Should I buy a 4K TV right now?

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kvikram

kvikram

Forerunner
Hi guys. Back to TE after a long time. I dropped out during the early days of the Being.smart era. :P

My parents are considering buying a new TV for their bedroom. Currently we have an old Sony 40-incher, and we are considering a new super high-end TV at 55 inches. Budget is around 1 lakh.

4K seems all the rage right now. 4K movies are popping up for download too. I was doing my research and came across a Forbes article recommending that I shouldn't buy 4K TVs considering all the display quality improvements that are coming in 2015. And also consider the fact that the Xiaomi MiTV seems to be offering 4K at a fraction of the price of bigger brands (but unfortunately not yet available in India).

All this is leaving me confused. Should I buy a 4K TV now? Should I wait a few months till better TVs are out? Should I wait for the Xiaomi TV to get released in India? Or should I go for good old 1080p at 60k or so and save a bunch of money? What to do?
 
Firstly, I dont think you will get a super high end 1080p TV for 1 Lakh INR, let alone 4k.

As for 4k, I dont think there is any point in buying 4k tv at this moment, since there is no content available, whatever is there is very scarce, for that matter we aren't even getting true 1080p channels on DTHs. I would recommend going for a decent 55 1080p for now, wait a couple years, let the technology and content mature and become mainstream and then take a call on whether or no to buy 4k.
 
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Thanks @Jasku. Forking out 140k+ for a super high end 1080p TV might be a possibility. Haven't decided yet.

But, considering that I spend that much money on a TV, will I really get better value on the 1080p model rather than on the 4K model? Doesn't it make sense to go for a super high-end 4K model rather than a super-high end 1080p model, considering that I may be able to occasionally enjoy some 4K content I can get my hands on?

Can you also suggest 4K models in a similar price range (100k+) and how the picture quality of those models compare to 1080p models in the same price range?
 
At this point in time, no sense in buying a 4k TV. Not enough content. By the time content is available the present 4k TV you would have bought, would become obsolete.

What kind of stuff would be watched on that bedroom TV? What would be the usage pattern? Look at those aspects, then decide.
 
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@kvikram - Depends on how sensitive you are to scaling. If your set has a good scaler, 1080p content looks quite nice on 4k screens and 720p content is not bad too. 480p is ... not that good.
 
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Since you already have a 40inch tv, Get a bigger tv instead of 4k in the same budget if room allows.
4k will take time to mature and the content is very little. Upscaling helps but its never the same as native resolution. You'l be watching all content upscaled which will be a shame after forking out so much.
 
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whatsinaname said:
@kvikram - Depends on how sensitive you are to scaling. If your set has a good scaler, 1080p content looks quite nice on 4k screens and 720p content is not bad too. 480p is ... not that good.
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I hadn't really considered the problem of scaling. I am mostly looking to view a lot of downloaded 720p movies and TV shows, and maybe the occassional 480p stuff. I will be connecting an Asus OPlay Mini to watch these things.

If scaling is that bad of a problem, I guess it makes sense to go for a high end 1080p TV right now with good picture quality.

Any other suggestions for good 1080p TVs in the 100k+ price range besides the ones suggested by Jasku?
 
I think you should get a demo. Download some videos off internet, in 240p, 480p, 720p and 1080p to a pen drive. Visit any store and have it played.
 
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avi said:
I think you should get a demo. Download some videos off internet, in 240p, 480p, 720p and 1080p to a pen drive. Visit any store and have it played.
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OK. Will go into ultra-research mode. :)

Thanks everyone. The TE community is as helpful as ever!
 
What do you mean when you say High-end? Are you looking for any specific features? If you want to play from Asus o-play and watch tv, you just need a tv with a good panel and two-3 hdmi ports which is pretty common. So then look for a good panel with colours that you like. Dont fall for gimmicks of TV makers.

The difference between high end and normal ones is 50% in price and 2-3% in quality.
Fix a budget and go for the biggest and the best panel you can find in terms of colour and black reproduction. Good sound also helps. But Tv's with good sound somethings go much higher. Instead a 2.1 with subwoofer is way better. Also surround sound is overrated unless you go for the high end hometheatre experience above 50k mostly.
 
Party Monger said:
What do you mean when you say High-end? Are you looking for any specific features? If you want to play from Asus o-play and watch tv, you just need a tv with a good panel and two-3 hdmi ports which is pretty common. So then look for a good panel with colours that you like. Dont fall for gimmicks of TV makers.

The difference between high end and normal ones is 50% in price and 2-3% in quality.
Fix a budget and go for the biggest and the best panel you can find in terms of colour and black reproduction. Good sound also helps. But Tv's with good sound somethings go much higher. Instead a 2.1 with subwoofer is way better. Also surround sound is overrated unless you go for the high end hometheatre experience above 50k mostly.
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By high-end, I mean awesome picture quality, pure and simple. Now, how much difference in picture quality can I expect between a TV priced at 50k, 75k, 100k, 125k and 150k? I haven't really fixed a budget yet. But, for example, if there's indeed only a 3% display quality difference between a 100k priced TV and a 150k priced TV, I would definitely like to save some money there by going for the 100k one. But, if there's a 30% difference in quality, I would be willing to fork out 150k.

