Is 8K Worth It?

[panteragstk]

Not even sure that 4k is worth it to be honest

Resolution isn't relevant. Expanded color support is where it's at.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

No. By then, normal windows will be too low-res. In fact, they will offer enhancements to make the outside look better. Polarized, 16k, rose-colored AR smart glass! It’s the wave of the future!!
The homeless guy peeing on your front door will appear as a well dressed salesman, you’ll forget to water your lawn because it will always look green and weed free. Hell, I’ve heard that it’ll be so amazing, if you ever decide to go outside you’d be suicidal as the truth comes crashing down...
You don’t own the two Lambo’s in the window: one is a Prius, and the other is a turd brown Ford POS.
(Oh yeah, and you’ll also realize your lawn is dead, the weeds are 5’ tall, and your home was condemned two weeks prior... but if you hurry back inside it’ll be ok!)

Awesome.....!

 

[Ken32]

I don't feel it is by a long shot.

1. 4k is just now becoming utilized after years of a very slow start.

2. There's no content. By the time there's a handful of 8k content (who knows how long that will be) the tv's will be a fraction of the price as to what they are now.

3. Unless you have a super giant screen, say 82 inches or larger and sit closely to it, you'll not notice a difference between them at smaller screen sizes unless you sit 3 feet away. Even then, still not worth it to me. Kinda the same thing with cameras. Higher the pixels the larger the picture the clearer it remains. compare a 5mp 4x7 and 10mp 4x7 and try to find a difference. (not comparing one from a cell phone and professional camera) but of the same caliber.

If you've got a giant HT room with large projector screens and a great quality PJ for 8k it may be worth it. But for the more common living room sizes like what I have and many other 55-65 inch. Ill take a hard pass at 8k and invest more into my Harley's or other projects

 

[Ken32]

I was at the local Best Buy a few days ago looking at an 82” 8K Samsung. The sales guy started his sales pitch and I commented that I didn’t think 8K was worth it right now due the lack of content. He was obviously trained to respond to this and immediately switched to a demo that purported to show a 4K picture on one half of the screen and the same content upscaled by the TV on the other half of the screen. There was a dramatic difference. However, to my eye the “4K” image looked more like a 720 and it was dramatically worse than the images on the other 4K TVs on the wall. I can’t prove the upscaling demo was fake, but I’m not dropping major coin on an 8K set unless I can get a more trustworthy way to see what the 8K upscaling actually does

Another thing you need to factor that many people don't is that every single TV on the showroom floor is set to vivid. Super bright, over saturated colors, crushed whites and blacks, that make a TV seem to pop and stand out amongst people. Sure it looks great and attractive at first but it's a very inaccurate image and very fatiguing to the eyes when viewed in lower lit rooms.

@panteragstk is correct. Them demos are BS. They prove nothing. I've tested enough TV's in my home side by side and calibrated from software that I've purchased. Everything from LG OLED, QLED (samsung jargon that means nothing more than a basic LED tv) and other tv's including Vizio, Sharp, you name it.

OLED wins by a mile. Unfortunately they suffer burn in.
2nd best is Vizio P series and quantum. Blacks are closer to OLED than any other TV aside from the upper qleds, and they don't suffer from burn in which is why i chose it.

if you ever look to upgrade TV's go to www.Rtings.com These guys are pretty spot on.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Those demos are BS. They take a 4K resolution file that probably is VERY compressed and looks like crap. Same file that isn't as compressed will look great. Demos created by the manufacturer can't be trusted when it comes to TVs. Unless they are simple sets of random video clips to show off the TV. Those are fine.

Makes you wonder about all those HDR, Dolby Vision, IMAX Enhanced demos.

Are they all fake?

Compare one WASHED-out HDR video to a perfectly normal looking SDR video with boosted color settings.

 

[MR.MAGOO]

Sony has a 98" Smart LED 8K Ultra HD TV with HDR, at $69,999.99! The new 2020 mid-engine Corvette starts at just under 60K, which to choose?

 

[ryanosaur]

Sony has a 98" Smart LED 8K Ultra HD TV with HDR, at $69,999.99! The new 2020 mid-engine Corvette starts at just under 60K, which to choose?

Both! Or, if you have to ask...

 

[Joe B]

.....
if you ever look to upgrade TV's go to www.Rtings.com These guys are pretty spot on.

I'll second that opinion. In 2016 when I bought a new TV, my selection was based solely on their reviews. I am so glad I found their web site while doing research. Those guys are "spot on".

 

[panteragstk]

Makes you wonder about all those HDR, Dolby Vision, IMAX Enhanced demos.

Are they all fake?

Compare one WASHED-out HDR video to a perfectly normal looking SDR video with boosted color settings.

Not all of them are fake, but store demos tell you nothing of what a TV will look like in your room. Most TVs have a "store" setting that maxes out everything on the TV to combat the florescent lights. They look like crap. First thing I do at a store (if the TV isn't locked into Demo mode) is change to a cinema setting to get at least a decent idea of what it's actually capable of.

There are a lot of shady demos out there.

 

[Ken32]

Not all of them are fake, but store demos tell you nothing of what a TV will look like in your room. Most TVs have a "store" setting that maxes out everything on the TV to combat the florescent lights. They look like crap. First thing I do at a store (if the TV isn't locked into Demo mode) is change to a cinema setting to get at least a decent idea of what it's actually capable of.

There are a lot of shady demos out there.

Exactly. VIVID mode is the devil! lol.

