Very OT: Thoughts on 4K/Favorite Electronic Brands

Submitted by Winchester Wolverine on

So, after months of compromising with the MGoFiance, I finally have my football watching set-up. 55 inches of 4K, curved, Samsung television now graces my wall, and I LOVE IT. (#humblebrag)

Also, because I'm an S7 kinda guy, my phone can act as a remote, an extra speaker, and mirror my activities on my phone to the TV. Super cool.

What I failed to research, however, is the general lack of 4K content right now. Or my phone possibly blowing up in my face. Still, I'm a Samsung fanboy. 

So, do you think 4K is a gimmick like 3D was? What brands of electronics do you like best?

In the spirit of the long lost Discuss Man,

DISCUSS.

mgobleu

February 27th, 2017 at 3:16 PM ^

I was a diehard Samsung douche until i realized, what the hell... The last 3 notes I've had completely died on their own in far less than the two year contract.

Now i switched to the dark side and have an iPhone 7 plus and i don't know that I'll ever go back. Battery life is possibly triple what my note 5 was, it's faster, it never freezes, freaks out or fails.

HAIL-YEA

February 27th, 2017 at 12:14 PM ^

is not a gimmick, even though your cable company will never support it.  If you have netflix or a 4k player or Ps4 pro or something like that its definatly a nice upgrade. I have my gaming pc hooked up to a samsung 65" 4k curved and i love it, the curve is a dumb gimmick though.

switch26

February 27th, 2017 at 12:21 PM ^

The curve isn't a gimmick, it is for use in rooms with glare.. the curve gets rid of glare in rooms that get outside light shining in

Gameboy

February 27th, 2017 at 5:45 PM ^

That is part of the problem. It would be better to have 1080P video at the same rate that they are transmitting 4K compressed content.

From a typical size TV size/distance combination, less compression at higher throughput rate would result in better picture quality.

BlueMan80

February 27th, 2017 at 5:11 PM ^

The standards for broadcast tuners are about to/or were just recently decided. So, 4K over the air will happen in 2018 and beyond with a roll out similar to the to HDTV. Satellite providers will imcorporate the broadcast standards into the boxes in the future.

Movie theaters have been digitally projecting 4K and are now moving on to 8k. So, there is content being built up. Steaming services are delivering 4K content.

You will need 18mbps for full resolution streaming with HDR/Dolby Vision. Most people can get that level of service.

So, it's still early in the game. Fortunately, 2017 UHDTVs include HDR functionality, so get one of those sets. They are ready now.

reshp1

February 27th, 2017 at 1:11 PM ^

4K is not a gimmick, there's a reason movies are shot and displayed in 4k and have been for a while now. The issue is that unless you sit really close or have a huge screen, your screen resolution quickly outstrips your eye's ability to resolve the difference. I have a 70" 4k TV, and at 8' away, I'm barely able to tell the difference between 4K and 1080p. For me, things like dynamic ratio, deeper blacks, expanded color palate, and better motion performance make a much more noticeable difference in viewing experience than 4K. Those things are harder to quantify neatly in a catchy spec sheet line though.

stephenrjking

February 27th, 2017 at 5:15 PM ^

Haven't kept up with PC hardware recently, I take it?

EDIT: So I should also point out that the PS4 pro has made an effort at 4k resolution and people should expect the next generation of consoles (PS5, XBox Random Integer) to be fully on the 4k wagon, and sensibly so given that by the time they are developed and released 4k tvs will be in wide circulation. In PC land the capabilities of the newest graphics processors are getting pretty ridiculous.

Gameboy

February 27th, 2017 at 5:49 PM ^

I am EXTREMELY familiar with PC hardware and video graphic hardware, specifically.

What is passing as "4k" is just upconverted video from lower resolution renders. It is basically the same picture you would get if you fed 720P picture to your 4k TV and it upconverted it.

Affordable video cards (<$250) that can do 4K gaming comfortably is probably another 2 to 3 years away, at least. Any console that debuts within that time will have the same problem that plagued Xbox One (not quite enough oomph for 1080P gaming).

corundum

February 27th, 2017 at 12:17 PM ^

Hopefully more channels will start broadcasting in 4k next season. NBC broadcasts the ND games in 4k.

I currently have a 55" Samsung 4k smart TV. Some premium channels and Netflix have 4k series or movies. Picture is definitely sharper and more vibrant, but anything HD and above is fine with me.

JHendo

February 27th, 2017 at 12:19 PM ^

Not a gimmick at all, 3d was never going to catch, but 4k has already left a lasting mark. Both Amazon and Netflix are pushing true 4k filmed titles, can't imagine other channels and services are too far off. Even those shows not filmed in 4k, the upconvert is visibly a much better, sharper picture (more pixels = better resolution without having to be a certain distance away from your tv).

switch26

February 27th, 2017 at 12:23 PM ^

I watch a ton of Netflix and Amazon prime in 4k..

