I saw my first 4k screen a few years ago and it was stunning. It was, however, several thousand dollars. Given the lack of 4k content it was something to keep an eye out for in the future. Jump forward to sometime in 2014 and I saw a 4k OLED display. This was STUNNING !!!. Between the difference in resolution versus HD and the black blacks of the OLED thecnology it was the finest video image I'd ever seen in my life and comparable to 60 inch prints of medium format film negatives scanned to create 300 megabyte files that were printed with a Lightjet printer. It was also $10,000. Roughly a year later Microcenter had it on sale for $2,000. Again, lack of content as well as the price made me say “Someday”
Last Thanksgiving I broke down and got a 42 inch LG 4k screen for $300. It is serving as my main computer monitor as well as my main TV. It does an OK job of up-converting SD and HD material and, while there is still a relatively limited amount of source material in 4k there is a growing supply on Youtube, enough to keep me happy.
For $300 you do not get a $10,000 picture, but, given the right source material it is closer than one might think. Fireworks in 4k for instance. When looking at the black sky it is washed-out and no match for OLED. When the fireworks start going off you no longer notice it. On the limited 4k content with HDR the image comes very close to what I've seen on OLED screens.
“On the limited 4k content with HDR the image comes very close to what I’ve seen on OLED screens. “
My wife usually doesn’t see differences in TVs although she is thrilled with our Samsung 8000 we bought a few years ago.
A couple of weeks ago I took her to Best Buy and from about 30 feet she said she saw an amazing difference between the Samsung QLED and the Samsung SUHD next too it.
The QLED is outstanding.