4K yay or 4K nay?

[balki]

Is this the same F1 that just went to HD in 2011? Roughly 10 years behind every other major sport?
What's the world feed at now, 720p?

[21Kid]

So, 4k is on it's way to becoming the standard. And HDR seems like it will allow LCDs to compete with OLEDs.

All About HDR, and Why It's the Future of Television

So, no, you don’t need to run out and upgrade your TV right now. Your current HDTV is probably just fine, especially if you bought it in the last few years. If you’re on the market for a TV upgrade, however, HDR should absolutely be on your checklist—more so if you’re a movie buff. Even if you’re upgrading from 1080p to a 4K display, it’s probably not worth it unless you also get a TV that at least supports the HDR10 standard. HDR is the future, so if you’re going to buy now, you might as well get something that sets you up for it.

On top of HDR10, it sounds like you might want to get one that supports Dolby vision too... If you are looking for the best picture.

Unlike HDR10, Dolby Vision is a proprietary HDR standard that does more, at a price. Dolby Vision supports a wider range of color luminance (up to 10,000 nits, HDR10 maxes out at 1,000), and Dolby Vision content is mastered with 12-bit color depth (HDR10 is only 10-bit). That means Dolby Vision has a possible 68 billion colors it can use, where HDR10 has a little over one billion. Current non-HDR TVs top out at about 16 million colors.

The biggest difference, however, is that every frame of Dolby Vision content has metadata that tells your HDR TV how to display that specific frame. HDR10's metadata doesn’t change from one frame to the next, and has the same instructions set for all frames, so you don’t get the same level of visual clarity you would with Dolby Vision, especially if a movie does a lot of bouncing back and forth between light and dark environments. That said, Dolby Vision requires its HDR content to be played through a compatible player and output to a compatible display. Because manufacturers have to pay for a special Dolby Vision chip, certification process, and proprietary licensing fees, they have to extend those extra costs to you as the consumer.

[thesameguy]

I have noticed that 4k sets are getting cheap, to the point it wouldn't make sense to buy 2k. But, few of these cheap 4k sets support HDR which at this point seems like a much have.

OLED is holding pretty steady in terms of price - cheaper now than it's been in the past, but not like 4k LCD. I'm still on the fence as to whether it's worth holding out for OLED as a TV technology, but OLED does have increasing traction in small devices so I can't help but think we're seeing Plasma v LCD all over again... Plasma being the established flat screen technology and LCD challenging it, propelled by adoption and technology advancement in smaller devices that plasma just couldn't compete with. Now, LCD is entrenched, but OLED is getting attention in small devices. I could see leaps in OLED technology pushing it to the top in a few years.

[Kchrpm]

I have noticed that 4k sets are getting cheap, to the point it wouldn't make sense to buy 2k.

Are there 2K sets? I don't remember seeing one.

[thesameguy]

We basically skipped that generation, which is how cheap 4k is right now!

I nearly bought a 50" 4k just because it was $300!

[Kchrpm]

I told Jason before that I would buy a 4K TV when I could get an upgrade in size (from 60") for under $1000 from a major brand (no Westinghouse or Insignia).

Last week Best Buy had a 65" Visio 4K TV for $999.

I'm going to have to move my goal posts just to keep my money a little longer! 4K, HDR, 70+", $800, glasses-free 3D. That should keep me on the sideline for a while!

[thesameguy]

That 70" is a killer - but a big HDR 4k at $800 is going to be doable very, very soon. 70" will probably be $1500 throughout next year. A 60" might hit $800 by the end of the year.

[Kchrpm]

Yeah, I *need* it to be a killer, I have other purchases planned out for this year.

[thesameguy]

Whoa, just realized the LG 65UH5500 is a $1k 65" HDR. $800 70" HDR might not be that far off.. Maybe we'll reach a point where it's just $500 TV, you choose the size.

[Tom Servo]

Whoa, just realized the LG 65UH5500 is a $1k 65" HDR. $800 70" HDR might not be that far off.. Maybe we'll reach a point where it's just $500 TV, you choose the size.

Damn, I paid that just under five years ago for a 60 inch 1080p LG plasma. I had no idea prices were plummeting like that.