I do the same. I calibrate it by eye in a store (gets it a lot closer than vivid HA!). I'm so used to using my software at home through multiple TV's, I've learned to look for what's supposed to be intended/looks best.

My store settings are:

Calibrated/Movie/Cinema (Every TV manufacturer labels them differently)

Brightness/Contrast/Color 50% give or take whether whites and blacks starts to look crushed. Again, % and numbers vary from manufacturers. Back light depends on the store brightness.

Auto brightness: OFF
Sharpness: 0 (Anything after that value is artificial anyway) I wouldn't go past 10-15 if you feel it's needed.
Tint: 0
Color Normal, or Computer 50%
Gamma 2.2
Black detail: OFF
Reduce Judder: 0
Reduce motion blur: 0
Clear action: OFF

People shouldn't ever buy a Tv based on refresh rate. Most of that is is nonsense. Nothing is shot above 60Hz, whether it be Tv or movie content, therefor anything above 120, 240, 480Hz etc... is the tv adding frames giving the unnatural "SOAP OPERA" effect. Though; my Vizio is capable of 240Hz native i have those settings off which puts it at 60Hz. Most blu-ray content is filmed at 24Hz. Some other movies have been done at 48Hz and still under 60Hz.

My settings listed are a good start. Still not as good as having premium calibration software. BUT anything is better than VIVID aka TORCH MODE.

One thing I have been lucky with is my vision. 20/15. So my eyes are pretty good at what they see.

 

[Phase 2]

Samsung has 75" 65" and 82" 8K out now, I was just on Wal-Mart's site. 3.497, 65" shipped or pickup. 60 watt 4.2,. 240 motion.

 

[davidscott]

The way things are progressing, I think I'll just sit back with my 4k set and wait for a holodeck to become available.

Word.

 

[Phase 2]

The way things are progressing, I think I'll just sit back with my 4k set and wait for a holodeck to become available.

Yep, it's changing so fast, where I live a small apartment doing any other than 5.1 would probably get me kicked out. Would I like Atmos sure I would. But since I can't put speakers in the ceiling on the walls it would surely disturb the neighbors. Going 8K or Atmos just isn't in the equation for me right now.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Yep, it's changing so fast, where I live a small apartment doing any other than 5.1 would probably get me kicked out. Would I like Atmos sure I would. But since I can't put speakers in the ceiling on the walls it would surely disturb the neighbors. Going 8K or Atmos just isn't in the equation for me right now.

So IOW, no McIntosh Amps, B&W 800D3 speakers, 8K Projectors, and Red Ferraris for your apartment then?

 

[Phase 2]

So IOW, no McIntosh Amps, B&W 800D3 speakers, 8K Projectors, and Red Ferraris for your apartment then?

Oh! But I want to! Thing is, it's 4 apartments, no kids or women just 3 dudes, one works all day the old crazy guy he 68 is on the other end I'm on the other end so I just may be able to get away with jacking up to AVR every now and then ..

 

[Kingnoob]

IMAX commercial theaters?

They already have 8K commercial theaters.

To me, it doesn't really matter. I wouldn't mind if my future Native-8K JVC projector has to convert 4K BD to 8K (due to lack of 8K contents). I still get to brag about my 8K Home Theater.

Theaters have real 4k , 8k consumers get a choppy lower pixel product . That’s why it’s hard to tell difference between the two formats . How is 3840 and 7680 even close to theater versions?? What’s the first number in resolution stand for? Millions less pixels then the theater versions ?
I don’t have a 4k pass through avr yet.

 

[highfigh]

I fear 8k will go the way of 3D. There just isn't a solid consumer use case for 8k.

I suppose we'll see what the marketing folks come up with.

Do t get me wrong. I'd like to have an 8k display, but not without easily available media.

The marketing folks say that 8K is better because the pixels are smaller, therefore, less visible. They also say it's a good idea to use a higher def display with its own up-conversion, so lower res video signal can be improved to match the display. Since the resolution differences typically involve doubling or quadrupling, it's a lot easier to have good results than if it were converting 1080 to 2763, or using some other multiplier that doesn't work evenly.

I went to an open house at an electronics distributor on Thursday- the 8K displays looked amazing and I'll be the first to tell you that I hate marketing hype and change for the sake of change.

 

[highfigh]

It's suppose to be a Hardware update (HDMI 2.1, 8K video), which means people will have to ship this big heavy AVR to some place (I hope to gods it's not Panurgy ).

And I don't think it's FREE either. Like back when they offered the hardware upgrade from Audyssey XT to XT32 for only $1,200.

4K/8K is a game people play.

For that price, the servicer should make house calls, the way large TVs are repaired.

 

[Kingnoob]

The marketing folks say that 8K is better because the pixels are smaller, therefore, less visible. They also say it's a good idea to use a higher def display with its own up-conversion, so lower res video signal can be improved to match the display. Since the resolution differences typically involve doubling or quadrupling, it's a lot easier to have good results than if it were converting 1080 to 2763, or using some other multiplier that doesn't work evenly.

I went to an open house at an electronics distributor on Thursday- the 8K displays looked amazing and I'll be the first to tell you that I hate marketing hype and change for the sake of change.

My Sony tv was 10 bit but don’t greedily didn’t not given it the hdr update despite selling it in many stores as hdr ready .
Pixels are too big making dvd look dreadful.

 

[Pogre]

I went to an open house at an electronics distributor on Thursday- the 8K displays looked amazing and I'll be the first to tell you that I hate marketing hype and change for the sake of change.

Sure, but did they look that much better than 4k? The video in the op points out that we lack the ability to even see the difference unless you almost press your face against the screen.