Oh noes teh sky is falling!

[emmet otter]

4K, 8K, 16K UHD.....whatever! You will not see any difference to justify the cost to upgrade, especially if you have a 50, 60 or 70" tv for that matter. Many people stated that these resolutions would be ideal for theaters, not for home consumers. I have a 125" projector and my blurays look amazing on it.

[JustThatPenguin]

Originally Posted by headphones

There was a great youtube video. I wish I could remember it. But it got like 20 people who claimed they had 4K TVs, and they knew the difference. And they were showed a series of videos, some 4K, and some 1080p. They even threw in a few red herrings, like showing two 1080p videos, and asked them to identify which one was 4K. They either all got it wrong, or couldn't tell the difference.

I'll admit that I expected a lot more when I bought my oled. I expected a night and day difference that I didnt realize at first. But hdr really does make a big difference. The small fine details on everything, and the colors. Now if you showed me 1080p content on my 4k and uhd content. I probably can't tell the difference. But side by side, there is a difference. Not just in resolution details but colors.

[meremortal]

Originally Posted by emmet otter

4K, 8K, 16K UHD.....whatever! You will not see any difference to justify the cost to upgrade, especially if you have a 50, 60 or 70" tv for that matter. Many people stated that these resolutions would be ideal for theaters, not for home consumers. I have a 125" projector and my blurays look amazing on it.

I'll admit that 720p to 1080p is the bridge where my eyes start to stumble discerning a difference. VHS to dvd was just a monsterous upgrade and changed the game for even average joes. Anyone can tell them apart on about any sized screen unless the dvd is sourced from the vhs. And 480p to 720p is a pretty sizeable jump as well, though I can't really tell 720p from 1080p in motion unless they're blown up still frames (and even then it's not always easy).

[m3racer123]

Originally Posted by meremortal

I'll admit that 720p to 1080p is the bridge where my eyes start to stumble discerning a difference. VHS to dvd was just a monsterous upgrade and changed the game for even average joes. Anyone can tell them apart on about any sized screen unless the dvd is sourced from the vhs. And 480p to 720p is a pretty sizeable jump as well, though I can't really tell 720p from 1080p in motion unless they're blown up still frames (and even then it's not always easy).

A lot of people probably *think* they can tell the difference between 720p and 1080p just based off YouTube videos, when that's a flawed comparison because they compress 720p videos much more than 1080p so they look considerably worse.

[Page14]

I recently bought an Apple TV device to be able to watch some streaming video from my laptop. The first time I tried using it, the internet was down so I couldn't watch anything. I'm not impressed with streaming.

[flyry]

Originally Posted by eiknarf

This was my thinking.

But is UHD not solely about resolution, but more about proper color? Is the color where we'd see the difference?

The colors pop a lot more. Especially in stuff like grass and flowers.

I can definitely see a difference whether streaming or disc, but it's not as life changing as the last jump.

Upscaled blu's definitely look nicer.

[emmet otter]

Originally Posted by film11

The difference between VHS and LaserDisc was night and day. The difference between DVD and HD was night and day. That is not the case with Blu-ray and UHD. I have seen a few full length movies on 55-inch and 65-inch UHD televisions. They have been either negligible differences, or the same, and in 2 cases even worse then good up-rezzed 1080p Blu-ray. I don't care what anyone says... And I still have 20/20 vision. On a recent viewing of BvS, I had to squint with my face two or three feet from the screen to even notice "Oh ok, I think I see a slightly clearer fold in the cape." There is such a thing as gilding the lily and how much the human eye can accurately perceive. At the recent 2016 IFA, 8k sets have been introduced already!!. My best advice is to see a UHD disc for yourself and use your own judgment. Don't be swayed by anything you read here or elsewhere. If you see a night and day difference by all means go for it.

film11, I was not talking in support for 4K. I personally dont care for it. I think its a wasted format.

