Who has taken the 4K plunge?

[Halon451]

So just curious as to who here has gone through a full 4k upgrade and what were your reasons?

I'll go first: it all started with my TV. I had been using an old Panasonic plasma for years and I knew that although it's still producing the superb picture plasmas are known for that it would eventually give up the ghost. And maybe the overly jacked up 4k displays in the store were enough to draw me in so I decided might as well pull the trigger while I actually had the money so I wouldn't be caught without the funds to replace the old Panny if she died later on. And also figured I might as well get myself ahead of the curve a bit on what is sure to become as standard as 1080p has now been for some time.

Of course this came with the rather sobering realization that I would have to upgrade most if not all my other hardware in order to actually reap the full benefits of the new 4k TV. So likewise replaced my old PS3 (which I had used mostly as a BD player) and most recently the AVR going from a Pioneer Elite (1080p only) to a Marantz SR-6011.

Also realized that there's still not a whole lot of actual 4k Blu-ray Discs available yet but they seem to be coming out with more these days so I may just have to be patient to get some of the titles I really want to own in 4k. Many of the ones available now I wouldn't even care to watch let alone own so I'm a bit perplexed at the choices made in the market thus far but have snagged a few good ones to begin my 4k collection.

So how about you all? Do you feel the 4k craze is just that? Hype? Are you waiting a bit? Have you already likewise pulled the trigger and if so, what are your thoughts after doing it?

I'm happy with it and do notice a great deal of difference, particularly with HDR content more so than actual resolution at times. I hope that someday in the near future the cable/dish/fios providers will step up and start offering 4k content as well. I have noticed a loss of picture quality from my cable box on the new display which is, in essence upscaling 1080i content and displaying all the inherent flaws from cable box video.

 

[Dan Madden]

With 4K, they put the cart before the horse. They created the TV's with lack of content and almost none on broadcast TV channels. This has left people basically watching a lot of 1080 content upscaled to 4k. Duh?!!

Also the fact that the industry is expecting people to upgrade ALL their equipment to make true 4K happen is problematic. I for one am NOT doing it as I am completely happy with 1080 content. That's my take on it.

When my current TV gives up the ghost I will likely buy a 4K one since the prices are reasonable but I'm not expecting an eye popping experience. Heck, I'd be more interested in replacing my set with an equal sized Plasma than getting a 4K LED !!

 

[Halon451]

Agreed, the cost of upgrading everything just to be able to enjoy 4k is almost prohibitive. I love the new setup and even though I do see a lot of difference with some content I've found myself questioning the decision to commit to the full 4k upgrade this soon. Not gonna lie I've experienced a few pangs of buyers remorse and wonder if it might have been much more reasonable to simply get a new 1080p TV as I could've kept all my old HT components and still gotten the benefit of a new, younger TV with many more years of use left on it. But then again I know myself and know that I would eventually upgrade anyway so why not just get it over and done with now.

I'm a huge fan of plasma and none of the LCD TV's these days even comes close IMO. OLED maybe but I didn't have the money for that. I wish plasmas hadn't been left behind in the TV market.

Initially I was one of those naysayers scoffing at the "4k revolution" as just another gimmick.. thinking okay how much difference do you actually detect between 1080p and 4k at normal viewing distances. But HDR I'll admit is a bit of a game changer. I did myself favor at least by opting for a TV that was HDR capable.

Also Netflix and other streaming apps are offering a lot more 4k content these days and I def notice improvement in how that content looks on my screen.

 

[Halon451]

You're right they did indeed put the cart before the horse but the horse is quickly catching up. I want to see cable content offered in 4k but I'm sure there are probably bandwidth issues that will be difficult to overcome there. I don't expect it anytime soon.

 

[Steve M]

Mine started with A new TV samsung 65 inch curved, Now in process of building new system around it with 8802a and OPPO 203 ect ,but not done yet , i am using old carver and good speakers now .
I up graded my internet speed and we watch net flicks witch is says its 4k 5.2 on most shows

There was a huge difference in picture quality when we got speed up to 25 mbps from 6 mbps , I have not fired off Oppo but soon , we do not watch much regular tv and mostly net flicks so its worth it so far for us.
It is an amazing picture ,not even hooked up to 8802a yet and it has not been calibrated yet , that is Friday when the pro comes to calibrate sound and the picture !!

