**The Truth About 4K: Is It Worth the Hype?**

As I delved deeper into the world of 4K, I couldn't help but feel that the label "4K" was more of a marketing ploy than an actual technological advancement. The resolution aspect of 4K is indeed impressive, with a whopping 3840 x 2160 pixels, which is four times the resolution of 1080p. However, as I found out through my experimentation with YouTube and Netflix, the bit rate or data rate that these services are allowing for content that identifies as 4K is nothing to do with the higher resolution.

In fact, my experience with YouTube and Netflix led me to purchase House of Cards season 1 on Blu-ray and run it on my PC before streaming it in 4K on my Nvidia Shield console. The result was astonishing – the Netflix stream was difficult to distinguish from the Blu-ray experience, even in bright scenes. However, getting close and peeping at the pixels revealed that the Blu-ray copy was playing better, despite being only 1080p. This got me thinking – is a 4K TV really worth it? The answer, I came to realize, is not as straightforward as one might think.

**A Lesson in Resolution vs Bit Rate**

As I explored further, I discovered that the true reason behind my experience was not solely due to the resolution, but rather the bit rate or data rate of the content. Netflix and YouTube allow for higher bit rates with their 4K content, which makes a significant difference in terms of visual quality. In contrast, Blu-ray discs are limited by their physical storage capacity, which results in a lower bit rate. This means that even if you have a 4K TV, it may not necessarily make a difference in the actual viewing experience.

**The Case for OLED**

Now, I know what you're thinking – but isn't OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) technology going to change everything? And yes, it's true that OLED panels offer superior contrast and color accuracy compared to traditional LCDs. However, when it comes to the resolution aspect of 4K, OLED panels are limited by their own inherent characteristics. A 1080p OLED panel is still a far cry from being crushed by even a 4K Blu-ray disc.

**The Cost of Early Adoption**

As I concluded my journey into the world of 4K, I realized that shopping for a premium TV in late 2015 meant you didn't have to worry about any game-changing technology shifts before you could properly take advantage of it. The size of your TV was limited more by your living room than by what you could afford. However, this also means that many early adopters may have been misled by the promise of 4K resolution and paid a premium for it.

**Ifixit.com: A Tool Kit Like No Other**

In an effort to make up for my earlier disappointment with 4K, I turned my attention to ifixit.com, a repair service that offers an extensive tool kit for enthusiasts. If you spend $50 or more on their toolkit and use the code LTT (which you can find in the video description), you'll save $10. The kit is nothing short of phenomenal – it's like having everything you need to fix your device in one convenient bag.

**Conclusion**

In conclusion, my experience with 4K has led me to believe that while the resolution aspect may be impressive, it's not necessarily worth the hype. The bit rate or data rate that content providers are allowing for 4K content is a crucial factor that makes all the difference. However, I do think that OLED technology will continue to play an important role in the world of display technology.

If you're shopping for a premium TV in late 2015, be aware that there may not be many game-changing technology shifts before you can properly take advantage of it. And if you're considering investing in a new TV or device, I would recommend waiting until 4K Blu-ray arrives and experiencing the true potential of 4K content.

