Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I'm looking for a 4K HD TV but I don't know much about them or what to look for except better picture quality than 1080. I have Comcast and Apple TV that I use.
I like the LG and Samsung line.
Is the extra cost really worth the picture quality?
What features should I look for and what features should I skip?
Will Comcast have the programming for 4K quality?
Not only are there no 4k programming but many channels on sat and cable aren't even HD yet. Although in my area, on antenna, there are 1080 signals on some main channels, there are some that are only 720. And all the - [dash] channels are 480. A 4k TV will not improve the video quality on any of them. To see a 4k video, you have to be receiving a 4k signal, if over the air. If cable or sat, you will need a 4k receiver, just like you need an HD receiver to receive an HD signal..
If you have the funds, buy the best non-4K TV instead. Unless you sit close to the TV, it is very likely your eyes cannot see the difference between 4K and 1080p.
And if 3D is anything to learn from, it may just die off. Definitely wait to buy.
This won't die off but anything after it will be a really hard sell unless it brings something to the table other than more resolution.
Assuming you can actually get some 4K content whether you'll be able see the difference depends on the size of the TV and viewing distance. For example if you are viewing a photograph at arms length the average human eye can distinguish about 250dpi to 300dpi at that distance. If you had one photo printed at 300 and the other at 600 they are going to look the same. If you bring them closer the 600dpi image closer more details will begin to emerge.
Here's a chart for the TV's
For example if you had a 60" TV it would have to be no further than 8 feet away to see a difference. Once it's past 8 feet it's going to look the same as 1080.
You can't magically add detail to a source video, it is what it is. There is various methods for scaling video and images, bicubic is one method often used for example. That produces a larger resolution but contrasting lines get soft and less defined. What a good upscaler does is process the frame to identify these contrasting lines to keep them nice and sharp. You're not adding anything to the video but you're not making it look really bad by scaling it up either.
DVD or SD has really low resolution and doing this with that source material makes a lot of sense especially if you have a really large TV. I really don't see how much benefit you can get out of scaling 1080 unless you had a theater sized screen.
EVERY 4K TV has upscaling. If it didn't - it would display non-4K content in 1/4 of the display. It has to create more pixels from the original signal to fill up the screen. These pixels weren't in the original signal. The TV makes a best guess of where the pixels should be. The picture has not been improved.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
