Want to buy a 4K/UHD TV - Help please

CLAWS said:
Hi folks,

Since I wont be converting my garage into a gym anymore and since I wont be getting a dog anymore the wife has said in so many words "get a new TV".

So, towards the end of June I am looking to get a new TV preferably 4K. I am trying to get as much information as possible before the purchase hence a cry for help in early May.

Budget - Around 2K
Size - 47"+
3D - Don't really care
Smart TV - Yes please, will be using Netflix and will also be streaming from NAS

Do you guys have any recommendations? Been reading some bumf about HEVC and Netflix providing 4K content. Worth waiting for the TV's with this codec? The wife and I use Netflix a lot.

Any advice is much appreciated :)
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As Netflix is important you'll need to get a 2014 year model screen as none of last years models have inbuilt HEVC decoding. Sony are going to sell a box (for approx £350) that you can use with their screen from last year (x9005A), so that's also an option.

Based on the above here are you current options;

Samsung 8500 series (curved model), http://www.avforums.com/review/samsung-hu8500-ue65hu8500-curved-ultra-hd-4k-led-tv-review.10154

Samsung 7500 series (not curved)

Sony X9005B series, http://www.trustedreviews.com/sony-kdl-65x9005b_TV_review

Panasonic AX802 series

I haven't seen any reviews of the Samsung 7500 or Panasonic yet (but both are out in the shops). They are all available between 50 and 65 inches.

LG also have some coming out later this year and Panasonic has their top model (AX902) coming out around Q3.

I don't have Netflix but I believe House of Cards Season 2 is available now in 4k and I believe there are also some other documentaries/clips.

Your biggest issue is going to be getting 4K content, but I would advise you to get a demo and see what you think of the upscaling of 1080/SD stuff.
 
LFletcher said:
This is timely, http://www.whathifi.com/news/netflix-five-years-before-ultra-hd-4k-becomes-mainstream

Netflix reckon you need a 20Mbps bb connection for 4K.
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Sounds reasonable. The content will be there and sets will be reasonably priced (although probably only a few at sonnys price point).

I'd wait until the good screens go down to about 2-3k (or in sale price at least). That's a reasonable price IMO. If anything like plasma and HD sets £1k for a good set will only be towards the end of the reign of that particular tech.

They just need to release an OLED 4k display though... Plasma isn't 4k yet (AFAIK) and on its way out and LCD just doesn't cut it. Realistically I'll probably get a 4k projector first though. Hopefully they will fall to about 2k in a couple of years!
 
I want to see the look on you face when you sit back in your sofa and realise the extra res is wasted from where your sitting :D
 
I am having a really hard time understanding the massive negativity about 4k ok it currently is expensive but it is getting cheaper very very quickly and for the OP I would suggest waiting a little longer before buying but...

The main arguments against one the lack of content and 2 that you cannot see the difference unless your on top of the thing are both in my eyes frankly rubbish.

1 Well Upscaled 1080 good quality stuff looks even better and I like a huge number of people in the UK have access to fast broadband of well above 20mbs and so can download content as soon as it becomes available.

2 Sit closer , if the best experience is sitting closer why would you pay £1000s for a TV and not sit where the manufacturers say it is best :)

You can argue all day that past a certain distance you can not see the difference but that is not my experience and frankly I think it is generally rubbish at normal lounge distances for bigger TVs.

Yes an OLED 55" might look better than a 4k 55" but currently there is about a 100% price difference between the 2 and while 4K lcds are rapidly getting cheaper it looks like OLEDs will not be so quick.

In 2 years or so OLEDs might be the £1500-£2000 TV but this year you will get an awesome 4k LCD for that price is my opinion , just not yet.
 
Haha, you don't believe industry leaders like THX and others. But rather believe yourself, to justify upgrading. You go ahead, anyone sensible wont unless they can afford a massive 100"+ TV

As for sitting close, you expect people to drag their sofas into the middle of the lounge and restrict viewing to like two people.

Your entire post is comical.
 
I'd be less concerned about upscaled 1080p content and more about what regular TV looks like - unless you do nothing with your TVs but watch BD rips or streamed 1080p - I had ITV HD on the other night watching the footie and the picture was barely any better than on SD. SD on 4K = ew (have seen first hand).
 