Finally, if you're an enthusiast who loves tinkering with devices, then ifixit.com is a must-visit destination. Their tool kit is a treasure trove of goodies that will make your life easier and more enjoyable as a DIY enthusiast.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: entoday's topic is a big one one so big that it actually doesn't fit on the set with me yes friends LG sent me both a 65 in 65 EG 9600 UHD curved OLED TV and an ano receiver to go with it to hook up and give my thoughts on the movie and gaming experience so this isn't a review per se since I don't have much to compare it against but rather my Impressions on the experience of moving from a 1080p flat LED backlit LCD to a bigger curvier sexier OLED model so here we go the master case 5 by Cooler Master gives you the freedom to truly make your midtower PC case your own with a variety of modular parts and accessories check out the link in the video description to learn more so let's kick things off with some specs and physical observations about the 65 eg9600 the first thing you'll notice pulling it out of the box is that the screen is curved this was the big thing at CES this year but even as someone who has been using a curved display as my daily driver on my work PC for the better part of a year now I'm just not sold on it in the living room I mean to be clear it's not bad in fact an unexpected side effect was that I get less notice not able glare off of the display than I did with my old flat one so right on there but I'm just not convinced that until we're putting 120in TVs in our living rooms that the curve affects immersiveness in any meaningful way and I basically forgot about it 30 seconds into whatever content I was enjoying the next thing you'll notice about this TV is that it is wayfer thin both in terms of the thickness of the panel a fairly meaningless ego measuring contest that all the TV makers and no one else seem to care about since your attempt to mount the thing flush against the wall will be limited by the thicker lower half that contains all the power delivery processing and inputs anyway and in terms of the bezel size which is a completely different story and combined with the clear acrylic stand that didn't really impress me on the 3495 monitor but makes a ton of sense here makes this TV feel more like a floating piece of technology science fiction and then just another TV but no one tunes into to lonus Tech tips for my style tips so let's move on to the next thing you'll notice when you turn it on the screen this OLED panel is absolutely mind-blowing I mean I'm a pretty techsavvy guy I was already aware of the fact that oleds do not emit light at all when they receive a black signal but seeing it in person in your living room white text or bright objects on dark or black backgrounds look so crisp thanks to the 4K panel and sextastic infinite contrast between the pierced white and deepest black making it an absolute sight to behold rounding out our tour of the TV it features one each of RF component and composite Legacy inputs a digital audio pass through three USB ports a landan port for if your Wi-Fi sucks and 4 HDMI 2.0 ports with hdcp 2.2 compliance making this one of the first Ultra HD TVs that's suitable for both movie enthusiasts who want support for 4K Blu-ray discs when those start showing up and Gamers who want their PC to be able to Output at 3840 by 2160 60 htz for a less According to some people who unfortunately don't seem to know any better cinematic but objectively way better gaming experience thanks to the higher refresh rate which leads us pretty well to the gaming experience at 60 milliseconds of display leg even in game mode you're behind by about four frames at 60 HZ as a best case scenario this number would be considered quite poor for a Competitive Gaming monitor but I should probably put it in the appropriate context playing games like Super Meat Boy while slightly trickier timing wise than on a 144 HZ gaming monitor wasn't just possible but actually still fun and for games that are less reliant on Pixel perfect timing like arcade Racers or 3 person action games the vast majority of people won't even notice and the crisp moving images like seriously motion blur not a thing helped it feel more responsive to me than it ended up actually being when I objectively measured it with my Leo Bodner leg tester so overall I had a blast playing games on this TV with the Highlight being the Battlefront beta with my nerdy Tech couch Master with pretty much the only thing that could make this scene better being some Doritos and some Mountain Dew let's move on to movies now though the first movie I watched on this TV actually after I watched my Faulty Towers uh remastered collection which obviously being standard definition didn't look that great the first HD movie I watched on this TV blew my mind just for the sake of thoroughness I ordered a 3D Blu-ray of How to Train Your Dragon even though I'm not that into 3D to watch with my son for the first 15 to 20 minutes I had that pressure sensation that I get in the front of my brain even in the theater then actually after that it was gone the passive alternating horizontal line stereo 3D approach that LG has taken with this TV works like a charm image Clarity is only noticeably reduced on small background objects and I got none of the headaches that I typically experience due to slow pixel response times on LCDs with active shter glasses and even my wife reported having a positive 3D experience for the first time ever thanks to the lightweight polarized glasses and clipons and outstanding stereo separation it's a fantastic 3D movie watching experience which I guess leads us back to gaming