4K Blu Ray Players

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Angry Ram

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Thinking about getting one this Christmas season. I have everything I need for it. Only a year old 4k TV with HDR technology. HDMI cables. Even have Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on 4K disc. Speaking of discs, the only thing that has me holding my $$$ back is the cost of the movie. At $25-$30 a pop, they can get pretty pricey.

But when Thor Ragnarok and Avengers Infinity War come out on blu ray it could be amazing.

So, any experience out there??? Is there a difference than my normal blu ray movies?
 

1maGoh

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Thinking about getting one this Christmas season. I have everything I need for it. Only a year old 4k TV with HDR technology. HDMI cables. Even have Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 on 4K disc. Speaking of discs, the only thing that has me holding my $$$ back is the cost of the movie. At $25-$30 a pop, they can get pretty pricey.

But when Thor Ragnarok and Avengers Infinity War come out on blu ray it could be amazing.

So, any experience out there??? Is there a difference than my normal blu ray movies?

I don't have any personal experience, and this won't be popular (it's a new week, I'm allowed to be stupid again at least once), but I read an article that mentioned that at normal viewing distance (about 8 to 12 feet in America) on what I believe was a 50 inch TV, the human eye can't distinguish between 1080i and 1080p. That's not even close to the refinement and detail from 1080p to 4k. Unless you have a huge TV and you sit really close (really really close), science says your eye can't actually see the difference.

The real deciding factors are going to be things like contrast ratio and all that crap that most people ignore.

That's not to say you shouldn't get one. Lots of people take joy in just having the best stuff, which is just as valid as any other reason. If it matters I'll try to dig up the article. I'm sure nobody actually wants to hear it (or read it, whatever) though.
 

1maGoh

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https://gizmodo.com/a-skeptics-guide-to-buying-or-not-buying-a-4k-tv-1744272556/amp

https://www.cnet.com/news/why-ultra-hd-4k-tvs-are-still-stupid/

There was another good one which detailed an experiment where they slipped a 720p TV with high contrast, refresh, etc into a review of 1080p TVs. The reviewers were both professionals and amateurs. The 780p TV was considered one of the best TVs in the review because of its superior quality and nobody mentioned that it had a lower resolution...

... But I can't find it though.

Yep, I went looking again (this makes like 30 ish [apparently I don't estimate time well] minutes searching total). Still can't find it. Oh well.
 
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Pancake

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Who even broadcasts a 4k signal? From what I know which might be out dated by now. On a 4k TV most everything will be up-scaled. I think a 4k player is mandatory if you ever want to actually enjoy that resolution.
 

Angry Ram

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https://gizmodo.com/a-skeptics-guide-to-buying-or-not-buying-a-4k-tv-1744272556/amp

https://www.cnet.com/news/why-ultra-hd-4k-tvs-are-still-stupid/

There was another good one which detailed an experiment where they slipped a 720p TV with high contrast, refresh, etc into a review of 1080p TVs. The reviewers were both professionals and amateurs. The 780p TV was considered one of the best TVs in the review because of its superior quality and nobody mentioned that it had a lower resolution...

... But I can't find it though.

Yep, I went looking again (this makes like 30 ish [apparently I don't estimate time well] minutes searching total). Still can't find it. Oh well.

Yeahhhh I disagree with those articles.

I have a regular HDTV at my folks' home and a brand new 4k in my own digs. Big difference.

But this is about 4K players, as I already have the tv.


Who even broadcasts a 4k signal? From what I know which might be out dated by now. On a 4k TV most everything will be up-scaled. I think a 4k player is mandatory if you ever want to actually enjoy that resolution.

No network does, but Netflix, Hulu, etc does on some shows.

I don't have those services, and 4k movies are the top content. Hopefully a deal on a Samsung player comes soon.
 

1maGoh

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That was a good read, but outdated. He's since changed his tune on 4k TVs.
Ah well. I think the distance thing is probably still valuable information. I'll never sit closer than 10 feet to my TV and it probably won't get larger than 55 inches, so my eyes won't really be able to see the difference.
 

1maGoh

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Yeahhhh I disagree with those articles.

I have a regular HDTV at my folks' home and a brand new 4k in my own digs. Big difference.

But this is about 4K players, as I already have the tv.




No network does, but Netflix, Hulu, etc does on some shows.

I don't have those services, and 4k movies are the top content. Hopefully a deal on a Samsung player comes soon.
I don't know if there's a difference beyond the edges of things being smoother. Probably better shading/coloration. But there are other more important factors such as contrast ratio and refresh rate. Like I said, there was a comparison of TVs done where they snuck in a higher quality, lower reason TV and the professional reviewers and amateurs couldn't tell the difference. It was rated as one of the best of the group. I wish I could find that article.

