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"4K" - Why?!

It all goes deep into consumering and marketing.

4k is easy to remember without any nonsense extra knowledge. Since its easier to understand, its easier to sell to people. HDD's never come in one Terabyte of free space for instance, you only can use 930gb. Same with smartphones. Yes it has 16gb of space, but it only has 12 gb available to use. It's a marketing misleading legal tricks to sell products.

To answer question do we need 4k is simple, most of us don't. We live in era of consumerism and companies what to sell their products to us, they don't want us to keep that tv you bought 2 years ago for much longer. So how do you sell it? You make it "better". Is there another way to improve now days tv, except for density of pixels, no. Technology is hitting its ceiling and companies know it, but they are trying to come up with something new to sell it to us.
 
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Is there another way to improve now days tv, except for density of pixels, no.

You mean yes.

Only one set on the market has an auto calibration feature. (So far as I know, I haven't bothered to look lately.)

Most of them produce crappy color no matter what.

The response time of LCDs could be improved.

Or they could abandon the plasma joke and leave LCDs in computers and actually produce SED TVs, those look remarkable, but nooooooo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-conduction_electron-emitter_display

And use frame rate processing in those, only use a decent algorithm.

But that would have to be marketed as, "Look! We decided to stop borking TV so now it looks right!"

So yeah, market the dots by all means while we wait for that to happen. :rolleyes:
 
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You mean yes.

Only one set on the market has an auto calibration feature. (So far as I know, I haven't bothered to look lately.)

Most of them produce crappy color no matter what.

The response time of LCDs could be improved.

Or they could abandon the plasma joke and leave LCDs in computers and actually produce SED TVs, those look remarkable, but nooooooo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface-conduction_electron-emitter_display

And use frame rate processing in those, only use a decent algorithm.

But that would have to be marketed as, "Look! We decided to stop borking TV so now it looks right!"

So yeah, market the dots by all means while we wait for that to happen. :rolleyes:


As if I were average consumer, none of this makes sense to me except "whats 4k? Its better picture, you should buy it"

Start making entirly different tv is like stop making gas powered cars. Companies need to reinvest billions into entirely new product, and its not going to happen any time soon.
 
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You mean yes.

Only one set on the market has an auto calibration feature. (So far as I know, I haven't bothered to look lately.)

Most of them produce crappy color no matter what.

The response time of LCDs could be improved.

Or they could abandon the plasma joke and leave LCDs in computers and actually produce SED TVs, those look remarkable, but nooooooo.

Surface-conduction electron-emitter display - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And use frame rate processing in those, only use a decent algorithm.

But that would have to be marketed as, "Look! We decided to stop borking TV so now it looks right!"

So yeah, market the dots by all means while we wait for that to happen. :rolleyes:

Let's not forget Crystal LED...;)

As if I were average consumer, none of this makes sense to me except "whats 4k? Its better picture, you should buy it"

Start making entirly different tv is like stop making gas powered cars. Companies need to reinvest billions into entirely new product, and its not going to happen any time soon.

Companies are already investing billions in new technology, it happens constantly whether that tech actually makes it to market or not. We would not have the plasma and LCD screens we have now otherwise and OLED was almost a no-starter because of the horrible life span but enough money was thrown at it to develop emitters that would last more than a year or two.
 
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As if I were average consumer, none of this makes sense to me except "whats 4k? Its better picture, you should buy it"

Start making entirly different tv is like stop making gas powered cars. Companies need to reinvest billions into entirely new product, and its not going to happen any time soon.

I guess you didn't follow the link.

SED - a tiny CRT for each subpixel.

Furthest thing from entirely different TV that you can get.

But I agree - why try when you can just say 4k.

Imagine having to go back to marketing how the picture actually looked.

Oh the humanity! :eek:
 
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Let's not forget Crystal LED...;)



Companies are already investing billions in new technology, it happens constantly whether that tech actually makes it to market or not. We would not have the plasma and LCD screens we have now otherwise and OLED was almost a no-starter because of the horrible life span but enough money was thrown at it to develop emitters that would last more than a year or two.

OLED has been mostly put on the back burner in favor of the silly curved screen gimmick. Now that Panasonic and Samsung have abandoned plasma, it looks like we're stuck with inferior LEDs for the time being. Hopefully they'll at least make improvements on local dimming in lower priced sets.
 
