4K/UHD or 1080p?

whattochoose

I have a Sony LED TV 

KD-43XE8004

which I've had for about 6 years. It's still working well, and I have no plans to replace it just yet.
I've recently taken Apple TV out for a trial period and watched Killers of the Flower Moon on it.
I was expecting brilliant picture quality in terms of brightness and quality, but I actually found the picture quality quite disappointing, and somewhat muddy. This was the case also with other programmes I looked at.
I have Amazon Prime and that's fine, irrespective of whether a film or TV programme is being broadcast in 4K/UHD or 1080p. That said, I sometimes think 1080p broadcasts look best on my TV.
I wonder if other members find this, and could it be that some streaming services function better on certain makes of TV?
Thank you.
PS. I wont be keeping Apple.

DullGreyGuy

What device are you using the AppleTV app on?
Which port is this plugged into?

Picture quality depends on a number of different factors and ultimately all parts must work well together. For example your TV only support HDR10 and HLG via some of its HDMI ports and doesn't support Dolby Vision at all. Apple however streams in DolbyVision and HDR10 and not in HLG or HDR10+, so wrong HDMI and you won't get the HDR at all and even in the right one it will be limited to HDR10 which is the lowest of the four formats. 

Your TV has a 4k display so no matter what source you put into it it will display in 4K, the question is if the source is 4k it displays 1:1 whereas if its less than 4K the TV has to upscale it itself. A modern film like Flowers Moon almost certainly would be filmed in 4k so should look best at its native format. If its an older film thats been filmed in HD or SD then there is an argument of if the software used by the movie studio is better or worse at upscaling than your own TV, you'd imagine theirs is better given their budgets but maybe yours is more tuned to the nature of the panel 

Add to that all video streamed is compressed, hence files sizes are a quarter that of those on 4k Blu-ray disks and so some loss is inevitable. If they stream the same to everyone is always going to be another question, certainly some have variable rates. 

Finally, the TV is 43" and so relatively small by modern day standards. Depending on how far you sit from the TV and your eyesight.

We have a 55" LG TV and a 115" Epson projector using AppleTV, Netflix and Prime via a AppleTV4k box. With almost all content there is a notable difference between HD and 4K, especially on the projector. Image brightness is better on the TV as it supports DV whereas the projector is HDR10 but it's also somewhat the nature of projectors and a better screen would help us. In terms of image quality, it's certainly in the order listed as best to worse but all are superseded by a disk. 

whattochoose

Many thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. You're certainly far more knowledgable about these things than me.
I access all my streaming services through an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K.

PRAISETHESUN

whattochoose said:

Many thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. You're certainly far more knowledgable about these things than me.
I access all my streaming services through an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K.

Is your internet speed sufficient to stream in 4K? Even if you have a 4K streaming device and a 4K TV, if your internet speed isn't good enough to transmit 4K in real time, then the streaming service itself will downgrade the quality. If you mostly watch pre-downloaded or offline content (eg. DVDs) then this isn't an issue however.

It's down to personal preference ultimately if you consider 4K a must-have or not. Might be worth going to John Lewis or another TV retailer and seeing a few models in person to see if you actually think it's worth it or not. I upgraded to a 4K TV myself earlier in the year and I definitely notice the difference now and won't be going back!

DullGreyGuy

PRAISETHESUN said:
It's down to personal preference ultimately if you consider 4K a must-have or not. Might be worth going to John Lewis or another TV retailer and seeing a few models in person to see if you actually think it's worth it or not. I upgraded to a 4K TV myself earlier in the year and I definitely notice the difference now and won't be going back!

They already have a 4k TV, the model is 7 years old so doesn't support all the latest features.

whattochoose said:

Many thanks for taking the time to explain this to me. You're certainly far more knowledgable about these things than me.
I access all my streaming services through an Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K.

Which HDMI slot is it in? A brief Google suggests is should be in 1 or 4 to get the best picture quality but double check your own manual, not all the slots have the same capabilities. 

I have a 4k Firestick for travel purposes but dont use it at home. I vaguely remember thinking AppleTV+ didnt look as good on it as it does on my AppleTV (its annoying they've the same name for hardware and software) but it has always been in in a basic AirBnB or Hotel TV so wouldn't look as good as it does at home in a better TV with better internet speeds. Did briefly use it at home before AppleTV devices supported VPN but it was only for watching HBO Max

whattochoose

Thank you for responses. I just used Speedtest by Ookla and it tells me download speed is 278 Mbps. Also looked at HDMI specs on my TV, and it tells me best HDMI slots for enhanced viewing are 2 and 3 (there are 4 in total), and my Firestick is connected to 3.
It's no biggie really. As mentioned, Amazon Prime is fine, and in the past I've had the Disney Channel and Netflix, the 4.99 ones with ads, which only broadcast in 1080p. but I've been happy with the picture quality with those. All these have been via my 4K Firestick.
However, I was disappointed with the picture quality with Apple, so I've cancelled my trial period, but will still be able to watch until 26th November, which will give me the opportunity to watch Blitz, which starts on 22nd November, which they're heavily promoting at the moment. All for nothing, so I can't complain.
Thanks again.