What About Now? – Is It Time for a 4K TV?

Posted on by

A little over a year ago, I wrote an article about 4K televisions. At that time, I came to the conclusion that with the undecided official standards, poor uprez solutions out there, increased lag, and overall lack of 4K native content that it wasn’t a good time to get a 4K TV. Well, listeners of the podcast know that back in November I purchased a 4K TV. Why did I do that?

Well, here is the deal. It was time for me to upgrade my failing television. So, I did what just about everybody does when that type of thing comes up, I went and stared at televisions in a store and read reviews online. I quickly settled on set. Every employee in every Best Buy I went to all recommended the same television and so did the internet. So, I picked up a Sony X850C. The things that compelled me to do that was the tech that went into their uprez solution. They had a dedicated 4 core processor that did nothing but pull 1080p images up to 4K and did it with zero lag. So, instead of getting the 30-40 millisecond lag that you get out of most uprezzing televisions, this TV does so in under 10 milliseconds. In English, that is closer to the image lag you get out of a computer monitor than a traditional TV.

So, is it time for 4K? The answer to that question is a resounding “Kinda?” I was in a very particular position. My television was going bad quickly and I didn’t have much of a choice other than to buy a TV. The problem is that most mid-high end TVs are now 4K only. I also have weird eyes. I am colorblind and my eyes probably pick up on image resolution weirdness and color banding that most people can’t see. I just didn’t like most of the large 1080p TVs that were on the market and didn’t want to get tricked into a stopgap TV. I wanted something that would be with me for a few years. So, I went with the Sony.

How does stuff look? I think games look amazing on the TV. I probably didn’t need a TV as fancy as I bought. But, when you are in the store and are staring at some of the best looking TVs in the world sitting right next to another, you get weirdly vain about how good “your” TV should look. So, yeah. I got tricked. But, it uprezzes games really well and once I build a nice PC that can output native 4K resolutions, I will get to take advantage of even more of the niceness of it.

Should you buy a 4K TV? Maybe? I did. But, don’t be like me.