I keep reading more and more about how TV manufacturers are rushing into the world of 4K, and rumor is that long-awaited Apple Television will be 4K. There are already 4K channels in Europe and some planned for America. I'm also reading of a 4K Bluray format expected to be figured out soon (that won't play in current machines), and even a box that'll upconvert HDTV to 4K.

So.... Now that I have a shelf full of DVD's I don't touch anymore, and my Bluray collection was just starting to grow, I'm pretty much slowing way way down on my bluray buying because I can just see in a couple years I'll be re-buying my Kubrick collection/Aliens/Boogie Nights, etc all over again. I nearly bought that glorious-looking Bluray set of Lawrence of Arabia but decided not to bother since 1080 is about to become as crappy-looking to our eyes as 480 has become.

Thoughts?

I wouldn't worry about it...first of all it will be YEARS before 4k is anywhere close to mainstream, and even then, it's unlikely there will be a 4k home video format...chances are by that time all movies will be distributed via direct download. I really don't see anyone (meaning studios or HD companies) investing in a brand-new physical media - Blu-ray most likely is the last one.

I could be totally wrong, of course.

In one word - No. DVDs still look great (although not as good as blu-ray, usually) and I can't see much benefit to becoming an early adopter of 4k tv/media device/etc.

No.

Nope.

Not much to think about on a format we won't realistically have in our houses for another few years. Won't stop me from buying blu's right now. I can't see older catalogs like Alien, Kubrick, etc. looking way better than what's already on blu. DVD to blu made sense, but blu to 4K does not - at least for me.

I distinctly remember people on this very board saying "VHS to DVD made sense, but DVD to Blu does not."

No one at the studios even believes 4K is a viable home video format. It's a flashy piece of marketing mostly being pushed by the hardware manufacturers. 3-D has not been the panacea they had hoped for and are always looking for the next gimmick to sell their TVs.

Blu-ray owners have nothing to fear from 4K. What will eat away at Blu-ray are legitimate streaming options. That is a much bigger and dangerous threat.

Also, maybe I'm just getting old but "a few years away" does not sound like that long of a wait to me anymore. Hahaha.

Yes. Many said DVD was "good enough". Well you know what? Blu-ray really IS good enough!

This is kind of what I mean. Once we all have Netflix 4K and direct streaming from the studios in 4K on our 80-inchers, who's gonna still pop in that old Bluray, unless it's an obscure Criterion edition or something.

4K streaming is a long way away, unless it's crap quality 4K. Then again, I'm sure when 4K TV's hit the market, plenty of people will play their old DVD's on them and swear it's magically turning everything into 4K. Hell, if it weren't for the analog twilight, I wouldn't be surprised to see people hooking up old VHS players to their 4K TV's and swear it's just as good as 4K BD.

No

If nobody is buying physical media now and everybody is streaming 4k media has no chance to survive.

By the time we're all streaming 4k movies, all our ISPs will be enforcing caps and we won't be able to stream much anyway...

I have learned not to buy "catalog" titles that I don't plan on watching anytime soon but that I want to keep "in my collection." That usually ends badly, because for most classic titles there will be a re-release anyway.

Absolutely not! I believe the 4k business will be one of the most over-hyped niche formats ever released (like D-VHS). There are too many things against it:

1. Joe 6-pack won't notice or care for anything better than DVD / Blu
2. The expense to upgrade will be massive and few true 4k films will be avail..
3. The massive amounts of data required will make it impossible to stream and very expensive to produce media for. Bandwidth caps = no 4k!
4. Who wants to 'upgrade' their library *yet again*? -- See number 2.

No, I prefer to live in the moment rather than planning for some future event. Life is finite. Besides, if I held off wating for technology to stagnate, I'd still be watching VHS on a 19" 4:3 TV.

Nope. By the time I get a 4K TV I will be so old that my eyesight will be shit and I won't be able to see the difference.

There are a lot of things that slowed down my purchase of Blu's, another format years down the road isn't one of them.

I still think Blu-ray will be final mainstream physical format.

The studios have seen physical media sales dropping as a whole for several years now. Blu-ray did not reverse the trend and neither will 4K. They know that.

There is already too much cheap product out there that has been completely devalued over the years.

Many of the physical disc manufacturers here in North America are bordering on bankruptcy because of the reduced demand for discs as well as the heavy investment in the separate Blu-ray manufacturing equipment which, for many plants, has not paid for itself yet. I don't think they are rubbing their palms together with desperate anticipation for the next physical format.

As I've mentioned in several other posts, the average person did not purchase HDTVs because they were HD. They purchased HDTVs because they were thin, sleek-looking, cheap and they looked great mounted on their wall. The HD aspect of it really wasn't the strongest selling point.

Trying to sell people the same TV in 4K for more money probably won't entice most consumers. How big a TV will you now need to see a significant difference? 80"? 100"?

How much space will the average person have for a TV of this size?

No, I have given 4K any thought at all, except for the few post here.

April fools? Nah, blu-ray is the last stop as far as buying physical discs. If 10yrs down the road 4K is the standard and we're all downloading our purchases, sure...I'll go for it. I cut off my VHS/DVD purchases when the new formats came out, but I don't see that happening again...certainly not to the same extent.

WTF is 4k?

Only when I hear any news of 4K titles actually coming out.