4k TV advise please. Which make for 55" screen ?

steveyt_2

Hi.... opinions wanted please on any future purchase of a new 55" 4k TV or am i wasting my time ?

My budget is up to £800 and have been told off a friend his Sony Bravia is a stunning picture but am open to what people think of Samsung, Panasonic and LG. So many makes and even models with different trims and finishes but not bothered about that... i just require the best screen picture.

For your info... we have a Virgin Tivo box and subscribe to Netflix. We watch and record BBC HD and ITV HD when we can but also watch non HD chanels. We sit about 8 feet from the screen.

Will my picture look very fuzzy watching normal TV and will any HD channel suddenly look amazing with the TV upscaling to 4k ?

Is the android system any good.... any glitches.... any TV's to avoid or look for ?

I intend on using Kodi eventually as my friend says some of the HD films look amazing on his screen.

I would apreciate your thoughts please. Thank you

mobileron

Have a look at the Sony with built in Android,u can then download Kodi directly.
Mines works very well,take time to learn the Android system,picture quality is first class,good sound system and lots of features.

forgotmyname

Optimal screen size for a 4k screen at approx 8ft viewing distance = 85" screen.

Is your friend right though? My parents bought their "HD" TV and said WOW everythings better. Except they had NO HD input. Still watching standard TV until they found the freeview button some months later.

Ive seen 720 films that are better quality that some 1080 films because the bitrate for the 1080 is terrible.

With an uncompressed filesize of approx 30GB per minute, how fast is your broadband?

http://www.theverge.com/2013/2/28/4040932/sony-4k-movie-service-will-work-with-ps4-require-100gb-plus-downloads

steveyt_2

i have the 100 Mbps package although probably getting a little less than that.

Mobileron......I was mainly concerned whether a SD signal would seem very fuzzy on a big TV sitting so close or whether a HD signal would upscale well enough to make it look crystal clear ??

Did you look at other TVs first and why the Bravia ?

bengalknights

It depends on your budget however LG, Samsung,Hisense and Sony make very good 4k sets

DoaM

Whether something looks "fuzzy" might depend on if the TV upscales non-4K inputs, and how well it does this if it does.

On my (old) 32" Toshiba TV the panel resolution is 1920 x 1080. It uses an upscaling feature (they call it Resolution+) to take non-HD sources and try to improve the picture ... I find it works quite well - even for streams of football matches which I cast from my laptop (Chrome browser) to my Chromecast; the picture actually looks better on the TV then it does on the laptop monitor (which is also 1920 x 1080).

RockersWAG

I wouldn't touch LG TVs with a bargepole anymore!
We've had two LG HD Smart TVs and both are horrendously buggy, freezing regularly whenever in the Smart screen and randomly turning off when they feel like it.
Lesson learnt here that you definitely get what you pay for - the picture was wonderful and we paid about £200 less than the equivalent Panasonic etc. but I would happily now pay more to have a TV that actually works over the frustration of having to turn it off several times a week when it freezes.

forgotmyname

steveyt wrote: »

i have the 100 Mbps package although probably getting a little less than that.

Mobileron......I was mainly concerned whether a SD signal would seem very fuzzy on a big TV sitting so close or whether a HD signal would upscale well enough to make it look crystal clear ??

Did you look at other TVs first and why the Bravia ?

100Mb package will take approx 48 minutes to download 30GB which is 1 minute of uncompressed 4k video. See the problem?

I think they have it compressed down to around 5GB? But thats still 8 an minute download for a 1minute clip.

Broadband needs to get much faster for 4k streaming. Unless your youtube where a 4k video seems use the a lower bitrate than my 720 dashcam.

paddyrg

forgotmyname wrote: »

Optimal screen size for a 4k screen at approx 8ft viewing distance = 85" screen.

Is your friend right though? My parents bought their "HD" TV and said WOW everythings better. Except they had NO HD input. Still watching standard TV until they found the freeview button some months later.

Ive seen 720 films that are better quality that some 1080 films because the bitrate for the 1080 is terrible.

With an uncompressed filesize of approx 30GB per minute, how fast is your broadband?

[l]

Compression is the key, and whilst it's improving, images are highly compressed, and that compression does degrade the picture hugely. Ironically, adding more resolution to an image reduces the other picture requirements, colours get more averaged out, gradients turn into bands, writing gets mosquitoes surrounding it. Many cinemas still project 2k (most are 4k now), but with far lower compression, and avoid these problems. The limitation in image quality isn't the number of dots, it's the compression.

DCFC79

Make sure the 1 you get is 10 bit, if not then its not true 4K.

Keep an eye on HUKD.

mobileron

I looked at all the TV in Currys,the best picture at the time was the Sony,i was also interested in the Android feature.

Currys offer was 12 months warranty,Richer Sounds was 6 years and having had other products from them,didnt hesitate.
My neighbour on seeing this tv bought similar with larger screen,as he dont have sky he is limited on 4k,he thought he was watching 4k. New tv better picture. I also connected up an old amplifier and speakers to headphone jack,audio is better than his sound bar.

If you do purchase one,ensure you connect it directly to router and not WIFI,use powerline if you have to,install Kodi and away you go.