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Sports in 4K

R

red41

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 11, 2006
175
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I am still rocking a regular 1080p television. Every time I got Costco I see the LG OLED tv and want to put it in my cart. Then I go home and to see if it would be worth it but find that the only 4K content out there are BluRay movies, Netflix and Amazon. The amount of content is better than it was a year ago but I feel like if I got sports (NFL, MLB, College sports) in 4k that would push me over the edge.

I have tried to find online if CBS, Fox or ESPN have any plans to broadcast in 4k but I don't see many recent articles. Does anyone on here have any insight?
 
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Waiting for broadcast 4K will generally be a long wait. Select iTunes (and similar), Blu Ray, self-shot 4K, photos, will be THE 4K sources most available. There is some stuff being shot in 4K. For example, the olympics are being shot in 4K and shown that way to some in the Koreas and Japan. But here at home, sources are thin for now (and may stay that way for a good while yet). Welcome to being near the bleeding edge.;)
 
OP, you're correct about the lack of 4K sports, which will be amazing when they eventually arrive, but your list of 4K source material can also include quite a few iTunes movies. Also, the LG OLEDs do a good job upscaling 1080p content so they are still excellent televisions. I have learned to not worry about the source material (provided it is at least 1080i) and simply enjoy the other advantages OLED plus Dolby Vision have to offer. When I do watch something in 4K, that makes for an extra treat.
 
Sports in 4K would be the ultimate.

NHL fan here and that would be stunning in 4K! I do see sometimes Canadian 4k broadcasts happen (they did last season, not sure this year). Why the NHL.TV or even MLB.TV wouldn't make some available (when there are some) is disappointing.
Not sure if Directv satellite carries any sports 4K?
 
Tim7 said:
In England we get football matches, soccer as you would say, broadcast in 4K. Some of them do look stunning!
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Formula 1 since last year too which it increadible in 4K. There are more and more 4K programmes being broadcast in UHD now too. I work in media production, for broadcast material it’s a mixed bag on what’s getting recorded in 4K. We are already shooting in 8K for some productions if spec’d, but final output is either 1080 or UHD.
 
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Tim7 said:
I hope the football World Cup this year will be available in 4K but I doubt it
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I thought I saw somewhere that FIFA have confirmed they'll be broadcasting in UHD? Mind you, the BBC and ITV will have to pull their fingers out and launch 4K channels. Could be a good time to do it on the back of the world cup?
 
570934 said:
I thought I saw somewhere that FIFA have confirmed they'll be broadcasting in UHD? Mind you, the BBC and ITV will have to pull their fingers out and launch 4K channels. Could be a good time to do it on the back of the world cup?
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Exactly. Most sports, like the olympics were actually shot in 8K (yes, 8K). But it’s up to the broadcasters to get their acts together and get a 4K channel started. Hopefully BBC get their act together.
 
The US 4K over-the-air broadcast standard was finalized late last year, and is due to start being used late this year.

However, it is a completely optional standard - no broadcaster *MUST* use it, unlike the move from standard definition to HD. It does have technical advantages that may be appealing to broadcasters, but it also has expense. TVs that support the new 4K broadcast standard (ATSC 3.0 - yes, they skipped ATSC 2.0) aren't even out yet.

Note that for cable/satellite providers, this new standard is irrelevant - content providers have been choosing wether to provide 4K or not on their own, and cable/satellite have their own "delivery methods" to their converter boxes that don't rely on the ATSC standard at all. For example, Comcast theoretically has been offering some of the Olympics in 4K.

So if you're buying a new TV, if you have any desire to receive over-the-air broadcast signals, I'd wait for the next generation of sets to come out. If you don't care about over-the-air, go ahead and buy now.

