The best 4k TV is on youtube

Impetus

I bought a 4k TV with H.265/HDMI2 recently, and have a 200 Mbits/sec internet connection via UPS feeding the TV. I have three other internet providers in various parts of the planet, for comparison purposes.

The best quality 4k/UHD pictures I get are from youtube.com. These pics are 1000% better than DTT/"HD" from RTE 1 or 2. Netflix is good but not the sort of 4K picture that one sees in the TV shop (ie in Germany, Switzerland etc). Fake 4K.

The price of 4K TV has fallen dramaticallly over the past few months, - eg the set that was on display in Zurich or Monaco a few months ago for €9,000 or so is now available in IRL for just over €1000. The only thing that is slowing 4k (and 8k) is the Hollywood cartel who don't want you to see their product in 4 or 8k.

The dozy EU has been negligent in terms of action against content quality monopolization by Hollywood & Co. What use the EU bureaucrats?

In effect, people with UHD cameras (eg Sony Alpha 7s - cost less than 3k) are going out all over the planet with their kit and putting 4K content online on youtube and vimeo, which is of far higher quality than conventional TV stations can produce. And IPTV delivers far higher quality than RTE etc.

Impetus

One needs to be careful when purchasing an UHD (4K) TV set. It should have two essential components:

1) H.265 (aka HEVC) – this is 40 to 50% more efficient at using bandwidth than MPEG4 (which is used by RTE for their DTT HD services). H.265 is a no brainer – it drops the bandwidth required for companies like Netflix by close to half, for the same picture quality. DTT France (starting with Paris) is about to commence transmissions on DTT using this.

2) HDMI2 ports – HDMI 1.4 is not fast enough to make it future proof. Needed for external connections such as satellite dishes, (cable is a waste of time due to the double compression used and low bandwidth to make way for providing internet services over co-axial.

There is no need for a computer or box with most TVs for Netflix or Youtube – these are applications that should be factory installed in the set. You also don’t need a satellite box if you are watching continental European satellite TV – just plug in the dish to the TV, and if you have a card, use the TV’s common interface. This probably won’t work for Sky (I don’t use this service) as Sky uses a non-standard decryption card/platform created by an Isreali company. You can obviously continue to use a Sky set top box via HDMI).

I noticed a lot of rubbish “UHD” sets on sale using outdated MPEG4 and not having HDMI2 in Irish shops. Check the specifications carefully before parting with your money.

Netflix show a list of UHD TVs here :
https://help.netflix.com/en/node/13444

TCP/IP

Also any of the current UHD TVs for sale in the shops today do not conform to the UHD alliance specification which include 10 bit colour and HDR. Hopefully also conforming to the REC 2020 Standard.

The reason for the cheap UHD screens in stores at the min is the manufactures are dumping the 2013/2014 models for the fully speced newer models.

Think of it like the HD ready screens and Full HD when HD was starting out to market.

icdg

Really this thread belongs in Video Displays

hfallada

Impetus wrote: »

The price of 4K TV has fallen dramaticallly over the past few months, - eg the set that was on display in Zurich or Monaco a few months ago for €9,000 or so is now available in IRL for just over €1000. The only thing that is slowing 4k (and 8k) is the Hollywood cartel who don't want you to see their product in 4 or 8k.

Proper widescreen TV cameras are extremely expensive. Hollywood very slow to adapt to even HD which everyone pretty uses now. But I imagine Hollywood has the fear,that 4K might be the next 3D. Remember how 3D was going to be the norm for TV/ Film industry? But barely any films have been shot in it recently and its non-existent in TV shows.

Studios are probably too afraid 4K will be the next 3D. Which was an expensive failure

DoYouEvenLift

You should also include the difference between UHD and true 4K resolution for things to look out for when buying one of the new TVs, it seems like the difference has been blurred for some reason


I also think Interstellar could be one of the first big blockbusters to release as two different versions on Bluray - one in the normal 1080p and another mastered in 4K since a lot of the 70mm IMAX shots would be higher resolutions (AFAIK?)

Impetus

I've found an even better source of 4k video - the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 which one can set the camera for UHD. It creates very large files in 4K mode, which are extremely realistic.

There are obvious issues which affect mobile phone videograpy - lenses, F stops, tripods etc. But the 4k picture generated by this phone are stunningly clear on a 4k display. The Note 4 is alarmingly modest in terms of comparative features. A downgrade.

Impetus

TCP/IP wrote: »

Also any of the current UHD TVs for sale in the shops today do not conform to the UHD alliance specification which include 10 bit colour and HDR. Hopefully also conforming to the REC 2020 Standard.

The reason for the cheap UHD screens in stores at the min is the manufactures are dumping the 2013/2014 models for the fully speced newer models.

Think of it like the HD ready screens and Full HD when HD was starting out to market.

In France, gouv.fr passed a law banning "HD ready" TVs. The view was if you are selling HD it must work for 1920 i on DTT and from other sources. In Ireland and GB there was no honest TV spec law, and as a result millions of households bought crap reject stuff.

Other issues I noticed when shopping for a UHD set was staff ignorencee and crap demo videos. They were displaying a store branded video which was clearly shot in HD on UHD sets. As a result one could not judge which offered the best picture. The staff I spoke with hadn't a clue about HEVC or HDMI 2. I ended up checking each model number on my mobile phone for spec. Pathetic Irish retailers.

peege

I was going to purchase the panasonic TX48AS640B for €960. Have any of you heard if its any good??!

peneau

peege wrote: »

I was going to purchase the panasonic TX48AS640B for €960. Have any of you heard if its any good??!

hdtvtest.co.uk/news/tx40as640b-201406183815.htm