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After a week with a 4k TV

22K views 297 replies 62 participants last post by  p5browne 
#1 ·
You're a liar if you say you can't see the difference between 4k & 1080p or you have a crap TV.

65 900b Sony

Now ... I will say I'm not at all wowed by upscaled 1080p... Not at all ....

My st60 blows the Sony away in every facet minus 4k ....

Video games I will admit look sensational ...

However color me meh on 4k tv's ...

Until I can turn my TV on and can watch NFL in live 4k and NHL - 4k is a niche little fun thing to look at once in a blue because 99.9 % of what you watch isn't 4k...

I see no reason to get a 4k TV right now unless you're in dire need of an upgrade ...

Am I regretting this purchase ? No because the 900b is unique in its appearance and the speakers on the side with a sub woofer out is the dogs balls ..
What a beautiful pierce of tech ..


Just wish up scaling was 4k ish - it most certainly is not .
 
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#62 ·
So your saying you can see a difference from 30 feet away. LoL. My ass. Get real. BS. Done to many comparisons in side by side comparisons in real time with exact same content. Not two weeks apart. I have posted up links from Consumer Reports and a half dozen other non bias reports saying Exactly what I have said. You need to sit close to an 80 plus inch 4k TV to see the difference. You bought it. Convince yourself but don't BS others. We have all read the articles saying this. I am particular as they come. A perfectionist to some extent. An eye for detail. Spent hours comparing these sets. Am no 20 something who thinks they it all. I look . I compare. I read everything. My eyes and most every article O have read agree whole heartedly with me. Little to no difference unless your on top of it and no content to speak of now or the foreseeable future. Once these 4ks are the same price and quality of 1080p sets thenit will be like 3d..........along for the ride. Until paying up for this tech is foolish to say the least. 30 feet. lol
 
#63 ·
I have owned most of the technologies being discussed. (Including Plasma)

I just sold my 64pf8500 Samsung Plasma, not because it was no good but because I made money off it.

I now own a Sony 65"900b, and a Samsung 65" JS9000 and a LG 55" OLED (Will be here Tuesday)

4K does make a difference if and only if it is processed correctly and fed a good source.

You feed it Junk you will get Junk (Just like a 1080P set)

If you sit to the side (Off axis) Then stay away from LCD unless you want a IPS screen and then your black levels will be pitiful.

Like it or not 4K sets are here and I can assure you none of the Big Boys will spend much time on the older 1080P tech anymore, not if they want to survive that is.

So like it or not it is here and if you are looking for a new set you will most likely be looking at one.

Now lets just hope that OLED takes off, gets better and affordable then all this BS with LCD will be gone also.

Because it will rule the roost real soon.
 
#65 ·
Seems like these same arguments were made a long time ago with 720p vs 1080p right down to the typical viewing distance talk. I'll take the res bump and the ability to play new formats and be compatible with new specs every time. If you're buying a new TV now and plan to keep for 5 years or more it seems silly to buy a TV that is pretty much obsolete on the shelf.
 
#66 · (Edited)
If you're buying a new TV now and plan to keep for 5 years or more it seems silly to buy a TV that is pretty much obsolete on the shelf.
I'm not sure I agree. 4k is in it's infancy. Past units are not up to new specs. Many guys here that used that reasoning last year when they bought their 4k's are now buying new 4k tv's. Some buying for third year in a row. And guess what they will do next year. TV manufacturers will add some other new trinket in 2016 that can't be put in a one connect, like HDR this year, and they will spend another $4,000 huddling within 20 degrees to watch tv. Right after they send their unit back 2 and 3 times because of clouding, flashlighting, etc.
 
#67 ·
In the early 2000s I bought a 52" projection tv that HAD to be HD because that was the new thing. I have to laugh now thinking how long it was until I had HD sources. Obviously that tv is long gone and it's comical where major providers are with 1080 sources. That said, I'm not rushing into a 4k set. Maybe I'm missing something but I mostly watch live sports so the likelihood something big happens there seems small. On that note, I haven't seen a single 80" tv that doesn't look like total garbage watching live sports...no clue what tvs sine are watching that see anything any differently.
 
#80 ·
if you're in the market for a new TV and not buying 4K you're crazy imo.

especially if your taking about a 1200-2500 budget. I've always been into TV's and HD technology ever since it's beginnings. When i first saw the promo talladega nights bluray that came with the PS3 on release on me friends brand new XBR3, i had never been blown away more in a "step up" in technology than i was with DVD - BR.

With that said, when i purchased my XBR55X850B right before christmas i really didnt know what to expect but we were in the market and it's boxing day price he would give me was $1799. Now that i've had it for 5 months I can without hesitation say this is the best TV i've ever seen in my life. I've always had good models of TV's and two of my good friends Have Had Elite Kuro's for years so i'd say i've got a decent gauge.

