4K Blu-ray is coming...
- Thread starter Deacon
- Start date
Wow, time to buy yet another player and yet another TV and replace the movie collection again all why anticipating when cable/sat will be broadcasting our favorite channels in 4k UHD at the very low cost of just x amount of dollars more per month compared to your current HD package......and that's just the video side. Now you get to see three different formats of your favorite channels when you click on your setbox's program guide. "Hey look Honey.....I Love Lucy is on WGN, WGN-HD, and WGN-UHD yet the quality looks the same! Ha!"
Seems like the formats are changing as fast as the media is hitting home video. I'd like to see a comparison between 4k and Bluray, but I think I'll pass on this one.
Seems like the formats are changing as fast as the media is hitting home video. I'd like to see a comparison between 4k and Bluray, but I think I'll pass on this one.
Yesfan70 said:
I've seen it at my local Wurst-Buy, on side-by-side 55" screens. I can see the difference when my face is 12" from the screen; any further back I can't.
The LG OLED they had, however: I could see the difference from halfway across the store. No media/player change required.
:dance:
Hold on... some progress is very good.
If we assume that every component we buy has a functional life of about 5 to 8 years, then it is time we start looking at what is going to replace out first or second BluRay player. If my 5 year old BluRay player is ready for an upgrade, why wouldn't I be looking at a new 4K model? If my 10 year old TV is ready to go, why not look for a 4K model?
I guess I don't understand why people are so quick to dismiss the latest new tech when it comes out.
If we assume that every component we buy has a functional life of about 5 to 8 years, then it is time we start looking at what is going to replace out first or second BluRay player. If my 5 year old BluRay player is ready for an upgrade, why wouldn't I be looking at a new 4K model? If my 10 year old TV is ready to go, why not look for a 4K model?
I guess I don't understand why people are so quick to dismiss the latest new tech when it comes out.
But we all have to replace our old and dying gear at some point.
Maybe I am a long term person, but when a cool new technology hits the market, I question whether or not it will succeed and whether I will be buying it someday. I don't assume that if I like I have to immediately replace everything I own today. 4K is real, it is logical, and it makes a noticeable difference. So, why wouldn't I want a 4K disc player in my future? I don't immediately dismiss it because I am happy today and don't want to spend money today.
Maybe I am a long term person, but when a cool new technology hits the market, I question whether or not it will succeed and whether I will be buying it someday. I don't assume that if I like I have to immediately replace everything I own today. 4K is real, it is logical, and it makes a noticeable difference. So, why wouldn't I want a 4K disc player in my future? I don't immediately dismiss it because I am happy today and don't want to spend money today.
AndySTL
Well-Known Member
Botch said:Yesfan70 said:
I've seen it at my local Wurst-Buy, on side-by-side 55" screens. I can see the difference when my face is 12" from the screen; any further back I can't.
The LG OLED they had, however: I could see the difference from halfway across the store. No media/player change required.
Maybe what I have seen at 4k was OLED too because my experience was a crazy increase in resolution. Are 50" + OLEDs available? I don't know what TV I saw 2 years ago but I do know it was 4k and it was out of this world. Either way, I will likely join on the upgrade but I'm not re-buying disc movies I already have on BD.
I am sure I will upgrade to 4k on my main system sometime in the next two years. Whether or not I will repurchase all of my movies again is another question entirely. If Hollywood is smart and gives me an upgrade path, I will likely take it (as I have via the disc-to-digital program with many of my DVDs), but I will not re-purchase over a thousand movies.
Deacon
Humble Servant
I guess I am in a different boat that all the rest of you. My current home theater still employs a 2001 RPTV. It was close to the best picture you could get back then at 1080i. It has been calibrated several times. It was the top of the line for those days.
Tech marches on and CRT died a quick death with the advent of plasma and LCD, etc. And I don't even think it was the tech so much as the fact that TVs got thinner and could be hung on the wall. No one wanted a gigantic box just for TV, but my CRT still had a really great picture quality. Compared to early plasma etc my CRT colors still looked more natural and thus less artificial. I could see the difference in 1080p over 1080i but it wasn't enough to get me to go crazy over it. I didn't see a need to upgrade what I had. Sure blu ray was nice but I cared more about the quality of sports and other live action so blu ray wouldn't do anything for me in that sense. Good ole CRT was still the king in picture quality with sports etc.