again where things were not quite as rosy I grabbed the trial of nvidia's 3D TV play software package that allows you to use your TV's glasses and game in 3D and once again stereo separation fcking awesome but because interleaved passive 3D requires the signal to use frame packing you're limited to AV resolutions and refresh rates so while try 2 was a sight to behold in glorious 3D having to choose between 4K in 2D at 60 HZ 1080p in 3D at 24 htz or 720p in 3D at 60 HZ I opted for 4K not necessarily because it makes a huge difference in sharpness from couch distance compared to 1080p but because compared to 720p since I'm not going to play at 24 Herz it is much much better so I'll go for gold there which brings us back to movie watching I guess so let's talk about the benefits of 4K many of the evaluations of 4K TVs center around the 4K content that's available to us right now so unless you bought that asinine Sony 4K player we're basically talking about stream content from the likes of Netflix or YouTube and I've seen reviewers compare the jump from 1080p to 4K to lifting a blurry Veil off the screen the issue here is that they're comparing web 1080p to web 4K and as we explained in our does 4K matter on the web video which you can check out here the reason that 4K YouTube videos look better than 1080p is nothing to do with the higher resolution and everything to do with the higher bit rate or or dat rate that YouTube is allowing for Content that identifies as 4K so for the sake of thoroughness I decided to confirm that our YouTube findings were also applicable to Netflix by purchasing House of Cards season 1 on Blu-ray and running that on my PC then streaming it in 4k on my Nvidia Shield console and switching between them impressively the Netflix stream was difficult to distinguish from the Blu-ray experience in brightly scenes and pretty much impossible from a normal viewing distance but getting close and peeping at the pixels you can tell that the Blu-ray copy is just playing better in spite of being 1080p which doesn't mean I'm poo pooing 4K content in general it just means that the little 4K icon in the bottom of the screen is not ample justification for a 4K TV purchase and for me if that's what it's about for you native 4K content then you might as well wait until 4K Blu-ray arrives which I guess brings us nicely into our conclusion I'm not saying that a 4K TV particularly in OLED is a terrible investment at this point early 4K TV buyers sorry y'all got hosed you paid a fortune you're stuck with 30 HZ maximum refresh rates and you're rocking a panel that by the time any content arrives to actually legitimately make use of the extra pixels will have been absolutely crushed by even a 1080p OLED panel that delivers a more vibrant picture with stunning contrast which in my mind is more important than sheer resolution but based on my experience with this model folks shopping for a premium 4K TV in late 2015 don't really have to worry about any game-changing technology shifts before they can properly take advantage of it I mean 4K Blu-ray is almost here the 3D experience is refined to the point where I would call it excellent we've gotten to the point where the size of your TV is limited more by your living room than by what you can afford the choice of curved versus non-curved is totally up to you with plenty of options out there panels are thinner than will ever matter and while I wasn't that impressed with outof the-box color accuracy on this particular TV after a little bit of color calibration something you should probably be factoring into a $55,000 purchase the 65 eg9600 delivered a movie watching and gaming experience that I feel like I could enjoy for a very very very long time speaking of things that I could use for a very long time iix it toolkits man they've got a lot of great tools and if you spend 50 bucks or more and use offer code LTT over on ifixit.com Linus which we'll have Linked In the video description you can save 10 bucks what can you save 10 bucks on well all kinds of things everything from just their Protek tool kit to their uh their repair business tool kit which has like freaking everything in it it's this like shoulder bag that you basically just kind of grab with you and it's got anti-static straps it's got their magnetic mat that keeps all the screws in place and you can label them while you're working on a project it's got their uh it's got both of their screwdriver sets the little mini one with all the small bits like your tri-wing bits and your your torx bits and all that like weird stuff that it's like impossible to find unless you just buy this kit and then you actually have all of them forever and then it's also got the other screwdriver set the bigger one it's got their eye opener it's got like suction cups it's got a digital multimeter it's basically it's just got everything you could possibly need in it I mean asterisk if you need like a rubber chicken with like a laser beam that comes out of the head when you pull on it or something then obviously it doesn't have that in it but it has pretty much everything else so that's ifixit.com Linus and offer code LTT to save $10 bucks on your purchase of $50 or more so thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video hit that dislike button if you liked it though hit like get subscribed to lonus Tech tips and maybe even consider supporting us uh you can buy a cool t-shirt like this one change your Amazon bookmarked one with our affiliate code instructions on how to do that are up there or even consider supporting us directly on our community form you get like a cool little badge next to your name now that you're done doing all that stuff and