To 4K or not to 4K, To Curve or not to Curve?

[Mokong]

Ok so I am in the market for a new TV

 

And thinking should I spend the extra money to future proof things a bit and splash on a 4K TV?

 

Narrowed my choices to either Samsung or LG brands

 

On the LG side I've priced a 49inch 4K telly with passive 3D, at 1299euro

I could go up to 55inch for 1699.....but that a bit much of a jump.

 

I'm also liking the look of the curved Samsungs. But to get in 4K puts in the price up, "smallest" 4K Samsung curve I could find was 1849euro, 55inch

 

I could drop the size to 48inch keep the stylish curve and prices goes to 1399 but it "only" 1080p

 

But the picture looks just as good as the flat 4K LG

 

Or with on the reverse on the Samsung side I could go for a 55inch 4K flat for 1349

 

 

Or I could keep the wife a bit happier and save a fair bit of cash if I went for say an LG, dropped the 4K to 1080p at a 49inch size and that is only 749? And it still has the awesome looking passive 3D!

 

 

So overall N-E is it worth spending the extra money to go for a 4K Ultra HD TV? And is the curve just for show or in the long run would I get visual benifit.

 

Keep in mind I currently only have a Wii U so gaming wise, would my Wii U benifit much from being upscaled to 4K or having Curve?

 

 

 

 

 

#firstworldproblems

[V. Amoleo]

Personally I wouldn't ever go with Samsung again after all of the products I've ever owned by them have broken after about 13 months.

 

I'm also not a big fan of curved TVs. Maybe they need to grow on me but at the minute, when I've had chance to view one, I've always felt like the picture isn't right. I think it's just a 'gimmick' to try and make the TVs seem more different to the man-on-the-street.

 

Ultra HD is the way forward but until there is a video format to keep up with it, I think it's going to remain very niche. The bitrate on Netflix's Ultra HD streams are just too low. Then you have the current crop of consoles which are struggling to output 1080p. So it'll likely be a generation (maybe even two!) before the consoles start aiming for Ultra HD. It's possible to have a PC to play games at this resolution and if you own one it'd be a lot easier to recommend a Ultra HD TV.

 

Thankfully Full HD goes nicely into Ultra HD when upscaling (each pixel becomes 4) so there won't be any real 'intelligence' needed to show current Full HD content on them. So current 1080p images shouldn't have the same issues as 480p/576i upscaling to 1080p.

 

I still wish OLED had taken off better than it has outside of the mobile market. The contrast ratio on them are immense, though they can suffer from not being bright enough. LG seem to be the only people pushing it and all of the ones they do produce are curved I think.

 

So a Ultra HD TV will be getting you ready for the future but that future could be quite some time away.

Edited November 17, 2014 by V. Amoleo
Replaced Quad with the correct Ultra name.

[Mokong]

Cheers @V\. Amoleo

 

Went back into the shops after work to look again at the cheaper options and out of impulse (and to stop driving myself mad if I dragged this out too long) ordered the 49inch LG 4K

Even got the guy to give me a little discount, he knocked off 30euro for me, every little helps

 

I'm a little afraid to look at my bank balance now though, but I'm planning to work some overtime from now to the end of the year to try crawl it back (doing an extra hour everyday this week already)....TV will be arriving on Thursday

[V. Amoleo]

The LG 49UB850? Good choice. You'll have to come back with a review once you've got it.