UKC

Are 4K Tv's worth it?

my 8 year old TV has gone pop so will be buying a new one tomorrow or monday. Question is should I go for the 4K version or will I be wasting money? Thinking future proof etc as sky, bbc, netflix, amazon prime etc all services I use either currently offering or gearing up for 4k/Ultra HD broadcasting and services.

Has anyone got a 4K tv at the minute would you advise that I just pay the extra now?

went to the TV store today and compared a number of non 4ks against 4k TVs and to my eye the picture quality was noticeable.

In reply to Alan M:

4 grand for a telly?

In reply to Jon Stewart:
I wish I had that sort of money to blow on a TV just to clarify 4K resolution as in Ultra HD

In reply to Alan M:

Personally I'd hold off on a 4K TV for a few years yet. There aren't that many channels airing 4K stuff at the moment.

And with the resolution of the TV, anything that is not 4K, such as standard TV, will look pants as it is scaled up to fit on the telly.

However if money is no object, then go for it.

In reply to Jon Stewart:


I think you may be confused. The proposed TV is not in the £4,000 price bracket but rather more to do with the resolution of 4K. I could be wrong though and its a fook-off expensive telly.

In reply to The Lemming:




That is what I was thinking, its a bit like when HD first came out very few things actually broadcast or needed a Full HD TV for the 1st few years apart from blue rays etc. The position I'm in is that my current TV went bang on Friday so I need to replace it the question is do I buy a HD tv or do I pay the extra now and get the 4K TV for when Sky and BBC (90% of my tv viewing) start broadcasting. Netflix and Amazon are broadcasting 4K content now and I use their service so could make use of some 4k services.

What ever I buy now will be with me until it goes bang won't be buying another next year or 2 years down the line etc

In reply to Alan M:

I would go 4k, the Samsung curved ones are getting some fantastic reviews and as you say whatever you get is going to be with you for a long time.
My mum is still using my original plasma screen and it's 13 years old now, I only replaced it because I wanted HD and my current screen is coming up on 10 years old but I can't justify changing it till it dies (hopefully soon because a 50 inch 720p screen doesn't cut it compared to the new stuff)
I wouldn't worry about non 4k content looking crap, size for size HD will look as good or better than your current screen and upscaling is getting better and better anyway.

In reply to Dax H:


I had a Sony trinitron for 20 years. My eyesight went before it did. A good no-nonesense telly.
My new wide-screen is still rather a delight to watch though, even after a year. Almost like going to the cinema in my armchair.

In reply to Alan M:

I'd build a fire in my garden and watch that instead! Then use the money to go somewhere
But that's just me!

In reply to mikekeswick:



You paint a nice picture but unfortunately I'm on the 1st floor of a block of flats! The go somewhere is already covered a sun holiday coming up followed by a week in the mountains

In reply to mikekeswick:

So it's you that persists in lighting fires on nice summer evenings, making everyone else shut themselves up indoors with the windows closed boiling to death, as smoke billows across the neighbourhood!

Thanks!

In reply to Dax H:

Read a few reviews last night convinced myself that 4k is the way to go.

Those curved tvs do look good, though I think they only work for big screen sizes 50" plus etc

In reply to The Lemming:
>And with the resolution of the TV, anything that is not 4K, such as standard TV, will look pants as it is scaled up to fit on the telly.

I've got a samsung 4k tv (not the curved one). The clarity contrast are awesome. The upscaling from HD to UHD is pretty good. I think you'd be hard pressed to tell that most the picture was 'made up' by the tv. Watching low def stuff like old skool Buffy, you notice it. I expect that you'd notice it on HD as well.
http://www.rtings.com/info/4k-ultra-hd-uhd-vs-1080p-full-hd-tvs-and-upscali...

One thing I've found is that some shows eg: GoT use compression for transmission over the net. So even though the original is HD by the time it gets to you, its been compressed possibly more than once (at the IP layer and and at the application layer). In some cases you can see artefacts. For example grey smoke over a dark background, you can see banding in the grey which means that instead of millions of shades its been reduced.