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I buy a new bigger more advanced TV every two years. Just got a Sony 70" 3D HDTV last month and very happy with it. No need for the overpriced 4K ones right now as they don't have much 4K content either. In two years when the prices are down, I'll get one... maybe. I can't really tell the difference between the two now at 8 feet viewing, so why waste $$$
 
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"Mr. Green he's so serene, he's got a TV in every room."

Most households have at least one TV here. I always had a TV when I was in the UK. I don't have cable now though, so there's no point in me having a TV. :p Not paying for..."40+ channels of shite" I do have fibre internet and a DLP projector however, which I use with a laptop for when I want to watch online stuff on the "big screen", like movies and TV shows streamed from PPTV, and downloads, etc,

BTW CRT TVs are still very common here, in fact can still buy them new.
 
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"Mr. Green he's so serene, he's got a TV in every room."

Most households have at least one TV here. I always had a TV when I was in the UK. I don't have cable now though, so there's no point in me having a TV. :p Not paying for..."40+ channels of shite" I do have fibre internet and a DLP projector however, which I use with a laptop for when I want to watch online stuff on the "big screen", like movies and TV shows streamed from PPTV, and downloads, etc,

BTW CRT TVs are still very common here, in fact can still buy them new.
So China is both behind the times and ahead of the times... depends on where.

That works best what your doing.... streaming. :D
 
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So China is both behind the times and ahead of the times... depends on where.

That works best what your doing.... streaming. :D

Yes, very much so. :D

Here's an example, when was the last time you saw cassettes being used on a large scale? I know in the UK, not in a long time.

71UMyQ-xo7L._SL1500_.jpg



It's Chinese and it plays cassettes and MP3s, not CDs. See a lot of these things here, especially in schools. However by far the most popular way to play and store music here is using USB thumb-drives. Just about every device now has a USB socket with play controls, like radios, PC speakers, TVs(including CRT), car systems, PAs, etc. However many people don't have PCs, they often download music in internet bars and copy it to USB, which is free and legal from websites like Xiami. The record labels give away digital music in China, and make what they can from ads.

Another one is Blu-ray, that hardly exists here, except for expensive imports. China invented its own HD optical disc format, China Blue High-Definition (CBHD). Video CD is very popular here as well. We only started to get Xbox and Playstation here this year, previously games consoles were banned. Most people play computer games like Counterstrike in internet bars.

Android devices don't have Google apps and services of course, they have domestic equivalents instead. PRC does completely its own things with Android.
 
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The local Best Buy store here is selling Smart TVs with the dead WebOS, and has soundbars with *gasp* vacuum tubes!!! so not surprised that some might still rock a boombox complete with the 80's look and cassette player. Target is carrying battery-powered 'flip clocks' that were last seen in the late '70s.

Seems 2014 is the year of rehashing old tech. i was hoping we'd be moving forward but this year seems more like reliving the glory days than a new year for futuristic tech.
 
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The local Best Buy store here is selling Smart TVs with the dead WebOS, and has soundbars with *gasp* vacuum tubes!!! so not surprised that some might still rock a boombox complete with the 80's look and cassette player. Target is carrying battery-powered 'flip clocks' that were last seen in the late '70s.

Yeh vacuum tubes, or valves as we Brits calls them. :) It's something they seem to do from time to time, to supposedly appeal to audiophiles/geeks that like the "toob sound". Probably to most average consumers, it doesn't matter what embedded OS is in a TV, as long as it works. Although these days, most of them seem to be Android, and they're marketing them as "Android"...including the green robot...Haier, Changhong, Hisense, TCL, etc. WebOS is no longer used for Palm mobile devices, but on the other hand it's free open source, which means it can still be developed and adapted as needed. Cassettes are still popular in China, especially in schools, because for such a long time it was the easiest and cheapest way of distributing and copying audible education materials, in the absence of a computer and the internet. And for many schools in very poor areas, cassettes still are. Basically they're low cost, low tech and work.

PC mainboards with vacuum tubes anyone? :D
tubesound-2.jpg


Seems 2014 is the year of rehashing old tech. i was hoping we'd be moving forward but this year seems more like reliving the glory days than a new year for futuristic tech.