 

[Pogre]

I kind of lucked out. My whole system was pretty outdated and I needed a new tv anyway, so I started there. I was planning to upgrade my receiver and speakers anyway also and I got a good deal on a receiver at parts express. Then I traded up my Xbox One to an Xbox One S, which plays 4k Blu Ray discs and streams in 4k. Atmos support soon to come... I got $150 in trade and paid $150 for the upgrade.

Netflix has a growing library of 4k titles and some of them are actually good. There are a couple of series I'm really looking forward to in 4k coming up this summer, and like I said, Netflix is adding more every month it seems like. My Internet is awesome, so I sprung for the extra 2 bucks a month.

So in all, I think I got off pretty cheap considering I was upgrading my whole system anyway.

 

[Halon451]

Then I traded up my Xbox One to an Xbox One S, which plays 4k Blu Ray discs and streams in 4k. Atmos support soon to come...

I stood in the store for a long time looking at both the Xbox One S and the Samsung UBD-K8500 4k player. I'm not a huge gamer or anything, occasionally pop one in if I feel like killing an hour or two doing something mindless... but in the end went with the Xbox just to have that capability. I was replacing an old PS3, and did like the added feature of it being a gaming console if I got the itch to play games and figured if it plays 4K discs as well as the old PS3 played regular Blu-rays it's a no-brainer. However I was rather unpleasantly surprised when I got it home and got it all hooked up and running to learn that it did not support anything more than standard Dolby Digital and DTS formats.. I hadn't bothered to research this part (my own failing), incorrectly assuming that if the thing played 4k discs it ought to damn well play the advanced surround sound formats, but boy was I wrong. I can't comprehend why Microsoft made such a glaring omission in this regard and keep seeing indications that a firmware update will come out this year that will enable those formats, but until it actually happens... even the old PS3 (the original fat boy mind you, not the slimmer version they later came out with) support True HD and Master formats. It made no sense that the Xbox One S didn't even do those for crying out loud. So I currently have mine set to 5.1 uncompressed audio out to my AVR, and though its arguable whether or not a PCM or bitstream output in those higher formats would yield significant improvements to the sound, I still like seeing the indicator on my AVR showing that it's playing the highest format available on the disc.

Thanks a lot Microsoft.... lol

 

[Halon451]

Also, Halo 5 freaking rocks.

 

[Pogre]

I stood in the store for a long time looking at both the Xbox One S and the Samsung UBD-K8500 4k player. I'm not a huge gamer or anything, occasionally pop one in if I feel like killing an hour or two doing something mindless... but in the end went with the Xbox just to have that capability. I was replacing an old PS3, and did like the added feature of it being a gaming console if I got the itch to play games and figured if it plays 4K discs as well as the old PS3 played regular Blu-rays it's a no-brainer. However I was rather unpleasantly surprised when I got it home and got it all hooked up and running to learn that it did not support anything more than standard Dolby Digital and DTS formats.. I hadn't bothered to research this part (my own failing), incorrectly assuming that if the thing played 4k discs it ought to damn well play the advanced surround sound formats, but boy was I wrong. I can't comprehend why Microsoft made such a glaring omission in this regard and keep seeing indications that a firmware update will come out this year that will enable those formats, but until it actually happens... even the old PS3 (the original fat boy mind you, not the slimmer version they later came out with) support True HD and Master formats. It made no sense that the Xbox One S didn't even do those for crying out loud. So I currently have mine set to 5.1 uncompressed audio out to my AVR, and though its arguable whether or not a PCM or bitstream output in those higher formats would yield significant improvements to the sound, I still like seeing the indicator on my AVR showing that it's playing the highest format available on the disc.

Thanks a lot Microsoft.... lol

That is a bummer. At least they're working on an update and uncompressed is an option. I used to be a pretty hardcore gamer, so a console is a no brainer for me. I already had the Xbox One, so it only cost me $150 to upgrade to a 4k player and dump my old launch console before it decided to take a poop on me.

*Edit: I had the fat boy for over 5 years. It was a great console.

 

[Halon451]

*Edit: I had the fat boy for over 5 years. It was a great console.

Indeed. I ran mine a lot for years and it was a very solid machine. Never gave me a single problem.

 

[3db]

With 4K, they put the cart before the horse. They created the TV's with lack of content and almost none on broadcast TV channels. This has left people basically watching a lot of 1080 content upscaled to 4k. Duh?!!

Also the fact that the industry is expecting people to upgrade ALL their equipment to make true 4K happen is problematic. I for one am NOT doing it as I am completely happy with 1080 content. That's my take on it.