My point in bringing those up was that if at the size/distance combination that you're viewing you wouldn't be able to see the difference, then buying a super high quality 4k player wouldn't make a difference. If you're viewing at a size/distance where it does make a difference, then more power to you.

The human eye can only see so much at the average 10 feet viewing distance.

And I said it wouldn't be popular. Perception is, in this case, reality. If you think you see a better picture then you actually are seeing a better picture, regardless of the actual quality.
 

Angry Ram

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I don't know if there's a difference beyond the edges of things being smoother. Probably better shading/coloration. But there are other more important factors such as contrast ratio and refresh rate. Like I said, there was a comparison of TVs done where they snuck in a higher quality, lower reason TV and the professional reviewers and amateurs couldn't tell the difference. It was rated as one of the best of the group. I wish I could find that article.

My point in bringing those up was that if at the size/distance combination that you're viewing you wouldn't be able to see the difference, then buying a super high quality 4k player wouldn't make a difference. If you're viewing at a size/distance where it does make a difference, then more power to you.

The human eye can only see so much at the average 10 feet viewing distance.

And I said it wouldn't be popular. Perception is, in this case, reality. If you think you see a better picture then you actually are seeing a better picture, regardless of the actual quality.

Yeah with HDR a lot of the "fog" is eliminated, and that tint of gray around black bars is also gone. I admit I never really saw a refresh rate difference, I've had an old plasma to what I have now and it all looked the same to me on that field.

A show like Vikings is unreal on a 4k, though. Feels like I'm actually there.
 

yrba1

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I've lived through the transition from VHS to DVD (480p) to blu-ray (1080p); those three transitions were a major jump in my eyes. The transition from blu-ray to 4k doesn't feel like a major jump for me unless watching on a 50" or bigger screen. Don't recommend going for 4k unless you have a big screen TV to complement that.
 

-X-

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A show like Vikings is unreal on a 4k, though. Feels like I'm actually there.
Just wanna make it clear that you're not.
You're not there.
And you're not a viking.

So stop it. And put the axe down.
 

Mackeyser

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As a former multimedia engineer, I know what a lot of the reviewers are talking about.

Especially when it was between 720p and 1080i, there was fertile ground for debate in that with 720p, you get 720 lines of information per frame whereas with 1080i you only got 540 lines of information per frame.

So for sports, there were many cases where the 720p actually had a better picture.

Moreover, the quality of the materials used ESPECIALLY the light source(s) made a much bigger difference than the line differential.

going from 1080p to 4k, which is actually only 2k because the resolution is 3840 pixels × 2160 lines as compared to the 1080 lines that comprise HD, is HUGE.

Even upsampled Blu-Rays look substantially better.

My mom got the curved 65" Samsung 4k tv when it came out and watching streamed 4k content (the only thing at the time was House of Cards) was as big a difference as the jump from 480 or a good tube tv to 1080p.

A lot of that has to do with better light sourcing, be it OLED or better LED source(s) and/or more zones of lighting. They also have intelligent pixels that do some pretty amazing things with the light to control light bleed which leads to deeper blacks which in turn leads to substantially better dynamic contrast ratio.

When the 4k TV came out, I wondered how long it would take for content to make the TV relevant.

Two seconds after watching it, it was clear that EVERYTHING including old I Love Lucy reruns made the TV relevant.

The nice thing about having a 4k Blu-Ray is that you'll be looking at native 4k content, so there's no chance for experiencing the artifacting that can come with any kind of upsampling.

And honestly, you're looking at a bigger TV. I can't imagine it's less than 50" and probably bigger.

Lastly, I call total BS on the industry's viewing guidelines. From a personal and professional standpoint, I think the "standard viewing" guidelines are so outdated as to be laughable.

"I'm sitting 10 feet away and this 85" tv looks too big..." said no one ever. Heck, there are home theater setups where they have a 120" screen and the first row of chairs is maybe 8 feet away. And I can assure you that when it comes to sports, people will get as close as they can no matter the size. Lots of things lead to that.

The ONE thing I would advise is to try and match the Blu-Ray player with the TV (unless it's a Vizio. They make decent monitors, but I wouldn't trust their electronics just yet). The reason I say that is because the algorithms will be compatible. It's less of an issue than it was during the early DVD days, but occasionally a person will pair, say, a Samsung TV with a Sony Blu-Ray player and have issues that while subtle are noticeable. That almost never happens if you use the same vendor for tv and Blu-ray player.

Plus...you can likely use 1 remote to manage both devices which is nice.
 

Rmfnlt

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DirecTV has some content but, like others have said, mostly You Tube and other sources.

I have a 55' Sony 4K and I can definitely see the difference from HD to true 4K... BIG difference.