Somnambulist said:
I had ITV HD on the other night watching the footie and the picture was barely any better than on SD. SD on 4K = ew (have seen first hand).
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Of course no wonder, look how far it's to go. To try to fill pixels that isn't there.

800px-Digital_video_resolutions_%28VCD_to_4K%29.svg.png


Not counting 8k.

800px-8K_UHD%2C_4K_UHD%2C_FHD_and_SD.svg.png
 
Domi said:
I am having a really hard time understanding the massive negativity about 4k ok it currently is expensive but it is getting cheaper very very quickly and for the OP I would suggest waiting a little longer before buying but...

The main arguments against one the lack of content and 2 that you cannot see the difference unless your on top of the thing are both in my eyes frankly rubbish.

1 Well Upscaled 1080 good quality stuff looks even better and I like a huge number of people in the UK have access to fast broadband of well above 20mbs and so can download content as soon as it becomes available.

2 Sit closer , if the best experience is sitting closer why would you pay £1000s for a TV and not sit where the manufacturers say it is best :)

You can argue all day that past a certain distance you can not see the difference but that is not my experience and frankly I think it is generally rubbish at normal lounge distances for bigger TVs.

Yes an OLED 55" might look better than a 4k 55" but currently there is about a 100% price difference between the 2 and while 4K lcds are rapidly getting cheaper it looks like OLEDs will not be so quick.

In 2 years or so OLEDs might be the £1500-£2000 TV but this year you will get an awesome 4k LCD for that price is my opinion , just not yet.
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You obviously don't understand that streaming and even broadcasts are pretty **** poor quality.

They are heavily compressed and as such the picture is nowhere near the potential, especially when it comes to streaming.

Take a blu ray and then watch the same movie on sky hd and you can clearly see the difference never mind trying to stream the movie, even a HD stream of the same movie would look like SD in comparison to a blu ray.

So buying a 4K to stream HD/UHD would be hilarious, I would have a far better quality picture on my 1080P using blu ray, your tv would look like your watching VHS in comparison.

The only time to buy 4K is when you can get 4K broadcasts by sky on all the major channels (sports, movies, atlantic, etc) or on physical media for around £10 per movie or you can download (not stream) high quality 4K files for around £10 per movie to keep forever onto a DVR of some sort.

Sony are charging like $700 per DVR and then $30 per movie currently which would easily translate to £700 and £30 when and if ever launched here.

That is why it's getting slated, its quite frankly a stupid proposition unless your affluent.

The reason why 4K TV's look so good in store is no doubt they are probably running either a 4K file or at least a 1080P Blu Ray.

Take along a netflix stream and watch it on the same tv and then tell me how good it looks.
 
My friend has the Samsung 55F9000 as seen here http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-ue55f9000_TV_review

Picture quality really is fantastic on all 1080p/4k content, and even SD doesn't look any worse than my own Samsung 50F6500 TV (also very good imo) once you calibrate it to optimal settings.

The set costs £1350 where we live so it's definitely not an "affluent" purchase and I'm considering one myself too to replace my old Panny G10 plasma in my living room.
 
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I am sorry but the idea that 4k is only any use when the likes of sky get around to broadcasting it is laughable.

I personally watch Movies ripped from Blu Ray streamed to my TV or my projector my setup is not that unusual (ok maybe not the cinema room) and will already happily stream 4K content I am fairly confident.

The only real difference for me will be that instead of a movie being 20-50 gig it might be 100 to 150g if these were available to download I could get them today.

A TV being capable of playing 4K does not in some way make it a leper that cannot play SD and 1080 content well (where the hell are people getting this from ?)

The only disadvantage of 4K is price everything else is down to the quality of the individual sets and there is absolutely no reason why for example a sony 4K will be any weaker than a sony 1080 at any resolution other than 4k.

I would also be genuinely interested to see any reviews that state the reviewers can not see a difference between 4k content vs 1080 on 2 comparable sets at "normal" viewing.

I would not rush out and buy a 4k TV I have already said wait but I believe good 4k TVs will be so close to 1080 prices this year as to make it the sensible option.
 
True, and if you have a very fast internet connection and are happy to download very large files then you are really going to get the most out of a 4k set, especially as and when the 4k content becomes available on Blu-Ray over the next couple of years. It may take 5 years until 4k becomes "mianstream", but of course we are going to see a large amount of 4k content before that time too. Phones and video cameras are also migrating to 4k slowly but surely, so that's an added aspect for people that can use it.
 
