meywd said:
though I agree that 4k content is available via streaming more than via other media (Disks, Cable,,,) still that is only in the US, maybe in EU, but the rest of the world doesn't have the service or the bandwidth, also cable and satellite TV is not as content-rich as in the US, so the only other option is Blu-Ray, also in the future when 8K hits streaming will be harder, so this is a good step for when that comes, which is the real target for broadcasting companies.
True, streaming is bigger in the more heavily westernized countries, where bandwidth is more readily available. I can see UHD BluRay being valuable in such places. In some ways, a disc will always hold the edge as well...there is the whole uncompressed audio thing, which if you have a nice audio system, can be a big bonus. You definitely don't get that with streaming. You might get an edge on overall IQ as well...but it's pretty amazing what TVs can do these days with their upscaling, blur management and judder reduction algorithms. Even older content that wasn't prepared for 60fps playback has incredibly smooth transitions.
I don't believe bandwidth will be a huge problem when 8k arrives, but I also think 8k will be a little slower in coming than 4k. For most people, the very vast majority of the middle class and certainly those with less disposable income, TV's at the sizes they buy already look phenomenal at 4k (and even 2k with smaller sized TVs). The SmartTV integration with a wide variety of delivery services makes getting high quality content very easy, and if you want, very cheap (i.e. it's very easy to drop cable plans these days and just get all you entertainment from online sources, and disc). It will be a select few, those buying 80" and larger TVs or projectors for their home theaters, who will probably gain something from 8k.
I'm pretty blown away by my 4k Samsung. I could always see the pixels of my older Samsung TOC 1080p TV, even sitting on my couch. Even if I couldn't discern every pixel clearly, the picture just never felt like "high definition" to me...it felt scratchy. With 4k, I finally feel I'm watching truly high definition video, and I am no longer able to see any pixels. With the built-in upscaling (which does selective sharpening and noise reduction), even older content, as well as more highly compressed web content, looks phenomenal.
I don't think I would see any significant improvement with 8k, not at this screen size, anyway. If later in life I am able to "upgrade" to a larger home capable of supporting a huge TV, then 8k might hold some value, but until such time, at least as far as playback is concerned, 4k is pretty amazing. Now, when it comes to 8k recording, that is a totally different story. I'm all for more resolution when it comes to recording video. There are so many benefits to having more and higher quality data. I suspect 8k and maybe even 10/12/16k in the future will be useful things for those interested in doing cinematography. Especially if 4k settles in as a long-term TV video entertainment standard...8k can be downsampled to 4k, increasing quality.
