The TV broke down yesterday. It was a 42inch samsung HD thing, probably 8 years old.
I have about 600 quid to replace it with something new. I dont watch much actual TV myself but watch Netflix mostly.

Is 4K a gimmick, is there things available to watch to justify buying one?

If you don’t watch much TV then I would say it wouldn’t be worth the money as there is barely any 4k broadcast anyway (terrestrial or Netflix etc)

Keep your money in your pocket and just get a HD for £300

Not much content around so I don’t think so, by the time there is a lot of content around (never on freeview) the HDMI and HDCP standards might have moved on enough to make a set bought now have issues.

If you get one make sure it works with the Amazon firestick/box standards at least.

Only if you are happy to pay extra for the HD box and a subscription.

I have got Sky HD, rarely watched, got a smart bluray player and use PLEX to stream movies from the PC.

What res are the movies – if the sources you watch aren’t all blisteringly good HD then you would be better off concentrating on a set that upscales well and has decent blacks, colors, etc.

I got a 4K Samsung curved 2 months ago…..and the 4K difference between a HD TVs …was well impressive……almost the same a when we first changed up from a standard to HD

I’m finding that a standard channel looks like HD on my 4K and the the HD channels look ….blinking impressive….if anything it sorta makes movies not so good….because now it really easy to tell when it’s film on set or green screen….because it’s that good….go for it….4K is the way!!!

I’ve just been looking into this for some neighbours and not much seems to have changed from a year or two ago –

Theoretically at 42″ you simply cannot resolve the extra resolution at any sort of normal viewing distance so it’s completely pointless. You might get some improvement from the HDR (wider colour range) and higher frame rates but I’m not convinced those standards are completely locked down either and there’s no content using it.

Add to that there’s not content at the moment and won’t be any significant amount for a good few years –
– Sky are going to start broadcasting something in some form of UHD later this year but what, and how much, is TBC.
– there’s unlikely to be any other broadcast UHD as there simply isn’t the capacity for it on either Terrestrial or Satellite
– the disc format has only just been confirmed and there are only a few discs.

However, nearly all the new sets are 4k so you might not have any choice soon. My recommendation was to buy the best FullHD set from a previous year – there are some good Sony’s and Samsungs about. Ignore any inbuilt smart features and buy an Apple TV, Chromecast or BluRay player with it built in.

OLED screens are finally becoming available but are too expensive right now – in a few years time you might finally be able to buy something that looks as good as a Plasma

My sister has just picked up a 4K Samsung for just under £400 and she absolutely raves about it especially with bluray films and Netflix HD, I’ll find out the model and report back!

I have a 4k Sony 49″. I recommend it!

Been discussed a lot in the last couple of months. Read back:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site:singletrackworld.com+4k+tv

Replaced a 32″ Sony HD with a 40″ Samsung 4K and all I can say is the picture is much better, whether this is just because it is a better panel or if it is to do with the extra resolution I’m not sure, but they are pretty cheap now so would take the plunge. There is also 4K content on YouTube and the 4K also comes in if you want to display photos from your camera on the tv.

OLED screens are finally becoming available but are too expensive right now – in a few years time you might finally be able to buy something that looks as good as a Plasma

I’ll bite… OLED is already superior to plasma in terms of picture quality and overall experience, yes it’s pricey at the moment (although they’re falling fast) and longevity is still unproven but having had various plasma and LED TVs over the years none compare to OLED.

As for the OP – if you rarely watch TV and don’t have a 4k source then I’d just get a budget HD TV for now and keep that for a couple of years to see what develops.

BTW what’s the fault with your Samsung? If it’s the blown capacitor issue it’s simple enough to solder in new ones yourself (it was a common issue on Samsung TVs of that vintage) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cfYCn2xL8c
I fixed mine a few years back for about 15 quid (cost of soldering iron included), it’s still working at the GFs now.

if you do consider going for a 4k TV consider the sizing of the TV. Where as the sizes they used to recommend for HD they’re now saying bigger for 4K in order to appreciate the extra resolution which is the point of them. For example I sit 3 metres away from my 50″ HD TV and to actually notice the difference with the naked eye I would need a TV that is 75″!!!

