Bad idea to buy an 1080p TV instead of 4K?

[Bikerjon]

My trusty Pioneer plasma from years ago is being relegated to the spare room so I need to replace it. Budget is quite limited at £500 max and my first visit to look at some TV's in Currys convinced me that a 49" Sony HD at £480 could be the way to go. As a technology person (not AV) I realise this may seem a bit of an odd choice as a 4K TV can now just about be had for that budget, but the Sony really did seem to tick all the boxes and most importantly the picture did look good from what they were running on demo - just as good if not better that some of the more expensive 4K TV's in my opinion.

I don't have any 4K TV sources currently and if I'm perfectly honest the Pioneer really is still good enough for my needs, so should I worry about not going 4K with a TV?

[Phunk]

I create video content for a living and unless you pixel peep and have a huge TV you won't notice a difference.

You are much better off with a GOOD 1080p set, ever more so around £500

Edited by Phunk on Sunday 19th February 22:31

[alock]

4k is an exact multiple of both 1080 and 720 resolutions (2x2 and 3x3 pixels). A 4k panel will therefore always shows 720 content better a 1080 panel.

Obviously this is only relevant if you have lots of 720 resolution content.

[RobDickinson]

uh whut.

[gizlaroc]

Bikerjon said:

My trusty Pioneer plasma from years ago is being relegated to the spare room so I need to replace it. Budget is quite limited at £500 max and my first visit to look at some TV's in Currys convinced me that a 49" Sony HD at £480 could be the way to go. As a technology person (not AV) I realise this may seem a bit of an odd choice as a 4K TV can now just about be had for that budget, but the Sony really did seem to tick all the boxes and most importantly the picture did look good from what they were running on demo - just as good if not better that some of the more expensive 4K TV's in my opinion.

I don't have any 4K TV sources currently and if I'm perfectly honest the Pioneer really is still good enough for my needs, so should I worry about not going 4K with a TV?

Nothing wrong with buying a 1080 panel, but I wouldn't necessarily buy the £480 Sony.
I would want at least a decent local dimming panel if going LCD.

There are some 1080p OLEDs for sale on avforums from users who have had to get the latest 4k version. They are going from around £650 asking, now that will be an upgrade.

A 1080p OLED will give 'you' better results than the best LCDs you can buy regardless of price.


The one area where the 4k is better is HDR, and HLG which is what they are going to use for broadcasting, no HDR on 1080 sets. It is the HDR that makes it look better, pixels are more a marketing tool imho, unless you are on a massive screen you can't really tell.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

I have a 49" new Sony with SkyQ and 4K football. Struggle to tell the difference over standard HD. Very disappointing.

[Bikerjon]

gizlaroc said:

Nothing wrong with buying a 1080 panel, but I wouldn't necessarily buy the £480 Sony.
I would want at least a decent local dimming panel if going LCD.

What's a decent local dimming panel?

As my budget is nothing to get too excited about my theory is it's better to get a good quality "old technology" TV than a newer unproven model i.e a cheap 4K. The mainstream retailers have obviously shifted almost completely towards 4K apart from a few models, so this has also made me question my choice too!

[Bikerjon]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I have a 49" new Sony with SkyQ and 4K football. Struggle to tell the difference over standard HD. Very disappointing.

Sorry to hear that, but thanks anyway for confirming my suspicions! To my eyes the only significant upgrade seems to be OLED - cant fail to be impressed by the demo running on those screens. In a different league IMO.

[boyse7en]

Why are you relegating your Plasma to buy a cheap replacement? The Plasma will give a better pic than most LED/LCD screens IMO

[Bikerjon]

boyse7en said:

Why are you relegating your Plasma to buy a cheap replacement? The Plasma will give a better pic than most LED/LCD screens IMO

I was actually wondering that too! The plasma is 720p and may even be 10 years old? I can't remember exactly when I bought it, but it cost an arm and a leg! Maybe I should buy a cheap LCD for the spare room and keep the plasma where it is until I can afford OLED.

[gizlaroc]

Bikerjon said:

What's a decent local dimming panel?

As my budget is nothing to get too excited about my theory is it's better to get a good quality "old technology" TV than a newer unproven model i.e a cheap 4K. The mainstream retailers have obviously shifted almost completely towards 4K apart from a few models, so this has also made me question my choice too!

Sony 55XD9305 is the only one I would consider.
Currently down to £1250, the new XE9305 is £2400, and no longer has the leds at the side but top and bottom which can cause issues with letterbox movies.

