Is 4K worth the extra, can't decide between these 2 TVs.

[Mr Noble]

Hello clever people.

A little help please.........as I can't find any reviews of these new TVs yet. Maybe they're too new to have been reviewed........?

I think I've narrowed my new TV choice down to these two.

I want 48-50", YouView (or similar as I m might cancel Sky) possibly 3D although not sure if it'll ever get used. Full HD.


Question is, is 4K really worth it. I have a blu-ray player but am the kind of guy who isn't fussed wether I buy a movie on DVD or BR really. I can see the difference in picture quality, but it doesn't really bother me if it's in SD. Do I need to "future proof" my new TV as I won't be getting another one for 5 - 10 years! My current 40 inch samsung must be 7 years old. The bezel is about 2 inches thick!! This new 49 inch Sony is only physically 3cm wider than my current 40 incher!



Either this one - 4K (but no 3D)

http://www.johnlewis.com/sony-bravia-kd49x83-4k-ul...


Or this one, that's not 4K but has 3D.

http://www.johnlewis.com/sony-bravia-kdl50w80-led-...






Thank you for any tips and advice.

[Mr Noble]

Thanks guys. Most helpful comments.

A friend has just thrown in a swerve ball and suggested this "cheap" panny that'll do a decent job for a couple years until the 4k issue is sorted.

It's apparently a new set for 2015 and I expect it'll be a great picture with zero of the 'smart' frills.

Hmmm. Tricky choices!


http://www.johnlewis.com/panasonic-viera-tx-48c300...

[Mr Noble]

For the record, I went ahead and bought the 49 inch Sony 4K linked in my original post above.

After some serious faffing about trying to get it to work with the ARC feature on my Yamaha YSP3300 sound bar, and failing, I got it all set up and working correctly. (HDMI control doesn't work with this TV and the setting on the Yamaha needs to be switched off, which is an annoying shame.)

The picture is great, most of the time. I've switched the auto brightness setting off as it made the picture too dark at night and too bright in the day time on a sunny day. I prefer it to be the same all the time.

4K upscaling is amazing, movies on bluray look like CGI the picture is so sharp and clear. In fact, I'm not sure I like it! There is almost too much detail, making the picture look artificial. I've not messed about with the settings too much yet though, so there is probably room to turn it all down a bit.

Only niggle, is that the menus are a bit laggy and slow. Possibly due to a "tweet' feature that I can't seem to disable where the TV constantly looks for tweets associated with the programs hat are currently airing, like #BBCQT would be for Question Time etc. It could be an issue with my slow broadband too, not sure.