Now I can't get my set calibrated cause no one does them anymore. I can tell the quality of the picture is waning and I can no longer do anything about it. It is time for me to move on...
Since I didn't adopt blu ray and 1080p and flat TVs etc. this is all new and exciting for me. Heck I don't even have an HDMI cable in my home theater currently. All my HD is carried by component cables. My old CRT doesn't even have HDMI capability. At some point Mitsubishi was selling an upgrade box that I could have purchased for about $900 bucks to give my CRT the ability to accept HDMI but that was pure foolishness to me.
I am sure that if I had gone all ham with 1080p and blu ray and flat panels a few years back I would not be very enthusiastic about all this new 4k stuff, but I am a generation behind and it is all new and exciting for me.
Heck, most of you guys know I don't even have a cell phone so the thought of having a smart TV is enthralling to me! (yes I used that word!)
I guess for this group of folks I will have to drive the bandwagon. Last time I didn't even get on it.
Tech marches on and CRT died a quick death with the advent of plasma and LCD, etc. And I don't even think it was the tech so much as the fact that TVs got thinner and could be hung on the wall. No one wanted a gigantic box just for TV, but my CRT still had a really great picture quality. Compared to early plasma etc my CRT colors still looked more natural and thus less artificial. I could see the difference in 1080p over 1080i but it wasn't enough to get me to go crazy over it. I didn't see a need to upgrade what I had. Sure blu ray was nice but I cared more about the quality of sports and other live action so blu ray wouldn't do anything for me in that sense. Good ole CRT was still the king in picture quality with sports etc.
Now I can't get my set calibrated cause no one does them anymore. I can tell the quality of the picture is waning and I can no longer do anything about it. It is time for me to move on...
Since I didn't adopt blu ray and 1080p and flat TVs etc. this is all new and exciting for me. Heck I don't even have an HDMI cable in my home theater currently. All my HD is carried by component cables. My old CRT doesn't even have HDMI capability. At some point Mitsubishi was selling an upgrade box that I could have purchased for about $900 bucks to give my CRT the ability to accept HDMI but that was pure foolishness to me.
I am sure that if I had gone all ham with 1080p and blu ray and flat panels a few years back I would not be very enthusiastic about all this new 4k stuff, but I am a generation behind and it is all new and exciting for me.
Heck, most of you guys know I don't even have a cell phone so the thought of having a smart TV is enthralling to me! (yes I used that word!)
I guess for this group of folks I will have to drive the bandwagon. Last time I didn't even get on it.
I am VERY intrigued by what I am hearing about UltraViolet 4k, which is supposed to have a download option on par with 4k Blu-Ray. Kaleidescape is doing something really cool with UV now in the form of a device that lets you download up to 100 movies from your UV library in full Blu-Ray quality at a time with "affordable" storage expansion options coming (the device currently costs $2500, but they are targeting a sub-$1000 price point in the future). This approach could combine the best of both worlds in terms of convenience and quality. I am hoping that there will be an upgrade path for people with 1080p UV content as well.
You guys have no idea how much CPU horsepower it takes to transcode 4K video for web streams!!!
I work with companies developing ultra-dense network transcoding devices which can optimize video streams for solutions like Netflix, Hulu, and Ultraviolet. With current technology, a single 1U (rackspace) server which costs about $40,000 can transcode approximately 54 individual video streams for ideal throughput and quality. The same hardware can only transcode about 10 individual 4K streams.
The amount of hardware my company is about to sell just to support streaming video is friggin' insane! All so you guys can watch 4K movies at home.
I work with companies developing ultra-dense network transcoding devices which can optimize video streams for solutions like Netflix, Hulu, and Ultraviolet. With current technology, a single 1U (rackspace) server which costs about $40,000 can transcode approximately 54 individual video streams for ideal throughput and quality. The same hardware can only transcode about 10 individual 4K streams.
The amount of hardware my company is about to sell just to support streaming video is friggin' insane! All so you guys can watch 4K movies at home.
Botch said:Yesfan70 said:
I've seen it at my local Wurst-Buy, on side-by-side 55" screens. I can see the difference when my face is 12" from the screen; any further back I can't.
The LG OLED they had, however: I could see the difference from halfway across the store. No media/player change required.
