So - 4K tele - upscaling BlueRay etc

[TTmonkey]

So down at Curries theres some mezmerising tele's on display.

The curved, 4k Samsungs for instance.

Now, I'm aware that there is no 4k source available yet, but according to them, the tele can take a HD signal and upscale it to 4k.....

So, is this merely a blurry HD picture, or is it a better quality HD image approaching 4k quality?

I'm just not sure that there is a point to these teles yet... but if they can improve a HD picture, are they worth having....

or is it simply a con job to get people to buy 4k now?

Many thanks for your words of wisdom.

[ReallyReallyGood]

Unless you have one chair in your living room I really don't see the point of curved TVs.

[HRL]

If you've got a 1080P HD TV already, play a regular DVD on a Blu-ray player that upscales. I would hazard a guess that it would be a pretty similar result upscaling a Blu-ray on a 4K TV.

[Alucidnation]

Ive been looking at these and i have decided that to get the best from 4K (with the current lack of availability of material), you would need at least a 65" with 20/20 vision to appreciate it.

[FlossyThePig]

They haven't finalised the standards yet, so hold off any 4k purchase.

[budfox]

"Upscaling" is marketing speak for "degrading".

Shove a signal onto a monitor that doesn't exactly match the pixel dimensions of the source and you're compromising quality because it will need to be resampled.

1920x1080 needs a display of 1920x1080. It's not difficult to understand.

[Regiment]

budfox said:

"Upscaling" is marketing speak for "degrading".

Shove a signal onto a monitor that doesn't exactly match the pixel dimensions of the source and you're compromising quality because it will need to be resampled.

1920x1080 needs a display of 1920x1080. It's not difficult to understand.

Not really as all it is doing is doubling the pixels in both directions, from personal experience, up scaled bluray is better than 1080p bluray.

[Vaud]

budfox said:

"Upscaling" is marketing speak for "degrading".

Shove a signal onto a monitor that doesn't exactly match the pixel dimensions of the source and you're compromising quality because it will need to be resampled.

1920x1080 needs a display of 1920x1080. It's not difficult to understand.

No it isn't.

1080 to VGA is degrading quality.

You can't add information. But you can interpolate. 1080 to 4k will interpolate intelligently - so no more information has been added to image, but none has been lost, and you will probably perceive that there is more.

[budfox]

Regiment said:

Not really as all it is doing is doubling the pixels in both directions, from personal experience, up scaled bluray is better than 1080p bluray.

How did you make this comparison?

[Alucidnation]

I wouldn't say it was better at all

0.55 in

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v2kjQzFzjM4

[camelot1971]

The quality of the source impacts picture quality far more than whether the TV will upscale to 4k. If you only watch Blu Ray or HD TV channels it *might* be worth taking a punt on a 4k TV but as has been mentioned, best to wait until standards have been finalised. 4k discs are a long way off, 4k transmissions even longer and some 4k TV's wont even decode Netflix 4k!

If you really want a new TV now, get the best 1080p you can find and enjoy for the next 3 - 4 years

[pozi]

Having seen a few demos of 4K TVs it consists of a everyone standing 6 inches away from the screen and raving about the additional detail, step back to the distance you would normally watch TV and it looks the same as any other high quality 1080P image.

And that was on a 105" LED, go back to a size that actually fits in most people lounges makes them even more pointless.

No doubt the technology will filter down to all TVs eventually, a bit like 3D from a few years back and 240hz refresh speeds before that but I fear it is more "because they can" rather than people actually needing it.

[Silverage]

My cousin has just replaced his TV and went for a 4k 50" Samsung model. He was giving us a demo when we were round the other day.

The Samsung 4k demo footage looked really good. It was of some waves crashing ashore on a sunkissed beach. Looked a fair bit better than HD, almost like being there looking through a window. He then showed some allegedly 4k version of Breaking Bad from Netflix. That wasn't so impressive. Not much, if anything better than HD in my opinion.

Personally I wouldn't pay extra for a 4k TV at the moment given the lack of 4k material to watch. How many years away are we from broadcast 4k. Even some Bluray+ external player affair, which may be closer, will mean having to buy a new player and disks.

[Silverage]

My cousin has just replaced his TV and went for a 4k 50" Samsung model. He was giving us a demo when we were round the other day.

The Samsung 4k demo footage looked really good. It was of some waves crashing ashore on a sunkissed beach. Looked a fair bit better than HD, almost like being there looking through a window. He then showed some allegedly 4k version of Breaking Bad from Netflix. That wasn't so impressive. Not much, if anything better than HD in my opinion.

Personally I wouldn't pay extra for a 4k TV at the moment given the lack of 4k material to watch. How many years away are we from broadcast 4k. Even some Bluray+ external player affair, which may be closer, will mean having to buy a new player and disks.

[bakerstreet]

Silverage said:

My cousin has just replaced his TV and went for a 4k 50" Samsung model. He was giving us a demo when we were round the other day.

The Samsung 4k demo footage looked really good. It was of some waves crashing ashore on a sunkissed beach. Looked a fair bit better than HD, almost like being there looking through a window. He then showed some allegedly 4k version of Breaking Bad from Netflix. That wasn't so impressive. Not much, if anything better than HD in my opinion.

Personally I wouldn't pay extra for a 4k TV at the moment given the lack of 4k material to watch. How many years away are we from broadcast 4k. Even some Bluray+ external player affair, which may be closer, will mean having to buy a new player and disks.

Japan have broadcast 4K.

You need a 65in TV for native resolution.

We could just about fit a 65in in our lounge, but it would look a bit ridiculous.

I'd say we are about 12 months away from 4k in the home, but one of the problems for the broadcasters is it takes up an entire bouquet of channels for one 4k channel!

[GlenMH]

Some interesting thoughts here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/07/30/breaking_f...
and here
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/20/feature_4k...

I won't be buying one yet....