[film11]

Originally Posted by emmet otter

film11, I was not talking in support for 4K. I personally dont care for it. I think its a wasted format.

Didn't mean to imply otherwise. But I agreed with the "night & day" aspect you brought up and quoted it to elaborate further. I should have clarified.

[calmblueocean81]

Originally Posted by eiknarf

Seeing the discs doesn't mean it looks like a college dorm. Check out mine.
Nice and neat on an elegant bookshelf:

[Show spoiler]

Can I just say, you have given me hope and inspiration to finally bring my bluray/dvd collection (or a somewhat abridged version of it) into my sitting room, instead of hidden away in my bedroom That looks incredibly neat and tidy, though it may also have something to do with your tasteful furniture and impressively high ceilings!

[eiknarf]

Originally Posted by calmblueocean81

Can I just say, you have given me hope and inspiration to finally bring my bluray/dvd collection (or a somewhat abridged version of it) into my sitting room, instead of hidden away in my bedroom That looks incredibly neat and tidy, though it may also have something to do with your tasteful furniture and impressively high ceilings!

Thanks.
I used to keep all the blu-ray discs on a Boltz Media Rack (Boltz.com), which I will admit is made specifically for Blu-ray's. But, it looked too "tech"... too "college dude bedroom-ish"...etc It didn't go with our aesthetic. So getting a tall thin bookshelf (from Macy's) is where that came in.

Here are two lil Boltz racks, in my office, holding solely DVDs



If you ask me, that just doesn't fit the look of our movie/living room. Too industrial

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by film11

I certainly had to ask myself why I was not seeing what the promos are indicating I should see. I wonder if those who think it is a night and day difference are actually seeing the improvements that come from a brand new 4K television. Everything is going to look better on these sets then whatever you had before. The REAL tech advancements here are the TVs themselves, not the players and discs. Some higher end sets even support 2160 4K3D!! But the 4K BD players don't...although current 3D on 4K sets look amazing; the best I've ever seen on a panel display.

BTW, although this is NOT to make a point or be indicative of anything, I got a wee chuckle out of this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Samsung-UBD-...sAAOSwGtRXyzSs

I have a pretty large collection of UHD demo clips that are easily available online, either from demo sites or even straight from Youtube. I mean professional demo clips - short clips 2-10 minutes long, to promote LG, Sony, Samsung, and other UHD sets. The kind you see playing in stores. Most clips are in the 30-120mbps range, but the ones from Youtube are generally 15-18mbps, so much lower than the full-quality clips found elsewhere. On my 55" LCD LG UHD set, the clips look stunning. I see fine detail in cityscapes and nature footage I've never seen in 1080p, and this is around 6-7 feet away. And I'm not exactly young - I'm 46 and wear pretty strong glasses. Whenever I feel like seeing some pure eye-candy I pop in some demo clips just to see such gorgeous photpgraphy in such amazing detail. It truly looks dazzling. Blu-ray looks fantastic upscaled on this set, amazing even, but not as good as true UHD clips.

That being said, I have also seen several UHD movie clips, and I have been very unimpressed overall. They do not look nearly as crisp or impressive as the demo clips you can find online. Perhaps it's because these demo clips are obviously shot digitally on true UHD equipment, or maybe it's all the amazing true-to-life colors that look so stunning instead of the murky teal crap Hollywood shovels out these days. All I know is even the highly-compressed UHD Youtube clips look amazing on my set. I think these Hollywood "4k" discs don't come close to maximizing what these sets can do.

