New 4k 55" Worth it for 720/1080?

tntcoder · 23 Oct 2018 at 20:44

Hi,

My current TV is a LG - 50PZ550T 50" from 2012 and it's working great still after 7 years but I fancy an upgrade.

However most my content is only PS4 (not pro hdr) and 720/1080 video, maybe only Amazon Prime at 4k. I know it's a tough question but will 720 upscale to look nice on a 4k display? I don't want it look look worse or only minimally better that it does currently put it that way

Was looking at a 1k budget, and maybe the 55" LG OLED55B7V?

Thanks

Poneros · 23 Oct 2018 at 21:23

Upscaling depends entirely on which TV you buy, so have a look at that. That B7 for example is good at upscaling so you should not have issues. Check out rtings.com for more reviews. Is 4K going to make a big difference for most lower-res videos? Probably not, especially if you stay far away from the TV. It WILL make a dramatic difference for the PS4 and you also get the benefit of 4K Youtube which is significant because 1080p Youtube looks terrible due to how restricted the bitrate is for that. Pixel density itself is an upgrade so for things like games/desktop it makes a difference even if you run content at a lower-res. I had a 40'' 1080p TV and now a 55'' 4K one and I can tell you the difference in terms of visual clarity, in terms of detail has been worlds apart. Beyond worth the upgrade. I really wish I made the jump sooner (though I do use it connected to the PC).

For that B7 keep in mind the risk of burn in is very much real, so longevity is going to be an issue. So you have to make sure to use screen-savers, turn it off when not using it, not leaving the screen with static elements on, etc. as well as keeping direct sunlight (or even sunlight reflecting directly) off it, because by its organic nature that can harm the display (one weird example I saw was a guy left a PS4 disc near the display, the sunlight reflected from the disc unto the tv, think like frying ants with a magnifying glass, and then that left a burnt in image in the shape of the disc on the display - woops!).

superdumper · 24 Oct 2018 at 06:12

I personally think that 1080p looks great on a 4K TV, especially the TV you're considering.

I have not tried 720p, but I think it would look great too (you could obviously tell the difference).

TALON1973 · 24 Oct 2018 at 20:55

Screen burn ..... you have to be really careless for that to happen. The bv7 goes into screen save after about 30 seconds by itself.

Poneros · 24 Oct 2018 at 21:31

TALON1973 said:
Screen burn ..... you have to be really careless for that to happen. The bv7 goes into screen save after about 30 seconds by itself.

Well, not quite. Burn in is a bit of a misnomer, it's more burn out, i.e. the wearing out of the pixels. In some situations that simply happens faster, e.g. keeping the same image on screen for prolonged periods of time. It will happen to all OLEDs given enough use.

You can see in the burn-in tests here that even in what's more "dynamic" use, e.g. FIFA gameplay, there's an uneven wearing out of the pixels, look at the grey uniformity for week 38 compared to first week. Needless to say in the CNN scenario it's a complete disaster.