Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

I wanted to buy Parasite which goes on sale on blu ray in a couple of days. However, it's also coming out in 4K though. So I am wondering if I should buy it on that and just invest in a 4K player, to play it then. Or is 4k perhaps not worth it and I should just stick to blu ray?

What do you think?

Is your t.v. also 4k?

I streamed parasite last night. I believe the quality was max at HD. The quality was fine for me after the buffering settled in. My t.v. is 4k but streaming HD looked fine to me. I honestly can't imagine much of a viewing experience improvement at a higher resolution. At least not on Parasite, I mean.

But if you are wanting to convert your movie library over for personal preference or consistency or whatever then go ahead. Just make sure your t.v. supports the resolution.

Re: Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

According to The Rodent the human eye can't see definition as high as 4K so it's a waste. There's a couple threads here about 4K where Rodent explains that. I have no experience myself with 4K other than what I've seen demonstrated at Costco looked to sharp to my eyes and real life never looks that sharp. But maybe you'd love 4K?

Re: Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

Oh okay, well how far can the human eye go? More than 1080p? I saw 4K a couple of times and it seems I can tell some difference.

Re: Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

It may not be so much whether the eye can perceive a resolution as it is the size of your television and the space requirement that the resolution can fill.

For example, say you have a 65" screen. The image quality of a video at 480x720 would look horrible at that size so a higher resolution video would be preferable to avoid pixelation and to improve over all viewing quality. The more resolution the source provides, the more image detail there is to spread across the larger display---generally speaking.

That's not to say 4k is a requirement. HD I'm sure is quality enough. Times you might notice differences would include when text is displayed. Take for instance the scene in Fight Club where Norton's character is ordering a dinette set. The camera is panning through his apartment as small sales descriptions pop up over the various products that he has purchased for his apartment. Even on my DVD copy you can't read them. Its possible, though, that a bluray or 4k resolution copy might be readable as there would be more resolution to show such details. Of course that depends on how the higher resolution is processed. Just upscaling the lower resolution source wouldn't help.

All of this is moot if your television doesn't support 4k.

Re: Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

I love my 4K TV and my 4K Blu Ray Player. It looks stunning, so I would say yes.

The biggest advantage of having a 4K setup is that all the 1080p stuff looks amazing when upscaled. Next to my 1080p it is a different ball game. Some of mu=y Blu Rays genuinely look 4k.

DVDs and 480p stuff on a 4k setup do look worse though.

It's mostly about the TV, if you don't have a 70+inch 4K TV than the player and the DVD's aren't worth it.

70 inch? That's not correct at all. It depends on how your room is configured. If you're sitting 4 metres away from a 50 inch TV then yes, you're not going to notice much difference.

The HD to 4k switch starts to improve drastically at about 55 inch TVs.

Just got a 50 inch smart 4k set up in my room in addition to a 55" downstairs. I love having Netflix in my bedroom now. Gamechanger.

Re: Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

It's all about the feed. If you watching an old classic movie that's not 4K which is like most of them, then it won't matter if your player and TV is 4K or not.

Re: Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

Oh okay thanks. Well it was said before that Parasite is not going to be released in 4K, but it says right here that it is:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Paras...lu-ray/246518/

It also says that the 4K disc is 'region free', but is this common for 4K releases?

Re: Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

Well out of all the movies released on 4K, how many actually look good enough in 4K to actually do it justice for the price? Like for example, some older movies don't look that good on blu ray, and are more grainy, but would this look even worse in 4K for a lot of older movies?

It depends on many things. How good the transfer is, how good your equipment is etc.

Some of the best 4K stuff I've seen is older (Apocalypse Now, Alien, Suspiria) . However the cornetto trilogy on 4k is extremely disappointing in quality despite is being relatively newer release.

Then again Blade Runner 2049 looks sensational in 4k too. As I said before, the quality of Blu-Rays on 4K equipment is the big bonus. Some of the great noirs from the 50s and 60s look exceptional.

Also, Take a look at this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZ9caI0-zsA&t=90s

Re: Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

Oh okay but I can't see the 4K in that video cause I haven't decided if I should get a 4K TV yet. So you are saying that if I play a blu ray movie, on a 4K player and 4K TV, it's going to look better than just plain blu ray? Wouldn't it look worse, cause you are upscaling from 1080p to a 4K screen?

This.


A lot of money for something that is physically impossible to see.


It's like spending thousands and thousands on a new surround sound system because it has sub-sonic and ultra-sonic frequencies... and thinking you're getting a good deal... even though those frequencies are far outside of the human hearing range.

There is always a lot of debate about this type of stuff, I had difficulty deciding so I just went to my local Best Buy and saw things in action with my own eyes. If you get a good sales person they will be patient. I was not going for advice I was going to see it in person. I will not say what I went with because I do not want to adulterate someones decision. Go with what looks best to your eye. if possible look at things in regular lighting and in low light. look at darker scenes as well as lighter. I will say a 50 inch is the smallest TV I considered because anything smaller did not seem to take advantage of the higher rez.

Best of luck.

Oh okay thanks. But how many movies look good in 4K though? Okay for example, would a movie as famous as say, Predator look good in 4K? I am just wondering if there are enoug h movies out there that have good 4K transfers that it's worth it. Cause I do not watch TV shows hardly, just movies mainly.

Yeah, definitely not buying the you can’t see 4K. There’s more to it than just the resolution (which I’ll agree is pretty hard to distinguish). The dynamic range is far greater in the 4K format because of the greater bitrate so you will certainly see the improvement provided you have all the necessary components to view it: HDR movie, HDR capable player, and HDR capable TV.

The Martian and Star Trek Beyond are two perfect examples. I won’t watch them unless it’s on my 4K setup.

Re: Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

HDR does help - especially on a large OLED TV. But it's not everything. I recently watched Edward Scissorhands in 4k on my TV - No HDR - and it looked absolutely fantastic. The detail and colour was superb.

Re: Is it worth getting a 4K player, or should I stick with blu ray?
 

Yup, that’s the great thing about 4K. Even without using HDR the format has loads of room for expanded dynamic range.