Curved Screen UltraHD TV

I looked at one of these in Lewis's Leicester (popped in to use the loo on the way to the Apple Store, and to check out the YouView PVRs as I was thinking of getting one as a housewarming gift for our youngest).

Looked interesting, although too large for our living room or my study.  My impression was that the picture was great if viewed front on, but was less good off main axis and possibly worse than a standard flatscreen in that regard.

Bearing in mind that there is little 4K UltraHD content available, the technology is not yet essential. You also need to be sitting close enough and/or have a large enough screen to see the benefits of the extra resolution and the curved screen.

The money might be better spent on an OLED display in regular HD. The improved colours and contrast available will always be a benefit.

Ken,

Personally, curved screens seem more a marketing exercise than bringing any degree of extra 'immersion' or picture quality. We spent years moving to flat screens with better geometry, now the latest craze is curvy ones. They would also look strange wall mounted. The only real benefits are if you watch from very short seating distances.

i would either hold out for the 4k OLED screens or look at the Full HD OLED screen LG have just brought out for £2000. Seems fantastic value for money with arguably better picture quality than the last decent plasma TVs from Panasonic. AVF have a detailed review and might be a place to advertise the old gogglebox.

Felty 99,

Thanks, the LG I have looked at was actually the curved OLED full HD model, not the 4K ultraHD, my error! The picture quality is excellent and as has been said no one transmits in 4K yet anyway. At 55'' screen size would you need 4k ultra HD anyway is a question I ask myself also. I have read that you would have to be very close to the screen to see the difference between 4K and full HD at this screen size I believe. So at this point I struggle which way to jump. Will OLED become the new vogue or will it lose the battle against LED 4K? It's a bit like the old Betamax / VHS war.

Ken

It's not one versus the other really. They are complementary technologies. The OLED displays will be better than LED backlit LCDs (which is what so-called LED displays really are) at equivalent resolutions. A 4K OLED display is possible, but still very expensive at this stage.

As you say, the resolution that makes sense depends on the distance from which you are viewing and the screen size. The benefits of OLED apply at all distances and sizes.

Merry Christmas Ken, and SHMBO!  Thank you both for my card, lovely to hear from you!

I thought your Phillips TV was the dogs what's it! You just want to go bigger don't you! Would the 55" fit where the Phillips is, or will you have to build an extension, which would take you into the swimming pool!  Or, you could bin the curtains, and put it where the Panasonic used to be!

I have looked at the curved screens, I'm a bit unsure about them. Do you remember when they used to be curved? But the curve was going the other way, can't think of the technical name for it! (Concaved?)

I have got 'Muse' live, on Blu-ray, shot with 4K cameras. I took the disc to John Lewis, and they played it on a Sony 50" 4K TV. Absolutely amazing!! Of course, the only problem is,  there is hardly any 4K material around. The major cable/Satellite companies can't even supply us with enough HD channels, let alone anything higher.

Next month at the CES you will see even more of the latest/new best thing in screens by companies 

trying to get people to part with there cash. 

The  Tech show on BBC news is worth watching  to keep up to date with whats coming from around the world. 

Jazz...Nice! 

Brought the LG OLED from John Lewis for 2k was looking for a replacement for my plasma, Look at the 1k OLED alongside the 4k sets and preferred it.

Merry Christmas Dave and thanks for your comments, the curvature of the old screens that you refer to were convex, the ones that we were looking at a couple of days ago are concave. Also as you say there is presently hardly any material in 4K to watch.

We have been out today and were able to conduct a good comparison between LG, Samsung and Sony. The store rep demonstrated the same sample of movie to us in 4K against full HD on various 55’’ models, we were finally convinced that Sony won the day. It’s up scaling of HD to 4K is better than the others and we were able to see a difference in 4K over HD on a 55’’ screen. So we have done the deal on a 55" Ultra HD model and expect delivery in late January at our request. Thanks again to all for your advice and comments.

Ken

Dave, you can find my email in my profile should you wish to chat outside this forum.

