The shift to 4K is happening much faster than the move to HD did

Big news today is AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner for $80,000,000,000.

ATT&T owns a ton of infrastructure. TW owns plenty of content, having sold their cable unit to Charter.
 
So if you planning to film a documentary in the coming weeks, for a 2017 delivery, should you shoot 4k, or is 1080 still very much acceptable by the major distributors? (Netflix, etc)
 
Lkorver said:
So if you planning to film a documentary in the coming weeks, for a 2017 delivery, should you shoot 4k, or is 1080 still very much acceptable by the major distributors? (Netflix, etc)
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Netflix and Amazon have been pretty much in the 4K-for-everyone mode for a couple of years now. General cable and OTA seem to be headed there as well. The switch for mastering, not rendering, will probably happen by the summer of 2017.

As to the VR and the related tech -

http://www.digitaltrends.com/photography/metapixel-photo-real-avatar-rig/
 
Lkorver said:
So if you planning to film a documentary in the coming weeks, for a 2017 delivery, should you shoot 4k, or is 1080 still very much acceptable by the major distributors? (Netflix, etc)
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Content is still king, if you shoot a great doc in 1080, it will sell, but from a producer standpoint, it is smarter to shoot 4K these days. It eliminates the "Yeah, we like the film but we really are trying to only acquire 4k properties" conversation.
 
R Hudson said:
I am going to resist 4K.

One man, one focus =)
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I'm still shooting SD interlaced, 4x3. ;)
My equipment and workflow is very cheap now.
HD is a fad.


Remember that commercial where the guy is watching the old B&W western with the sped up horses running as he says "color is a fad"?
 
firehawk said:
I'm still shooting SD interlaced, 4x3. ;)
My equipment and workflow is very cheap now.
HD is a fad.


Remember that commercial where the guy is watching the old B&W western with the sped up horses running as he says "color is a fad"?
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Darn whippersnappers with their video cameras. I only shoot and edit film. Get off of my lawn.
 
They say all TVs of 50" or more are now made with 4K UHD panels. Sams Club will be selling a 55" 4K UHD TVs for $299 on Nov 25 ( Black Friday) 65" 4K UHD for $598 and a 70" Vizio SmartCast 4K UHD Home Theater TV for $928 !
 
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I recently bought a 1080p 75" TV. With this one, only at 4m (13 feet) or closer can I distinguish 720p from 1080p, which means I'd have to be 2m (6.5') or closer in order to distinguish 4k from 1080p.

I got into the 4k bandwagon, but only for acquisition. For delivery and for viewing, I really, really, really don't see the point.

(OK, I do see one point: 4k gets more views on youtube, because people who spent $$$ on a new screen want to justify their expense; so I do upload in 4k and put it on the title, just because it's cheap marketing)
 
I just bought an LG 55" 4K OLED set(really just UHD, as most consumer sets are) for my bedroom, replacing a 42" 1080 set. Directv HD ch's look okay on it, but I started streaming NASA's 4K/UHD content on YouTube(it has streaming apps like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, etc. built in) and so far, I'm impressed. Part of it is probably the content, pretty pictures from space: lots of deep blacks and bright objects and colors that really show off the capabilities of an OLED monitor. Hopefully this weekend I'll be able to watch some 4K movies on it and see how my F55 looks on it, too. I've never seen any of the 4K I've shot on it IN 4K.
 
So like what's "the best" looking tv right now? i bought my first/current hdtv in 2008 or so and its a Panasonic viera Plasma. It looks pretty good. As we all know just cause a tv exists doesnt mean it looks very nice so whats out there now that actually looks good (color/contrast etc.)?
 
NorBro said:
Makes sense...they have to make room for the 8K inventory. :2vrolijk_08:
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http://www.mirrorlessrumors.com/cmo...egapixel-full-frame-8k-global-shutter-sensor/

Josh Bass said:
So like what's "the best" looking tv right now? i bought my first/current hdtv in 2008 or so and its a Panasonic viera Plasma. It looks pretty good. As we all know just cause a tv exists doesnt mean it looks very nice so whats out there now that actually looks good (color/contrast etc.)?
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LG's UHD sets just went on sale. IIRC, their 55" is $2,000 now. It's way higher than something like Vizio - which among the leaders in the bang-for-the-buck category - but many think that the OLED screens give the most natural, pleasing image. Plus, a year ago, they were in the $6,000 range.
 
