Is Seiki's $1,500 Ultra HD TV a great deal?

There's been a lot of press this week about the cheapest Ultra HD TV announced to date: a 50-inch set (model SE50UY04 ) from a lesser-known brand called Seiki, which is pricing the TV just under $1,500. That's well below the prices we've seen from major brands, including LG, Samsung and Sony brands, for larger-sized sets. But it's also well below Sony's $5,000 55-inch 4K XBR-55X900A, and even the $2,500 Westinghouse says it will charge for its 50-inch set to be launched later this year.

We're in the process of buying one of these new sets, so we'll be able to give you our complete evaluation of the TV after we get it into our labs for testing. But we did have a chance to spend about an hour looking at the set in a hotel suite. Based on this short first look, it seems that Seiki is able to deliver on the primary benefit—enhanced picture detail—of so-called 4K (3840x2160 resolution) TVs, especially when it was playing native 4K content. For our demo, Seiki used a PC with a special 4K video card playing compressed 4K source material, which was encoded in the new HEVC format, also known as H.265.

On the clips we saw (both live-action movies as well as a computer-generated video game), picture detail was razor sharp, even from our relatively close three-foot viewing distance, with no visible pixel structure. Not surprising was that images were not quite as detailed with Blu-ray content that is upconverted to quasi-4K resolution by the TV's internal scaler.

While we have questioned whether or not Ultra HD makes sense sets this size, the extra resolution will allow many people to get a larger screen without changing their seating distance. Seiki told us that they're also prepping an even smaller Ultra HD set in a 39-inch screen size that will be specifically targeted to gamers, timed to arrive about the same time as new 4K-capable game systems such as Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4K. A larger 65-inch version is also slated for the third quarter of this year.

To hit its low price—Tiger Direct was offering the set this week for $1,300 with a coupon code applied—the TV is stripped of features, so there's no Internet, no built-in Wi-Fi, no 3D, and not even a USB port for displaying high-res photos. (There is a USB port but it's relegated to service use.) The set does have a 120Hz refresh rate, but the company didn't invest in a more robust sound system, unlike the Sony, LG and Samsung Ultra HD TV sets we've seen. (It appeared to us that there were just two small speakers.) The company does sell soundbars that cosmetically match the TV, so perhaps they'd prefer for you to buy one. The company does throw in an HDMI cable when you buy the TV.

While we were impressed by the set's heightened detail, one possible concern is the set's limited picture controls, especially for calibrating colors, which can affect overall picture quality. It will be interesting to see if our engineers are able to produce accurate colors from the set using the available controls.

While competition among TV brands is intense, Seiki believes it can fill an under-served niche by giving more budget-conscious TV an affordable Ultra HD option, helping them to future-proof their TV purchase for a time in the near future when Ultra HD content becomes more widely available.

Seiki-brand 1080p LCD TVs are currently available at Sears, Kmart and Amazon; the SE50UY04 Ultra HD TV will initially available from Amazon, QVC, and Tiger Direct. Company executives acknowledge that some buyers may not be completely comfortable buying a TV from a lesser-known brand, so the company is backing all its sets—including the Ultra HD TV—with what it calls a "no-nonsense" one-year replacement warranty. Under the warranty, sets 52 inches or smaller get shipped back (at the buyer's expense) to the company if live tech support can't resolve the issue over the phone; the company pays for return shipping. For larger sets, the company will send a tech to your home if phone support can't resolve the issue, and if the tech can't fix the set it will be replaced.

Although Seiki is the first company to deliver a low-priced Ultra HD set, we expect to see smaller and lower-priced Ultra HD TVs from several other brands in the next few months. We expect to bring several of these sets into our labs for complete testing once they're available, so keep checking back with our blog for updates.