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The Jump to 4K

Recently I decided to upgrade my TV life to 4K. It wasn’t something I planned for, I was at Xcite picking up something and decided to take a walk in the TV aisle and got amazed at how sharp the footage was on their 4K TV’s. Since Amazon Video, Netflix and YouTube now support 4K, I decided I might as well get a new 4K capable TV. I ended up with the Samsung NU8000, it cost me around KD260 for the 55″ which is pretty reasonable compared to some other TVs.

So what I didn’t know about upgrading to 4K was that I’d need to upgrade a whole bunch of other things as well to get 4K working. At first, I thought I could just upgrade my Apple TV to the new 4K version and that would be it, but then I found out my sound system receiver which I plug everything into wasn’t 4K compatible. So I had to go out and buy a new AV receiver that was also 4K compatible. Then I found out that my HDMI cables also weren’t 4K compatible (surprisingly 4K HDMI cables aren’t a marketing gimmick!). So I had to go back out and buy new 4K capable HDMI cables. In the end, to get 4K working at home I had to buy a new TV, new Apple TV, a new AV receiver, two new HDMI cables and then on top of that, upgrade my Netflix membership to the more expensive 4K package ($15.99). So was it worth it?

After fiddling a ton with a bunch of settings on my TV and AppleTV (mostly the HDR settings), I finally got everything working the way I wanted it to. Not everything is shot in 4K (or HDR) but most of the new shows and movies are. I think the most impressive things visually I’ve watched in 4K were David Attenborough’s new Netflix documentary “Our Planet“, the documentary series “One Strange Rock” that’s directed by Darren Aronofsky and hosted by Will Smith, and finally the Netflix Sci-Fi film “I Am Mother“. All three were 4K and had HDR so the footage was super crisp and impressive, especially some of the darker scenes in “I Am Mother” where HDR I think made a lot of difference. HDR is a technique used to get a more dynamic range of luminosity in the footage and most TV’s nowadays I believe have it. You can clearly see HDR at work in some scenes, but it’s difficult for me to put in words (but I’ll try). If you’re watching TV in the dark and there is a dark scene and suddenly a beam of sunlight shines through a crack in a wall and hits the camera, the sunlight looks super bright to the point you squint because HDR helps keep the dark areas of the screen really dark. Not sure if that made sense but basically you can get a lot more range of darkness and lightness in the same scene at the same time.

Should you upgrade to 4K? If you’re looking to get a new TV then yes it’s a no brainer. If you don’t have an external sound system or a device like Apple TV and are instead, just planning to use the streaming apps that you can install directly on the TV, it’s not gonna be too expensive to get 4K working. But on the other hand, if you do have a full setup like mine and one that you purchased a while back, expect to spend quite a bit to get 4K up and running properly. If you play videogames you’ll also have the added expense of having to upgrade to the 4K capable PS4 or Xbox as well on top of all the other expenses I mentioned earlier. But, I do think the combination of having 4K and HDR is worth it since it has elevated my TV viewing experience a lot more than when I had upgraded my TV from 720P to 1080P. So do it.

46 replies on “The Jump to 4K”

Streaming 4K are not actually 4k. They are compressed and upscaled . To enjoy a true 4k experience you will have need to get 4k devices and most of all 4k content. 5G myt be the way maker for true 4k content online

5G has nothing to do with 4K. Yes it’s slightly compressed bitrate on Netflix compared to say a UHD Blu Ray disc but it suffices your needs and you wouldn’t know the difference unless playing side by side.

I have a UHD of Planet Earth disc and now watched “Our Planet” on Netflix and the difference is minimal.

All video is compressed, including the video signal coming from your game console. It is only “lossy” compression that results in poorer image quality, and even then it can be tuned to make it unnoticeable. 4k content on netflix and youtube is typically (but not always) shot in 4k and typically not upscaled (unless you have an 8k tv).

4K on streaming is too compressed to be good. Can you get 4K blu rays in Kuwait? That would enable you to see the system at it’s best.

This is the thing I’m going to miss coming over there. I took the jump to 4K in January and now have to sell everything as it’s too expensive to ship over there. However I’m bringing my discs as I hope to go 4K at some point over there; if you want to borrow any to test then just let me know.

Maybe it’s your connection but 4K streaming on my setup it super sharp. The idea of using physical Blu-ray media nowadays sounds so outdated 😅

This will be another one we will have to respectfully disagree on 😀

We recently cancelled our sky satellite service and set top box in preparation for move to Kuwait. We had a Netflix and amazon prime wishlist queue of stuff to watch. Sat down to do so and the first five movies we wanted to watch on Netflix had been removed and the first three on amazon prime had been moved to paid for from the prime service.

At least when I buy a disc it will always be there to watch when I want.

Of course, I was perhaps a little harsh on quality. 4K streaming is very good (just finished grand tour – i’m Sure you’ve seen but probably worth a watch again in 4K. That final episode on Ford was stunning but perhaps more relevant to those of us in UK who grew up with cortinas and sierra cosworths and XR3i’s) – however I maintain that however good your connection is a compressed digital file will never be as good as a 50GB + 4K disc properly mastered with Dolby digital vision and full Dolby atmos surround sound.