It's fashion and fads, and retro is back in once again. They figure punters are bored with just boring black brick shapes. HTC probably probably helped to generate interest in flip-clocks with their popular Sense UI widget. I prefer the warm orange glow of nixie tubes myself.
 
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Seems 2014 is the year of rehashing old tech. i was hoping we'd be moving forward but this year seems more like reliving the glory days than a new year for futuristic tech.

Seems fine to me... futuristic tech is good enough... I'm very happy with what I got this year, the Samsung Galaxy S5 and Sony 70" 3D HDTV.
That good enough for me.
 
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Our Samsung 55" 3D HDTV is going to turn three years old this December. Got it on Black Friday 2011 for about half the normal cost, with white glove delivery included. It's really gorgeous to look at.

But I have it in my head to pounce on a 65" 3D UHD TV on Black Friday if - IF - the deal is worth it. I don't really need a curved screen: although some videophiles swear by it, the majority of my brain is still screaming "GIMMICK!" I'm hoping that Samsung comes out with a UHD blu-ray home theater system during IFA this week to replace our aging HT-6500W system. Sounds great at low to moderate volume, but the speakers tend to get overdriven in a heartbeat and start distorting at relatively normal levels. Time to upgrade.

No, "4K" is really a stupid thing to call it: in my opinion, the only reason tech companies went from selling horizontal resolution to vertical resolution is to market bigger numbers to the masses. Call it 2160p or Ultra HD or something... but "4K" is just some CEO having TV envy.

My 0.02 :)
 
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A home theater in-a-box? A tv like that deserves better.

Yes it does. But I have to balance the technology coming into our house through the filter of a SEVERELY technologically-declined Darling Bride. She's had our system for 3 years now: and if anything goes wrong, she still has no clue how to fix it. Darling Bride understands basic operations only. She needs the simplest stuff I can get without compromising our 5.1 setup.

So I wait for the "4K" version of what we have to come out (hopefully at IFA) and snag it Black Friday.

:)
 
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I might start toying with the WebOS TV to see if the infamous 'too many cards' error rears it's ugly head. If I recall that left a bad taste in many webOS user's mouths...

But vacuum tubes, they are so inefficient and prone to generating heat and failing. Why would anyone want something generating more heat inside a PC? Also how long must one wait for the sound bar to warm up before use? Last time I used a TV with tubes (and not just the crt) the thing probably played audio for ten minutes before the picture would appear.

I cringe at luddites. I can only hope they remain a minority as I certainly have had enough of the tech throwbacks lately. Flat design being the worst and refusing to die.
 
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I might start toying with the WebOS TV to see if the infamous 'too many cards' error rears it's ugly head. If I recall that left a bad taste in many webOS user's mouths...

But vacuum tubes, they are so inefficient and prone to generating heat and failing. Why would anyone want something generating more heat inside a PC? Also how long must one wait for the sound bar to warm up before use? Last time I used a TV with tubes (and not just the crt) the thing probably played audio for ten minutes before the picture would appear.

I cringe at luddites. I can only hope they remain a minority as I certainly have had enough of the tech throwbacks lately. Flat design being the worst and refusing to die.

Some people think that tube amps have a warmer, more natural sound. If they are luddites, they are luddites with money.

The Decware Audiophile Tube Amplifier / Model ZEN TORII MONO'S

Melody AN 300B Integrated Amplifier Reviewed

Just a couple quick examples, they can go even higher. Are they worth it? Couldn't tell you, I don't have that kind of cash to throw around lol.
 
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I eventually had to skip past a lot. I own exactly one TV. It is for our PS3, Amazon Prime, and general video viewing and gaming. I don't remember the last time it left either the Chromecast or Game inputs and ventured off to public television. No, I do. When Sherlock aired on PBS last January!

I must say, having convinced a BB sales rep to let me sideload my photos, 4K displays are great at one thing. Displaying very high-resolution photography in absolutely STUNNING detail. I'd LOVE a 24-36" 1600p or 2160p display for my editing purposes. For everything else, it's really just not that stunning. I've seen videos in both "4K" and 1080p, and our 46" Sony Bravia from 2007 or 2008 works just fine for us.

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luddite
Are you sure Luddite is the word you're looking for?j

EDIT 2: I see it's gotten a newer definition so probably yes
 
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