Answered Are 4k Discs worth it?

johnr2110

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Got the TV got the Player just need to buy discs to get the full benefit. Being a synic I’m wondering if there a really any benefits over standard Blu-ray.
My TV is a 55 inch Panasonic and viewing distance is around eight foot.
 
Got the TV got the Player just need to buy discs to get the full benefit. Being a synic I’m wondering if there a really any benefits over standard Blu-ray.
My TV is a 55 inch Panasonic and viewing distance is around eight foot.
Really depends on the films. I own around 8 4k uhd some don't look much better than the blu rays. You need to check whether the disc is native 4k or 2k upscale.

Then there's HDR to take in to account
 
Got the TV got the Player just need to buy discs to get the full benefit. Being a synic I’m wondering if there a really any benefits over standard Blu-ray.
My TV is a 55 inch Panasonic and viewing distance is around eight foot.


Like above, just a select few. Probably your most preferred films.

In a few years I'm guessing the price of what you own will decline massively.

I almost sold my player until I watched Darkest Hour, the picture quality was unbeatable on anything streamed.
 
Really depends on the films. I own around 8 4k uhd some don't look much better than the blu rays. You need to check whether the disc is native 4k or 2k upscale.

Then there's HDR to take in to account
Thanks for the input,how to you tell whether they’re native or upscale?
 
Depends on your tv as most say they can do hdr but not within the uhd alliance specifications, as hdr is a bigger improvement than the resolution, if your tv is anything but a high end one like an oled, or a fald lcd or some edge lit lcd's then the hdr will be lacking, the scientific calculator reckons on a 55 inch screen you have to be sat closer than 1.2m to see the difference between 1080p and 4k resolution, but to benefit from hdr you can be sat any distance, but like I said it depends if your tv can do hdr justice
 
55 inches at 8 ft is probably on the border of visual acuity to see the diffenrence (in pixel dimensions) between hd and 4k. However, 4k has hdr and dv, not to mention the far more iimersive atmos audio.
 
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55 inches at 8 ft is probably on the border of visual acuity to see the diffenrence (in pixel dimensions) between hd and 4k. However, 4k has hdr and dv, not to mention the far more iimersive atmos audio.
You can get atmos audio on 1080p blu rays, it isn't exclusive to uhd blu rays, take the new BBC Dynasties, the blu ray has atmos, the uhd doesn't
 
Absolutely useless. HDR is crayons. VHS the way to go...:)

55 inch and a distance of 8ft is a bit too much to appreciate non-HDR 4K. With HDR and WCG, you should be able to notice some differences depending upon the film

To my eyes, vast majority of the 4K discs I own look better than their Blu-ray counterpart on my LG 65C8 from a distance of 7.5ft
 
For your use I would say 'only on select discs'.
Most of the time when I put on a disc after 5 minutes I forget its 4k in any case as I get 'into the movie'.
Ok, you have HDR, which is quite nice. Its better on some discs than it is others though. You also have Atmos (if you can benefit from that), but then again so do some BD versions of the film too.

If you want to sit down and watch a film then BD is still fantastic and you may not see much of a difference between that and 4K unless you pause the film and look closely at the picture.

I view on a 65" LG OLED and a 93" projector screen (Epson 9300).

As for checking to see if its native or upscaled, then don't let that be a deciding factor, as some upscaled are better than native.

As I said, if its a film you really want, then get the 4k. If you just want it for your collecting then choose the cheaper of the 2.
 
It’s like most things.....as you increase in price, the law of diminishing returns comes into play. I’ve bought far too many, but I really enjoy that extra bit of wow factor. In addition, there is a healthy second hand market on these very forums for 4k discs so you can get back a good chunk of the outlay in most cases.
 
on a 55” at 8ft I would say no, not really.

You won’t start seeing the full benefits of UHD discs Until you start going 65”+ and then utlise a full atmos soundtrack.
 
For your use I would say 'only on select discs'.
Most of the time when I put on a disc after 5 minutes I forget its 4k in any case as I get 'into the movie'.
Ok, you have HDR, which is quite nice. Its better on some discs than it is others though. You also have Atmos (if you can benefit from that), but then again so do some BD versions of the film too.

If you want to sit down and watch a film then BD is still fantastic and you may not see much of a difference between that and 4K unless you pause the film and look closely at the picture.

I view on a 65" LG OLED and a 93" projector screen (Epson 9300).

As for checking to see if its native or upscaled, then don't let that be a deciding factor, as some upscaled are better than native.

As I said, if its a film you really want, then get the 4k. If you just want it for your collecting then choose the cheaper of the 2.


This is your answer, this is exactly my thinking. The amount of times I see films I want on 4k but its £20 quid, I stop and remind myself about the 300+ blu-rays which cost me thousands & sold for about 100 quid.

