Discussion:
Slate: 4K Magic
(too old to reply)
Robin Miller
2018-03-25 00:58:57 UTC
Permalink
[RM: So I finally read an article about these things ...]


https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/its-time-to-buy-a-4k-tv-for-really-cheap-heres-what-to-know.html

4K Magic
Why it’s time to buy an ultra-high definition TV—and for cheap.

By Fred Kaplan
March 23, 20188:00 AM


It’s been 20 years since the first high-definition TV sets went on
sale in the United States. The takeoff was sluggish; a full five years
later, in 2003, when the Oscars were broadcast in HD for the first time,
host Steve Martin noted the fact and joked, “So I’d like to say a big
hello to the three guys watching at Circuit City—hey!” The audience
laughed and applauded. But by the end of the decade, more than half of
American households owned a high-def television. As of last year, the
figure had risen to 85 percent—about the same level as computers.

And so, with the market all but saturated, the TV industry needed
another glitzy piece of hardware to hawk. 3D didn’t pan out; I’d thought
sports and porn might serve as gateways, but it turned out no one wanted
to wear those damn glasses. So the industry went full bore on another
format that the research and development shops had been developing.

That format is 4K or UHD, for ultra-high definition. These new types of
TVs have been around for only five years. But in just the past year, the
technology has fully matured, and for another month or so—until April or
May, when the 2018 models come on line, sporting higher prices but equal
or just marginally better pictures—the best 2017 models are going for
crazy-cheap prices.

I recently bought LG’s 65-inch OLED65B7 for less than $2,500. A 55-inch
version, the LG OLED55B7, can be had for less than $1,600. (Similar
Sony, Samsung, and Vizio 4K sets are selling for similar prices.) These
are widely regarded as the best 4K sets on the market. By comparison,
throughout the era of mere high-definition TVs, the best models on the
market never sold for less than $5,000, and most of those were for
smaller screens.

In other words, now is the time to buy a new television set.
Some scoff that the human eye can’t distinguish between 8 million pixels
and 2 million. The scoffers are wrong.

“4K”—short for 4,000—refers to the number of pixels on each horizontal
line of the TV screen. The precise number is 3,840. Multiplied by the
2,160 pixels on each vertical line, that makes for a total of 8.3
million pixels. By comparison, high-definition TVs display 1,920
horizontal and 1,080 vertical pixels, for a total of 2 million pixels.
So 4K TVs display four times as many pixels—that is, they have four
times as much detail and resolution—as HDTVs.

Some scoff that the human eye can’t distinguish between 8 million pixels
and 2 million. The scoffers are wrong, but to the extent that they have
a case (and they do, if your screen isn’t large and your couch is far
away), it’s beside the main point, which is that the newest 4K
televisions offer more than just higher resolution.

Just as HDTVs featured not only high definition but also improved
digital color standards and, even more noticeably, wide screens, 4K
televisions—the newer ones, anyway—also boast huge advances in color,
brightness, and contrast. These advances are the results of four
technologies, which had been chugging along independently of one another
and are now converging with—and getting incorporated into—ultra-high
definition TVs. These technologies are known as high-dynamic range, wide
color gamut, 10-bit color depth, and (on some models) organic
light-emitting diodes.

In audio, “dynamic range” refers to the difference between the softest
and the loudest sounds. In video, it refers to the difference between
the blackest blacks and the whitest whites. High-dynamic range, or HDR,
is an industry standard indicating that the range is, well, very high.

Wide color gamut, or WCG, provides a wider palette of colors with much
greater intensity of red, green, and blue (the primary colors in video).
Ten-bit color depth refers to the number of colors and shades that can
be reproduced within that wider palette. The best HDTVs (which had 8-bit
processing) displayed 16.7 million distinct colors. With WCG and 10-bit
processors, 4K televisions can display 1 billion colors. (Click here for
the math.)

Finally, screens powered by organic light-emitting diodes, or OLED, may
seem similar at first glance to LED displays, which have been around for
a long time, but their innards are very different. LED screens are
simply LCDs (liquid crystal displays) that are backlit; the pixels open
and close, like a camera shutter, to let light pass through or to block
it. One flaw of LCD panels has been that they don’t accurately display
black; some light always creeps through the pixels, even when they try
to shut it out, so black objects come out looking a bit gray. With OLED,
there is no backlighting; rather, each pixel emits its own light, so if
that pixel is supposed to be black in the color scheme of the picture,
it looks inky black. There is a trade-off here: Pixels don’t emit quite
as much light as a backlit screen, so OLED pictures aren’t quite as
bright as the best LEDs. I’m willing to take the trade-off, as are many
reviewers, since true black provides the foundation for all other
colors, but this is a matter of taste. (Another advantage of OLED is
that the screen is much flatter—only ¼-inch thick—and you can watch it
from way off to the side without any degradation in color or focus.)

In any case, each of these four technologies—4K, HDR, WCG, and
OLED—reinforces the others. WCG allows a wider swath of colors, and HDR
extends the range of brightness within that swath, while OLED makes each
of 4K’s 8 million pixels look distinct.

All this sounds nice, theoretically, but how does the picture look? In a
word, it looks real. You don’t realize how artificial and approximate a
high-definition picture looks—you aren’t aware of how many lapses and
gaps your brain has to fill—until you take a look at ultra-high definition.

If you missed a movie in the theaters, the loss, in picture quality
anyway, is no longer irretrievable; UHD TVs come closer to capturing the
look and feel of a 35 mm film or a 4K digital print than any HDTV I’ve
ever seen. Reds, blues, and greens—and all the shades in between—just
glisten (if they’re supposed to glisten). Urban streets and landscapes
are portrayed with a palpable sense of depth. Reflections of light look
like reflections of light, not merely a lighter shade of some color.
Nothing gets obscured in dark scenes; the subtle distinctions between a
black coat and a shadow, or a shadow and a moonless night sky, are as
clear as they are in nature (assuming the cinematographer in question
captured it and the digital mastering was well done).

There are, however, a few caveats. First, right now, there’s not a lot
of 4K content to watch. The TV networks broadcast no programs in 4K.
Streaming services are better: Seven of them—Netflix, Amazon, Vudu,
Google Play, Fandango Now, and iTunes—offer some movies and TV shows in
4K, and an increasing number of them are encoded in HDR or Dolby Vision
(a proprietary format that has the same effect). Studios are starting to
release UHD discs (which all offer HDR), and eight companies are making
UHD players (which can also play Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs). But in
both cases—the discs and the streaming—we’re talking about just a few
hundred titles.

Still, these numbers are sure to grow. Several years ago, when studios
started digitizing their movies for HDTV and Blu-ray Discs, they
mastered many of them in 4K. They did this—even though no 4K projectors,
disc players, streaming services, or TVs existed at the time—because
they figured 4K would be a natural successor to HD; let’s make 4K
masters now, they reasoned, so we don’t have to do it all over again, at
great expense, when the upgrade happens.

