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4K Viewing Experience

kidjupiter92

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After saving for a good year, I finally got myself a 55" TCL 6 Series 4K TV and a Vizio 5.1.2 home theatre, which have been getting plenty of use since the oh so lovely pandemic started. My Xbox One X has been my main multimedia driver, even though I am looking for a region free player.

I've been watching enough movies in both 4K and blu-ray to notice something interesting: blanket color tints that you usually find in movies are absent in their 4K versions. Are there any other 4K enthusists out there who have noticed this or is it just me? Is it the HDR at play or are my eyes busted? I'm very curious.
 

macmilln

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I haven't experienced exactly what you're describing, but I have watched enough films on a 4K TV (both HDR and SDR) to notice a difference. My guess is you're experiencing the richer colours in all their glory.

One thing worth mentioning is that all 4K UHD discs are region free, so depending on how committed you are to the standard, investing in a region-free player may not be worth it.
 

iridium_ionizer

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kidjupiter92 said:
I've been watching enough movies in both 4K and blu-ray to notice something interesting: blanket color tints that you usually find in movies are absent in their 4K versions. 

Does this include heavily tinted films such as the Matrix or Minority Report?
 

kidjupiter92

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macmilln said:
I haven't experienced exactly what you're describing, but I have watched enough films on a 4K TV (both HDR and SDR) to notice a difference. My guess is you're experiencing the richer colours in all their glory.

One thing worth mentioning is that all 4K UHD discs are region free, so depending on how committed you are to the standard, investing in a region-free player may not be worth it.

Hmm, that's what I was thinking. My most recent example of this is watching Blade Runner 2049 with the Misses-To-Be, and we both noticed that compared to the blu-ray (that we've both seen many times), there was no blanket yellow tint to it. I also noticed a reduction (unfortunately not a complete eradication) of the infamous green tint of Blade Runner: The Final Cut while giving my recently purchase 4K copy a watch.

I did calibrate the TV when I first brought it home with some on-the-phone help with a friend of mine who is a professional TV Calibrator.

You would think after visiting blu-ray.com as much as I do that I would notice that 4Ks are region-free. You learn something new everyday. Thank you for letting me know, since that'll save me a lot of money in the long run now that I'm starting to really invest in the format.
 

kidjupiter92

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iridium_ionizer said:
kidjupiter92 said:
I've been watching enough movies in both 4K and blu-ray to notice something interesting: blanket color tints that you usually find in movies are absent in their 4K versions. 

Does this include heavily tinted films such as the Matrix or Minority Report?

I have yet to watch the Matrix trilogy or Minority Report on my TV, but I think I'll be checking that out soon. Imagine they may possibly be toned down when it comes to my experience. There's no telling.
 

Gaith

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I continue to suspect that 4K is mostly a scam, with many perceptible differences a result of monkeying with the image to produce changes for changes' sake, rather than from the increased definition. The UHD Matrix discs being the prime example of this, as discussed here.
 

macmilln

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The 4K TV I had access to was my dad's, but I'm now on the other side of the country so I no longer can watch anything on an actual 4K display... but I still watch content off my Plex server in 4K and it's an inarguable improvement.

I understand being skeptical of how 'worth it' 4K is, but I think calling it a "scam" is silly. Maybe the discs are a bit too pricy, but the gaps between HD/4K TV prices are narrowing, and if you have subscriptions to big streaming services, you might as well benefit from their 4K library.

Beyond the fact that the picture quality and colours are an improvement, a lot of new transfers/restorations are only available to purchase in 4K - with even the bundled BRs hosting an older transfer. Also, the Dunkirk example you linked used a CPU/GPU-demanding upscaler - not just simple pixel-for-pixel scaling (and, FWIW - I, like TM2YC, could notice a difference).

It's not near* as necessary an upgrade in the way that DVD -> BR is, but it's still an upgrade nonetheless.
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Yeah I think “scam” is a little too much. That said, I don’t think the improvements are anywhere near what the leap was from SD to HD. That was a revelation. With 4K, which we have an abundance of with our 4K Apple TV, I hardly notice a difference. Now my eyes aren’t what they were 25 years ago, but I still don’t think the difference is anywhere close. With the leap to HD, I felt I was watching something completely new. It was like looking out a window instead of watching a TV. If we still had our large screen projection setup, I might feel differently.
 

Gaith

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Guys, I said "mostly a scam," not an outright "scam." If we're going to be technical and picky about image quality, we should be just as careful with words. :cool:
 
macmilln said:
Beyond the fact that the picture quality and colours are an improvement, a lot of new transfers/restorations are only available to purchase in 4K - with even the bundled BRs hosting an older transfer.

So, if you can only get the latest transfers by buying 4K sets and watching them on 4K devices, that makes 4K not "mostly a scam"... how? Because it's extortion, which is different, I guess? :p
 
macmilln said:
Also, the Dunkirk example you linked used a CPU/GPU-demanding upscaler - not just simple pixel-for-pixel scaling (and, FWIW - I, like TM2YC, could notice a difference).

Here are the pics I quoted:

Face-Selection-cropped.jpg


01-38-54-Face.png


Yes, I too see a (quite subtle) difference in the comparison picture, but remember, that's a magnification of a fraction of the overall frame. Toss in motion blur for when the discs are actually playing, and... yeah, I'm not at all convinced this whole thing is worth it. Particularly when I have to resort to some random blog to find convincing material that 4K is at all worth the 50% markup. ;)
 

Moe_Syzlak

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Well I’ve never paid anything extra for 4K and honestly I didn’t know it cost more, though I’m not surprised. For me, with Netflix and other streaming services providing content in 4K, it’s mostly an exercise in not noticing or caring if it is in 4K.
 

CatBus

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Since I occasionally use my TV as a PC display, 4K makes a huge difference (obligatory XKCD).

But I agree in principle with Gaith: For video, the resolution difference is extremely subtle to the point of unnoticeable in motion at normal display sizes and viewing distances.  The better compression may give you less artifacting, but that's more of an improvement you'd see with low bitrate streaming than with disc content.  HDR is a little more noticeable than compression differences, and better masters are the most noticeable difference of all, but they have nothing to do with the format.

But I still buy the 4K set because it makes a better PC display, and I still buy the 4K content because it's frequently better-mastered.  Does Big Lebowski need to be in 4K?  No, definitely not.  The format does nothing for it.  But the UHD is still night and day better than the Blu-ray, so I buy it.

Oh, and I like UHD for one very important reason: LibreDrive.
 
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