I also own 5 4k's.

You WILL notice a different on a 55" tv, you don't need a 65" tv to realise unless your eye sight is very bad. BUT some films you'll notice it more than others.
 
I have a 55" and sit about that far away and i DEFINITELY see a difference between BD and UHD

I suppose this depends how good your tv is at upscaling. You will see a difference, but it’s not massive. The bigger the screen, the more you notice.
 
9-10ft away from my new 55” Panny OLED.

Starting to go theough my BR collection again.

All of them look good. Some of them look amazing.

I'll still add a 4K player but i’m not rushing out tomorrow to buy one.

I guess i really need to see for myself what difference there is from this distance since its a personal thing, given the variety of answers on this thread (and countless others).
 
Are 4K discs worth it? sure they are but that doesn’t mean every disc will be a night and day difference over a Blu-Ray.

Personally I am only upgrading those films that are personal favourites which for the most part consist of films that had average to poor Blu-Ray releases so these UHDs with brand new transfers are a huge improvement and worth every penny, really hope Universal and Paramount pull their finger out and get the BTTF Trilogy and Star Trek 1-10 released and finally do them justice.
 
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If you can appreciate the difference & you have the equipment then yes its definitely worth it. If you do not care for ultimate quality and cost is an issue then its pointless as you will never appreciate the vast difference between a decent 4K UHD HDR vs BD.

Not being funny but 8FT away from a 55" screen is not really going to do much for you unless you have laser precision eyesight. Either sit way closer (3-4FT) or buy a Front Projector to throw the largest picture you can at the wall!

Over 30 years ago I used to watch movies projected onto an 8FT diagonal screen & even back then it was never big enough ;)
 
I'm mainly here for others' opinions as my OLED doesn't even arrive until next week. But my current plan is that Blu-rays don't need replacing unless it's something I really, really care about (so my HD-DVD set of Blade Runner is going to get replaced, for example) but the remaining DVDs can definitely stand a new disc.

The other thing I'd say is that for most things, the difference in price between UHD and a 4k iTunes copy means I don't know I'm going to buy a lot of discs at all. I know the disc still has the edge, but at 3m from a 55" I won't probably see it very well.
 
But what about releases where the Blu-ray also has an Atmos or DTS:X mix?

That’s one thing that annoys me - I totally get the benefits of 4K discs for the resolution, wider colour range, HDR etc but not putting the Atmos track on a Blu-ray and restricting it to the 4K format only - when the Blu-ray Disc is perfectly capable of playing it - is I feel an unfair restriction that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. Plus making the soundtracks even more restrictive for the 3D releases is terrible! The BR2049 3D release in lossy 5.1 was just unbelievable.
 
Graham - I strongly suspect it's a space/bandwidth issue; one extra Atmos track (because the specs require you shove on a regular audio mix for players that get confused by them as well) could well be more of an issue when you're trying to get stereoscopic video onto a Blu. Particularly when they want half a dozen languages on there for the European release (sadly for fans of height channels you're a far smaller niche than German speakers, for example.)

I remember a load of examples in the DVD days where, in order to make room for the added French track, the Canadian version of a film lost its DTS English option, or had the 5.1 DD drop to Pro Logic 2.0.
 
They're worth it to me. Here's why, for me personally:
  • I run a 125" native 4K setup – at this scale, 4K (especially if the DI is 4K or better) is a night and day difference over the blu-ray
  • I run a 7.2.6 speaker configuration. The difference in audio between a 4K disc and a 4K stream is, again, night and day. Even people who have relatively no experience of AV have commented along the lines of 'Oh my GOD THE SOUND!!!' when moving from a streamed Atmos movie to a UHD Atmos movie
  • I like the packaging, especially when it comes to special editions like the recent Carpenter releases, 2001 and so on
Make your own list. Only you can decide whether they're worth it for you.
 
I'm mainly here for others' opinions as my OLED doesn't even arrive until next week. But my current plan is that Blu-rays don't need replacing unless it's something I really, really care about (so my HD-DVD set of Blade Runner is going to get replaced, for example) but the remaining DVDs can definitely stand a new disc.

The other thing I'd say is that for most things, the difference in price between UHD and a 4k iTunes copy means I don't know I'm going to buy a lot of discs at all. I know the disc still has the edge, but at 3m from a 55" I won't probably see it very well.
Wherever possible support UHD discs as when they are gone you will have zero control over streaming media so the prices will increase & the quality will also drop once no disc backup is left to fall back on!

I do not agree with everything this site says but this part is very relevant to ANY AV enthusiast!
Hey Kids… Buying Movies? Buy Them on Disc, Not Digital. Here’s Why...
 

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