Another reason for optimism: People are buying 4K televisions. Last
year, according to Michael Fidler, president of the UHD Alliance, an
organization of TV and software companies, 80 million 4K TVs were sold
worldwide—19 million of them in North America, more than half of all TVs
sold here. (About a quarter of those 19 million also featured HDR.) This
is eight times the number of 4K sets purchased in 2014, when they
started appearing in stores, and industry experts foresee the number
tripling by 2020.

In any event, sales are climbing much more rapidly than HDTVs did in
their first years. And even the UHD discs are plentiful when seen in
historical perspective. The first HD discs didn’t hit the market until
2006—eight years after the first HDTVs—and a format war raged (between
Toshiba’s HD DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray), discouraging buyers, until 2008.

Meanwhile, the sparse supply of 4K content isn’t as big a disappointment
as it might seem, because 4K televisions are equipped with processors
that “up-convert” high-def images to simulate 4K. Some of these TVs also
have video settings (which can easily be activated) that simulate the
brightness of high-dynamic contrast. These gimmicks are no match for
genuine 4K or HDR, but they come impressively close.
The setting that causes the soap-opera effect is called “Auto Motion,”
or “Auto Motion Plus,” or “TruMotion.” It’s probably on. Turn it off.

This leads to the second caveat about the new generation of TVs: They
are not plug-and-play machines. You have to fool around a bit with the
menu settings to make them look really good.

Here’s a nasty little secret that a few dealers admit off the record:
The factory settings on these TVs are designed to make the picture look
wowie-zowie on a brightly lit showroom floor.
When you haul it home and turn it on, in a normally lit (or, at night,
somewhat darkened) room, the picture will look too bright, too flat, too
Etch A Sketch–y, and weirdly unnatural, like a cheap soap opera.

Not by coincidence, this weirdness is called “the soap-opera effect,”
and while it might be OK for watching cartoons or football games (which
is what TVs on showroom floors are usually tuned to), it’s annoying—to
many, including me, it’s intolerable—for watching anything else,
especially movies.

Fortunately, the problem can be fixed. On your TV remote, click
“Settings.” Click “Picture Mode” or “Picture Settings” (on some models,
“Advanced Picture Settings”). The setting that causes the soap-opera
effect is called (again, the name is different on different models)
“Auto Motion” or “Auto Motion Plus” or “TruMotion.” It’s probably on.
Turn it off. Also turn off “Digital Noise Reduction” and “Edge Enhancement.”

Turning off these settings will get rid of most of your problems but not
all of them. The picture will probably still be too bright, too intense,
or too something. While you’re in the Picture Mode settings, click on
(and, again, the name varies from model to model) “Film,” “Movie,” or
“Cinema.” Better still, if they’re listed among the Picture Modes or
Picture Settings, click on “Technicolor Expert” or “ISF Dark Room” (if
you watch mainly in a dark room) or “ISF Bright Room” (if you watch
mainly in a bright room). All of these modes will alter many of the
other settings (Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, etc.) in ways that will
dramatically improve the picture. (If none of these settings are listed
in Picture Mode, click on “Software Update.” They might simply have to
be loaded.)

Still, these modes won’t get you to Nirvana. To get there, you have to
do one of these things, in order of convenience and cost:

• Before any of this, simply to stream 4K content (whether or not you’re
interested in the path to Nirvana), you’ll need a fast Internet
connection—25 megabits per second, at least. To see how fast yours is,
go to www.TestMySpeed.com. If it’s not fast enough, contact your ISP.
You’ll also need an HDMI 2.0 wire (not your old HDMI) for connecting the
TV with the cable box and the Blu-ray player.

• Buy a Blu-ray calibration disc. Following the directions, you’ll be
able to dial in color and contrast corrections more precisely than your
TV’s mode options will manage. (Unfortunately, there are not yet any 4K
calibration discs, though there soon will be.)

• Read a review of the TV that you bought in a publication such as Sound
& Vision (where, full disclosure, I review Blu-ray and UHD discs) or
CNET.com. These reviews often include sidebars that cite the settings
(for Brightness, Contrast, Warmth, Gamma, etc.) that the reviewers—some
of whom are professional TV calibrators—punched in. These are only
suggestions, not definitive answers, as, for some reason, there are
minor unit-to-unit variations in some TVs.

• Hire a professional to come to your house and calibrate the TV
personally. Ideally, this person should be “ISF-certified” (meaning he
or she has been licensed by the Imaging Science Foundation, an industry
consulting service that monitors the enforcement of color standards for
modern TVs). This will cost a few hundred dollars, but if you want to
eke out that last 20 percent toward perfection, you’ll want to do this.
I did.

In any case, do—or have somebody do—something. Otherwise, it would be as
if you bought a Steinway grand piano and didn’t bother to have it tuned.

