Time for a reality check!!
This is just science, and science is usually based in fact. So it's not up for debate. I don't see why this point needs to be argued so much on here. Displays are retina at certain distances. It's all relative to the resolving power of the human eye and the distance at which hit is viewed. Check out
this online calculator. It's a great resource for determining whether 4K is right for your environment.
You see, 4K monitors are great because we're only sitting about 18-24" away from them. Our eyes can clearly resolve the crisp edges of our UI and see detail in our photographs. 4K TVs require a much larger size because of where we put our couch. For instance, the minimum that most people sit from their TVs in their living room is around 8 feet, perhaps a little lower if you live in a tin can apartment (which I did for years). Taking that into account, 1080p benefits (over 720p) begin at 21.6" and are fully visible at 55". So yes, having a 1080p Apple TV is important vs. a 720p Apple TV. You also have to realize that 1080p is only roughly twice as many pixels as 720p, while 4K is four times as many as 1080p! So the scale factor is much larger. Looking at the calculator, it says that you would need to sit 6 feet away from an 80" screen to experience 4K, or would need a 110" 4K TV to experience it from 8 feet away.
In my house, I have a mid-range 2010 LG 1080p TV at 42" that sits an average of 10 feet from our sectional couch. I have a recently updated eyeglasses prescription (not a strong one either), and when I get up to walk towards the TV I notice additional detail. Mind you, I'm also a web/app/graphic designer and photographer for a living, so I'm used to pixel peeping all day and trained to notice tiny details and imperfections. If anything Netflix doesn't even provide an adequate 1080p quality as it looks fine from the couch but up close you can clearly see the compression artifacts—and that's on a 100mbps line! Using the calculator, I would need a 138" TV for a 10 foot viewing distance! Sure, some 4K benefits might start (a small increase in resolution over 1080p) at lower sizes. But we must ask ourselves, at this point, is it worth it? Let's look at another example. Let's take our 80" 4K TV—a set that, mind you, is still pretty astronomically expensive. In my living room 10ft away from the set, a person with 20/20 vision would only be able to distinguish 2227 x 1267 resolution. So we must ask ourselves, is it worth spending thousands of dollars on a TV set that is only showing a few hundred more lines of resolution than our current sets?
Maybe—under a very specific set of circumstances:
- If you have much better than 20/20 vision
- If you live in a small apartment and/or plan on sitting very close to the TV
- If you plan to use the TV as a giant computer monitor on your desk
Otherwise it seems like a massive waste of money.
As for me, I don't have plans to upgrade my TV in the next year, but if mine bites the dust, you can bet I'll be picking up a 68" 1080p set, which will give me full 1080p resolution, with perfect vision, at 10ft on my couch. It will also cost a whole lot less, especially with this ridiculous 4K fad going on. I've seen a lot of big wastes of money in my time, and 40" 4K ranks right up there among the worst.
The reason the 1080p Apple TV is adequate is because hardly anyone is going to go out and buy a
$3,548.99 Vizio 80" 4K TV on sale at Best Buy. And that's the cheapest 80 incher they sell. The largest option is
$19,999.98 Samsung 88" 4K TV, which will get you a viewing distance of nearly six and a half feet. The 720p Apple TV was inadequate because 1080p TVs in the 22-55" range were much more common and affordable at the time. 4K TVs in the 80-120" range are not. Once that changes, then we can be happy to change our minds and enjoy a 4K Apple TV.
You seem so shocked that people would change their minds over time. This happens in all of technology. Eventually people will love a 4K Apple TV because they can go pick up an 80" 4K display for $398 at Wal-Mart. For now Apple is meeting the needs of the market. And I'm glad to have 4K recording on my 6s because it means I'll have archival footage of my baby girl that will look awesome on the $799 120" 4K TV I order from Fasteroid using my iPhone X in 2022 on Black Wednesday sale.
Interesting side-thought: What will these stores do when they don't have room for all these 100"+ models? Will everything be online sales? Haha…maybe projectors will begin to become really popular. That makes more sense—just project a huge image. Or maybe TVs will be flexible and come rolled up in a box. Just unroll it and hook it onto the wall by corner stretching mounts. Weird! But I know that trying to fit a 120" TV inside my house is going to be a struggle. I'm also going to need a bigger wall…#21stCenturyProblems!