Personally, I would only buy Samsung simply due to the fact they have all of the UK On-demand TV services built-in.
 
That review site you posted is a load of crap

http://www.avforums.com/review/samsung-ue55f9000-55-inch-4k-ultra-hd-led-lcd-tv-review.587

far more trustworthy and they gave it a 9/10 which means it is a good set so the picture should look fantastic on it and also gave it the highly recommended award.

It costs over £2000 here, you could get a similar PQ set for half the price here only difference being it will be 1080P.

The fact you can get it for £1300 is irrelevant to most people on here as they cannot. At that price yes it is very cheap. At over £2K then I would rather spend £1K now and then another £1K in 3-8 years time when 8K is available and the prices of 4K tv's are rock bottom.

No big loss as your mate only paid £1300, but to pay £2K for a 4K now when 8K will be coming out soon after 4K much like 1080P hit straight after HD ready 720P sets did.

I would rather wait and get a bargain than pay through the nose to be beta tester with very little content available.

The point about being rich also related to media, how much does it currently cost to get a 4K movie? No point buying a 4K tv if you cannot afford 4K media. That's like buying an aston martin and cannot afford the petrol so you resort to stealing it (downloading).

Also how many pirates would be willing to spend so much on 4K media to then give it away for free? I doubt many would be also download times would be painfully slow due to the sizes of files involved.
 
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Sonny you don't half come across as aggressive in a lot of your posts. I remember your £500 Plasma and your carefully chosen snippet of that review, I believe I commented on it in another thread where you proclaimed LCD awful at everything and plasma wonderful. I even agreed with most of your points aside from LCD being awful at everything. Both have their strengths and weaknesses and LCD technology has moved on a lot just like Plasma.

In relation to the OLED comment. I though we were talking about 1080p vs 4k not 1 or 2? OLED panels in the world that are above the OP's budget in most cases.

OP I would think long and hard about whether you have the resources (££, download speed) to make use of 4k media when it is widely available, its not now and won't be cheap when it is for a fair while. You can either get an older (with now outdated tech or not meeting certain standards) 4k 55" for your budget or the pick of most 55-65" 1080p sets, LED or Plasma.

As for pirates not wanting to mess with 4k due to cost it's never stopped them with anything. Ever. Before :p
 
Psycho Sonny said:
You obviously don't understand that streaming and even broadcasts are pretty **** poor quality.

They are heavily compressed and as such the picture is nowhere near the potential, especially when it comes to streaming.

Take a blu ray and then watch the same movie on sky hd and you can clearly see the difference never mind trying to stream the movie, even a HD stream of the same movie would look like SD in comparison to a blu ray.

So buying a 4K to stream HD/UHD would be hilarious, I would have a far better quality picture on my 1080P using blu ray, your tv would look like your watching VHS in comparison.

The only time to buy 4K is when you can get 4K broadcasts by sky on all the major channels (sports, movies, atlantic, etc) or on physical media for around £10 per movie or you can download (not stream) high quality 4K files for around £10 per movie to keep forever onto a DVR of some sort.

Sony are charging like $700 per DVR and then $30 per movie currently which would easily translate to £700 and £30 when and if ever launched here.

That is why it's getting slated, its quite frankly a stupid proposition unless your affluent.

The reason why 4K TV's look so good in store is no doubt they are probably running either a 4K file or at least a 1080P Blu Ray.

Take along a netflix stream and watch it on the same tv and then tell me how good it looks.
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The prices you state always seem way on the low side. They are late adopter prices rather than early or mid adopter prices. For most of DVD's (before blu ray) and Blurays life (for example) prices were in the £15-20 range. Same with 1080p TV's. They are now £1000 for a reasonable set but it's only a fairly recent development.

In 2-3 years that Sony DVR could be £300-400 and the films about £15, both a reasonable price for mid life kit. We paid that for our first DVR and not much less for our Youview box about 2 years ago. IMO they are mainstream prices, in a few years they will hit the budget prie points you keep mentioning, that's late adoption period IMO, where you can get a good set but it will be overtaken by technology pretty soon after (for example the £1k 1080p sets now, which will be overtaken within a year or two by 4k sets).

While I agree, right now isn't the best time as there are so few options and this is the first wave of 4k products, definitely in early adopter bracket, the next few waves will certainly be hitting the middle adopter spot, not the "affluent" early adopter sector.
 
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