I have a 70MbPs line but ultimately the quality of the source file dictates. A 4K file on sky was 8GB compared with 55GB for the disc – I compared 🙂

But you are spot on with your advice.

Yeah I agree, and an audio CD will always be better than streaming from Spotify or Apple Music, but I’m not going to be walking around with my discman lol

The movies & series available on Netflix in Kuwait are quite different to those in, say, UK Netflix. Here there are way more Indian & Arabic films & series on Netflix at the expense of western ones.

First priority when I get there will be to find out whether to switch to local or stick with my UK Netflix. If you access UK with a DNS do you need to pay from a UK bank account?

Having a physical collection isn’t a bad thing, why is it such a bad thing to you? Also, 4K UHD discs are the latest in home media technology, how can they be “outdated” to you?

Certain directors professionally transfer their movies into 4k in the way they were intended to be seen. 4k discs are really cheap on amazon.

I’ve had both Samsung and LG but reckon LG TV sets have a far superior menu system to the Samsungs as simple to use, well laid out etc etc. The “Magic Remote” is a joy to use also and makes all the difference (similar in function to a Nintendo Wii motion controller) plus of course having dedicated Netflix and Amazon buttons. Connecting a wireless keyboard is useful if you’re using the built-in browser or for YouTube.

Word of advice when upgrading to 4K – try to get a TV (within your budget) with the best HDR system, as this makes all the difference. There are different standards knocking around so do your research.

In respect to AV, depending on whether or not you will be running this as a ‘passthrough’, a standard sound system such as a 2:1 soundbar is just fine really and not necessary to upgrade if you have an existing one unless of course, you desire all the bells and whistles!

Up-to-date HDMI standard (at least High Speed HDMI 1.4) cables necessary for the 4K experience, if that is you’re connecting external equipment to the TV, though the standard has now moved up to HDMI 2.1 in case you wish for the best or to try to futureproof.

HDR doesn’t really relate that much to dark scenes. Dark and black scenes are more effected by what back light technology is the TV based on (OLED, QLED, LED), and you’ll need an OLED TV to truly have black. If you maximize brightness to get the most of HDR in your TV, dark scenes will look like crap and you’ll see a lot of grey and light bleeding from bright objects or where the back lights are positioned in the TV into dark areas, especially if you’re watching in a dim room, so you truly shouldn’t be squinting, and you need to recalibrate your brightness. If you reduce brightness you’re also reducing the effects of HDR and all the vivid and vibrant colors that comes with it, so it’s really all about balancing and recalibrating the settings based on content and room light. There’s a lot of settings and guides on the optimal settings for that and your specifically your TV model.

What you’re talking about is darker blacks, that’s not HDR related of course and that’s not what I was highlighting. Instead I was talking about how you can get a lot more brightness and darkness in the same scene now which is one of the benefits of HDR. HDR isn’t related to the room brightness.

Well that’s basically what I was trying to say, but really though check out some guides for the optimal settings. Another thing is the HDMI cables, the ones at XCITE are basically a rip-off. When I got my TV they tried to sell me monster cables, and the cheapest HDMI they had was like 15 KD or something. So I just went out to Jareer and bought HDMI 4K compatible cables there from their PC section for like 4 or 6 KD.

Tried to use the apps on the Samsung but I’m used to clicking right on the Apple TV to skip a few seconds into whatever I’m watching, on the Samsung clicking right doesn’t do that so couldn’t stand it

Turn off any HD motion thing in the options.

I switched to 4K long time ago.
Early mornings is when i can stream 4k.
But it raised my standards,, which is not a good thing.
Congrats,, enjoy

With all due respect. I got a Sony TV when I learned that all Samsung TV’s in the middle east are made in Egypt.

So what if the tv’s are made in Egypt? Where do you think your Sony TV is made? On a cliff in Malibu overlooking the Pacific Ocean?

HDR is implemented either by a chip or by software. LG uses chip where as Samsung uses software to decode HDR data. Dolby Vision required chip. I recently bought LG 49SK8500PTA in India. I was looking for SK85 series in Kuwait but was told by three vendors that LG products are not easily available nowadays in Kuwait or are being slowly phased out.( Anyone has any idea what happened? Even LG mobile phones are not available) And by the the LG SK85 series is highly recommended by me, for whatever my recommendation is worth.

I’am Mother is not 4K and doesnt have HDR. Are you sure you can tell the difference between 4K and 1080p?

I Am Mother is in 4K and has HDR/Dolby Vision (it literally says so on Netflix). If you have the 4K Apple TV and everything set up correctly you’ll see the 4K and HDR label under the title on Netflix. If you don’t have 4K setup then it won’t have the label.

My setup is fine since I could see other movies and TV shows in 4K except I’m Mother which I could only see “HD” under the title. Would you be so kind and post a screen shot where it says 4K HDR/Dolby Vision on Netflix?

Ok thank you for the correction. Can you post a screen shot instead of correcting grammar or you can’t because it says “HD” ?

Hi Mark, i just bought 4K TV (TCL), i’m using Bwireless, 12mbps, but still im struggle to get 4K quality…can you suggest the internet is ok or not..
Thank you

I got an Onkyo one, don’t have the model number on me but it’s ok, every now and then i need to reboot it which is annoying but other than that it’s been serving its purpose.

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