Native 4k video does look fantastic. Youtube and netflix have some good content. Though after the first 5 mins, you stop looking at the detail and richness of the colour and 'just watch telly'.

I bought it for the IP services really, and the fact it talks to my phone so I can play music, pics and vids. I can't say that 4k has made my life different or that I'm a better person for it. It's just a tv, after all. Though of course, no one watches tv these days.

In reply to XXXX:


Aye, my freshly washed shirts smell like a 40 a day habit...but I suppose Mrs Num Num's nickers will end up smelling like kippers.

In reply to Alan M:
The frameless TV's look a lot smaller in person.
Mine is a 50 with a 2 inch border round it on all sides, the modern 50's though the screen size is the same look physically like a 42 to me.
It's all down to how much room and how much you want to spend.

In reply to Dax H:


Through the course of my day at work I go into a lot of houses and see a lot of TVs. It can be quite comical to see a huge TV overpower a tiny room. Some of these TVs have a similar width to my arm span and the owners sit roughly the same viewing distance away from the sets.

My 32 inch TV looks microscopic compared to some of these beasts however I am sitting 3 metres away from my screen and I can see the content perfectly.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Cough an LG 4K OLED is 4K @ 55"

More and more stuff is now being done in 4K think Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and YouTube etc. I guess if you can afford a 4K TV then why not?

In reply to Alan M:

I wouldn't bother, if you find yourself concentrating on the minutiae of the picture quality while watching a film then you should probably just turn it off as the film's obviously not good enough to get/keep you interested.

Also, in a few years you'll probably be able to get a better quality 4k the for little more than the difference between the normal hd and 4k TVs now. Anyone remember people buying £1,500 plasma TVs?

In reply to Alan M:

A few years ago, a similar question might have been 'should I buy a 3D TV?'...

I'm not convinced by the curved TVs; images are captured onto a flat focal plane, and should be projected onto a flat surface, otherwise geometric distortion will occur. If 1D curvature is good, 2D curvature must be better, right...? Then there's the issue of viewing angle; not great for a family TV. I fear that curved TVs are the result of technology gone mad; it can be done, so let's do it, regardless of whether it's a good idea.

The UHD pictures are very impressive, but, as pointed out above, don't you watch TV for the programme conten, the story, rather than the amazing picture?

I have a freeview HD receiver box. I connected it to my 40" 1080p TV for a while, but when I needed the HDMI port for something else, I packed it away, and don't miss it.

Smart TV? Not enough apps, not updated regularly, bizarre, non-standard UI, will be obsolete very quickly, adds disproportionate expense. An external media box is cheaper, more open a more familiar, and can be replaced.

In reply to gethin_allen:


My first plasma was a 42 Panasonic screen only, no speakers or tuner for 5k. That's the one I gave my mum when I upgraded to HD about 7 years ago. That was 2k for a 50 720p plasma.
If I was changing today it would definitely be 4k and I would be running a side by side comparison between a flat and curved screen to see what I preferred.
Looking at the specifications and tests and reviews etc my gut feeling is 2 grand gives the best bang for the buck.

In reply to captain paranoia:


This Smart TV only costs £30.

http://www.google.co.uk/intl/en_uk/chrome/devices/chromecast/?utm_source=go...

In reply to The Lemming:

That's not a smart TV; that's an external smart device, just what I am suggesting you should get.

A 'smart TV' is a TV with the 'smart' bit built in.

In reply to captain paranoia:

I have a quite decent led hd tv, having only moved out of the Stone Age a couple of years ago and I do still find myself looking at how nice the picture is for its own sake.

As one of my daughter's friends said, "it's like looking through a window"

In reply to Alan M:

youtube.com/watch?v=4xQb9Kl-O3E&

Get one of these and wind the wife and kids up?