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Question

4K Television and 4K Streaming

by Sep 24, 2018 3:17PM PDT

I bought a Sony XBR 75X900E television last November and a Samsung UBD-M9500 4K player. Both are able to display HDR discs. My cable television provider does not offer 4K content. To date I have only purchased 6 4K discs because I don't purchase fake 4K. I mainly use the following site which indicates which is real 4k or fake. The majority are fake 4K so I am not prepared to pay more for the fake 4K discs compared to blu-ray. I am also disappointed that 4K HDR discs of classic movies like Lawrence of Arabia are still not available and I will be purchasing 2001: A Space Odyssey on the day it is released.

http://4kmedia.org/real-or-fake-4k/

I have a collection of blu-rays which in my opinion look better on my 4K television played on my 4K player.

I checked out the 4K videos on You Tube using my television application but not that impressed as most of their 4K videos are unstable. I don't know if that is because of my router and wifi or is something most people experience. The best 4K picture quality is from my Planet Earth 2 4K HDR discs which I purchased at the same time as the Sony and Samsung.

In today's CNET newsletter there was an article about Roku which I know very little about. It indicated that I could get 4k HDR streaming from You Tube and Netflix using one of their devices which are inexpensive.
How is Roku different then my viewing You Tube 4K using the application on my Sony. Is it better quality?
It says the Roku remote controls my television. Am I able to go back and forth between it and my Sony remote or is it restricted to one of them.
I am also interested in hearing about the experiences of current Roku owners. Thank you.

Discussion is locked

10 Posts
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Answer
Sorry
by Forum moderator Sep 24, 2018 4:23PM PDT

I only have the Amazon 4K Fire TV box and now a Toshiba made 4K (UHD) Fire TV that I picked up during Amazon Prime day. My Roku is just 1080p.

My new Amazon Fire TV (Toshiba) remote is slick. I set up the HDMI ARC for the sound bar (also Toshiba to avoid "those" issues) and CeC links to my Sony BR player. I don't have to get out the Sony remote! Very cool integration by Amazon and Toshiba.

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About the remote use.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 24, 2018 4:33PM PDT

I have 3 possible remotes. The TV, sound bar and BR player. I can use any of them as how these work do not restrict you to just one remote.

A real problem for some and 4K UHD streaming is the internet speed. Netflix notes at
https://help.netflix.com/en/node/306 25 Megabits per second (Mbps) so here I have about 3 times that on Fast.com.

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Cool site Bob !
by itsdigger Sep 24, 2018 4:43PM PDT

Thanks Cool

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Answer
Disc always preferable
by Sep 24, 2018 5:01PM PDT

That is the current situation with most 4k content.

That said, you *might* have better luck with the Roku apps vs those built into your HDTV. YMMV.

Hey, don’t forget that Bridge on the River Kwai is out on 4k Wink

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Thank You
by Louis39 Sep 24, 2018 5:23PM PDT

Thanks for all the prompt replies. I am going to have to check my internet speed. Actually, one of the 4K movies I own is The Bridge on the River Kwai but for some reason there is a white horizontal band at the bottom of the picture. I took it back for another one and same thing. Besides Planet Earth 2, I also own Dunkirk, Gladiator, Saving Private Ryan and a guilty pleasure, The Great Wall so a total of 6 movies.

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This is a known issue...
by Pepe7 Sep 25, 2018 7:19AM PDT

...with certain discs on specific players. See if hitting the menu button makes it go away.

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That Worked
by Louis39 Sep 25, 2018 9:37AM PDT

Thanks Pepe7, I pressed the Pop Up Menu button on my Samsung remote and the white band is gone. I also noticed that if I view the bridge with a "resume" the band is also gone. I have no clue why this works but nice to be able to view Bridge without that annoying white band!

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Thanks.
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 25, 2018 9:53AM PDT

Just a +1 for "press this."

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It's pretty well known
by r. proffitt Forum moderator Sep 25, 2018 7:37AM PDT

That content is usually heavily compressed at Netflix, YouTube and other streaming sources with some titles used for "look how great 4K is" getting not as much compression. Netflix among others also dynamically adjust bitrates as your connection degrades so you are never sure you are seeing it at the same quality as on disc.

Even so, you can't see all those pixels unless you move very close to the set so the thought is "it all works out" for most of us with a high speed connection. I'm going to just leave this here that you really need to get to 50 megabits to get UHD 4K play today. Yes, Netflix notes 25 but most folk share the connection at home so it is really 25+.

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Nailed it (n/t)
by Pepe7 Sep 25, 2018 8:25AM PDT

N/t

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