Buy an Ultra HD tv or not?

Buyingcar2012

Hi,

I've been doing some research on buying a TV. My last one was a Samsung 40" (UE40H6400). I've been very happy with it so far. We are going to put that TV in the kitchen/lounge area so we will need one to replace it in the sitting room.

Size wise - I'd look for 40-43". However from my research primarily on AV Forums, there are a lot of posts about Ultra HD TVs having a poor picture when viewing SD channels. I don't watch a whole lot of TV and have a basic SKY package so this would be an issue ie nearly all channels are SD.

So, what HD tv would you recommend? I'd nearly buy the 6400 again if it was at a good price but would like to consider other options?

Also, I'd like to hear your views on whether watching SD tv channels on an Ultra HD is as problematic as I've read elsewhere?

akaSol

For similar comparison : SD on a 4k panel would be akin to a vhs on a full HD TV.
Even for my eyes HD broadcast is slightly fuzzy & soft.
Problems with a 4k panel : little to no 4k content ( unless you are willing to pay for it), it was also the case for HD TV when it started to make that inevitable price drop.
4k, HDR, Dolby / THX, 10bit input : all extremely important on a 4K panel but good luck getting all that under 1,500, again this runs back to 1080i vs 1080p & content.

Bottom line if you want to purchase a 4k you need to up date your video sources ie Netflix (with 4k), Sky Q* etc. Or you are not getting the benefit.

*NB Sky Q requires Hdmi 2.2, this only exists on certain panels - LG 77x, Panasonic DX600+ and Samsung 7 series + (uncertain on Sony)

Buyingcar2012

Thanks for the informative reply. The one I'm looking at is http://www.richersounds.ie/p-202314-ue40ku6020.aspx

To be honest im not too bothered about paying for channels in ultra HD as i don't watch too much TV. I just have the basic SKY pack and I don't even have Netflix 😔 . This begs the question why bother getting that Ultra HD - I suppose my only reason is to have some future proofing and it's not exactly a huge investment at that price.

Once the SD channels are watchable (as in same quality as on my current Samsung HD 6400) I'd be happy.

So in summary - yay or nay?

akaSol

Again it's not a "future proof" TV (6000 series) but for that kind of money you can't go wrong - so as a cheap upgrade : "Yay"

yayamark

i have a Panasonic Viera TX-40DX700B

where best to buy a hdmi 2.2 lead?

will be purchasing a ps4 pro

akaSol

yayamark wrote: »

i have a Panasonic Viera TX-40DX700B

where best to buy a hdmi 2.2 lead?

will be purchasing a ps4 pro

Nice!
It's not nessarly a HDMI 2.2 cable (actually 2.2 is a hdcp or copy protection protocol). Any high speed cable should do, even 1.4, just needs to be rated above 8 GBit/s. This is more important showing HDR content not "just" 4k

yayamark

Thanks
Where is best to get one or two of these?

coylemj

yayamark wrote: »

Thanks
Where is best to get one or two of these?

HDMI cables? Anywhere but a shop selling TVs.

Seriously, even the electrical shops know the game is almost up selling those hyperinflated cables. The last time I looked, PC World had two racks of HDMI cables - the one for mugs was close to the TVs themselves - branded cables in fancy packaging with a list of flowery pseudo-technical BS features for inflated prices while way over on the accessory rack was the regular non-branded cables which do exactly the same job for a fraction of the price.

Tesco sell them.

fryup

^^^^^^^^^

yep, bought some in a discount shop and they work fine