Meanwhile, buy the Steinway—the 4K HDR WCG 10-bit color (and, I would
add, OLED) UHDTV. It will open your eyes.
anim8rfsk
2018-03-28 05:49:17 UTC
Permalink
Post by Robin Miller
[RM: So I finally read an article about these things ...]
https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/its-time-to-buy-a-4k-tv-for-really-cheap-
heres-what-to-know.html
4K Magic
Why it’s time to buy an ultra-high definition TV—and for cheap.
By Fred Kaplan
March 23, 20188:00 AM
It’s been 20 years since the first high-definition TV sets went on
sale in the United States. The takeoff was sluggish; a full five years
later, in 2003, when the Oscars were broadcast in HD for the first time,
host Steve Martin noted the fact and joked, “So I’d like to say a big
hello to the three guys watching at Circuit City—hey!” The audience
laughed and applauded. But by the end of the decade, more than half of
American households owned a high-def television. As of last year, the
figure had risen to 85 percent—about the same level as computers.
And so, with the market all but saturated, the TV industry needed
another glitzy piece of hardware to hawk. 3D didn’t pan out; I’d thought
sports and porn might serve as gateways, but it turned out no one wanted
to wear those damn glasses. So the industry went full bore on another
format that the research and development shops had been developing.
That format is 4K or UHD, for ultra-high definition. These new types of
TVs have been around for only five years. But in just the past year, the
technology has fully matured, and for another month or so—until April or
May, when the 2018 models come on line, sporting higher prices but equal
or just marginally better pictures—the best 2017 models are going for
crazy-cheap prices.
I recently bought LG’s 65-inch OLED65B7 for less than $2,500. A 55-inch
version, the LG OLED55B7, can be had for less than $1,600. (Similar
Sony, Samsung, and Vizio 4K sets are selling for similar prices.) These
are widely regarded as the best 4K sets on the market. By comparison,
throughout the era of mere high-definition TVs, the best models on the
market never sold for less than $5,000, and most of those were for
smaller screens.
In other words, now is the time to buy a new television set.
Some scoff that the human eye can’t distinguish between 8 million pixels
and 2 million. The scoffers are wrong.
“4K”—short for 4,000—refers to the number of pixels on each horizontal
line of the TV screen. The precise number is 3,840. Multiplied by the
2,160 pixels on each vertical line, that makes for a total of 8.3
million pixels. By comparison, high-definition TVs display 1,920
horizontal and 1,080 vertical pixels, for a total of 2 million pixels.
So 4K TVs display four times as many pixels—that is, they have four
times as much detail and resolution—as HDTVs.
Some scoff that the human eye can’t distinguish between 8 million pixels
and 2 million. The scoffers are wrong, but to the extent that they have
a case (and they do, if your screen isn’t large and your couch is far
away), it’s beside the main point, which is that the newest 4K
televisions offer more than just higher resolution.
Just as HDTVs featured not only high definition but also improved
digital color standards and, even more noticeably, wide screens, 4K
televisions—the newer ones, anyway—also boast huge advances in color,
brightness, and contrast. These advances are the results of four
technologies, which had been chugging along independently of one another
and are now converging with—and getting incorporated into—ultra-high
definition TVs. These technologies are known as high-dynamic range, wide
color gamut, 10-bit color depth, and (on some models) organic
light-emitting diodes.
In audio, “dynamic range” refers to the difference between the softest
and the loudest sounds. In video, it refers to the difference between
the blackest blacks and the whitest whites. High-dynamic range, or HDR,
is an industry standard indicating that the range is, well, very high.
Wide color gamut, or WCG, provides a wider palette of colors with much
greater intensity of red, green, and blue (the primary colors in video).
Ten-bit color depth refers to the number of colors and shades that can
be reproduced within that wider palette. The best HDTVs (which had 8-bit
processing) displayed 16.7 million distinct colors. With WCG and 10-bit
processors, 4K televisions can display 1 billion colors. (Click here for
the math.)
Finally, screens powered by organic light-emitting diodes, or OLED, may
seem similar at first glance to LED displays, which have been around for
a long time, but their innards are very different. LED screens are
simply LCDs (liquid crystal displays) that are backlit; the pixels open
and close, like a camera shutter, to let light pass through or to block
it. One flaw of LCD panels has been that they don’t accurately display
black; some light always creeps through the pixels, even when they try
to shut it out, so black objects come out looking a bit gray. With OLED,
there is no backlighting; rather, each pixel emits its own light, so if
that pixel is supposed to be black in the color scheme of the picture,
it looks inky black. There is a trade-off here: Pixels don’t emit quite
as much light as a backlit screen, so OLED pictures aren’t quite as
bright as the best LEDs. I’m willing to take the trade-off, as are many
reviewers, since true black provides the foundation for all other
colors, but this is a matter of taste. (Another advantage of OLED is
that the screen is much flatter—only 1⁄4-inch thick—and you can watch it
from way off to the side without any degradation in color or focus.)
In any case, each of these four technologies—4K, HDR, WCG, and
OLED—reinforces the others. WCG allows a wider swath of colors, and HDR
extends the range of brightness within that swath, while OLED makes each
of 4K’s 8 million pixels look distinct.
All this sounds nice, theoretically, but how does the picture look? In a
word, it looks real. You don’t realize how artificial and approximate a
high-definition picture looks—you aren’t aware of how many lapses and
gaps your brain has to fill—until you take a look at ultra-high definition.
If you missed a movie in the theaters, the loss, in picture quality
anyway, is no longer irretrievable; UHD TVs come closer to capturing the
look and feel of a 35 mm film or a 4K digital print than any HDTV I’ve
ever seen. Reds, blues, and greens—and all the shades in between—just
glisten (if they’re supposed to glisten). Urban streets and landscapes
are portrayed with a palpable sense of depth. Reflections of light look
like reflections of light, not merely a lighter shade of some color.
Nothing gets obscured in dark scenes; the subtle distinctions between a
black coat and a shadow, or a shadow and a moonless night sky, are as