Exactly my point on the first part of the quote. The second part I'd have to see myself to make that call. For me, I don't think right now, right now, I can justify going all out for a 4k TV if one of my current sets gives up the ghost. A plain jane 720p would be more than good enough. Heck, my 720p projo looks awesome on my homemade 90+" screen, so I don't see the need or requirement to spend money on a 4k TV that's about half that size. So until then, I'll keep laughing at the salespeople whenever they tell Joe Sixpack why there is a difference and why he should buy the 4k over the 1080p for his 32" bedroom TV.
On another note..........
What I see now is fewer and fewer 720p "dumb" TVs. Seems like the average size and quality TV is going to be a 1080p smart TV. That's cool and all as the prices I see for these TVs seem to be cheaper than what I paid for my 720p vanilla Panasonic. I'm sure 4k will probably be like that eventually, and if it comes to that...fine. I'll buy a 4k when I need one, because that's probably what's going to be the average priced TV by then.
What I don't want to see is 10 years down the road when one decides to add cable/sat or upgrade that service they're going to have to pay more for UHD quality for some channels like others are doing now with HD. Yes, I know there's ways to get "free HD", but not everyone does those options (I do for those who are curious), so for the sake of argument I'll stick with HD content still being a charged option, and not a standard. I don't like that and I don't want to see that happening with UHD.
One of the many reasons I dropped cable was the preposterous "HD Technology" surcharge. Well, that and the fact that I had to call and bitch about my bill every six months as this promotion or that ended and my bill skyrocketed. This is putting aside the absurdity of paying over a hundred dollars a month to receive channels that spend 30% of their time playing advertisements.
I have ZERO regrets about getting rid of cable and switching to an OTA DVR with a bunch of streaming services.
I have ZERO regrets about getting rid of cable and switching to an OTA DVR with a bunch of streaming services.
I don't really have a problem with content providers charging a premium in the early days of a new technology. What pisses me off about the "HD Technology Fee" is that HD is now the universally accepted standard. It is not new. It is not special. What they are doing is charging a premium to get the status quo and that is just ridiculous.
Much like Deacon I still have my now 14 year old Pioneer Elite 620 RPTV 1080i still proudly in my main HT. It barely gets any use so it still only has maybe 4000 hours or less on the bulbs. After I attached my second hand DVDO VP30 ( bought on eBay for 120.00) it took my picture to a whole bother level due mostly to reducing my overscan from 6% to 0.5% all around. Granted the picture is not as super sharp as my 1080p LED but considering all I watch are streamed HDX Vudu movies it gives me a fantastic picture.
I've seen and lusted after OLED but 95% of my tv watching are regular sat channel stations which only do 1080i at this point it's about diminishing returns as mentioned when looking at one foot away yes you can see the difference at ten feet back it gets very hard to tell the difference. It's why I stopped buying Blurays two years ago and now strictly buy Vudu HDX movies. When I can buy a new release for 5.00 tax free rather than 20.00 with tax for an incremental small picture enhancement I'd rather save the money. Sometimes the streamed movies are indistinguishable from Bluray sometimes not but I can buy four new releases for the cost of one new release in store I'll buy the cheaper version.
Having just gotten back to work recently and catching up on bills has taught me that I can no longer be foolish with money and be happy with what I have (considering my three systems probably are better than 98% of the general public anyway until 4K OLED TV's become sold at Wal Mart for 500.00 I'll enjoy what I have.
I've seen and lusted after OLED but 95% of my tv watching are regular sat channel stations which only do 1080i at this point it's about diminishing returns as mentioned when looking at one foot away yes you can see the difference at ten feet back it gets very hard to tell the difference. It's why I stopped buying Blurays two years ago and now strictly buy Vudu HDX movies. When I can buy a new release for 5.00 tax free rather than 20.00 with tax for an incremental small picture enhancement I'd rather save the money. Sometimes the streamed movies are indistinguishable from Bluray sometimes not but I can buy four new releases for the cost of one new release in store I'll buy the cheaper version.
Having just gotten back to work recently and catching up on bills has taught me that I can no longer be foolish with money and be happy with what I have (considering my three systems probably are better than 98% of the general public anyway until 4K OLED TV's become sold at Wal Mart for 500.00 I'll enjoy what I have.
Deacon
Humble Servant
http://www.computerworld.com/article/29 ... idays.html
It's funny that the article did not mention when 4k players will be hitting the market.
It's funny that the article did not mention when 4k players will be hitting the market.