you're wondering what to watch next maybe check out my iPhone Ione 6s review where surprisingly I no I'm not going to spoil it go watch the videotoday's topic is a big one one so big that it actually doesn't fit on the set with me yes friends LG sent me both a 65 in 65 EG 9600 UHD curved OLED TV and an ano receiver to go with it to hook up and give my thoughts on the movie and gaming experience so this isn't a review per se since I don't have much to compare it against but rather my Impressions on the experience of moving from a 1080p flat LED backlit LCD to a bigger curvier sexier OLED model so here we go the master case 5 by Cooler Master gives you the freedom to truly make your midtower PC case your own with a variety of modular parts and accessories check out the link in the video description to learn more so let's kick things off with some specs and physical observations about the 65 eg9600 the first thing you'll notice pulling it out of the box is that the screen is curved this was the big thing at CES this year but even as someone who has been using a curved display as my daily driver on my work PC for the better part of a year now I'm just not sold on it in the living room I mean to be clear it's not bad in fact an unexpected side effect was that I get less notice not able glare off of the display than I did with my old flat one so right on there but I'm just not convinced that until we're putting 120in TVs in our living rooms that the curve affects immersiveness in any meaningful way and I basically forgot about it 30 seconds into whatever content I was enjoying the next thing you'll notice about this TV is that it is wayfer thin both in terms of the thickness of the panel a fairly meaningless ego measuring contest that all the TV makers and no one else seem to care about since your attempt to mount the thing flush against the wall will be limited by the thicker lower half that contains all the power delivery processing and inputs anyway and in terms of the bezel size which is a completely different story and combined with the clear acrylic stand that didn't really impress me on the 3495 monitor but makes a ton of sense here makes this TV feel more like a floating piece of technology science fiction and then just another TV but no one tunes into to lonus Tech tips for my style tips so let's move on to the next thing you'll notice when you turn it on the screen this OLED panel is absolutely mind-blowing I mean I'm a pretty techsavvy guy I was already aware of the fact that oleds do not emit light at all when they receive a black signal but seeing it in person in your living room white text or bright objects on dark or black backgrounds look so crisp thanks to the 4K panel and sextastic infinite contrast between the pierced white and deepest black making it an absolute sight to behold rounding out our tour of the TV it features one each of RF component and composite Legacy inputs a digital audio pass through three USB ports a landan port for if your Wi-Fi sucks and 4 HDMI 2.0 ports with hdcp 2.2 compliance making this one of the first Ultra HD TVs that's suitable for both movie enthusiasts who want support for 4K Blu-ray discs when those start showing up and Gamers who want their PC to be able to Output at 3840 by 2160 60 htz for a less According to some people who unfortunately don't seem to know any better cinematic but objectively way better gaming experience thanks to the higher refresh rate which leads us pretty well to the gaming experience at 60 milliseconds of display leg even in game mode you're behind by about four frames at 60 HZ as a best case scenario this number would be considered quite poor for a Competitive Gaming monitor but I should probably put it in the appropriate context playing games like Super Meat Boy while slightly trickier timing wise than on a 144 HZ gaming monitor wasn't just possible but actually still fun and for games that are less reliant on Pixel perfect timing like arcade Racers or 3 person action games the vast majority of people won't even notice and the crisp moving images like seriously motion blur not a thing helped it feel more responsive to me than it ended up actually being when I objectively measured it with my Leo Bodner leg tester so overall I had a blast playing games on this TV with the Highlight being the Battlefront beta with my nerdy Tech couch Master with pretty much the only thing that could make this scene better being some Doritos and some Mountain Dew let's move on to movies now though the first movie I watched on this TV actually after I watched my Faulty Towers uh remastered collection which obviously being standard definition didn't look that great the first HD movie I watched on this TV blew my mind just for the sake of thoroughness I ordered a 3D Blu-ray of How to Train Your Dragon even though I'm not that into 3D to watch with my son for the first 15 to 20 minutes I had that pressure sensation that I get in the front of my brain even in the theater then actually after that it was gone the passive alternating horizontal line stereo 3D approach that LG has taken with this TV works like a charm image Clarity is only noticeably reduced on small background objects and I got none of the headaches that I typically experience due to slow pixel response times on LCDs with active shter glasses and even my wife reported having a positive 3D experience for the first time ever thanks to the lightweight polarized glasses and clipons and outstanding stereo separation it's a fantastic 3D movie watching experience which I guess leads us back to gaming again where things were not quite as rosy I grabbed the trial of nvidia's 3D TV play software package that allows you to use your TV's glasses