clear as they are in nature (assuming the cinematographer in question
captured it and the digital mastering was well done).
There are, however, a few caveats. First, right now, there’s not a lot
of 4K content to watch. The TV networks broadcast no programs in 4K.
Streaming services are better: Seven of them—Netflix, Amazon, Vudu,
Google Play, Fandango Now, and iTunes—offer some movies and TV shows in
4K, and an increasing number of them are encoded in HDR or Dolby Vision
(a proprietary format that has the same effect). Studios are starting to
release UHD discs (which all offer HDR), and eight companies are making
UHD players (which can also play Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs). But in
both cases—the discs and the streaming—we’re talking about just a few
hundred titles.
Still, these numbers are sure to grow. Several years ago, when studios
started digitizing their movies for HDTV and Blu-ray Discs, they
mastered many of them in 4K. They did this—even though no 4K projectors,
disc players, streaming services, or TVs existed at the time—because
they figured 4K would be a natural successor to HD; let’s make 4K
masters now, they reasoned, so we don’t have to do it all over again, at
great expense, when the upgrade happens.
Another reason for optimism: People are buying 4K televisions. Last
year, according to Michael Fidler, president of the UHD Alliance, an
organization of TV and software companies, 80 million 4K TVs were sold
worldwide—19 million of them in North America, more than half of all TVs
sold here. (About a quarter of those 19 million also featured HDR.) This
is eight times the number of 4K sets purchased in 2014, when they
started appearing in stores, and industry experts foresee the number
tripling by 2020.
In any event, sales are climbing much more rapidly than HDTVs did in
their first years. And even the UHD discs are plentiful when seen in
historical perspective. The first HD discs didn’t hit the market until
2006—eight years after the first HDTVs—and a format war raged (between
Toshiba’s HD DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray), discouraging buyers, until 2008.
Meanwhile, the sparse supply of 4K content isn’t as big a disappointment
as it might seem, because 4K televisions are equipped with processors
that “up-convert” high-def images to simulate 4K. Some of these TVs also
have video settings (which can easily be activated) that simulate the
brightness of high-dynamic contrast. These gimmicks are no match for
genuine 4K or HDR, but they come impressively close.
The setting that causes the soap-opera effect is called “Auto Motion,”
or “Auto Motion Plus,” or “TruMotion.” It’s probably on. Turn it off.
This leads to the second caveat about the new generation of TVs: They
are not plug-and-play machines. You have to fool around a bit with the
menu settings to make them look really good.
The factory settings on these TVs are designed to make the picture look
wowie-zowie on a brightly lit showroom floor.
When you haul it home and turn it on, in a normally lit (or, at night,
somewhat darkened) room, the picture will look too bright, too flat, too
Etch A Sketch–y, and weirdly unnatural, like a cheap soap opera.
Not by coincidence, this weirdness is called “the soap-opera effect,”
and while it might be OK for watching cartoons or football games (which
is what TVs on showroom floors are usually tuned to), it’s annoying—to
many, including me, it’s intolerable—for watching anything else,
especially movies.
Fortunately, the problem can be fixed. On your TV remote, click
“Settings.” Click “Picture Mode” or “Picture Settings” (on some models,
“Advanced Picture Settings”). The setting that causes the soap-opera
effect is called (again, the name is different on different models)
“Auto Motion” or “Auto Motion Plus” or “TruMotion.” It’s probably on.
Turn it off. Also turn off “Digital Noise Reduction” and “Edge Enhancement.”
Turning off these settings will get rid of most of your problems but not
all of them. The picture will probably still be too bright, too intense,
or too something. While you’re in the Picture Mode settings, click on
(and, again, the name varies from model to model) “Film,” “Movie,” or
“Cinema.” Better still, if they’re listed among the Picture Modes or
Picture Settings, click on “Technicolor Expert” or “ISF Dark Room” (if
you watch mainly in a dark room) or “ISF Bright Room” (if you watch
mainly in a bright room). All of these modes will alter many of the
other settings (Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, etc.) in ways that will
dramatically improve the picture. (If none of these settings are listed
in Picture Mode, click on “Software Update.” They might simply have to
be loaded.)
Still, these modes won’t get you to Nirvana. To get there, you have to
• Before any of this, simply to stream 4K content (whether or not you’re
interested in the path to Nirvana), you’ll need a fast Internet
connection—25 megabits per second, at least. To see how fast yours is,
go to www.TestMySpeed.com. If it’s not fast enough, contact your ISP.
You’ll also need an HDMI 2.0 wire (not your old HDMI) for connecting the
TV with the cable box and the Blu-ray player.
• Buy a Blu-ray calibration disc. Following the directions, you’ll be
able to dial in color and contrast corrections more precisely than your
TV’s mode options will manage. (Unfortunately, there are not yet any 4K
calibration discs, though there soon will be.)
• Read a review of the TV that you bought in a publication such as Sound
& Vision (where, full disclosure, I review Blu-ray and UHD discs) or
CNET.com. These reviews often include sidebars that cite the settings
(for Brightness, Contrast, Warmth, Gamma, etc.) that the reviewers—some
of whom are professional TV calibrators—punched in. These are only
suggestions, not definitive answers, as, for some reason, there are
minor unit-to-unit variations in some TVs.
• Hire a professional to come to your house and calibrate the TV
personally. Ideally, this person should be “ISF-certified” (meaning he
or she has been licensed by the Imaging Science Foundation, an industry
consulting service that monitors the enforcement of color standards for
modern TVs). This will cost a few hundred dollars, but if you want to
eke out that last 20 percent toward perfection, you’ll want to do this.
I did.
In any case, do—or have somebody do—something. Otherwise, it would be as
if you bought a Steinway grand piano and didn’t bother to have it tuned.
Meanwhile, buy the Steinway—the 4K HDR WCG 10-bit color (and, I would
add, OLED) UHDTV. It will open your eyes.
I've yet to see a 4k TV in real life that was using the later HDMI
connectors. The older ones couldn't shove through information fast
enough, which is why the sets on the showroom floor tended to display
stuff like fields of sunflowers, gently waving in the wind.

