Is 4K needed for regular viewing, mostly freesat/view

[paultownsend]

The crap LG in the bedroom has died, so the excellent and trusted 32” Panasonic TX-L32D28BP HD 1080p is moving upstairs.

I am wanting to upgrade to a 40”ish panel and spend circa £350. We mostly view Freesat SD and HD, and Netflix, I player and Terrarium through a Fire stick. Do not intend to get sky or watch blue rays.

For this viewing is 4K required-

https://www.richersounds.com/samsung-40-inch-4k-ul...

or would I be better of getting a 1080p-

https://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd-audio/televi...

Any other options are appreciated. The Samsung looks nice, but RS are advising LG now do superb panels.

Thanks in advance.

[towser44]

You'd need the 4k Firestick to watch anything in 4k via that I think?

[Phunk]

No - you won't notice the difference.

(I have a 4K TV and my job is a Cameraman)

[paultownsend]

Super. Forums suggest that SD viewing may appear worse than 1080p even with the upscalling.

[jmorgan]

For me, SD is very noticeable on a 4k set, so much so I do not watch SD. If 4k is not wanted and a 1080p is available, then a 1080 will upscale better than a 4k.

(edit. Clarify that, HD upscales well onto 4k, if there are enough HD channels then 4k is not an issue)

Though I have heard people say they cannot see the difference. I suppose what it is on is the catch, go look at the set in the shop and ask to see TV from the aerial. Should not be a problem.

Edited by jmorgan on Friday 5th January 16:40

[paultownsend]

Super. Forums suggest that SD viewing may appear worse than 1080p even with the upscalling.

[parabolica]

paultownsend said:

Super. Forums suggest that SD viewing may appear worse than 1080p even with the upscalling.

I'd agree with that; I bought my 43" 4K set almost a year ago mainly for streaming content and blurays (which it excels at); I don't watch much TV but what I do was all on the HD channels and it looked impressive. The 720p/SD channels do not upscale well; it is like watching a low-res video on youtube.

[tankplanker]

Most people buy too small a TV for the distance they sit from the TV to notice the difference. You need a surprisingly big TV, much bigger than people expect:


What a decent 4k TV does do much better than a 1080p TV is colour depth if it properly supports HDR. Even if you can't see the extra resolution then you should see the extra colour depth a mile off.

[FlossyThePig]

I upgraded from an old 32" Panasonic 1080p TV to a 40" Panasonic 4K TV last year. I realise that the 4K resolution is wasted but the HDR feature that was attractive for future use.

Some SD broadcasts look fine and others are not. Our local BBC 1 only uses SD so watching the news on BBC 1 HD means a swap to SD for local news. The in-studio pictures are poor (but they were on the old 32" TV as well) but some of the externally filmed stories don't look too bad.

[hyphen]

tankplanker said:

What a decent 4k TV does do much better than a 1080p TV is colour depth if it properly supports HDR. Even if you can't see the extra resolution then you should see the extra colour depth a mile off.

Popular opinion seems to be that HDR on the cheaper sets is not actually very good, you need to buy the top range to benefit properly. Also HDR10+ is also only on some models currently.

It's a minefield.

[jmorgan]

No HDR on HD (apart from that one on Netflix). Nothing doing it would seem on terrestrial telly?

[Phunk]

For the OP's budget you aren't going to get a HDR10 capable set.

[paultownsend]

Rang up RS again today. They do seem to be plugging the below.

https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/4k-ultr...

A trip into to store to see if SD is good or not is required me thinks.

Viewing if tv is 4m away at what is probably a 20’ angle.

[gizlaroc]

Samsung 6100 is a very well regarded set in the sub £1000 price range at £650, it is currently at £399.

Might be worth finding the extra....

https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/samsung...

[jmorgan]

Pop the model in here
https://www.avforums.com
You may find someone already has it or reviewed it.

Plenty of HD and SD to flip between to see the difference on an aerial feed.

[Belle427]

Just bought the model below for my dad and to be honest id choose it over my Sony Hd tv which I bought last year.
Sd sources look slightly better on the Samsung and the Hd images are noticeably sharper, both were a similar price and size.

https://www.richersounds.com/samsung-ue40mu6400.ht...

[Mikeyjae]

I will echo what others have said above about SD.

I recently purchased a 4K TV and the SD picture is awful. My old 1080p was much better for SD content. I nearly always now turn on the HD version of the channel.

HD is superb on the TV though and now BBC i Player has released Blue Planet in UHD. I do get some 4K use out via my PS4 Pro.

If most of the channels you watch are available in HD then go for it.

[Douglas Quaid]

paultownsend said:

Rang up RS again today. They do seem to be plugging the below.

https://www.richersounds.com/tv-projectors/4k-ultr...

A trip into to store to see if SD is good or not is required me thinks.

Viewing if tv is 4m away at what is probably a 20’ angle.

If you’re sitting 4m away you need a bigger tv. Resolution will be unimportant at that size and distance. I’m same distance and have a 65 in the lounge and 130 in my home cinema. 43 is really small at that distance.

[paultownsend]

Going from a 32”, the better half will not let me go bigger than a 43”, and that’s pushing it!

[parabolica]

43" at 4m will be absolutely fine; I sit around 3m from my 43 Samsung and it's perfect size (this from someone who used to have a 120" projector setup). My sister still has a 32" sony panel TV and my dad has a 39" - both are perfectly acceptable although both lounges are fairly small so that probably helps.