4K gaming and viewing review

Offtopic, but you guys would be surprised how many blu ray releases are not even mastered in 1080p
I think it's less prevalent that it was back in 2006/2007. Some of the early Blu-ray discs were little more than poor upscales of the DVD content. I was always pretty picky about picking discs and sites like HiDefDigest helped tremendously. I bought plenty of DVDs after I got my PS3 because the Blu-ray versions were poor.

Even if the BDA agree a 4k standard extension to Blu-ray, I'd expect the same situation (poor retransfer) to happen.
 
Some of the early Blu-ray discs were little more than poor upscales of the DVD content.

Very true, I bought a bluray version of Withnail and I and the quality is no better than the DVD. In fact playing the DVD on my Denon looked better than the bluray.
 
I went into a local electronics shop over the weekend to take a look at the 4k TVs. Some of them were setup with 4k content (wow!) and one had SD content being displayed, the image degradation didn't appear any worse than the 1080p sets, so I'd quite like to see a 1080p image to see decide whether they're worth an early purchase.

I'm currently swaying towards a decent 1080p set with a good response rate instead.
 
I went into a local electronics shop over the weekend to take a look at the 4k TVs. Some of them were setup with 4k content (wow!) and one had SD content being displayed, the image degradation didn't appear any worse than the 1080p sets, so I'd quite like to see a 1080p image to see decide whether they're worth an early purchase.

I'm currently swaying towards a decent 1080p set with a good response rate instead.

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/result-201406013793.htm
In the end it all depends on what you need, but it looks like the best 1080p screens still give better image quality overall (minus the extra resolution) than today's 4k TVs.
OLED is just not quite there yet, but it will certainly be my next purchase, when my baby dies and I'm ready to join the 4k brigade.
 
Here's a recent side by side comparison of some 4k tv's along with an oled and plasma model:

http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/result-201406013793.htm

Amusingly the "dead technology" Panasonic plasma won, with the review noting:



Looks like I'll be in for a long wait before getting a 4k tv. Makes one kinda sad that plasma died, but so it goes.
I'm thrilled to see that Panasonic is indeed back in the OLED business (screen produced by LG). And that according to the people who saw their 4k OLED set, it's awesome.
 
I went into a local electronics shop over the weekend to take a look at the 4k TVs. Some of them were setup with 4k content (wow!) and one had SD content being displayed, the image degradation didn't appear any worse than the 1080p sets, so I'd quite like to see a 1080p image to see decide whether they're worth an early purchase.

I'm currently swaying towards a decent 1080p set with a good response rate instead.

This is my belief - the 4k screens will only get better, but the advantage you get out of them is limited for the livingroom - the content just isn't there. Netflix has some 4k support though, but I skeptically just look at the datarates, and as long as a regular BluRay has 8x the datarate of streaming video at 1080p already (though Netflix can look really good at times, just as often it gets worse because their servers can't handle the load at primetime always), I'm not keeping my hopes up for the quality of streams just yet (not to mention audio sacrifices). I prioritised response times and went for non-3D, because I noticed that most TVs that support 3D have worse displays (worse black levels, for instance), at least until you pay almost 3x the non-3D panel price, and while I really like passive 3D a lot, the nature of how that works has in all the panels I've seen always decreased the quality of the 2D image. In that sense, I would have better hope for a 1920x2160 panel with passive 3D.

On the PC, right now I think having 3 good 1080p panels next to each other is better for gaming than a single 4k screen for sure, but that partly depends on the type of game you play - I'm sure some strategy games are much better in 4k on a single screen. ;) Few games have the assets to scale nicely though. For business use I would definitely appreciate 4k for clearer text. This would currently be my first and foremost reason to want to upgrade - it's why I waited for iPad's to support something much better than the 1024 they started with, and the 2kx1.5k pixels that came with the iPad 3 definitely did not disappoint, and were the best visual upgrade I experienced.
 
But how long will it stay awesome?:)
Well with HDR coming too, I'll be very happy. My panny plasma is still awesome and it's now almost 3 years old. An HDR 4k OLED will last me for many years. Then again I don't expect to upgrade for a few more years so who knows what we'll have by then.
Still, it's good that OLED is getting some love. I'll be very upset if I'm forced to buy an LCD in the future.
 
But how long will it stay awesome?:)

Pretty damn long probably. Takes something like 50.000 hours before any sort of visible degrading kicks in (this was the case for Plasmas as well) If you're watching like 12 hours a day you'd probably notice something after 10 years or so. Chances are you've long since replaced the tv anyways. That is of course if it didn't just die from other defects over the years.
 
Well with HDR coming too, I'll be very happy. My panny plasma is still awesome and it's now almost 3 years old. An HDR 4k OLED will last me for many years. Then again I don't expect to upgrade for a few more years so who knows what we'll have by then.
Still, it's good that OLED is getting some love. I'll be very upset if I'm forced to buy an LCD in the future.

Supposedly Samsung will get back into OLED too, with possibly better OLED tech.

There is work being done on 4k Blu Ray but it's unclear when they will come out to market or whether it will even get the content support that Blu Ray has received.

Enthusiasts may have slim pickings.
 
Isn't 4k to TV what SACD was to CD and video disk was to VHS? 4k will develop simply because TVs will add it anyway, and perhaps eventually all movies will be 4k, but IMO it's only because the tech progression will adopt it. As a feature, it's an enthusiast feature that most folk likely won't care about. It's mostly for super-sized TVs and projectors - the same niche market typically served by laser discs etc.
 
Isn't 4k to TV what SACD was to CD and video disk was to VHS? 4k will develop simply because TVs will add it anyway, and perhaps eventually all movies will be 4k, but IMO it's only because the tech progression will adopt it. As a feature, it's an enthusiast feature that most folk likely won't care about. It's mostly for super-sized TVs and projectors - the same niche market typically served by laser discs etc.
You're such a party pooper.
 
If the price premium isn't too great it might get broader adoption.

Especially if they put big sporting events on 4K.
 
For sure it'll get adoption. 4k TV sets are at 1080p set prices from a few years back already. Eventually every set of 40" will be 4k just for the price of the screens being commodity I think. However, I don't think the typical users will care other than the clueless 'tech' sort who see a bigger number and think it's better. So sales of 4k movies might remain a little niche as BRD's just as good for most folk and will be cheaper and will play on every BRD player. Not to mention people streaming more and more content to boot.

When it comes to console games, if it were me I'd think about including a 1080p option with better visuals and a 4k option (maybe 4k30, 1080p60). I think pandering to the 4k market would be a negative for most games and gamers, so I'd treat them as an extra option rather than the main market.
 
Isn't 4k to TV what SACD was to CD and video disk was to VHS? 4k will develop simply because TVs will add it anyway, and perhaps eventually all movies will be 4k, but IMO it's only because the tech progression will adopt it.
I bought a 50" TV last year and 4K was pretty much standard on the larger non-budget sets. I wasn't looking for 4K set, just a larger set than my previous 40" Bravia, something with a thin bezel, good contrast and colour reproduction and that basically excluded most 1080p sets. My 4K LED cost £1,400 the OLED set options at 50" started around £5,000 :nope:
 
Or maybe I did

No, you didn't. Until its proven to produce a stable picture for that timeframe without irregular aging related to colors I wouldn't spend money on them. There were good reasons why Panasonic and others delayed and then stopped their products during the last 2-3 years.
 
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