Amazingly, UHD players start at a hundred bucks. But I'd check to see
if there's enough programming available to matter.
--
Join your old RAT friends at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1688985234647266/
Obveeus
2018-03-28 13:53:36 UTC
Permalink
Post by anim8rfsk
I've yet to see a 4k TV in real life that was using the later HDMI
connectors. The older ones couldn't shove through information fast
enough, which is why the sets on the showroom floor tended to display
stuff like fields of sunflowers, gently waving in the wind.
Amazingly, UHD players start at a hundred bucks. But I'd check to see
if there's enough programming available to matter.
There is no programming to be had, just Blu-Ray discs and video games.
The only reason to buy a 4K TV vs just 1098 is if the 4K is cheaper or
has more updated menu features to serve up Netflix, AmazonPrime, etc...
anim8rfsk
2018-03-28 14:05:34 UTC
Permalink
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
I've yet to see a 4k TV in real life that was using the later HDMI
connectors. The older ones couldn't shove through information fast
enough, which is why the sets on the showroom floor tended to display
stuff like fields of sunflowers, gently waving in the wind.
Amazingly, UHD players start at a hundred bucks. But I'd check to see
if there's enough programming available to matter.
There is no programming to be had, just Blu-Ray discs and video games.
The only reason to buy a 4K TV vs just 1098 is if the 4K is cheaper or
has more updated menu features to serve up Netflix, AmazonPrime, etc...
Both The Amazon and The Netflix have 4K streaming offerings. The Amazon
has a bunch of "UHD Blu-Ray"s - I'm not really sure how that works. The
Netflix charges extra for 4K. There are people posting in the Lost In
Space groups asking if the new show if going to be 4K saying they'll
sign up for the more spendy Netflix if it is. Hope they don't have Cox
Cable bandwidth penalties ...
--
Join your old RAT friends at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1688985234647266/
Obveeus
2018-03-28 14:11:32 UTC
Permalink
Post by anim8rfsk
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
I've yet to see a 4k TV in real life that was using the later HDMI
connectors. The older ones couldn't shove through information fast
enough, which is why the sets on the showroom floor tended to display
stuff like fields of sunflowers, gently waving in the wind.
Amazingly, UHD players start at a hundred bucks. But I'd check to see
if there's enough programming available to matter.
There is no programming to be had, just Blu-Ray discs and video games.
The only reason to buy a 4K TV vs just 1098 is if the 4K is cheaper or
has more updated menu features to serve up Netflix, AmazonPrime, etc...
Both The Amazon and The Netflix have 4K streaming offerings.
They offer it, but your internet provider might not be able to handle
it. ...and I have no idea if it is pure as the driven snow 4K or
compressed for data transfer 4K. Will everything be almost pitch black
so that it takes less bandwidth?
Post by anim8rfsk
The Amazon
has a bunch of "UHD Blu-Ray"s - I'm not really sure how that works. The
Netflix charges extra for 4K. There are people posting in the Lost In
Space groups asking if the new show if going to be 4K saying they'll
sign up for the more spendy Netflix if it is. Hope they don't have Cox
Cable bandwidth penalties ...
LOST IN SPACE probably will be in 4K since many of the Netflix originals
are filmed in 4K. I think it started with HOUSE OF CARDS, but all the
newer stuff (like the various Marvel series and 13 REASONS WHY) is 4K.
anim8rfsk
2018-03-28 15:28:06 UTC
Permalink
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
I've yet to see a 4k TV in real life that was using the later HDMI
connectors. The older ones couldn't shove through information fast
enough, which is why the sets on the showroom floor tended to display
stuff like fields of sunflowers, gently waving in the wind.
Amazingly, UHD players start at a hundred bucks. But I'd check to see
if there's enough programming available to matter.
There is no programming to be had, just Blu-Ray discs and video games.
The only reason to buy a 4K TV vs just 1098 is if the 4K is cheaper or
has more updated menu features to serve up Netflix, AmazonPrime, etc...
Both The Amazon and The Netflix have 4K streaming offerings.
They offer it, but your internet provider might not be able to handle
it. ...and I have no idea if it is pure as the driven snow 4K or
compressed for data transfer 4K. Will everything be almost pitch black
so that it takes less bandwidth?
Post by anim8rfsk
The Amazon
has a bunch of "UHD Blu-Ray"s - I'm not really sure how that works. The
Netflix charges extra for 4K. There are people posting in the Lost In
Space groups asking if the new show if going to be 4K saying they'll
sign up for the more spendy Netflix if it is. Hope they don't have Cox
Cable bandwidth penalties ...
LOST IN SPACE probably will be in 4K since many of the Netflix originals
are filmed in 4K. I think it started with HOUSE OF CARDS, but all the
newer stuff (like the various Marvel series and 13 REASONS WHY) is 4K.
You'd think with it being 2 weeks out they'd be telling people ...
--
Join your old RAT friends at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1688985234647266/
Obveeus
2018-03-28 16:58:31 UTC
Permalink
Post by anim8rfsk
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
I've yet to see a 4k TV in real life that was using the later HDMI
connectors. The older ones couldn't shove through information fast
enough, which is why the sets on the showroom floor tended to display
stuff like fields of sunflowers, gently waving in the wind.
Amazingly, UHD players start at a hundred bucks. But I'd check to see
if there's enough programming available to matter.
There is no programming to be had, just Blu-Ray discs and video games.
The only reason to buy a 4K TV vs just 1098 is if the 4K is cheaper or
has more updated menu features to serve up Netflix, AmazonPrime, etc...
Both The Amazon and The Netflix have 4K streaming offerings.
They offer it, but your internet provider might not be able to handle
it. ...and I have no idea if it is pure as the driven snow 4K or
compressed for data transfer 4K. Will everything be almost pitch black
so that it takes less bandwidth?
Post by anim8rfsk
The Amazon
has a bunch of "UHD Blu-Ray"s - I'm not really sure how that works. The
Netflix charges extra for 4K. There are people posting in the Lost In
Space groups asking if the new show if going to be 4K saying they'll
sign up for the more spendy Netflix if it is. Hope they don't have Cox
Cable bandwidth penalties ...
LOST IN SPACE probably will be in 4K since many of the Netflix originals
are filmed in 4K. I think it started with HOUSE OF CARDS, but all the
newer stuff (like the various Marvel series and 13 REASONS WHY) is 4K.
You'd think with it being 2 weeks out they'd be telling people ...
Does this count:

https://backlothelp.netflix.com/hc/en-us/articles/229150387-Why-does-Netflix-require-4K-on-Netflix-Originals-
anim8rfsk
2018-03-28 17:25:05 UTC
Permalink
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
I've yet to see a 4k TV in real life that was using the later HDMI
connectors. The older ones couldn't shove through information fast
enough, which is why the sets on the showroom floor tended to display
stuff like fields of sunflowers, gently waving in the wind.
Amazingly, UHD players start at a hundred bucks. But I'd check to see
if there's enough programming available to matter.
There is no programming to be had, just Blu-Ray discs and video games.
The only reason to buy a 4K TV vs just 1098 is if the 4K is cheaper or
has more updated menu features to serve up Netflix, AmazonPrime, etc...
Both The Amazon and The Netflix have 4K streaming offerings.
They offer it, but your internet provider might not be able to handle
it. ...and I have no idea if it is pure as the driven snow 4K or
compressed for data transfer 4K. Will everything be almost pitch black
so that it takes less bandwidth?
Post by anim8rfsk
The Amazon
has a bunch of "UHD Blu-Ray"s - I'm not really sure how that works. The
Netflix charges extra for 4K. There are people posting in the Lost In
Space groups asking if the new show if going to be 4K saying they'll
sign up for the more spendy Netflix if it is. Hope they don't have Cox
Cable bandwidth penalties ...
LOST IN SPACE probably will be in 4K since many of the Netflix originals
are filmed in 4K. I think it started with HOUSE OF CARDS, but all the
newer stuff (like the various Marvel series and 13 REASONS WHY) is 4K.
You'd think with it being 2 weeks out they'd be telling people ...
https://backlothelp.netflix.com/hc/en-us/articles/229150387-Why-does-Netflix-r
equire-4K-on-Netflix-Originals-
coo, ty
--
Join your old RAT friends at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1688985234647266/
Ian J. Ball
2018-03-28 20:23:03 UTC
Permalink
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
I've yet to see a 4k TV in real life that was using the later HDMI
connectors. The older ones couldn't shove through information fast
enough, which is why the sets on the showroom floor tended to display
stuff like fields of sunflowers, gently waving in the wind.
Amazingly, UHD players start at a hundred bucks. But I'd check to see
if there's enough programming available to matter.
There is no programming to be had, just Blu-Ray discs and video games.
The only reason to buy a 4K TV vs just 1098 is if the 4K is cheaper or
has more updated menu features to serve up Netflix, AmazonPrime, etc...
Both The Amazon and The Netflix have 4K streaming offerings.
They offer it, but your internet provider might not be able to handle
it. ...and I have no idea if it is pure as the driven snow 4K or
compressed for data transfer 4K. Will everything be almost pitch black
so that it takes less bandwidth?
Post by anim8rfsk
The Amazon
has a bunch of "UHD Blu-Ray"s - I'm not really sure how that works. The
Netflix charges extra for 4K. There are people posting in the Lost In
Space groups asking if the new show if going to be 4K saying they'll
sign up for the more spendy Netflix if it is. Hope they don't have Cox
Cable bandwidth penalties ...
LOST IN SPACE probably will be in 4K since many of the Netflix
originals are filmed in 4K. I think it started with HOUSE OF CARDS,
but all the newer stuff (like the various Marvel series and 13 REASONS
WHY) is 4K.
Yeah, 'cos "13 Reasons..." is really a show that *needs* that 4K picture!! ;p
--
"Three light sabers? Is that overkill? Or just the right amount
of "kill"?" - M-OC, "A Perilous Rescue" (ep. #2.9), LSW:TFA (08-10-2017)
moviePig
2018-03-28 21:32:09 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ian J. Ball
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
Post by Obveeus
Post by anim8rfsk
I've yet to see a 4k TV in real life that was using the later HDMI
connectors.  The older ones couldn't shove through information fast
enough, which is why the sets on the showroom floor tended to display
stuff like fields of sunflowers, gently waving in the wind.
Amazingly, UHD players start at a hundred bucks.  But I'd check to see
if there's enough programming available to matter.
There is no programming to be had, just Blu-Ray discs and video games.
The only reason to buy a 4K TV vs just 1098 is if the 4K is cheaper or
has more updated menu features to serve up Netflix, AmazonPrime, etc...
Both The Amazon and The Netflix have 4K streaming offerings.
They offer it, but your internet provider might not be able to handle
it.  ...and I have no idea if it is pure as the driven snow 4K or
compressed for data transfer 4K.  Will everything be almost pitch
black so that it takes less bandwidth?
Post by anim8rfsk
The Amazon
has a bunch of "UHD Blu-Ray"s - I'm not really sure how that works.  The
Netflix charges extra for 4K.  There are people posting in the Lost In
Space groups asking if the new show if going to be 4K saying they'll
sign up for the more spendy Netflix if it is.  Hope they don't have Cox
Cable bandwidth penalties ...
LOST IN SPACE probably will be in 4K since many of the Netflix
originals are filmed in 4K.  I think it started with HOUSE OF CARDS,
but all the newer stuff (like the various Marvel series and 13 REASONS
WHY) is 4K.
Yeah, 'cos "13 Reasons..." is really a show that *needs* that 4K
picture!!  ;p
Otoh, GODLESS could've sure used it.
--
- - - - - - - -
YOUR taste at work...
http://www.moviepig.com
David Johnston
2018-03-28 18:01:49 UTC
Permalink
Post by Robin Miller
[RM: So I finally read an article about these things ...]
https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/its-time-to-buy-a-4k-tv-for-really-cheap-heres-what-to-know.html
4K Magic
Why it’s time to buy an ultra-high definition TV—and for cheap.
By Fred Kaplan
March 23, 20188:00 AM
 It’s been 20 years since the first high-definition TV sets went on
sale in the United States. The takeoff was sluggish; a full five years
later, in 2003, when the Oscars were broadcast in HD for the first time,
host Steve Martin noted the fact and joked, “So I’d like to say a big
hello to the three guys watching at Circuit City—hey!” The audience
laughed and applauded. But by the end of the decade, more than half of
American households owned a high-def television. As of last year, the
figure had risen to 85 percent—about the same level as computers.
And so, with the market all but saturated, the TV industry needed
another glitzy piece of hardware to hawk. 3D didn’t pan out; I’d thought
sports and porn might serve as gateways, but it turned out no one wanted
to wear those damn glasses. So the industry went full bore on another
format that the research and development shops had been developing.
That format is 4K or UHD, for ultra-high definition. These new types of
TVs have been around for only five years. But in just the past year, the
technology has fully matured, and for another month or so—until April or
May, when the 2018 models come on line, sporting higher prices but equal
or just marginally better pictures—the best 2017 models are going for
crazy-cheap prices.
I recently bought LG’s 65-inch OLED65B7 for less than $2,500. A 55-inch
version, the LG OLED55B7, can be had for less than $1,600. (Similar
Sony, Samsung, and Vizio 4K sets are selling for similar prices.) These
are widely regarded as the best 4K sets on the market. By comparison,
throughout the era of mere high-definition TVs, the best models on the
market never sold for less than $5,000, and most of those were for
smaller screens.
In other words, now is the time to buy a new television set.
Some scoff that the human eye can’t distinguish between 8 million pixels
and 2 million. The scoffers are wrong.
“4K”—short for 4,000—refers to the number of pixels on each horizontal
line of the TV screen. The precise number is 3,840. Multiplied by the
2,160 pixels on each vertical line, that makes for a total of 8.3
million pixels. By comparison, high-definition TVs display 1,920
horizontal and 1,080 vertical pixels, for a total of 2 million pixels.
So 4K TVs display four times as many pixels—that is, they have four
times as much detail and resolution—as HDTVs.
Some scoff that the human eye can’t distinguish between 8 million pixels
and 2 million. The scoffers are wrong, but to the extent that they have
a case (and they do, if your screen isn’t large and your couch is far
away), it’s beside the main point, which is that the newest 4K
televisions offer more than just higher resolution.
Just as HDTVs featured not only high definition but also improved
digital color standards and, even more noticeably, wide screens, 4K
televisions—the newer ones, anyway—also boast huge advances in color,
brightness, and contrast. These advances are the results of four
technologies, which had been chugging along independently of one another
and are now converging with—and getting incorporated into—ultra-high
definition TVs. These technologies are known as high-dynamic range, wide
color gamut, 10-bit color depth, and (on some models) organic
light-emitting diodes.
In audio, “dynamic range” refers to the difference between the softest