I also think HDR is a mess out there currently. Nobody, and I mean nobody, knows how to calibrate their sets properly for HDR viewing, and that means everyone is seeing it differently. Wildly different. I've watched some HDR from Amazon streaming and I've been unimpressed so far with HDR. Then again a couple HDR demo clips have looked pretty impressive. But again since there's no way to adjust your set properly currently, and since nobody really knows what stuff should even look like in HDR, it's really impossible to judge. Some reviews on this very site say the UHD versions of some films look worse than the 1080p blu-rays. The new Mad Max film is said to look worse in 4k than on the blu-ray - the fire effects and explosions look terribly fake in HDR, yet look terrific on the blu-ray. This is straight from this site's review. The UHD of The Revenant is quite a bit darker and also has a pretty strong teal/blue push compared to the blu-ray, so the masters they use for UHD discs are certainly different, at least sometimes, from the ones used for the blu-rays.

This all adds up to a big fat mess of a format. And since most people aren't likely to notice much of difference regardless, I wonder just what kind of chance UHD blu-rays have. Like I said, good 4k clips can really showcase what your TV can do, but will Hollywood films look like that? Especially when talking about older films remastered in 4k, I'm thinking the blu-rays will look very close to the UHD discs, and sometimes better, depending on the masters used and how the UHD discs use HDR.

I do agree that the passive 3D on my TV looks stunning - the best I've seen.

[scorpiontail60]

Originally Posted by film11

The difference between VHS and LaserDisc was night and day. The difference between DVD and HD was night and day. That is not the case with Blu-ray and UHD. I have seen a few full length movies on 55-inch and 65-inch UHD televisions. They have been either negligible differences, or the same, and in 2 cases even worse then good up-rezzed 1080p Blu-ray. I don't care what anyone says... And I still have 20/20 vision. On a recent viewing of BvS, I had to squint with my face two or three feet from the screen to even notice "Oh ok, I think I see a slightly clearer fold in the cape." There is such a thing as gilding the lily and how much the human eye can accurately perceive. At the recent 2016 IFA, 8k sets have been introduced already!!. My best advice is to see a UHD disc for yourself and use your own judgment. Don't be swayed by anything you read here or elsewhere. If you see a night and day difference by all means go for it.

You should really stop watching Ultra HD Blu-ray if you want good examples of 4K. It is a shitty format polluted by upscaled content. Of course it looks no better than Blu-ray. 99% of the crap studios are shoveling on to the Ultra HD Blu-ray format is coming from a 2K Digital Cinema master. To exacerbate the situation, the only standalone UHD BD player on the market, the Samsung UBD-K8500, has a built-in DNR algorithm that can't be turned off which reduces the quality of the picture.

This is like someone griping that Blu-ray doesn't look any better than DVD because they watched Farscape. Try watching some content that was actually filmed and produced natively in 4K through the entire production process, like most of Amazon and Netflix's original series in recent years, or Sony's The Blacklist, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Powers, etc. These easily outshine Blu-ray and make the quality increase of 4K apparent.

One title on the Ultra HD Blu-ray format that *DOES* look very good is The Smurfs 2. It is one of the rare few titles that was actually filmed and processed digitally 4K all the way through. Too bad it's such a lame movie though. It is probably the best looking title on the format so far though.

[rdodolak]

Samsung is no longer the only standalone player, the Philips BDP7501 was released in June and Panasonic just released the DMP-UB900 this month.

[mar3o]

Originally Posted by scorpiontail60

You should really stop watching Ultra HD Blu-ray if you want good examples of 4K. It is a shitty format polluted by upscaled content. Of course it looks no better than Blu-ray. 99% of the crap studios are shoveling on to the Ultra HD Blu-ray format is coming from a 2K Digital Cinema master. To exacerbate the situation, the only standalone UHD BD player on the market, the Samsung UBD-K8500, has a built-in DNR algorithm that can't be turned off which reduces the quality of the picture.

This is like someone griping that Blu-ray doesn't look any better than DVD because they watched Farscape. Try watching some content that was actually filmed and produced natively in 4K through the entire production process, like most of Amazon and Netflix's original series in recent years, or Sony's The Blacklist, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Powers, etc. These easily outshine Blu-ray and make the quality increase of 4K apparent.