Those resolution viewing charts/distances are a load of tosh GolfChick. If you sat 3mtrs away from a 75″ screen it would look absolutely awful at anything below 4k resolution and you’d definitely see the difference between HD & 4k at 3mtrs on a 50″ set if it was fed the correct source material.

Likewise, I can see the difference (very easily) between an SD & HD source at 4-5mtrs on my 40″ tv

Theoretically at 42″ you simply cannot resolve the extra resolution at any sort of normal viewing distance so it’s completely pointless

Theoretically at what distance? Stop talking rubbish

OLED screens are finally becoming available but are too expensive right now – in a few years time you might finally be able to buy something that looks as good as a Plasma

You can get a 55″ 4k OLED LG for just over £2k now – however, it’s flawed and most reviewers will still put the edge lit flagship Samsung LED and it’s lower spec sibling ahead of it for PQ in most instances.
Said reviewers also seem to admit that Plasma has been usurped and is now old tech

One thing I am not liking with these new 4K sets is the ‘better than reality’ pictures.

When you look around at reality you don’t see these huge contrast ratios that the sets show, and reality is certainly not glossy/shiny like nearly all screens are nowadays.

You could say the same about cinemas, they are not shiny and don’t have these huge contrast ratios either, but they do have poorer frame rates most of the time.

They’re so readily available now and prices have fallen if you can get one in the sales at a good price I’d go for one.

Warner Bro. Have announced 35 films to be released on UHD disc this year.

edge lit LED, OLED, UHD…..

holy crap, i’ve got old and out of touch with technology. Im becoming my parents. I need to do some reading up about this stuff in the library.

yep, edge lit is a great step forward – not.

yep, edge lit is a great step forward – not.

I never said it was – just that OLED is still flawed, hence EVEN edge lit sets are being rated above some (by all accounts) pretty decent OLED’s

I’ve just bought a 49″ Sony 4K tv and feel it was value for money.

There is a lot of 4k stuff to be streamed from Netflix or YouTube with lots of 4k MTB stuff to watch.

For those that say you can see the difference then I would suggest a trip to the opticians! My new set replaced a 5 year old 46″ Sony and even my wife comments on the difference in quality and this is someone who doesn’t even bother to watch broadcasts in HD.

And for others who say don’t bother with the ‘smart’ features I would again disagree. The built in ones to the TV work far better than those available on Apple TV and are easier to use.

I never said it was – just that OLED is still flawed, hence EVEN edge lit sets are being rated above some (by all accounts) pretty decent OLED’s

Interested to see any reviews that do this and their reasons why, especially compared to the latest OLED panels and not the initial batch of testing ones. Do you have any handy?

The LG ones I saw at the weekend were really really good so can only imagine the edge lit ones would be cheap and amazing.

Theoretically at what distance? Stop talking rubbish

Theoretically at [a screen size of ] 42″ you simply cannot resolve the extra resolution [of 4K over HD] at any sort of normal viewing distance [rarely less than 3m] so it’s completely pointless.

HDTV test did a reasonably scientific test and found detectable on 55″ at 3m but that was implied to be near the limit. The OP is talking about replacing a 42″ set like for like
http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/4k-resolution-201312153517.htm

Should have said OLED will soon beat plasma *at a reasonable price*

HD is a huge step up from SD even on smaller screens – particularly with broadcast material where some SD channels are horribly overcompressed and the HD versions are much more watchable.

The carefully chosen very high bitrate 4K demo material in store looks amazing on the large sets but I’m not convinced by all the processing “enhancements” applied to other material. Upscaling can’t do magic – it can only work with the detail that was there already.