and the loudest sounds. In video, it refers to the difference between
the blackest blacks and the whitest whites. High-dynamic range, or HDR,
is an industry standard indicating that the range is, well, very high.
Wide color gamut, or WCG, provides a wider palette of colors with much
greater intensity of red, green, and blue (the primary colors in video).
Ten-bit color depth refers to the number of colors and shades that can
be reproduced within that wider palette. The best HDTVs (which had 8-bit
processing) displayed 16.7 million distinct colors. With WCG and 10-bit
processors, 4K televisions can display 1 billion colors. (Click here for
the math.)
Finally, screens powered by organic light-emitting diodes, or OLED, may
seem similar at first glance to LED displays, which have been around for
a long time, but their innards are very different. LED screens are
simply LCDs (liquid crystal displays) that are backlit; the pixels open
and close, like a camera shutter, to let light pass through or to block
it. One flaw of LCD panels has been that they don’t accurately display
black; some light always creeps through the pixels, even when they try
to shut it out, so black objects come out looking a bit gray. With OLED,
there is no backlighting; rather, each pixel emits its own light, so if
that pixel is supposed to be black in the color scheme of the picture,
it looks inky black. There is a trade-off here: Pixels don’t emit quite
as much light as a backlit screen, so OLED pictures aren’t quite as
bright as the best LEDs. I’m willing to take the trade-off, as are many
reviewers, since true black provides the foundation for all other
colors, but this is a matter of taste. (Another advantage of OLED is
that the screen is much flatter—only ¼-inch thick—and you can watch it
from way off to the side without any degradation in color or focus.)
In any case, each of these four technologies—4K, HDR, WCG, and
OLED—reinforces the others. WCG allows a wider swath of colors, and HDR
extends the range of brightness within that swath, while OLED makes each
of 4K’s 8 million pixels look distinct.
All this sounds nice, theoretically, but how does the picture look? In a
word, it looks real. You don’t realize how artificial and approximate a
high-definition picture looks—you aren’t aware of how many lapses and
gaps your brain has to fill—until you take a look at ultra-high definition.
If you missed a movie in the theaters, the loss, in picture quality
anyway, is no longer irretrievable; UHD TVs come closer to capturing the
look and feel of a 35 mm film or a 4K digital print than any HDTV I’ve
ever seen. Reds, blues, and greens—and all the shades in between—just
glisten (if they’re supposed to glisten). Urban streets and landscapes
are portrayed with a palpable sense of depth. Reflections of light look
like reflections of light, not merely a lighter shade of some color.
Nothing gets obscured in dark scenes; the subtle distinctions between a
black coat and a shadow, or a shadow and a moonless night sky, are as
clear as they are in nature (assuming the cinematographer in question
captured it and the digital mastering was well done).
There are, however, a few caveats. First, right now, there’s not a lot
of 4K content to watch. The TV networks broadcast no programs in 4K.
Streaming services are better: Seven of them—Netflix, Amazon, Vudu,
Google Play, Fandango Now, and iTunes—offer some movies and TV shows in
4K, and an increasing number of them are encoded in HDR or Dolby Vision
(a proprietary format that has the same effect). Studios are starting to
release UHD discs (which all offer HDR), and eight companies are making
UHD players (which can also play Blu-ray Discs, DVDs, and CDs). But in
both cases—the discs and the streaming—we’re talking about just a few
hundred titles.
Still, these numbers are sure to grow. Several years ago, when studios
started digitizing their movies for HDTV and Blu-ray Discs, they
mastered many of them in 4K. They did this—even though no 4K projectors,
disc players, streaming services, or TVs existed at the time—because
they figured 4K would be a natural successor to HD; let’s make 4K
masters now, they reasoned, so we don’t have to do it all over again, at
great expense, when the upgrade happens.
Another reason for optimism: People are buying 4K televisions. Last
year, according to Michael Fidler, president of the UHD Alliance, an
organization of TV and software companies, 80 million 4K TVs were sold
worldwide—19 million of them in North America, more than half of all TVs
sold here. (About a quarter of those 19 million also featured HDR.) This
is eight times the number of 4K sets purchased in 2014, when they
started appearing in stores, and industry experts foresee the number
tripling by 2020.
In any event, sales are climbing much more rapidly than HDTVs did in
their first years. And even the UHD discs are plentiful when seen in
historical perspective. The first HD discs didn’t hit the market until
2006—eight years after the first HDTVs—and a format war raged (between
Toshiba’s HD DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray), discouraging buyers, until 2008.
Meanwhile, the sparse supply of 4K content isn’t as big a disappointment
as it might seem, because 4K televisions are equipped with processors
that “up-convert” high-def images to simulate 4K. Some of these TVs also
have video settings (which can easily be activated) that simulate the
brightness of high-dynamic contrast. These gimmicks are no match for
genuine 4K or HDR, but they come impressively close.
The setting that causes the soap-opera effect is called “Auto Motion,”
or “Auto Motion Plus,” or “TruMotion.” It’s probably on. Turn it off.
This leads to the second caveat about the new generation of TVs: They
are not plug-and-play machines. You have to fool around a bit with the
menu settings to make them look really good.
The factory settings on these TVs are designed to make the picture look
wowie-zowie on a brightly lit showroom floor.
When you haul it home and turn it on, in a normally lit (or, at night,
somewhat darkened) room, the picture will look too bright, too flat, too
Etch A Sketch–y, and weirdly unnatural, like a cheap soap opera.
Not by coincidence, this weirdness is called “the soap-opera effect,”
and while it might be OK for watching cartoons or football games (which
is what TVs on showroom floors are usually tuned to), it’s annoying—to
many, including me, it’s intolerable—for watching anything else,
especially movies.
Fortunately, the problem can be fixed. On your TV remote, click
“Settings.” Click “Picture Mode” or “Picture Settings” (on some models,
“Advanced Picture Settings”). The setting that causes the soap-opera
effect is called (again, the name is different on different models)
“Auto Motion” or “Auto Motion Plus” or “TruMotion.” It’s probably on.
Turn it off. Also turn off “Digital Noise Reduction” and “Edge Enhancement.”
Turning off these settings will get rid of most of your problems but not
all of them. The picture will probably still be too bright, too intense,
or too something. While you’re in the Picture Mode settings, click on
(and, again, the name varies from model to model) “Film,” “Movie,” or
“Cinema.” Better still, if they’re listed among the Picture Modes or
Picture Settings, click on “Technicolor Expert” or “ISF Dark Room” (if
you watch mainly in a dark room) or “ISF Bright Room” (if you watch
mainly in a bright room). All of these modes will alter many of the
other settings (Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, etc.) in ways that will
dramatically improve the picture. (If none of these settings are listed
in Picture Mode, click on “Software Update.” They might simply have to
be loaded.)
Still, these modes won’t get you to Nirvana. To get there, you have to
• Before any of this, simply to stream 4K content (whether or not you’re
interested in the path to Nirvana), you’ll need a fast Internet
connection—25 megabits per second, at least. To see how fast yours is,
go to www.TestMySpeed.com. If it’s not fast enough, contact your ISP.
You’ll also need an HDMI 2.0 wire (not your old HDMI) for connecting the
TV with the cable box and the Blu-ray player.
• Buy a Blu-ray calibration disc. Following the directions, you’ll be
able to dial in color and contrast corrections more precisely than your
TV’s mode options will manage. (Unfortunately, there are not yet any 4K
calibration discs, though there soon will be.)
• Read a review of the TV that you bought in a publication such as Sound
& Vision (where, full disclosure, I review Blu-ray and UHD discs) or
CNET.com. These reviews often include sidebars that cite the settings
(for Brightness, Contrast, Warmth, Gamma, etc.) that the reviewers—some
of whom are professional TV calibrators—punched in. These are only
suggestions, not definitive answers, as, for some reason, there are
minor unit-to-unit variations in some TVs.
• Hire a professional to come to your house and calibrate the TV
personally. Ideally, this person should be “ISF-certified” (meaning he
or she has been licensed by the Imaging Science Foundation, an industry
consulting service that monitors the enforcement of color standards for
