4k TV's, excited or just hype? What's your opinion?
Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2013 8:08 pm
So this past few weeks everybody has been talking about CES and it seems like the biggest thing is "4K TV's." I am not only an audiophile but also a videophile so things like this interest me. However, I am not very impressed by the reports of this "new" technology. I was wondering how other CJO members felt.
My reservations come on two fronts. First, it's great to have more pixels on the screen, and the fact that 4K offers 4 times as many pixels as Blu-ray's 1080p sounds great. However, I don't know how much closer they expect people to sit to their TV's to actually appreciate this. Below is a nice little chart on viewing distance vs appreciable resolution. I have a 150" screen so I could potentially site quite a distance away. However, there is such a thing as too big of a viewing angle. Who wants to go to the movie theater and sit in the front row? Most homes have their larger sets between 50-60 inches. That means you would have to sit 4 feet or closer to the set to fully appreciate 4K. That sounds absolutely ridiculous.
My next big problem is content. Ok, none available now, but that actually is not so concerning as I'm sure there will be more available in the future. The reports I've read from CES is that they want to offer streaming of 4K, but at 15-20 mbps streams. That is about half of standard blu-ray! So, 4 times as many pixels, yet a data rate that is 1/2 of blu-ray? Yes, you get more pixels, but you are also going to get much more digital artifacts like macroblocking, crush, banding, etc. This sounds absolutely terrible. Frankly, I don't see how videophiles would get excited about such terrible video for the sake of more pixels. Even today I pretty much can't stand watching Netflix HD streaming content on the big screen, it pales in comparison to blu-ray. So I don't think this will be something I can get excited about.
There was a player on display that was designed for 4K content with what sounded like higher bitrate but it's based on selling movies on actual hard drives. If memory serves they commented that a standard movie would be about 330 gb. Frankly I don't think that's a very viable distribution media.
Well, these are just my thoughts. All opinions are welcome.
My reservations come on two fronts. First, it's great to have more pixels on the screen, and the fact that 4K offers 4 times as many pixels as Blu-ray's 1080p sounds great. However, I don't know how much closer they expect people to sit to their TV's to actually appreciate this. Below is a nice little chart on viewing distance vs appreciable resolution. I have a 150" screen so I could potentially site quite a distance away. However, there is such a thing as too big of a viewing angle. Who wants to go to the movie theater and sit in the front row? Most homes have their larger sets between 50-60 inches. That means you would have to sit 4 feet or closer to the set to fully appreciate 4K. That sounds absolutely ridiculous.
My next big problem is content. Ok, none available now, but that actually is not so concerning as I'm sure there will be more available in the future. The reports I've read from CES is that they want to offer streaming of 4K, but at 15-20 mbps streams. That is about half of standard blu-ray! So, 4 times as many pixels, yet a data rate that is 1/2 of blu-ray? Yes, you get more pixels, but you are also going to get much more digital artifacts like macroblocking, crush, banding, etc. This sounds absolutely terrible. Frankly, I don't see how videophiles would get excited about such terrible video for the sake of more pixels. Even today I pretty much can't stand watching Netflix HD streaming content on the big screen, it pales in comparison to blu-ray. So I don't think this will be something I can get excited about.
There was a player on display that was designed for 4K content with what sounded like higher bitrate but it's based on selling movies on actual hard drives. If memory serves they commented that a standard movie would be about 330 gb. Frankly I don't think that's a very viable distribution media.
Well, these are just my thoughts. All opinions are welcome.