Also if you guys look on YouTube there are a lot of sweet videos in 4k as well..

Also a ton of movies are being re released in ultra HD or 4k

I bought one of the first 4k TVs a few years ago and it has grown a lot since then. Expect a lot more in coming years.

wolverine1987

February 27th, 2017 at 12:28 PM ^

You can get several 4k shows right now on Amazon Prime, and they look great. And IMO, even "regular" high def content looks much better on my 4k Samsung than it did on my 1080p Vizio M series, because the video processing is superior. I noticed the difference instantly. So even if 4k content lags, the video still looks better. I recommend it. 

Having said that, a 1080p TV will still deliver you an excellent picture at a cheaper price than 4k. 

T.W.S.W.B.Champions

February 27th, 2017 at 2:11 PM ^

Not sure what Samsung Model you have, but you might want to look for a setting called 'Auto Motion Plus'.  I noticed a fairly constant juddering on my Samsung TV when watching shows on Directv.  It was almost as-if the show was pausing for a few milliseconds every few seconds during the show.  It was very annoying and I thought there was something wrong with my TV.  After doing some research I discovered that Samsung's Auto Motion Plus engine causes issues, especially with Directv.  Once I turned Auto Motion Plus off, my picture was smooth as a baby's butt.  Since you can set the picture settings by source, I just set that off just for Directv and leave it on for the other sources.  It doesn't seem to affect Netflix and Amazon at all.

Give it a try, maybe it will help with you juddering as well.

stephenrjking

February 27th, 2017 at 12:28 PM ^

3d was a gimmick. 4k appears to be here to stay, as one has a hard time finding 1080p tvs in larger sizes in stock at all anymore and the lower end 4k tvs at those sizes are coming in at nearly identical price points (I've done some careful pricing on 70" tvs for my church and the 4ks I can get in that size right now are cheaper than the 1080p tvs available to me 16 months ago). 

I think that 4k is a lot less revolutionary than HD was. HD is a stunning upgrade from the old SD resolutions that jumps off the screen. 4k is barely noticeable at all at typical viewing distances, especially in regular programming, and the infrastructure required to actually broadcast it (cameras, bandwidth, etc) is harder to manage.

However, since it is rapidly becoming ubiquitous in new equipment (contrast with 3d) there is space for content producers to find ways to make it shine. 

GOBLUE4EVR

February 27th, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^

company is installing 4K systems all over the country. as said above right now you have to have a device that supports 4K... our customers are using the 4K for digital signage for the most part...

bluebyyou

February 27th, 2017 at 12:51 PM ^

OLED is the gold standard and LG is the big dog in that department although Sony seems like they are getting back into the mix along with some others per the CES.  You can't do with back lighting what you can do with individually excited pixels (no sex talk intended).  I'm not a big lover of curved screens...to me they defeat some of the advantages of thin uncurved flat screens and how they fit on walls. With OLED, there are no off-axis issues.

4K isn't going anywhere, at least not for quite some time.

For me, one of the biggest features that has come along in recent years was uncompressed audio that started with Blu-Ray DVD's.  I have a very substantial investment in the audio part of home theater.  Good speakers are very pricey but they also don't need to be replaced very often, unlike the much more quickly changing audio standards.

Bigku22

February 27th, 2017 at 1:54 PM ^

Bought an LG OLED last year, and the picture is absolutely incredible (and I'm a huge TV snob). You can't buy a better TV for sports.

Only thing, OLED 4ks are still incredibly expensive as LG really has no competitors in the market right now. But if you have the money and want the best, that's it.

reshp1

February 27th, 2017 at 3:38 PM ^

OLED is awesome, but it still has issues with motion simply being an always on vs pulsed technology like CRT or DLP. There's tricks they can pull with sub-frame shut off, but there's not enough brightness to turn off the pixels long enough to really get the crisp motion. Honestly, if my DLP hadn't died, I would never have gotten another set. The current offerings give me a headache gaming, especially on less than 60fps games.

The Mad Hatter

February 27th, 2017 at 12:43 PM ^

something or other that I bought on sale a few years ago.  I used to be a super loyal Samsung buyer, but my last TV died after what seemed like an unreasonably short time (less than 5 years), so I replaced it with whatever non-smart TV was on sale at ABC Warehouse.

It's fine, although it seems like TV speakers suck ass now.  You almost have to hook it it up through the stereo to hear the damn thing.

4K is beautiful and I think it will be adopted on a wider scale eventually, but I don't care enough about screen resolution to upgrade just for that.  I only buy a new TV when the old one dies, or becomes embarrassingly outdated (my main TV was a 32 in tube TV as recently as 2009).