4K prices drop to lowest yet

 By Devin Brown

For the first time, 4K LED TV prices are expected to fall for the holidays starting on Black Friday. This will be the first time, according to Utah dealers, 4K TV prices drop below $1500.

Utah dealers from Sony, Samsung and LG said they can get the same prices as “big box” stores. Many believe the price drop is a good thing for consumers. According to some AV integrators, 4K is the next replacement to 1080p HDTVs.

In this image released by RC Willey, it shows the Sony 4K in their ad. (RC Willey)

BrandSource is one of the nation’s largest buying groups – a purchasing group that represents multiple small business dealers across the country. Chad Evans, a sales representative for Brandsource’s electronic division ProSource, said this is the first time 4K has been affordable to most Americans.

Evans said in previous years retailers had 4K TVs in Black Friday ads but they were still too “expensive.” He said 4K prices from last year were “three times” the prices now.

“One of the reasons there weren’t very many 4K sales was that manufactures didn’t have the inventory,” Evans said. “This is the first year that they actually have a surplus of TVs available.”

Joseph Bodell, a sales manager at Custom Sound Company in Salt Lake City, Utah, said he’s not excited for the holidays but he’s glad prices on 4K TVs are dropping.

“As manufactures drop prices we’ll meet them,” Bodell said. “We might not have them in stock but we can order them in.”

Bodell said Custom Sound has to match prices with Best Buy and RC Willey to stay competitive. He said the company’s profit margin on 4K TVs is still higher than 1080p TVs.

Jim Young, the president of AVI Systems in Draper, Utah, said 4K is the solution to a “noisy” picture from 1080p TVs.

LED HDTVs, according to Young, were only designed to be used on smaller screen sizes. Young said TV companies use 1080p formats on TVs as large as 90”.

“4K fixes the distortion that you get with 1080p,” Young said. “Nowadays we have a lot of people sitting close to TVs in apartments and condos. With 4K you won’t see all the imperfections like 1080p.”

Young said if he has customers who want a big picture larger than 80” he’ll try to sell them a projector with a high reflection screen – a better reflection will give the viewer a better picture. He said AVI can do projector and screen installations for the same cost as large LED TVs.

In this image released by Best Buy, it shows Best Buy's Black Friday ad. (Best Buy)

AVI will match prices on 4K TVs, must be same model, but it doesn’t plan on making its customers wait in a line for a TV.

“We’ll order the TV for you,” Young said. “We’re all about custom AV. If a customer wants a 4K model from RC Willey we can either match their price or beat it.”

Young said his company doesn’t plan on advertising any sales for 4K. He said he sends his customers to RC Willey to find which TV they like then he will order it from a distributor.

According to BlackFriday.com, advertised 4K TV sales for Utah showed most were from Samsung, LG and Sony. Best Buy, Sam’s Club and RC Willey will have 40" to 65” 4K TVs on sale. Prices vary from $599.99 to $2499.99.