I bought my first HD set back in '04. A Sony 60" 720P LCD rear projection set. I was immediately on-board with HD and would watch bugs hump on Discovery HD, because the picture was so beautiful compared to the SD mush we had been watching. Since then I've moved up in tech and size in the den(currently 92" rear projection, but there are a lot of trade-offs to get that size) and several flat panels in the bedroom going from 720 to 1080 LCD's and now 4K OLED. I haven't owned a consumer set with any of the newer LCD tech's(local backlight dimming, quantum dot, etc.), but I have two professional OLED monitors, two OLED Vf's and now an OLED consumer set. You can not get better blacks than with OLED. When a pixel is supposed to be black, it is off. No light generated period. That's why they say OLED sets have an infinite contrast ratio, because they can go from absolute pure black to white. The absolute best an LCD set can do is very dark grey. SOME light will shine through. Even though I've been using OLED sets for years, I've still been surprised at home, because I can watch the set in a completely dark room. We're all used to LCD sets still emitting some light even when a screen is all black, but with OLED, when a screen is a all black, the room goes black.

Some of the 4K content I've been watching is from NASA on YouTube and it has a very three dimensional quality to it, because the black levels are so good and the colors are so vibrant. You will need to adjust the picture profile. I even had to bring the color down some on the ISF Dark Room profile. The Standard and Vibrant presets could even make someone with cataracts eyes bleed.

So far, the only negative with this set is issues with motion rendering on 24 frame content on broadcast channels(I don't think that's inherent to OLED, because my professional gear is fine). It's native 120Hz and you have to go into the settings for motion(you can adjust judder and blur) and switch it to USER and turn both settings to zero(the OFF setting isn't enough). But to me, it's still a little too smooth or 'video-ee', but it's not as bad as the early 120 Hz sets where it was either ON or OFF and all 24 frame content looked like a soap opera if it was on. I haven't really had a chance to evaluate any dedicated movie channels or Blu-ray movie content, etc.

LG dropping the price another $800 helped push me over the edge. I almost pulled the trigger last year when it was at least $3K.
 
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Josh Bass said:
So like what's "the best" looking tv right now? i bought my first/current hdtv in 2008 or so and its a Panasonic viera Plasma. It looks pretty good. As we all know just cause a tv exists doesnt mean it looks very nice so whats out there now that actually looks good (color/contrast etc.)?
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The Samsung SUHD TVs looked remarkable, when I walked into Best Buy a few months ago.

In TVs, I think resolution beyond 2K is a waste, and I shrink at high dynamic range, because to get a significant step up in dynamic range you have to raise brightness, and I already turn my TV's brightness down. (Camera D.R. is another story.) For years I haven't seen a substantial improvement in TV picture quality at normal viewing distances.

These TVs probably were a little brighter, but I think they were also achieving their greater clarity through deeper blacks and more colors, which I welcome. The picture looked more natural and alive.
 
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Wouldn't it make sense to look at 4K just to be "future proof" so we don't have to think about this again when that stuff does become common? That motion thing would really bother me. I hate that about many people's sets who aren't in the industry/can't tell an leave them set to the weird refresh rates. I wouldn't spend probably more than $1000 on something like that. Got the one I have now for about $800 way back in 2008. If a good 4K set can't be had for anywhere near that right now then maybe 1080 still makes sense. As for deep blacks I have always had an issue with this set with video games (which I play a lot of) being too dark. Most games have you set their brightness/contrast up in a menu in the game itself, and I almost always have go with the brightest it can be or close to it. Tried all the various profiles/black settings on the set, still kinda murky. I realize some of that is probably mood/atmosphere for the game but it makes many of them tough to play.
 
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