[2ms]

I am purchasing my first TV in ages and am inclined just to only watch everything streamed to it. However, I fear that means I would be missing out on a lot of the performance potential of a good TV.

Can anyone tell me how the various streaming (e.g., Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Netflix, Roku, etc) services compare in their quality to the theoretical potential of a good OLED or high end LED TV? Is the streaming a bottleneck that you want to avoid by buying a disc player? Are the limitations of streaming what umpiring is for?

 

[circumstances]

I haven't upgraded to a smart tv of any sort yet, but it is my understanding that on board apps are not as good as a good external streaming device.

They seem to all be gimped in some way (the apps you can stream from inside the tv).

UHD disc players are an entirely different matter, and offer the best in audio and video.

I have a Fire TV Cube Gen 2, which I plan to continue to use once I pick up a 4K OLED smart tv.

 

[golfster]

All I can tell you is that if I compare a blu-ray disc or an OTA signal to any of my streaming systems, the services are inferior.

 

[MrBobb]

One should always buy a TV by its VIDEO performance, and ignore built-in Apps, 'cuz u can buy a streaming box for not too much money. Having said that am mostly satisfied with my 2 years old Roku TV, the built-in Apps seen identical to a stand-alone Roku box, it gets updated routinely. The only thing I don't like about the Roku TV, is there is no direct-access to OTA channels, have to up/down/Enter, ignore if you do cable, have set-top box.

 

[willieconway]

I am purchasing my first TV in ages and am inclined just to only watch everything streamed to it. However, I fear that means I would be missing out on a lot of the performance potential of a good TV.

Can anyone tell me how the various streaming (e.g., Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Netflix, Roku, etc) services compare in their quality to the theoretical potential of a good OLED or high end LED TV? Is the streaming a bottleneck that you want to avoid by buying a disc player? Are the limitations of streaming what umpiring is for?

Assuming you have the bandwidth, streaming is totally fine. Discs are still superior but it's getting increasingly harder to spot the difference. I watch on a 100" screen using a calibrated projector and I rarely care if I watch a streaming or disc based version of a piece of content. Quality can vary between services though.

 

[Mark Beileiter]

I'm sure streaming services will improve over time, as internet speeds become higher and the streaming services start to use less or no data compression, but at the moment, 4k blu-ray discs can't be beaten. I run an Apple 4k TV box, and when I compared the same 4k UHD movie between the 4k UHD blu-ray player and the Apple 4k TV, the blu-ray disc was noticeably clearer and the sound was far superior. But, as I said, in the future, hopefully things will improve with the streaming services.

 

[no1special]

No. Streaming is not a bottleneck. Streamed content is very enjoyable on an OLED, especially 4K HDR.

 

[ianiam]

You're missing out on lot of contents if you're waiting to be available on physical format. Streaming is good enough for me and I hardly watch anything on physical format nowadays.

 

[2ms]

Thanks for the feedback. Are all the streaming options pretty much equal or does one tend to have better quality than the others? Aside from quality, do any of them have a particularly good selection of independent, foreign, and classic films? I tried looking at Amazon Prime and Netflix, and at least what I can see on my iPad App, seems to only be big Hollywood movies. Nothing wrong with those, but also nice to watch films from different places and times.

 

[ianiam]

Thanks for the feedback. Are all the streaming options pretty much equal or does one tend to have better quality than the others? Aside from quality, do any of them have a particularly good selection of independent, foreign, and classic films? I tried looking at Amazon Prime and Netflix, and at least what I can see on my iPad App, seems to only be big Hollywood movies. Nothing wrong with those, but also nice to watch films from different places and times.

HBOMax gets you classic and Criterion in addition to HBO catalog.

 

[DanPackMan]

Thanks for the feedback. Are all the streaming options pretty much equal or does one tend to have better quality than the others? Aside from quality, do any of them have a particularly good selection of independent, foreign, and classic films? I tried looking at Amazon Prime and Netflix, and at least what I can see on my iPad App, seems to only be big Hollywood movies. Nothing wrong with those, but also nice to watch films from different places and times.

If you get a versatile streamer to go along with your TV (Like FireTV or Roku, or other) you can switch services quite easily. A lot of people are subscribing to content services for a few months then switching. Free trials are available on most services. There are even free TV options (IMBTV, RokuTV, and a few others) that show classic film and TV shows with commercials.

Its not like the old days where you were stuck with a year or two long cable contract and disconnection costs. So don't overthink it too much, get the nice new TV, plug in a streamer and start exploring the options.

