Page 1 of Is 4K really an improvement over 1080p?

I'm in no hurry to upgrade to 4K, partly because of the price, but mainly because I don't think I'd see much of an improvement on my huge projection screen (and graphs about what the human eye can resolve plotting screen size vs distance seem to bear this out).

The screenshot comparison site caps-a-holic has posted comparison images of Blu-ray vs Ultra HDTV from Elysium which is a very modern movie, and the difference looks really slight.

http://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d1=7491&d2=7490&s1=71232&s2=71231&i=8&l=0

I still can't see myself rushing to 4K. But it's maybe good to know that I really am not going to have to buy all my movies all over again.

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Saw that last night. I'm interested to see what a proper UHD disc looks like compared to a BD (not happening until someone cracks the encryption), but even so there are minor improvements with the 4K HDTV version. Probably not enough to convince me to upgrade any time soon, but the screen capture with the robots shows a bigger improvement than the one you linked to.

https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&a=0&d1=7491&d2=7490&s1=71214&s2=71223&i=2&l=0

4K also has a wider colour gamut and a few other advantages. Still, the improvements don't appear to be anywhere near as obvious as with the move from DVD to BD, and you need a much bigger screen to notice them. The 4K definitely looks better in all shots, but does it look that much better? I think not. BD scales very well.







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This item was edited on Sunday, 6th March 2016, 09:33

I rather prefer 4.2K as its better than 4k

Well yes, it would be.







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But isn't 8K on the way?

Sure I read that somewhere.

So much of this is psychological and, while in stills and screengrabs, certain things may look clearer, I'm pretty sure, for a moving video the vast majority would be unable to tell the difference - especially in double blind testing.
In fact, I'd say that applies to 720P v 1080P too.
All at a reasonable viewing distance of course and not sitting on top of the display.

Ste

The viewing distance thing plays a big part. The configuration of my lounge (rectangular) is such that I'm limited when it comes to arranging seating. The sofa is at one end of the room, with the TV at the other, beyond the calculated optimum viewing distance. The chair is closer, around optimum distance, but it's off-angle and so less than ideal when reviewing because of audio considerations.

At the normal (sofa) viewing distance there's less of a difference between 720p and 1080p than there is from the side position. From the chair 720p can look a bit ropey, so all 1080p allows me to do is sit closer to the set without the scan line becoming visible. However, since this isn't possible you can see that the anything over 1080p offers even fewer benefits in my case (and I suspect in many others). Viewing distance calculators recommend that I should sit no further away than six and a half feet to obtain the full benefit of 1080p with a 50" set, so I would see no benefit going to 4K under normal viewing conditions (at least as far as resolution is concerned).

I can't see that millions of people are suddenly going to change their viewing habits and start sitting three to four feet away from their TVs just to see the benefit on even the entry level size 4K sets (55").







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So after all that I bought a nice new 4K TV in the sales.
I went for a 49KS9000 and treated myself first at full price (well John Lewis price matched for me).
Then on Boxing Day they knocked £200 off anyway - and added a free UHD Blu Ray player (UBD-K8500, worth £299).  So I got that too.
The player was supposed to come with 3 free UHD discs too - but they weren't in the box so Samsung are sending them to me...
Which all means I'm yet to watch anything in 4K.  Picture in general is fantastic though.

Ste

This item was edited on Friday, 30th December 2016, 11:47

Be interested to know what you think of the quality of UHD BR vs 1080p BR!

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I was an early adopter of 4K and bought the flagship tv made by Samsung at the time, supposed to be future proof but it's not as my panel does not support HDR.

They brought an evolution kit out a while back which supported HDR and improved the picture slightly but was not worth the £300 asking price so i sent it back.

To me this Samsung panel i own is the best picture i have ever seen, on Netflix with newer shows though i cannot see much difference between 1080p and 4K and some 4K shows look worse like breaking bad.

You tube running 4K 60hz on my Nvidia Shield TV or even on my PC running 4K 30hz looks absolutely stunning and much better than 1080p.

I have a few UHD movies and they do look slightly better than Bluray, also have a few 4K vids from Vimeo which also look stunning and much better than 1080p.

I don't actually see a massive difference between UHD and Bluray but see a big difference with youtube and vimeo clips

This item was edited on Friday, 30th December 2016, 17:24