TV for new house - 1080p or 4k advice needed please

FootballFanatic

FootballFanatic

FootballFanatic

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Hi, I am moving into a new house soon and need a new tv and sound system.

I have a little dilemma as our current tv is only 32 inch and is too small for the living room, i am looking for a 47-50 inch tv but with 4k coming along (although not much content just now), would buying a 1080p set be a waste of money just now or do you think it will not be worth having a 4k set for a good few years?

I believe my options are as follow, please correct me if i am wrong;

Option 1, buy a 4k tv like SONY BRAVIA KD49X8309CBU Smart Ultra HD 4k 49" LED TV for £1300 to future proof and spend little on subwoofer/soundbar/speakers (i am not much if an audiophile so would only need something half decent, would maybe push to £100/£150)

Option 2, forget all about 4k tv for now and buy a 1080p set like SONY BRAVIA KDL50W809CBU Smart 3D 50" LED TV and hope 4k does not take off, for a good 3/4 years then upgrade, can then stretch to £200/£300 for the sound system.

Option 3, buy a half decent set for max £500 to tide me over for a year or 2 and spend about £500 max on a half decent sound system.

thanks very much in advance :eek:

Edit, also meant to add that will be sitting 7/8 foot away and will mostly be watching sport on the tv so need the tv to process fast images as smooth as possible. ta
 
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Just go with option 3. The Sony danoliver1 posted above is only around £599 these days and is an excellent TV. At the rate 4k content is appearing it'll probably be another couple of years before there's enough available to make it worth it, right now there's so little you could watch it all in a couple of weeks.
 
Just had the exact same debate with myself and went for the Sony 50W829b for £529. If you can wait until Wednesday I can let you know what its like then :)
 
If you're sitting that close to the display you're going to find that SD broadcasts will look terrible on a large display. 42" should be your maximum size.
 
I'm about 6-7 feet away from my 50" at home at it is fine for SD, to be honest I'm thinking of going bigger when all this new fangled stuff settles down a bit.
 
Yeah - 7-8' is fine for up to 60", depending on how well the panel handles sd that is.

Go 1080p for now - in a few years 4k will be much cheaper and better quality. Then you can get a 60" plus uber 4k OLED :D
 
Thats great guys, thanks for the advice, Lil old me, if you can let me know what the tv is like when you have it working, that would be great. Most important will be how it handles sport and what the SD is like also. I am in no hurry to buy at the moment, we will not be moving into the house until the end of May.

Now that seems to be the TV option decided unless anyone else has any other advice.

How about the surround sound? Will have about £500 to spend on this since I am spending less on the TV, obviously, the cheaper the better and just to confirm again, I am not an audiophile, just needing a good entry level half decent system.

Again, all advice appreciated as I have never had surround sound before. Cheers!
 
You seem to like sony (like me) I've got a Sony STRDN 1050 and I think its great. costs about £380 but you will need to get speakers and a sub.
 
Sat 7 to 8 feet away the eye can't tell the difference between 1080p and 4k on a 50" screen, so going for 4k will be a complete waste of money:

http://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/resolution_chart-907x619.png?ver=4

If you want to see the benefits of 4k at 7-8 feet you need a screen size of 55" plus to even start to see the difference and around 110" to see the full benefit. If you are happy with 50" as a screen size then just completely forget 4k exists.

It amazes me how many people spend a fortune upgrading to a higher resolution TV yet sit at a distance that makes it impossible for the eye to resolve the difference. Unless you are willing to buy a huge screen or sit right on top of it 4k only really comes into its own on projectors with 100"+ screens.
 
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4K imo. My 7/8 year old 1080p LCD is still working fine but I wouldn't get a new TV now and be happy with 1080p for the next x years. I suppose it depends on how long you intend to keep it really.

Plenty of 4K content available (Netflix and YouTube mainly for me) and the 4K TV I have looks better at 1080p than my 2 x 1080p TV's.
 
FootballFanatic said:
Hey, have you set the tv up yet? 1st impressions?
Click to expand...

Yea it came yesterday. Beautiful picture and menus are really easy to navigate. Also love that the media server connected to Plex without any fiddling at all and streamed really well.

Speakers were a little disappointing, much worse than the 32" Panasonic its replacing, but you don't buy a 50" tv only to use the built in speakers! ;)

Unfortunately after a bit of playing around I noticed a thumb sized dull area in the middle of the screen with a few dead pixels. Spoke to the store and they said it is likely a broken backlight so it would need replacing. Even more unfortunately they don't have any in stock now! I'm getting a refund and have found it for £579 elsewhere. £30 more but it really was a beautiful screen so worth it IMO. There just doesn't seem to be anything that good at that price point anywhere close.

If you want any specific information I can try and recall it from my play around yesterday; otherwise the replacement is coming this afternoon :)
 
Abyss said:
Sat 7 to 8 feet away the eye can't tell the difference between 1080p and 4k on a 50" screen, so going for 4k will be a complete waste of money:

http://icdn2.digitaltrends.com/image/resolution_chart-907x619.png?ver=4

If you want to see the benefits of 4k at 7-8 feet you need a screen size of 55" plus to even start to see the difference and around 110" to see the full benefit. If you are happy with 50" as a screen size then just completely forget 4k exists.

It amazes me how many people spend a fortune upgrading to a higher resolution TV yet sit at a distance that makes it impossible for the eye to resolve the difference. Unless you are willing to buy a huge screen or sit right on top of it 4k only really comes into its own on projectors with 100"+ screens.
Click to expand...

great post thanks

is a 75'' 1080p screen ok at 8.5 ft (sony LED)
http://www.rgbdirect.co.uk/Products/Television/3D-LED-TV/SONY/KDL75W855CBU
 
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