IGZO enables more light to be distributed more evenly to the edges of the screen. The panel also has persistence characteristics that enable it to maintain unchanged portions of the display without the use of the graphics processor. While this characteristic isn"t in play on the desktop, it"s expected to greatly benefit battery-operated devices. Apple is reportedly considering IGZO in its next-gen iPhones.

To test Sharp"s new monitor, the CRN Test Center fired up our latest Haswell-based test fixture, an Intel DZ87KL-75K Extreme Series desktop board wielding an Intel Core i7-4770K 3.5GHz dual-core processor running 64-bit Windows 7 Pro on 4 GB of high-performance RAM. Intel"s latest processor and chipset support the new Thunderbolt spec as well as DisplayPort 1.2. Ultra HD can be driven by anything with DisplayPort 1.2, and Sharp"s monitor also can function through one or both of its HDMI inputs.

The Intel board"s single HDMI port drove Sharp"s new monitor at 30Hz with full resolution. Performance using Intel"s on-board GPU was adequate for displaying graphics and manipulating digital images. The 3,840-x-2,160 images on the Sharp Ultra HD monitor displayed side by side with a very good 1,920-x-1,080 monitor were most striking; the bright colors, sharp contrasts and photo-realism were impressive. But, Intel"s HD Graphics 4600 GPU couldn"t quite keep up with high-resolution video streaming and media playback we were flinging through its HDMI port. Even when playing hi-res media in a single window, we got choppy video and gravelly audio.

Fortunately, Sharp also included an AMD FirePro W600 workstation graphics card for testing. This put the PN-K321 in a whole new light. We opened four windows and put one in each corner. In two of the windows we ran high-resolution videos using the VideoLAN"s VLC 2.0.8 media player. In another, we launched a Blu-ray quality video using Microsoft"s Media Player, and in the fourth, we streamed videos from YouTube. All content ran smoothly, although the cacophony of sounds had us reaching for the mute button.

Next we brought up the CRN Test Center"s standard test images, and after a few adjustments to brightness and contrast, we found Sharp"s Ultra HD to be well within acceptable limits. Gradients of color and black-to-white exhibited no banding, black level and white saturation were visible throughout the spectrum, and sharpness tests were the best we"ve seen.

With HD screens becoming as common as high-end cell phones, we see 4K or Ultra HD as the next logical step in digital-display evolution. And with IGZO technology, Sharp has made major strides, and the CRN Test Center recommends the Sharp PN-K321 at its new price of $5,250. It includes a tilt-swivel stand and three-year warranty. In the channel since March, it"s sold through major tech and pro-video distributors. In addition, the company this week announced the PN-K322B, a 10-point multitouch version with lay-flat stand to be available in the fall; pricing was not disclosed.