Anyone Upgrade to 4K UHD Blu Ray Yet?

[noiseredux]

tbh, I thought that ALL of the S models were white. Go figure. Here's a black one on sale :

http://deals.kinja.com/take-your-pick-o ... 1797240138

comes w/ 1TBB HDD and Battlefield 1 for $200. Good deal.

I actually like the look of the white model myself. Though maybe it being in a white TV shelf has some psychological effect there.

[isiolia]

The original/standard model for the S was white, which is why most of them are. They've got some other versions out there now though.

[Sano]

No 4K TV, not even a 1080p TV. Mine is 720p, but its very nice Samsung. I have X1 service through Comcastic and their broadcast is in 720p anyway. I have a PS4 and a Wii-U as well, but at the screen size (32".. I think), you can't really tell the difference between 720p and 1080p; at least I don't see one.

[marurun]

I think it's truly sad that over the air broadcast TV still looks better than stations coming over cable. OTR is not as super-compressed, and tends not to be loaded with compression artifacts, but cable TV is loaded with over-compression and icky video quality.

[Ziggy]

1080p is likely good enough for me but the techie in me is still interested . I still have 200+ 720×480p movie files that I watch often. They still look okay. Of course not as good as BD and as Dave said, depends on the source material. Over time the 480 signal has begun looking "worse" to me. I remember when I thought DVDs upscaled to HD looked great. Just serviceable now. I imagine we'll reach that same point with 1080 at some time, where it is good enough but not great. True 4K, versus 1080p upscaled to 2160p, seems to be a luxury versus a giant leap at this point in time though.

Aye. Most of my movie collection is still DVD, although I'm starting to get more BD as the prices have fallen. But I don't ever plan on replacing all of my DVDs with BDs (I still haven't replaced all of my VHS with DVD). Unless I win the Lotto. So I kinda resent the fact that 4K even exists so soon. So I'll have to start buying 4K BDs? My regular BDs will look like DVDs now, DVDs will look like VHS does now, and VHS wont even be watchable?!

But that's where my fear is. Like you, DVDs are serviceable now, but they use to look great. So my fear is if 4K becomes the norm, then will DVDs look as trashy as VHS does now? I'd be pretty upset because I can't afford to replace my entire DVD collection. And there's some stuff I own that has never even had a BD release.

[fastbilly1]

Dont forget, for a long time most things were shot digitally at 1080p. So they will never look better than bluray. Sadly Russian Ark is one of those films, along with Star Wars episodes II and III.

[Jagosaurus]

Okay, I'm leaning towards this Sony. I really am not interested in the Xbox One S at all.

Sony UBP-X800 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player (2017 Model) for $248 new
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B01N4RCP ... B072F9T5MR

I'd then need a $10 HDMI 2.0 cable. See below, player comes with 2 free 4K movies. So I'm looking at $258 for new player, HDMI 2.0, & 2 new 4K UHD movies.

While I do think this format will become the next laser disc, I was lucky enough to experience LD in its prime (was there one? ) & it was freaking amazing to know you were watching the same movies in a premium format. I think I want to jump in now on 4K versus years from now. 4K streaming still eats up so much data & is at a lower FPS & bitrate. My TV supports HDR so I'll get the full experience.

you can pick 2 from the following 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray titles: The 5th Wave, Angels & Demons, Chappie, Concussion, The Da Vinci Code, Inferno, Ghostbusters (2016), The Magnificent Seven, Pride + Prejudice + Zombies, Sausage Party, Risen, Resident Evil: Afterlife, Salt, The Angry Birds Movie, The Shallows and Underworld. It should be noted that at the time of this writing The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is out of stock.

I'd probably go for Underworld (personal favorite of mine) & Magnificent 7. Not the best lineup but happy with those 2.

Dont forget, for a long time most things were shot digitally at 1080p. So they will never look better than bluray. Sadly Russian Ark is one of those films, along with Star Wars episodes II and III.

You can say the same about a lot films that were lower than 480 when DVD came out. The remaster and aspect ratio is a huge piece of this. For movies that are letter box, you're watching the actual picture at a lower res than 1080 due to bars at the top & bottom. Move to 4K and you have more real estate to work with for the movie itself when sticking with the original super widescreen ratio. This is why widescreen looked so terrible on VHS. You were already 333x480, then using less than that for actual movie footage.

I see your point 100% though. I will be researching what cameras were used for which movies & reading reviews before spending ~$30 per title. Obviously certain movies, such a Clerks, benefited much less when brought to Blu Ray but it still looked better than the DVD. Gone With the Wind looks great in HD on the flip side.

Any idea what year they started using cams above 1080 frequently? I'm no film equipment buff.

Add: After doing some reading, movies weren't shot in 1080 until around 2001. I've watched a lot of pre 2001 filmed blu rays that looked dang good.

Also, read that a lot of movies that are filmed in 4K, are handled as 2K in post preduction :/. You're hunting 4K filmed, 4K post production, HDR movies. I'll stick to the reviews

[Thierry Henry]

I will buy 4k when the projectors are under 1k. It is a nice upgrade for HDR, but the format is not as developed as I would like it to be for adoption. I have a perfect setup for it - 8ft from 8ft screen. But I will need to upgrade my screen for 4k - I projected 4k onto it not to long ago and it needs a more reflect screen, mine is faded.

I took the plunge and got myself an Optoma UHD60. At $2000 it's the cheapest "4K" projector around.
I say "4K" because it uses a bit of trickery to achieve that 4K image. But you'd be extremely hard pressed to see the difference between that and a projector using a "full" resolution 4k system.
The results on my 120 inch screen are amazing.

[isiolia]

You can say the same about a lot films that were lower than 480 when DVD came out. The remaster and aspect ratio is a huge piece of this. For movies that are letter box, you're watching the actual picture at a lower res than 1080 due to bars at the top & bottom. Move to 4K and you have more real estate to work with for the movie itself when sticking with the original super widescreen ratio. This is why widescreen looked so terrible on VHS. You were already 333x480, then using less than that for actual movie footage.

I think a difference there is one of budget or target for the content. Things shot on film can typically be re-scanned at a higher resolution, retouched with modern tools, and look amazing. Far as I know, that'd pretty well include near anything with a theatrical release prior to digital projection becoming normal, with video being reserved more for TV-based content. What's going to throw things off are the relatively more recent high budget movies that were filmed at or otherwise targeted a 1080p final resolution. Since, as mentioned, about all that can be done with them is upscale the picture.

4k is a little harder sell over Blu-ray, to me, in that it's all about the picture. Coming from DVD, Blu-ray also has the advantage of lossless audio codecs, where a lot of DVDs ended up being very compressed.

[Jagosaurus]

Holy smokes TH. That is taking the plunge man! I'm debating on ~$260 .

@IS, Great points on rescan of film. I was reading on that last night. Seems it isn't always done though, and it is upscaled & touched up (even for DVD to BD). Depends.

IIRC, Star Wars F.A. was shot in 35mm then transfer over & post production work all done in 4K. Proof it is doable. Those will be the ones I am hunting, along with 4K digital.

There will be that weird time period from ~2001 to 2016 when digital movies can only have so much done to them.

Great point on sound. I always have to turn down my setup when watching a Blu Ray compared to DVD or satellite TV.

I won't lie... one of the big draws to me is my 4K TV not being fully utilized now and the appeal of the latest & greatest format. I won't be buying up movies left & right like I did when I got DVD & BD players though. It would be more calculated this round based on cameras used & transfer reviews.