modern TVs). This will cost a few hundred dollars, but if you want to
eke out that last 20 percent toward perfection, you’ll want to do this.
I did.
In any case, do—or have somebody do—something. Otherwise, it would be as
if you bought a Steinway grand piano and didn’t bother to have it tuned.
Meanwhile, buy the Steinway—the 4K HDR WCG 10-bit color (and, I would
add, OLED) UHDTV. It will open your eyes.
Wow. That sounds like a terrible waste of money.
moviePig
2018-03-28 18:23:09 UTC
Permalink
Post by Robin Miller
[RM: So I finally read an article about these things ...]
https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/its-time-to-buy-a-4k-tv-for-really-cheap-heres-what-to-know.html
4K Magic
Why it’s time to buy an ultra-high definition TV—and for cheap.
By Fred Kaplan
March 23, 20188:00 AM
 It’s been 20 years since the first high-definition TV sets went on
sale in the United States. The takeoff was sluggish; a full five years
later, in 2003, when the Oscars were broadcast in HD for the first time,
host Steve Martin noted the fact and joked, “So I’d like to say a big
hello to the three guys watching at Circuit City—hey!” The audience
laughed and applauded. But by the end of the decade, more than half of
American households owned a high-def television. As of last year, the
figure had risen to 85 percent—about the same level as computers.
And so, with the market all but saturated, the TV industry needed
another glitzy piece of hardware to hawk. 3D didn’t pan out; I’d thought
sports and porn might serve as gateways, but it turned out no one wanted
to wear those damn glasses. So the industry went full bore on another
format that the research and development shops had been developing.
That format is 4K or UHD, for ultra-high definition. These new types of
TVs have been around for only five years. But in just the past year, the
technology has fully matured, and for another month or so—until April or
May, when the 2018 models come on line, sporting higher prices but equal
or just marginally better pictures—the best 2017 models are going for
crazy-cheap prices.
I recently bought LG’s 65-inch OLED65B7 for less than $2,500. A 55-inch
version, the LG OLED55B7, can be had for less than $1,600. (Similar
Sony, Samsung, and Vizio 4K sets are selling for similar prices.) These
are widely regarded as the best 4K sets on the market. By comparison,
throughout the era of mere high-definition TVs, the best models on the
market never sold for less than $5,000, and most of those were for
smaller screens.
...
Anybody here with a new LG OLED set? I just scoped the customer feeback
at Best Buy, where they sounded beautiful but quite failure prone...
--
- - - - - - - -
YOUR taste at work...
http://www.moviepig.com
Ian J. Ball
2018-03-28 20:24:27 UTC
Permalink
Post by moviePig
Post by Robin Miller
[RM: So I finally read an article about these things ...]
https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/its-time-to-buy-a-4k-tv-for-really-cheap-heres-what-to-know.html
4K Magic
Why it’s time to buy an ultra-high definition TV—and for cheap.
By Fred Kaplan
March 23, 20188:00 AM
 It’s been 20 years since the first high-definition TV sets went on
sale in the United States. The takeoff was sluggish; a full five years
later, in 2003, when the Oscars were broadcast in HD for the first
time, host Steve Martin noted the fact and joked, “So I’d like to say a
big hello to the three guys watching at Circuit City—hey!” The audience
laughed and applauded. But by the end of the decade, more than half of
American households owned a high-def television. As of last year, the
figure had risen to 85 percent—about the same level as computers.
And so, with the market all but saturated, the TV industry needed
another glitzy piece of hardware to hawk. 3D didn’t pan out; I’d
thought sports and porn might serve as gateways, but it turned out no
one wanted to wear those damn glasses. So the industry went full bore
on another format that the research and development shops had been
developing.
That format is 4K or UHD, for ultra-high definition. These new types of
TVs have been around for only five years. But in just the past year,
the technology has fully matured, and for another month or so—until
April or May, when the 2018 models come on line, sporting higher prices
but equal or just marginally better pictures—the best 2017 models are
going for crazy-cheap prices.
I recently bought LG’s 65-inch OLED65B7 for less than $2,500. A 55-inch
version, the LG OLED55B7, can be had for less than $1,600. (Similar
Sony, Samsung, and Vizio 4K sets are selling for similar prices.) These
are widely regarded as the best 4K sets on the market. By comparison,
throughout the era of mere high-definition TVs, the best models on the
market never sold for less than $5,000, and most of those were for
smaller screens.
...
Anybody here with a new LG OLED set? I just scoped the customer
feeback at Best Buy, where they sounded beautiful but quite failure
prone...
My brother got an OLED set (not sure if it's an LG...), and AFAIK he's
had no problems with it...
--
"Three light sabers? Is that overkill? Or just the right amount
of "kill"?" - M-OC, "A Perilous Rescue" (ep. #2.9), LSW:TFA (08-10-2017)
moviePig
2018-03-28 21:30:25 UTC
Permalink
Post by Ian J. Ball
Post by Robin Miller
[RM: So I finally read an article about these things ...]
https://slate.com/technology/2018/03/its-time-to-buy-a-4k-tv-for-really-cheap-heres-what-to-know.html
4K Magic
Why it’s time to buy an ultra-high definition TV—and for cheap.
By Fred Kaplan
March 23, 20188:00 AM
 It’s been 20 years since the first high-definition TV sets went on
sale in the United States. The takeoff was sluggish; a full five
years later, in 2003, when the Oscars were broadcast in HD for the
first time, host Steve Martin noted the fact and joked, “So I’d like
to say a big hello to the three guys watching at Circuit City—hey!”
The audience laughed and applauded. But by the end of the decade,
more than half of American households owned a high-def television. As
of last year, the figure had risen to 85 percent—about the same level
as computers.
And so, with the market all but saturated, the TV industry needed
another glitzy piece of hardware to hawk. 3D didn’t pan out; I’d
thought sports and porn might serve as gateways, but it turned out no
one wanted to wear those damn glasses. So the industry went full bore
on another format that the research and development shops had been
developing.
That format is 4K or UHD, for ultra-high definition. These new types
of TVs have been around for only five years. But in just the past
year, the technology has fully matured, and for another month or
so—until April or May, when the 2018 models come on line, sporting
higher prices but equal or just marginally better pictures—the best
2017 models are going for crazy-cheap prices.
I recently bought LG’s 65-inch OLED65B7 for less than $2,500. A
55-inch version, the LG OLED55B7, can be had for less than $1,600.
(Similar Sony, Samsung, and Vizio 4K sets are selling for similar
prices.) These are widely regarded as the best 4K sets on the market.
By comparison, throughout the era of mere high-definition TVs, the
best models on the market never sold for less than $5,000, and most
of those were for smaller screens.
...
Anybody here with a new LG OLED set?  I just scoped the customer
feeback at Best Buy, where they sounded beautiful but quite failure
prone...
My brother got an OLED set (not sure if it's an LG...), and AFAIK he's
had no problems with it...
Meanwhile, of course, the mere existence of a brand-war (with Sony) is
reason enough to be circumspect about complaint posts' authenticity.
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YOUR taste at work...
http://www.moviepig.com
Pete
2018-03-29 01:50:54 UTC
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Post by moviePig
Anybody here with a new LG OLED set? I just scoped the customer feeback
at Best Buy, where they sounded beautiful but quite failure prone...
Don't have, or propose to get, one, but this month's IEEE Spectrum mag
has an article on various types of new display tech (actually promoting
"Quantum Dot") that says:

"WOLED based TVs [which I gather are the LG type], particularly their
blue emitters, currently face longevity issues. This shows up as
'burn-in', which can occur after only 9 months of typical use."

Ouch...

-- Pete --
moviePig
2018-03-29 02:49:07 UTC
Permalink
Post by Pete
Post by moviePig
Anybody here with a new LG OLED set? I just scoped the customer feeback
at Best Buy, where they sounded beautiful but quite failure prone...
Don't have, or propose to get, one, but this month's IEEE Spectrum mag
has an article on various types of new display tech (actually promoting
"WOLED based TVs [which I gather are the LG type], particularly their
blue emitters, currently face longevity issues. This shows up as
'burn-in', which can occur after only 9 months of typical use."
Ouch...
But while it lasts, its beauty makes you forget all that.

"My candle burns at both ends..."
-E. St. Vincent Millay
--
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YOUR taste at work...
http://www.moviepig.com
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