Considering all that, at what price point would the marginal display quality improvement be too negligible to justify spending any more money?
 
@kvikram Please keep in mind that in show rooms they keep very specific demo content which would not be available in the regular context. If 80% of your usage is blu-ray movies even then every good 1080P TV should suffice. There is a limit to how much the human eye can distinguish - yours included. I would suggest either you save the money or if you have no shortage of cash then buy a larger and more premium 1080P for the same price.
 
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@kvikram think I this thread went under the radar, you did mention that this TV was for your parents, I am presuming that they would be watching general DTH daily soaps and blu-ray movies, for their purpose considering a flagship may be overkill, I doubt high refresh rates, deep blacks and motion sensing gestures would be of use to them. Like all, I would strongly suggest that you get the biggest possible size TV that would serve you better the difference between a 55' and 65' is quite stark.

As already mentioned, carry a pen drive with your favorite rips, google about the files you should carry to test the panel, take a look and see for yourself if the panels actually make a difference to the naked eye.

Do let us know what you finally decide upon.
 
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Jasku said:
@kvikram think I this thread went under the radar, you did mention that this TV was for your parents, I am presuming that they would be watching general DTH daily soaps and blu-ray movies, for their purpose considering a flagship may be overkill, I doubt high refresh rates, deep blacks and motion sensing gestures would be of use to them. Like all, I would strongly suggest that you get the biggest possible size TV that would serve you better the difference between a 55' and 65' is quite stark.

As already mentioned, carry a pen drive with your favorite rips, google about the files you should carry to test the panel, take a look and see for yourself if the panels actually make a difference to the naked eye.

Do let us know what you finally decide upon.
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My parents are actually die-hard English movie watchers and can appreciate good picture quality. Moreover I will be using the TV occasionally as well when I get here. :p They actually don't watch much DTH TV (they have a separate 40 incher for that in another room). This new TV is going to be for movies and English TV shows. That's why I am stressing so much on picture quality. Call it a home theater TV if you will.

I think 55" would be the right size for the room (16x16). Will do the pendrive thing and compare models at different price points and see the picture quality.
 
kvikram said:
My parents are actually die-hard English movie watchers and can appreciate good picture quality. Moreover I will be using the TV occasionally as well when I get here. :p They actually don't watch much DTH TV (they have a separate 40 incher for that in another room). This new TV is going to be for movies and English TV shows. That's why I am stressing so much on picture quality. Call it a home theater TV if you will.

I think 55" would be the right size for the room (16x16). Will do the pendrive thing and compare models at different price points and see the picture quality.
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Even with that requirement, I highly doubt you will be able to tell the difference between a flagship and a model lower, you need to decide is that are any of the feature in the flagship important to you, if the answer is 'yes' by all means go for it, else it would be waste of money. If movies are your primary concern look at the Samsung 8 series plasma, has one of best picture qualities, but remember there is a slight bit maintenance required with plasmas.

If there is one thing I have learned is that you can never have a big enough TV, my living room is 16x14(iirc) have a Sony HX750 55' initially thought the TV was big enough, now I feel its small and want to get a bigger TV, I think most people feel that way. Anyways, I just wanted to let you know, 55' is pretty ample for the dimensions of your room.

Also, do you already have a decent HT setup or plan to buy a new one, cause that would complete the experience.
 
OK guys reviving this old thread. Finally getting around to buying that new TV, and have narrowed down to two models:

Sony KDL-55W950B
Sony KDL-55W800C

Overall I'm leaning towards the 950B because of the apparent better picture quality and the lack of Android (which I don't need). The price seems to be about 40k cheaper than when I first started this thread, so it seems to be a great time to buy from Snapdeal. Looking for inputs on this decision.

@Jambumali The sound system will be an old 20 year old Sony hi-fi system that still kicks some serious a**
 
kvikram said:
OK guys reviving this old thread. Finally getting around to buying that new TV, and have narrowed down to two models:

Sony KDL-55W950B
Sony KDL-55W800C

Overall I'm leaning towards the 950B because of the apparent better picture quality and the lack of Android (which I don't need). The price seems to be about 40k cheaper than when I first started this thread, so it seems to be a great time to buy from Snapdeal. Looking for inputs on this decision.

@Jambumali The sound system will be an old 20 year old Sony hi-fi system that still kicks some serious a**
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If you have the budget and and the requirement, you could for a decent 4k TV with an upscaler it enhances your 1080p content too, again you need to demo to justify the purchase, but I have been reading that the upscalers do make a difference, but most of them were high end models.
 
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