One title on the Ultra HD Blu-ray format that *DOES* look very good is The Smurfs 2. It is one of the rare few titles that was actually filmed and processed digitally 4K all the way through. Too bad it's such a lame movie though. It is probably the best looking title on the format so far though.

Yup, this is exactly what I meant in my post above. True UHD content can look truly stunning, even on a "small" 55" set. Go to demo-uhd3d.com and download some UHD clips (don't let the 3D in the title fool you - there are tons of UHD clips here. If your UHD follows current specs it should play any of those clips off a USB thumb drive.

As you said, Hollywood-produced UHD discs are going to look unimpressive for some time. They're just shoveling out upscaled or mixed source content. Add ugly teal/yellow/blue color timing and of course UHD discs aren't going to look so great. We have UHD sets now that can display a billion colors and yet Hollywood will continue pushing out films with a teal cast over everything. That's too bad because these UHD TVs are capable of truly amazing images and gorgeous color. Even looking at high-resolution photographs on these UHD TVs show the potential. Like 3D TVs; most Hollywood-produced 3D films these days with their weak 3D goes nowhere close to pushing what your 3D TV can do. Put in a great 50's 3D blu-ray, or watch one of the 3D blu-rays out there that truly does utilize the potential of these 3D TVs (like Thunder and the House of Magic) and I think people would be amazed.

[scorpiontail60]

Another great way to experience the obvious quality leap of 4K is PC gaming.

Hook up a gaming PC to your 4K TV and try playing some PC games with the resolution set to 3840x2160 and all the graphical settings maxed out. It's breathtaking.

DOOM's a great example of a title I played recently that shines in 4K. Video games are really outclassing movies these days when it comes to being a visual treat imo.

[Page14]

Are there any threads dedicated to Blu-ray storage issues? I'd love to see some ideas. I'm not sure where to post about it.

I'm at a point where I'm going to look into building my own storage units, since I can't find anything on the market that appeals to me. What I want to do is build stackable units/shelves, with each unit holding maybe 50 Blu-rays. That way I can interchange them ... move them around wherever I can find a space that allows for it, hopefully tastefully.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Page14

Are there any threads dedicated to Blu-ray storage issues? I'd love to see some ideas. I'm not sure where to post about it.

I'm at a point where I'm going to look into building my own storage units, since I can't find anything on the market that appeals to me. What I want to do is build stackable units/shelves, with each unit holding maybe 50 Blu-rays. That way I can interchange them ... move them around wherever I can find a space that allows for it, hopefully tastefully.

I considered several options until I built my own shelves. I just couldn't get the quality I wanted without doing it myself. Shelving units may look nice, but they don't hold up in the long term. I also didn't like the idea of putting all of my discs in my sleeves and then having to store the boxes separately either. As you can see from the pics in my gallery I mounted two 3' shelves and 10 4' shelves, but had to trim down eight of them by about an inch so they would clear the door frame.

[josephga]

Originally Posted by calmblueocean81

Can I just say, you have given me hope and inspiration to finally bring my bluray/dvd collection (or a somewhat abridged version of it) into my sitting room, instead of hidden away in my bedroom That looks incredibly neat and tidy, though it may also have something to do with your tasteful furniture and impressively high ceilings!

I use this in the bedroom it has 4 sections and rotates
holds around 400 titles. Been very happy with it.

[Page14]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

I considered several options until I built my own shelves. I just couldn't get the quality I wanted without doing it myself. Shelving units may look nice, but they don't hold up in the long term. I also didn't like the idea of putting all of my discs in my sleeves and then having to store the boxes separately either. As you can see from the pics in my gallery I mounted two 3' shelves and 10 4' shelves, but had to trim down eight of them by about an inch so they would clear the door frame.

Nice. Is that your entire collection? (It seems like it might be less). ?

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Page14

Nice. Is that your entire collection? (It seems like it might be less). ?

Most of it. My wife's stuff is an separate shelving unit. She has about 30-40 titles.