Second hand Sony 46 or 55 W905 would be a good choice used, I sold mine to a mate for £300 recently, hell of a lot of TV for the money.
He bought the Samsung KS7000 first and thought it a step backwards compared to his 10 year old Panny plasma, but borrowed my Sony for a few days and talked me into selling it to him.


Are you wanting an upgrade, or just need a second TV as that one is going into the spare room?

The problem is, you are swapping a top end plasma for a a budget lcd.

[gizlaroc]

Bikerjon said:

I was actually wondering that too! The plasma is 720p and may even be 10 years old? I can't remember exactly when I bought it, but it cost an arm and a leg! Maybe I should buy a cheap LCD for the spare room and keep the plasma where it is until I can afford OLED.

Buy a used 1080p plasma, most are only a year old, many came with a 5 year warranty.

For £650 it will blow away any sub £1000 LCD.

[Bikerjon]

gizlaroc said:

Are you wanting an upgrade, or just need a second TV as that one is going into the spare room?

The problem is, you are swapping a top end plasma for a a budget lcd.

Thanks for the info. I wasn't originally looking to upgrade but I assumed that in 10 years the technology must have moved the game along to the point where a £500 set must now be a better than my ageing plasma. I may just go for a new TV for the spare room and keep things how they are in the living room.

[RobDickinson]

I had a 10yo 720p plasma.

Couldnt face LCD/LED so ended up with a 4k 55" OLED.

Having never owned a 1080 set ( but very used to monitors etc) 4k is stunning.

[gizlaroc]

RobDickinson said:

I had a 10yo 720p plasma.

Couldnt face LCD/LED so ended up with a 4k 55" OLED.

Having never owned a 1080 set ( but very used to monitors etc) 4k is stunning.

Is it the 4k that is stunning or the OLED?

I have sat and calibrated a 1080p and 4k C6 LG OLED next to each other, and it was only on certain 4k material you could just about tell which one was the 4k set.
HDR changes things however, when they get it right it is stunning.

Jumping from a 720 plasma to an OLED is quite a jump, just the fact the best 720 plasmas are quite some way behind the later 1080 plasma panels, and they themselves are a fair bit behind the OLEDs, not because of resolution, just the way they can go brighter, go darker, better colours, less noise sharper etc.

I don't think it is fair people knock LCD, some of the best LCDs show OLED and Plasma up for colour and natural look, but the problem is they can go seriously bright and this is how the shops have them, which puts people off. But see a really well set up LCD and they can be stunning, they just can't do certain things like ansi contrast as well.
But for colour, greyscale and motion they are the better set still, but.......being able to do proper blacks gives the OLED a more pleasing overall image.

[RobDickinson]

gizlaroc said:

Is it the 4k that is stunning or the OLED?

Both.

Can certainly tell the extra detail on straight 4k content ( downloaded 4k The Expanse, wow) over 1080/BR.

The HDR is amazing though, DV on netflix makes the image seem so real - a combination of detail, range and realistic colours.

I do have a good eye for detail though.

[kmpowell]

alock said:

A 4k panel will therefore always shows 720 content better a 1080 panel.

Ok, you're going to have to explain that one to me.

Taking the size of panel out of the equation, how can stretching 720 lines over 2160 lines rather than 1080, ever result in a better picture?!?

Sure, if you are talking the same size panel, then the difference will be marginal, but there will be a negative difference even with the best upscaler in the world.

[stargazer30]

If your budget is £500, check out Amazon. LGBOX seller, 60" LG 4K with HDR for £500 delivered. Total steal if you ask me. Same TV £800 everywhere else.

[mr_fibuli]

kmpowell said:

Ok, you're going to have to explain that one to me.

Taking the size of panel out of the equation, how can stretching 720 lines over 2160 lines rather than 1080, ever result in a better picture?!?

Sure, if you are talking the same size panel, then the difference will be marginal, but there will be a negative difference even with the best upscaler in the world.

I never realised that before, but it makes sense.

720 to 1080 is 1.5 times bigger. You can't easily draw a line 1.5 times bigger, so you have to do interpolation to blur 2 lines from the 720p image across 3 lines on the 1080p panel.

It turns out 720 goes into 2160 exactly 3 times, so in that case you can just draw each line 3 times - no blending or blurring needed. In practice though the upscaler might do something a bit clever than that to prevent the image looking too blocky.

[Bikerjon]

As is often the way on PH I mulled over my original question and all the replies and then decided on a different option! I found a discount on a 43" 4K LG LCD and bought that for the spare room. If it actually turns out to be better than I first thought then I will do a swap around and relegate the plasma, but somehow I reckon I'll be shopping for an OLED at some point in the future.

Thanks for the replies, I know more than I did when I first started this search!