Should I get a 4K resolution HDTV?

[Unregistered]

I'm thinking about buying a 55" Sony (Sony KDL55BX520) but I keep hearing things about 4K resolution and how good its supposed to be. Should I wait for it or buy now for cheap?

 

[SharonThomas]

4k resolution HDTV in general refers to a resolution of roughly 4,000 pixels wide and about 2,000 pixels high. That makes it the equivalent of four 1080p screens in height and length. Currently there are no 4k HDTV in production. The one which comes under the name 4k HDTV are really Quad HD which has a resolution of 3840*2160, slightly smaller in length than 4k (4096*2160). 4k TVs are advanced in terms of hardware and not in terms of software. The screen size is bigger but the resolution only depends on the cable provider otherwise it has to stretch the image to fit the screen. Currently YouTube is the only online provider of 4k streaming videos. The 4k HD technology will take a long time to come in normal day life. So better go with some other HDTV as it will take at least a couple of years for cable providers to adapt to new technology. But my suggestion is don’t buy 55" Sony (Sony KDL55BX520) as it got bad reviews and users claim the motions are blurring.

 

[n2rj]

I would wait. The technology isn't "there" yet.

 

[dkreichen1968]

So better go with some other HDTV as it will take at least a couple of years for cable providers to adapt to new technology.

Cable providers don't even support current 1080i HD technology, why should we expect them to support 4k? I have a feeling this will have the life cycle of AM Stereo.

 

[Guest]

If you have the money, then by all means get it. I think 4K is here to stay, especially for the home theater crowd but as others have said, I'd probably wait a bit. There are really only a few Blu-ray movies out right now that can support that resolution.

 

[Thomas G]

If you have the money, then by all means get it. I think 4K is here to stay, especially for the home theater crowd but as others have said, I'd probably wait a bit. There are really only a few Blu-ray movies out right now that can support that resolution.

It's too soon to tell whether the market will like 4K but one thing is for sure, there isn't hardly any 4K content out there right now.

 

[n2rj]

Cable providers don't even support current 1080i HD technology

Most cable providers do have a lot of 1080i content.

 

[dkreichen1968]

Most cable providers do have a lot of 1080i content.

That's a misleading statement. My DVD player upconverts 480p DVD content to 1080p, that doesn't make it 1080p. If they recompress 1080i now (which they do) what are they going to do with 4k?

 

[n2rj]

That's a misleading statement. My DVD player upconverts 480p DVD content to 1080p, that doesn't make it 1080p. If they recompress 1080i now (which they do) what are they going to do with 4k?

Not misleading in the least. Recompression doesn't alter resolution, and most cable providers don't alter horizontal resolution. So even with more compression it is still 1080i.