OK, I wasn't really meaning to chime in on the specific content of this thread (4K vs. 1080P), but the more general concept of some people's (many on these fora, IMO) propensity to believe and state that THEIR experience necessarily equals EVERYONE'S.
Actually, people are saying for Passengers they have purchased the 4K version according to iTunes, even though the actual version they got was 1080p.
Yep, that too. And Retina on laptops too. In fact, Apple arguably still has the best implementation of Retina on laptops, even though it's roughly the same implementation they had when they introduced it.
According to the leak code from the Apple Homepod, the new 4K AppleTV will be Dolby Vision and HDR 10 compatible, which is great news........however, you still need a TV that's capable of displyaing DV, which I believe most 4K displays aren't right now.
Actually, people are saying for Passengers they have purchased the 4K version according to iTunes, even though the actual version they got was 1080p.
https://www.macrumors.com/2017/07/28/apple-listing-select-itunes-movies-as-4k-hdr/
BTW, it's not just about waiting for content, but I suspect it was partially also the hardware. Until last month, none of the Macs could decode 4K HDR HEVC content in hardware on the CPU/iGPU. Apple requires a Kaby Lake CPU to make this work on Macs. Yes, they could have supported it on AMD GPUs, but that would have made for a very fragmented experience, since many Macs do not have discrete GPUs.
This is one big reason why I waited so long to get a new Mac desktop and new Mac laptop. But as expected, Apple launched its HEVC support in June, and for 10-bit HDR content, it requires a 7th generation Intel Kaby Lake CPU. Such playback works great in QuickTime on not only my 5K iMac, but also on my lowly 2017 MacBook Core m3. However, it does need High Sierra 10.13 too.
Get a Samsung UHD Player. Framerate switching works perfectly. I hope someday an Apple TV will support this, until that its kind of useless for perfect movie streaming.
I strongly suspect many of the righteously indignant 4K TV owners here are comparing a years old 1080p screen to a brand new 4K screen (it's not like technology ever improves, after all), and may be running older, more highly compressed source material out to the 1080p screen. They are seeing a substantial improvement, and they are comparing a 1080p screen to a 4K screen, but correlation does not imply causation.
I don't remember the exact screen size / distance ratio off the top of my head, but I've read many articles that seem to be along the same lines. Basically, for anyone not interested in a 60"+ screen and sitting at an average 10' from that screen, there is no real incentive to get a 4K or 8K TV.
As has been already mentioned in this thread, this presupposes a near-perfect 1080p signal. Unfortunately, streaming 1080p is far from perfect. Note it's true that streaming 4K is also not perfect, but it can often be hugely better than streaming 1080p quality.
It's not like the Apple TV 4 came out yesterday, it's been a while. Thus the update.
You’re absolutely on point. Until that day, I will save my breath against those with poor eyesight, allergy to progress, or other limitations.Actually, it's simpler than your advice. Right now a 4KTV is a rumor, albeit one seeming to gain a lot of traction in the last week or two. As soon as Apple takes to a stage and rolls out a 4K
The exact same thing happened in the days when Apple still clung to 720p as "HD" (maximum) before announcing the 1080p
One of the best: "I don't want to throw away a perfectly good TV set because..." implying some perception that better hardware will "force" everyone to only download 4K video, in spite of an obvious history that advancing
So basically, the crowd that seems to passionately argue for whatever Apple has for sale right now is just doing their (paid or unpaid) job. Note how you tend to not find these same people in threads for all of Apple's other products that already embrace 4K bashing against Apple for embracing "the gimmick" in iPhones, iPads & Macs- only here with this ONE Apple product that does not yet embrace 4K.
As soon as Apple has done the big reveal, the vast majority of this crowd will not dare show up to bash Apple for stupidly embracing "the gimmick" that "no one's eyes can see." Instead, it will be "Shut up and take my money" and the same old, TIRED arguments will go into the long-term recycling bin to be revived again as rumors start picking up for 8K a few years down the road.
We've already seen this exact same movie before and after the "3" was announced. I expect no difference here. A God will speak and then 4K will be fine to all His followers forevermore.
Higher bitrate makes for an incredible difference even on 1080p content. Playing a 8000+Mbs high quality rip of Orphan Black you can swear you are looking at 4K footage when it is in fact downscaled to 1080p.
You can buy external upscalers. I connect my Switch to my 4K TV through a high quality (yet inexpensive) external upscale dongle and the difference in quality is dramatic.