 

[groove93]

HBOMax gets you classic and Criterion in addition to HBO catalog.

Consider HBO Max as just Time/Warner Max.
HBO
Criterion
Studio Gibli(anime)
Turner Classics
Turner Studios/TBS/TNT
DC Comics/DCU
etc

Lots of content available through that service

 

[Tfid]

No. Streaming is not a bottleneck. Streamed content is very enjoyable on an OLED, especially 4K HDR.

How can you say that if you don't know what the OP's internet connection is like?
Yes, the streaming services set the max quality of video and sound, but the min quality (bottleneck) in a lot of cases (DSL anyone?) is determined by the internet speed. Let's not forget the total data cap for most ISP's. If you hit that, they can slow your connection down, or charge a bunch more money.
A disk player won't do much good if you don't have any disks to play. It makes more sense to use a disk player if you have a good collection.
Another choice would be to have a collection of content on permanent storage from disk rips to file.
I would say trust the built in apps on the TV at least at first. Any good new TV will have up to date tech when it's first sold. Then later you can decide what to add to it.
I would suggest a Sony TV with built in Android TV. It's the most versatile interface with access to the Android TV version of the Google play store.
For disks I would suggest a 'smart' 4K HDR player with some built in streaming apps, and a network client for data servers like DLNA, SMB ect.
But above all I would say to get the best quality/ price for internet service that you have available and can afford each month.

 

[Tfid]

Thanks for the feedback. Are all the streaming options pretty much equal or does one tend to have better quality than the others? Aside from quality, do any of them have a particularly good selection of independent, foreign, and classic films? I tried looking at Amazon Prime and Netflix, and at least what I can see on my iPad App, seems to only be big Hollywood movies. Nothing wrong with those, but also nice to watch films from different places and times.

About the quality difference, it all depends on how sensitive you are to video differences. Personally I can't tell much difference in any of them if they're equal with the resolution, HDR ect. That's only true if the internet connection isn't playing a factor. If any of them detect a slow down in data, they will reduce the resolution or skip frames.
If your looking for certain film titles, a good cross service search interface like the new Google TV launcher might help.

 

[JDLIVE]

I am purchasing my first TV in ages and am inclined just to only watch everything streamed to it. However, I fear that means I would be missing out on a lot of the performance potential of a good TV.

Can anyone tell me how the various streaming (e.g., Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Netflix, Roku, etc) services compare in their quality to the theoretical potential of a good OLED or high end LED TV? Is the streaming a bottleneck that you want to avoid by buying a disc player? Are the limitations of streaming what umpiring is for?

UHD Blu-Ray is still going to be the best quality for video and also gets you superior audio in many cases with lossless HD formats compared to just DD or DD+ via streaming. But the UHD streams are still very good these days and will give you a satisfying experience. IMO the biggest difference is HDR vs the actual higher res video as up-scaled HD content also will look great. As long as you have a decent internet service of at least 50MB or so.

Another factor to consider if you're a Netflix fan is much of their HDR content uses Dolby Vision and Samsung displays do not support that format.

 

[willieconway]

Thanks for the feedback. Are all the streaming options pretty much equal or does one tend to have better quality than the others? Aside from quality, do any of them have a particularly good selection of independent, foreign, and classic films? I tried looking at Amazon Prime and Netflix, and at least what I can see on my iPad App, seems to only be big Hollywood movies. Nothing wrong with those, but also nice to watch films from different places and times.

Amazon Prime actually has a huge selection of smaller and/or older titles. Unfortunately many of them look like DVD rips (and I'm sure some are). That's a limitation of the content though, not of their streaming technology.

 

[ianiam]

As long as you have a decent internet service of at least 50MB or so.

 

[groove93]

I've been running 25Mb for years and have been able to access 4k/HDR Content via Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, and Vudu. So while 50MB may give you some elbow room, be mindful that there are areas around the country in which you will still have to pay an Arm and a Leg to acquire 50Mb Internet.

 

[Tfid]

I've been running 25MB for years and have been able to access 4k/HDR Content via Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Plus, and Vudu. So while 50MB may give you some elbow room, be mindful that there are areas around the country in which you will still have to pay an Arm and a Leg to acquire 50MB Internet.

Don't you mean 25Mbps or 25Mb/s? It's mega bits per second. I can get 4k HDR Atmos from Vudu at only 10Mb/s from DSL ($45/mo), but all the other services can only play 1080p at that data rate. I would say the min for one stream of 4k for all the services is about 25Mb/s.

 

[groove93]

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