Obviously pictures can never do the image justice but this is my set with Shaw Digital Cable through the Motorolla DX3400 PVR and streaming via netflix

Calibrated with Spears and Munsil V2 active contrast enhancer on. As well I was lucky enough to get an excellent panel out of the box. For those who are not aware it seems like a lot of 4K panels from various manufacturers are experiencing flash lighting and some screen door effect. With mine there is absolutely none of it and the way it is setup right now sports is a dream to watch.

Just a random episode of House Hunters HGTV feed











Buy 4K.
 
#83 · (Edited)
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#85 ·
I just had a theater designed, and a 1080p projector was specced. Maybe the projector world is different, but the reasoning was that 4k just isn't settled enough yet, and isn't worth the premium at this time. It'll be close to five years before it's mainstream, with broadcast TV being a major hurdle.

Having said that, I hope everyone buys a 4k TV in order to accelerate the adoption rate.
 
#89 ·
meh, i have very similar calibrated settings than others in our owners thread who have had their sets professionally calibrated etc. Been dealing with the calib on IPS panels for a decent amount of time as well. Happy with how it looks and it was a massive difference than out of the box setup.
 
#94 ·
On the point of Sniperslayer's pics, I found those in the linked Kuro thread to sometimes look over sharp and the Ip Man pics made people look like wax models.

But let's be honest, pics never do things justice.

I am sure I'd be blown away by the Kuro black levels in person.

I've gone from a 32inch Sony W5710 (noted to have reasonable black levels for its limited tech) to a 46 inch Sony NX723 (this had some of the best black levels for an edge lit TV at the time, but appaling 3D).

Now, on a 4k 79 inch Sony X900b.

When I first used it I was horrified by the poor black levels, Skyfall was almost unwatchable. After a few weeks of changing settings, using others calibrated settings as a basis, I grew to love this set. Yes the blacks are still limited - but way better than when I first used it, but the sheer size and detail it offers is amazing. Still thinking I should get it professionally calibrated.

I use 4 different picture modes for my needs, daytime viewing, daytime films, night time viewing and night time films. The room this sits in during the day is very bright with a large balcony window and two other windows hitting it, so during the day it has to be bright to cope. At night though it's pitch black, so having to get over the black bars on a film not being 100% dark is honestly worth it for the quality and detail of the image. Professional calibration would require it to be done during the day, then at night.

I guess with these things you currently have to compromise. What annoys me though is the argument that you can't tell between 4k and 1080p, I've done comparisons in stores, with control over the source side by side and I can tell, without sitting too close.

On this set I can deffinately tell the difference, but there's not much point with the limited content, the upscaling however is great. I definitely get the same image quality versus my 46inch, probably due to having similar DPI, so the scaler must be doing a good job.

I wish however that OLED was affordable in 4k, and manufacturers valued PQ above gimmicks, but then I love 3D, and this set finally after an update a couple of days ago is amazing in 3D, so to each their own.
 
#95 · (Edited)
Again all depends on what you consider as PQ.

I can't trade excellent black level performance,viewing angle,motion resolution and accurate colors over extra pixels.

The FL are great for my preferred viewing environment.
 
#96 ·
I moved to a 1080p OLED after trying the 55" HU8550. The HU8550 was a disappointment compared to the 6 year old 42" LG LH90 I had (one of the first FALD displays). I found no PQ improvement in upscaling, the only benefit to it I see is reducing the screen door effect but this only really applies on bigger displays, like 65"+

The Sony offerings didn't look any better to me aside from the X950B, but it's in a different league as far as price goes, and doesn't support 4:4:4 chroma at 4K/60Hz so it wasn't an option anyway. Main reason I got the 4K TV was to double as a computer monitor, but I couldn't get over how worse the overall PQ was compared to my LG LH90.

Also, after spending some time with the OLED, I can't imagine why anyone would spend over $2K on an edge lit set seeing as the EC9300 is now in this price range on sale. In a dark room, the OLED destroys any edge lit set... it is no comparison. And at 55" there is little benefit to 4K. If I needed a bigger set, I'd probably get a cheap Vizio and wait it out until 65"+ OLED is more affordable.
 
#98 ·
I guess it's what you're looking for in your upgrade.

I've wanted a cinematic experience, so larger and larger displays.

The 32inch I regretted pretty much soon as I got it, as it was too small, and I found I could have got a bigger set where I was living at the time, but just couldn't justify buying another one until 2.5 years later.

The 46 inch was amazing for the place I had it in, couldn't go bigger and my budget didn't allow for something much better (I remember there being amazing Sony FALD displays at the time).

My new place, I could fit the 79inch in. For that size, I wanted basically the same PQ I had with the 46 inch but larger, so great resolution and great colours.

Sacrificing the blacks slightly is where that's gotten me, in exchange for now amazing 3D and a cinematic experience due to the size and detail.