When my current TV gives up the ghost I will likely buy a 4K one since the prices are reasonable but I'm not expecting an eye popping experience. Heck, I'd be more interested in replacing my set with an equal sized Plasma than getting a 4K LED !!

I started with a new 4K TV and a new 4K upscaling BluRay player. I needed a new TV to replace an old 32" CRT that I sent for recycling, I thought i might as well go for the 4K since we will all eventually move there.

 

[Halon451]

I started with a new 4K TV and a new 4K upscaling BluRay player. I needed a new TV to replace an old 32" CRT that I sent for recycling, I thought i might as well go for the 4K since we will all eventually move there.

Wow, still rocking the old "tube" TV..

Amazing to think how far we've come. I remember the very first TV I ever owned: a 13" Magnavox tube TV that I got as a Christmas present during my middle-school years. I remember being excited because it was COLOR, haha. Many a game of Metroid and Mike Tyson's Punch Out was played on that thing.

Any reason you went for the upscaling BD player for your 4K TV instead of a full 4k BD player? To be fair, doesn't look like too many of them are yet out on the market and there's a huge cost differential between those that upscale to 4k and those that actually play 4k, so I can sympathize either way.

 

[lovinthehd]

I don't need a new tv or supporting cast; am very happy with my plasma/1080p content. Maybe when I need to replace it but I'm a ways away from that time I think. I can't stream 4k where I live either, the bandwidth is simply currently unavailable. Altho there is a new service coming, not sure yet what its capabilities are, but should be an improvement over our very crappy dsl from CenturyLink (who doesn't care), our only option at this time. By the time I'm ready it may well be 8K, too. We'll see, doesn't look like I'm missing a lot at this time altho the HDR aspect seems the best part for now.

 

[Pogre]

I don't need a new tv or supporting cast; am very happy with my plasma/1080p content. Maybe when I need to replace it but I'm a ways away from that time I think. I can't stream 4k where I live either, the bandwidth is simply currently unavailable. Altho there is a new service coming, not sure yet what its capabilities are, but should be an improvement over our very crappy dsl from CenturyLink (who doesn't care), our only option at this time. By the time I'm ready it may well be 8K, too. We'll see, doesn't look like I'm missing a lot at this time altho the HDR aspect seems the best part for now.

Those plasmas are really nice. With your Internet too I don't blame you.

8k. lol. Probably not far from the truth!

 

[Halon451]

I think we're probably still a few years away from seeing 8k hit the consumer market in a meaningful way. But never can predict these things.. tech advances so exponentially these days.

 

[Halon451]

If I can get as much life and enjoyment out of my 4k system as I did my plasma / 1080p system I'll be happy. I'll worry about 8k then. Lol

 

[Halon451]

@lovinthehd youll have to change your forum name to "lovintheuhd" if you upgrade

 

[Pogre]

Yeah, I'm pretty securely set on 4k for a while. I usually wait until new tech starts catching on before I upgrade. I learned early on that early adoption can bite you in the ass as tech improves and what you have is no longer compatible (looking at you, 5.1 "compatible" receiver ).

Plus as it progresses exponentially, prices go down exponentially. I paid $700 for my 58" Vizio last year. It's not their top of the line, but it works and the picture is really nice. Though I wish I'd known more about HDR at the time... This one doesn't support it.

 

[lovinthehd]

@lovinthehd youll have to change your forum name to "lovintheuhd" if you upgrade

LOL. That handle indeed was inspired by my new plasma at the time I'd been happy with a Trinitron before that, well into the flat panel days. I'm not a video guy particularly, just want a competent set, I'm in it more for the audio by far and am happy while adoption and new tech brings prices down anyways. I think I'd rather try projection next in any case, but we'll see....don't have a good room for that yet.

 

[Halon451]

LOL. That handle indeed was inspired by my new plasma at the time I'd been happy with a Trinitron before that, well into the flat panel days. I'm not a video guy particularly, just want a competent set, I'm in it more for the audio by far and am happy while adoption and new tech brings prices down anyways. I think I'd rather try projection next in any case, but we'll see....don't have a good room for that yet.

Yeah my ultimate goal is to have a dedicated HT room with a projection setup but I'll need to upgrade to a bigger house before I can do that. Unfortunately I'm still on the bad side of equity from the housing market crash years ago.

I look at all these really nice dedicated ht room setups folks on here have and have to admit I'm more than a bit jealous. Someday...