Looked at objectively, the images on Samsung's curved, Ultra HD TV sets do live up to their name.
When Samsung streams custom-made 4K content, which is four times more detailed than 1080p, on any of the sets (which range from 55-inches to a room-swallowing 105-inches), the effect is surreal (or perhaps, "hyper real"). However 4K content is still in short supply, even with all the 20th Century Fox content Samsung is promising to deliver on a 1 terabyte drive ($299). What about Joe T.V. Watcher, sitting at home with his HD feed from the local cable company? How will his picture look?
See also: 4K vs. HD: Here's the Difference
We posed that question and a few others on some pressing issues facing the next big wave of HD TV technology to Samsung SVP Joe Stinziano, who spoke to Mashable shortly after the company gave a closer and more detailed look at its upcoming Ultra HD TV line, including a group of curved displays, some new 4K content options and a few new sound devices. Stinziano was also, famously, Michael Bay's counterpart at the CES keynote that will go down in history.
Standing in the cavernous Guggenheim Museum atrium, right above where Stinziano made his presentation to press, the Samsung exec promised that, thanks to some pretty intense upscaling technology, the 1080i content from your cable or fiber company will actually look better on Samsung's UHD TVs. That sounds great. Of course, there's no way for us to know if that's true (Samsung has never shown the sets running a standard HD feed) until we get a UHD TV in at Mashable HQ and hook it up to a Time Warner Cable feed.

Image: Mashable, Christina Ascani

Stinziano also shared the based prices for the smallest UHD TV, a 55-inch $2,500 model and talked a bit about the sound limitations of these ultra-thing devices.
Samsung spent some time on Thursday talking about the Shape sound system it introduced last year (they have a new design option) and the new Sound Stand, a 1.5-inch audio device that can sit under 55-inch UHD. Joe admitted that sound really needs air to be powerful and these flat TVs simply don't provide the space. Hence, the sound systems.
You can hear more of Stinziano's comments and get a closer look at the new UHD TVs in the video above.
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.