I can see with you guys, if you're not upgrading size massively, they'd be no point in 4k currently.

I had hoped to wait for a 4k OLED, with 4:4:4 at 60hz (for running a Mac through it, so I could have it at 1080 Retina basically). But then realised, that's maybe a few years off and wanted to enjoy something in the meantime.

I mean it's not going to give me 4:4:4 at 60hz, but looking at 4k blu-ray specs, it will support that, and it's supporting streaming of 4k and also the satellite astra test in Europe for a 4k broadcast works also, so hopefully will allow for that too.
 
#99 ·
I had a Kuro 50" for awhile until it got seriously damage in a move. My next TV (present) is a Panasonic 65" VT50 that does a decent job of both cable TV play and certainly Blue Rays. I am going to keep this set as long as I can. 1080p done well still provides a feast for the eyes. As for 4k, I'll look forward to it later than sooner when they flush out the bugs and come out with enough media to make it worth the while.

When I hear of various providers offering up 4k, I have to wonder if they are not simply upscaling lower resolution media and passing it off as 4k. We already know that often film transfers to both DVD and Blue Ray can be hit and miss and 4k will be no different as there is no real standard for transfers of film to digital and we can add as mentioned, digital to upscaled digital.

So I'll sit back and watch this new resolution of 4k take hold within the next few years. - Maybe even watch a show on my plasma 1080p about the 4k advances.
 
#100 ·
I repeat your cable and satellite providers do not have the hardware and network to provide more than a few select channels in 4K. That's why they don't give us everything in 1080p except pay per view. They don't have the bandwidth.

4k is a long way off, they will have to develop better compression technologies and replace all their hardware. By the time this happens your set will be obsolete.

For us sports fans forget about it. These channels will only be for programming they can charge a premium for.
 
#101 ·
so cable providers who are offering me 80mb/s connections dont have the network to provide 4k?... every building built in the last 15 years around me has fibre run unit to unit. Let alone new developments and infrastructure seeing many new and old homes having fibre curb side. While i agree the hardware may not be in place anytime soon but if netflix continues to release series in 4k thats good enough for me personally, the upconversion on the rest of my content is what i'm in for, actual 4k content is gravy to me.

A lot of you seem to just be knitpicking this topic to death, guess what? if you cant afford to justify buying a 4K set at the moment, thats your prerogative. if youre going to be spending 2000+ on a 1080p set frankly i think that is asinine and you'll most likely be regretting it down the road even with the slow adoption of 4k. I know for me, both my parents and a good friend recently bought "decent" sets in the KDL65X850B and Vizio P series 4k, and the sony being a reasonably good model was almost laughable in comparison with my XBR.

**** is only "not worth it" or a "rip off" if you cant afford it.
 
#103 ·
like i said, at the price point most are discussing, imo the up conversion alone is worth the extra money.

Also, what you're talking about may be true in areas which have a lack of updated infrastructure, but in Vancouver both shaw and telus offer virtually everyone 50mb/s packages or better. Not saying this would be the standard consumer package, but when your talking about $70-$80 for 50mb/s speeds, i think it's completely within both bandwidth and user base realities to offer 4k to whoever wants it. Not everyone is always on netflix, nor does everyone stream or have 1080p feeds, it would be the same with an offering of 4k content.
 
#108 ·
do you care about picture quality or do you just want something cheap to get you by? the vizio P will definitely blow away the 2 samsungs you mentioned in any picture quality aspect. i owned the F7100 from the year of the samsungs you mentioned and that is better than those 2 samsungs, and the vizio will beat out my F7100.
 
#111 ·
the 4k library is expanding, direct tv is planning to have their 4k setbox by this summer, and they will begin with premium channels having 4k channels, and it will trickle down (according to a close friend who is a direct tv installer, they have had "4k introductory meetings" to go over whats happening soon).

samsung has their UHD video pack, which has 10 movies and 30 documentaries, the quality is actually very good. and they will have a new UHD pack this summer with new 4k movies on it.

a recent big announcement was made too, the movie INTERSTELLER is going to on the 4k streaming site called ULTRAFLIX on march 31st(today actually!). I expect this to sort of be a domino so to speak in big names movies going to 4k streaming.

heres a couple pictures of ultraflix and M-GO which both offer 4k streaming content. M-GO currently has more big name movies and has about 10 downloadable movies, so when you buy them, they are yours to keep, the others are for rent. theres a couple new big 4k streaming sites launching in the summer it was recently annouced.
 

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#115 ·
Ya, this is already a mess and it hasn't even started. It's funny that some are saying how dumb it would be to buy anything but 4k while those that already have are finding out what they have won't work with x and y. I suspect this problem will only get worse a more equipment comes along.