Ken

Great choice. 4K/Ultra HD content will be coming quicker than folks realize. A Sony 4K disc will be premiered at CES  according to reliable sources. As you noted the up sampling function is also quite good. Sony is top dog right now although I saw a 78 inch curved Samsung the other day that was breathtaking. Competition is fierce and the results spectacular. So much so that here in the US you can get a very nice quality 50 inch Panasonic  LED for $600.00.

We're sitting about 4m from our Sharp 60" full HD set. The difference at that distance between 1080 (e.g. Bluray) and 720 (e.g. Netflix) content in terms of resolution is imperceptible (but obvious if you sit closer, of course). Obviously more compression artefacts on streamed video and bit-depth reduction is apparent on dark scenes with gradual colour/brightness gradients, but it's pretty subtle and dosen't really affect our enjoyment.

I can't imagine that 4k would give us much more unless we upgraded to ludicrous (70"+) size at the same time.

Audio quality on Bluray is great (through SN1 DAC and S600s), though.

In the USA reviewers indicate performance issues exist with curved TV's currently and that it's a marketing ploy rather than advancement as they don't perform as well as flat screens. The exception may be the LG OLED which cnet measured as the best performing TV they have tested including plasma. One has to sit within the viewing radius for best results. 4K flat are mostly good. My brother-in-law got an LG IPS 4k (flat) and loves it. LG's implementation of upscaling works wonders on no 4k content feeds such as 1080i and 720p etc... 

Does anyone know why curved screens are suddenly the best way to view content? What are the problems with flat screens? They seem fine to me!

Hi Rackkit,

I think the idea was first seen way back in the '50's with Cinerama at the movie theaters. 

Supposedly it helps peripheral vision and creates a more 'emersive' viewing experience, but the benefits are debatable.  For someone sitting well of axis, a curved TV screen is going to be worse, not better.  And much of the drive behind the original idea was to reduce distortion from projectors (the beam has further to travel to the edge of a wide flat screen) -  which may not apply with a TV anyway.

That said, I've seen some in stores and been pretty gobsmacked with the picture quality.  Just not sure they are inherently 'better', whilst the off axis viewing remains a concern......

Curved screens are new, different, and therefore marketable. I'm not convinced they off real advantages other than for someone sitting close and on-axis.

So I think that for gaming, a 4k curved screen with the graphics power to drive it properly will blow people's minds. Imagine how immersive a 55" curved screen from a metre or two away will be.

I was in someone's house the other week and they had a curved screen. I noticed that it picked up less reflections of the room, than a flat screen. Could be of interest to people who have a few windows in their tv room.

I wall mounted my 50" Kuro so can't see me going for a curved screen anytime soon. I'm staying flat earth! 

Hi Ken,

i just recently moved from a Philips Ambilight 42 inch to a Samsung 65 inch curved UHD tv. And I have to say that I was initially also a bit sceptical, however I am converted. One has to get used to the new tv as it renders way better as my 5 years old phillips. You have to wathc the settings as it can get almost unreal in sharpness and contrast. But when well installed it's a real treat. The curved aspect, a lot of people are talking about a marketing story, and party this will be as well true. But I do tend to feel that I get more depth in the screen, so more real image again. The UHD - yes there is not / not a lot of that type of content. But upscale content also looks superb on the screen. I was yesterday looking at the 2nd installment of the Hobbit from a normal DVD through my OPPO 103D and through my curved UHD and was amazed about how beautiful this was. Black levels, sharpness etc are not of this planet. 

So so while I know a lot of people speak about the marketing aspects of the UHD revolution - I see a lot of practical benefits. And while you are in the market for change why not getting an advanced tv. The LG oiled which is full hd got by the way also a very good review.

hope this helps you a bit.

Ps sorry missed that. In the room especially with the 65 inch the curved aspect makes it digestible and nice to look at instead of just being a wall.

Hi Bert. Have you mounted yours to a flat wall?