Monitors and "Ultra" 4k TVs - two many circles in my head

Doing a pretty stout remodel on the new house and one of the things getting built in is a huge (much bigger than it needs to be) 4k TV. And of course anything worth doing is worth doing 5x more than it should be done.....

So HDR is hitting TV land and all the marketing hype contrast ratios.......

Has anyone played w/ any of the higher end Sony/Samsung 4ks to see the number of stops they can display - I am thinking of taking in a scale to my local best buy and loading up some images and see how many steps.

Anyone do this yet???

Also I thought I read a new set that will be 4,4,4 bit depth vs. 4,4,2 current high.


Thoughts and considerations???

Mike

Mike - I don't know anything about television technology, except I really want to see a photo of your installation when it is done!

The comedy is that we have a "short" list of mods we want to make to the house we bought in June - as one step became two that became 3, we got all the way to 40% of the price of the house - even though we got a good deal, it wasn't that good of a deal. :). The TV is not one of the mods (I stopped camera stuff for a while) so it isn't subject to the resale budget compromise.

Got confirmation that Sony higher ends are 10 bit (4,4,2) and the recent model has some sort of tone mapping to HDR the shadows.... I guess.

At one point in time SONY built the best TV's in the world. I became a loyal follower. Then I bought a 55" five years ago. About the third year it started having a bad picture when it was turned on. It would warm up after ten or fifteen minutes it would be work itself out. It was getting worse and I decided to check in to it. I found that it was a common problem with that model. So bad that Sony had actually extended the warranty several years. Of course I found this out six months to late to have the TV exchanged out under warranty. It was a high end model at the time I bought it.

I have been looking for another TV, and will probably buy one after the first of the year. I suggest you read the reviews closely. There are several models that SONY has right now that have multiple complaints about Light Leaks. One model is priced in the mid range and has awful reviews from buyers, for a TV that cost several thousand is ridiculous.

So maybe you will buy yours soon and lets us know what you decide. It might save me some leg work.:)

The wife bought a Samsung 55" 4K TV about a month ago. It's been a good TV so far. I think we paid a little less than $900 for it.

Dave

You will need to let us know how this works out and the results of the testing. I am kind of toying with the idea of getting one to use as a monitor for tethered shooting in the studio if I can find one that is suitable. Not something that makes it into too many reviews for some reason....

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Originally Posted by jrw

You will need to let us know how this works out and the results of the testing. I am kind of toying with the idea of getting one to use as a monitor for tethered shooting in the studio if I can find one that is suitable. Not something that makes it into too many reviews for some reason....

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I bought a HDMI cable to attach to my 55" Sony, plugged in the 7D II with the microphone I just bought and made a video of our Christmas. The grandkids had a blast watching themselves on TV. The Picture was great.

For the purpose of tethered shooting I wonder if there would be a benefit from a 4K monitor. The 7D II will not shot 4K, I would think that if you were in live wouldn't see a resolution beyond that. Or would you?

Tethered for stills not video using Capture 1. Allows far better image review during a shoot than the tiny screen on the back. Easier to check focus, look for dust on objects, and review composition as well on a larger screen. A large display makes it easier for me to find, and correct, the little details that aren't even seen in small screens. Creating a monitor profile is required for proper colour reproduction which is why I am curious as to the colour gamut and tonal scale reproducible on current crop of 4k TVs. Less expensive alternative to big graphics quality monitors with potential for other usage as a bonus item, at least when available content catches up to the resolution factor. Maximum resolution for second display is determined by OS and software in use for this application not the video specs.

Update: In short not much.

Chased around and around in circles. I took a flash drive to my local best buy with several pics and loaded them up on the Sony, Samsung, LG (OLED) and Sharp.

I could see the difference between the UHD and SUHD series Samsung and $ for $ the Sony had visibly better color rendition and capacity (could actually see the difference between 8 and 10 bit color) the SUHD and the Sony were very similar but was a bit more expensive. OLED was certainly nifty but not sure if that was the presets vs. fully calibrated. The Sharp was adequate - couldn't really get to the color adjs, just preset "vivid" what ever that is.

None of the images were ugly, but better was better.

What I don't have a comparison with a full on graphics monitor - then again I doubt I am going to really go there regardless.

I am thinking of TOL sharp, just because it has the widest color gamut and the intrinsic contrast is flatter than the others which seems over cooked. As well as least expensive so if it is this doesn't work not too much gone. The other leading option is the Sony TOLs (top of line).

Thoughts?

Mike

So I bit the bullet and bought the computer side of the effort. More RAM than you can count, a several T on the drive and a .5T SSD and a 980ti graphics card (won't have to visit this decision for a while was my thinking). Will set up the RAM drive like JRW mentioned awhile back.

So back to the display side. Chasing around the 4k monitors. Does anyone have experience w/ a 10bit and mapped 14 bit look up table vs. gulp even more $$ for a 14 bit display? There seems to be a couple of steps in function and price. Several in the $600 range, next step is $1000 ish, next step is..... not going there.

Viewsonic has one that is 10 bit w/ look up, others are simply 10 bit. thoughts/concerns?????

Thanks,

Mike