As to Tim's point - I went to the Women's World Cup in 2015, and saw NHK (Japan's national broadcaster, equivalent of BBC,) cameras very ostentatiously marked "8K". Their media vests were a different color than the rest of the TV crews, and said "NHK 8K" on them, rather than just "MEDIA".

https://advanced-television.com/2015/06/02/nhk-to-capture-fifa-womens-world-cup-in-8k/ (Yes, their 8K standard also has 22.2 channel audio!)
 
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Tim7 said:
Exactly. Most sports, like the olympics were actually shot in 8K (yes, 8K). But it’s up to the broadcasters to get their acts together and get a 4K channel started. Hopefully BBC get their act together.
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The BBC already is. They trialed 4K Wimbledon last year and had 4K streaming on iPlayer.

They have committed to 4K broadcasts of the World Cup and Wimbledon this year.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/26/2018-4k-tv-hdr
 
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Storminbalders said:
The BBC already is. They trialed 4K Wimbledon last year and had 4K streaming on iPlayer.

They have committed to 4K broadcasts of the World Cup and Wimbledon this year.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/26/2018-4k-tv-hdr
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This was trials. Sky have been broadcasting 4K content since their trials in 2015, with more and more live sports content now being broadcast. All 20 F1 races last year, god knows how many football matches. As Anonymous Freak said, satellite and cable networks have it easier than “traditional” broadcasters. Although the U.K. has a current surplus in bandwidth on the Freeview network.
 
Not forgetting BT in there but a IP solution. Do not have Sky to compare but the offering at the bit rates are superb. Not sure what it would be like from an aerial (terrestrial not satellite).

But then I have a decent broadband package and no cap however this ISP will not limit your IP TV (no matter the source) if you have them as the supplier from a certain package price up. I think (not checked T+C for a while).

Also the BT has the infrastructure in place for this, albeit a vastly smaller place compared to the US. How much of a game changer is that to scale up?

Tim7 said:
I hope the football World Cup this year will be available in 4K but I doubt it
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Bein Sports are saying they will offer 4k (seen on a recent tweet). Not sure of the host broadcaster and who can take what etc.
 
Tim7 said:
That article does however say the Winter Olympics would be broadcast in 4K in England which they haven’t been!
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Maybe it was broadcast to the UK only and decided the England wasn't worth broadcasting to?
 
westrock2000 said:
Careful on those LG TV’s. Some use “RGBW” instead of RGB pixels, and it’s lots of shenanigans. The OLED models are exempt from that trickery though.

http://4k.com/news/lthree-of-lgs-4k...eal-for-consumers-uh6400-uh6100-uf6800-16649/
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I am almost certain LG uses RGBW for their OLEDS, and that is one of the reasons they were able to beat Samsung out on OLEDS. RGB produces horrible yields, and the added "W" is the reason Sony uses LG panels in their own OLED. The yields were horrible using RGB. LG owner the patent on RGBW, so everyone pretty much uses their panels for TVs.
 
This whole conversation is why I'm still on 1080p (at least until a TV breaks I guess?)

I'm like 80% sports viewing and there's just very little reason to upgrade for my usage.

Also, my other 20% is movies and, yes, 4k movies look great...but honestly, Blurays and rips of them look amazing at 1080p to me still. It's basically just way more than good enough for me.

The 4k/HDR upsell is an even taller hill to climb than the SD to HD one was I think - at least for just normal regular people.
 
turbineseaplane said:
This whole conversation is why I'm still on 1080p (at least until a TV breaks I guess?)

I'm like 80% sports viewing and there's just very little reason to upgrade for my usage.

Also, my other 20% is movies and, yes, 4k movies look great...but honestly, Blurays and rips of them look amazing at 1080p to me still. It's basically just way more than good enough for me.

The 4k/HDR upsell is an even taller hill to climb than the SD to HD one was I think - at least for just normal regular people.
Click to expand...

I think HDR is much more useful to most consumers compared to 4K. 4K might be good if you are above 65" and/or sitting relatively close to the TV, but HDR has a meaningful impact no matter the distance/size.
 
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