I just keep thinking how I bought a 52" tv over a decade ago that HAD to be hd...and here I am with still a lack of 1080p content in my most frequent viewing areas.

If someone could tell me that a 4k provided a better picture, I wouldn't even care about 4k sources right now. I'm just not convinced it's worth spending $2 grand plus when I could spend $1500 and get something bigger with picture quality. I'm even ok with spending $1500 knowing 4k could come of age in the next couple years and I'd have to buy again. At that point I suppose I'll be deciding between that and 8k tvs.
 
#116 ·
The picture IS better, period. As the OP said. It's such in fact that seemingly unknowing people, when it comes to television technology have gone out and purchased 4k sets after seeing mine. This was without mentioning it was 4k, nor telling them I had a new TV, they inquired on their own as to the clarity and were sold on the upconvering based on a few hours of seeing mine. It's pretty simple, if you have a 4k set, you see the difference. Period.
 
#118 ·
It is silly we are even having to argue that 4K offers a better picture than 1080P. People can argue subjectives all they want but 4K give you alot more pixels to work with end of story and the price point is pretty much nill so why on earth would anyone by a new TV they plan to keep for any length of time that wasn't 4K.

The content will be here soon I'd rather spend my money on something that can actually natively play it then something that is technically obsolete before I get it home.
 
#120 ·
LED to Plasma Convert

I recently bought a Samsung JU-7100 - 55 inch 4K TV and replaced a Panasonic TC-P42G10 plasma TV (6 years old). I needed something bigger in my home theater room. As someone coming from plasma to LED, I do notice motion blur to some extent on some programming. It is not so bad. I also notice the LED appears to be less forgiving on certain programing as compared to the plasma. While I loved the general "smoothness" for want of a better term of the plasma's display, I actually like the precieved sharpness and clearer picture of the JU-7100. I do not regret going to a LED 4K TV. I also have a cheap, 60 inch JVC TV I bought last year for $500 at Costco. The Samsung 4K TV is significantly better. I have ran up and down the stairs from one TV to the other looking at a variety of programming. As a former plasma owner, I can say that there is some getting used to going to a 4K LED TV but I have adjusted just fine. At some point you have to pull the trigger. I waited 6 years to upgrade my TV. There will alway be something new and better each and every year.
 
#137 ·
Samsung 60HU8550 bad Dish upscaling

I recently bought a Samsung JU-7100 - 55 inch 4K TV and replaced a Panasonic TC-P42G10 plasma TV (6 years old). I needed something bigger in my home theater room. As someone coming from plasma to LED, I do notice motion blur to some extent on some programming. It is not so bad. I also notice the LED appears to be less forgiving on certain programing as compared to the plasma. While I loved the general "smoothness" for want of a better term of the plasma's display, I actually like the precieved sharpness and clearer picture of the JU-7100. I do not regret going to a LED 4K TV. I also have a cheap, 60 inch JVC TV I bought last year for $500 at Costco. The Samsung 4K TV is significantly better. I have ran up and down the stairs from one TV to the other looking at a variety of programming. As a former plasma owner, I can say that there is some getting used to going to a 4K LED TV but I have adjusted just fine. At some point you have to pull the trigger. I waited 6 years to upgrade my TV. There will alway be something new and better each and every year.
I got a Samsung 60HU68550 a week ago at Best Buy and I really don't like the upscaling from my Dish Hopper DVR
which I use 90% of the time.
Blu-Ray looks good, but I only use Blu-Ray 5% of the time.
Netflix and Amazon streaming looks good also. I am not sure why exactly, maybe 1080p?

The upscaled 8550 image is blurry compared to my 5 year old Samsung 50C7000 Plasma,
which recently developed 3 horizontal black lines, and is almost unwatchable.
I am going to return the 8550 to best buy and get a regular 1080P HDTV.
I am not sure which one though. My budget is $2,000 max. Any suggestions?

I think it is going to be several years before either upscaling is tolerable with 720 or 1080i content
or there is enough 4k content available.

What sources are you using with your JU-7100?
How would you rate the upscaling from 720 or 1080i content?
Meaning not from blu-ray or 4k sources.
 
#122 ·
It's about perspective I don't think anyone is saying throw away your 1080P tv's but as I'm actively researching and looking to purchase a new TV in the Fall it would be silly of me and to me be a complete waste of money to buy a brand new TV that was not 4K and did not adhere to the hardware spec's we know are going to be used in the very near future.
 
#126 ·
Yea..you already said that. However as the posters above have said, it's already happening...Comcast is as of right now already providing 4k broadcasts...

I think you're severely underestimating the infrastructure already in place for this service. The general consensus is that 4k signal needs 18mb/s for a quality stream. I understand the logistics behind bandwidth needs and users per node etc as I've taken literally years of networking and systems training. Imo this is not some sort of insurmountable hurdle that you are making it out to be.
 
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