and game in 3D and once again stereo separation fcking awesome but because interleaved passive 3D requires the signal to use frame packing you're limited to AV resolutions and refresh rates so while try 2 was a sight to behold in glorious 3D having to choose between 4K in 2D at 60 HZ 1080p in 3D at 24 htz or 720p in 3D at 60 HZ I opted for 4K not necessarily because it makes a huge difference in sharpness from couch distance compared to 1080p but because compared to 720p since I'm not going to play at 24 Herz it is much much better so I'll go for gold there which brings us back to movie watching I guess so let's talk about the benefits of 4K many of the evaluations of 4K TVs center around the 4K content that's available to us right now so unless you bought that asinine Sony 4K player we're basically talking about stream content from the likes of Netflix or YouTube and I've seen reviewers compare the jump from 1080p to 4K to lifting a blurry Veil off the screen the issue here is that they're comparing web 1080p to web 4K and as we explained in our does 4K matter on the web video which you can check out here the reason that 4K YouTube videos look better than 1080p is nothing to do with the higher resolution and everything to do with the higher bit rate or or dat rate that YouTube is allowing for Content that identifies as 4K so for the sake of thoroughness I decided to confirm that our YouTube findings were also applicable to Netflix by purchasing House of Cards season 1 on Blu-ray and running that on my PC then streaming it in 4k on my Nvidia Shield console and switching between them impressively the Netflix stream was difficult to distinguish from the Blu-ray experience in brightly scenes and pretty much impossible from a normal viewing distance but getting close and peeping at the pixels you can tell that the Blu-ray copy is just playing better in spite of being 1080p which doesn't mean I'm poo pooing 4K content in general it just means that the little 4K icon in the bottom of the screen is not ample justification for a 4K TV purchase and for me if that's what it's about for you native 4K content then you might as well wait until 4K Blu-ray arrives which I guess brings us nicely into our conclusion I'm not saying that a 4K TV particularly in OLED is a terrible investment at this point early 4K TV buyers sorry y'all got hosed you paid a fortune you're stuck with 30 HZ maximum refresh rates and you're rocking a panel that by the time any content arrives to actually legitimately make use of the extra pixels will have been absolutely crushed by even a 1080p OLED panel that delivers a more vibrant picture with stunning contrast which in my mind is more important than sheer resolution but based on my experience with this model folks shopping for a premium 4K TV in late 2015 don't really have to worry about any game-changing technology shifts before they can properly take advantage of it I mean 4K Blu-ray is almost here the 3D experience is refined to the point where I would call it excellent we've gotten to the point where the size of your TV is limited more by your living room than by what you can afford the choice of curved versus non-curved is totally up to you with plenty of options out there panels are thinner than will ever matter and while I wasn't that impressed with outof the-box color accuracy on this particular TV after a little bit of color calibration something you should probably be factoring into a $55,000 purchase the 65 eg9600 delivered a movie watching and gaming experience that I feel like I could enjoy for a very very very long time speaking of things that I could use for a very long time iix it toolkits man they've got a lot of great tools and if you spend 50 bucks or more and use offer code LTT over on ifixit.com Linus which we'll have Linked In the video description you can save 10 bucks what can you save 10 bucks on well all kinds of things everything from just their Protek tool kit to their uh their repair business tool kit which has like freaking everything in it it's this like shoulder bag that you basically just kind of grab with you and it's got anti-static straps it's got their magnetic mat that keeps all the screws in place and you can label them while you're working on a project it's got their uh it's got both of their screwdriver sets the little mini one with all the small bits like your tri-wing bits and your your torx bits and all that like weird stuff that it's like impossible to find unless you just buy this kit and then you actually have all of them forever and then it's also got the other screwdriver set the bigger one it's got their eye opener it's got like suction cups it's got a digital multimeter it's basically it's just got everything you could possibly need in it I mean asterisk if you need like a rubber chicken with like a laser beam that comes out of the head when you pull on it or something then obviously it doesn't have that in it but it has pretty much everything else so that's ifixit.com Linus and offer code LTT to save $10 bucks on your purchase of $50 or more so thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video hit that dislike button if you liked it though hit like get subscribed to lonus Tech tips and maybe even consider supporting us uh you can buy a cool t-shirt like this one change your Amazon bookmarked one with our affiliate code instructions on how to do that are up there or even consider supporting us directly on our community form you get like a cool little badge next to your name now that you're done doing all that stuff and you're wondering what to watch next maybe check out my iPhone Ione 6s review where surprisingly I no I'm not going to spoil it go watch the video\n"