Slowly but surely 4K viewing is worming its way into the collective consciousness. It is doing so in nearly the same way HDTV did in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Along with the arrival of 4K come the same problems as HDTV.  The present cable boxes don’t stream 4K content and if TV purists want to get the most out of their TV, they may have to upgrade their equipment.  Not to mention, as 4K trickles down to consumers, 8K is already nipping at 4K’s heels.

To upgrade or not?

To answer the question simply: if you want a TV with a crystal clear image that displays the sharpest detail, go for it. Again, keep in mind that there is very little content right now for it but, if your set is older than 10 years, and you are in the market, you may see a marked increase in picture quality. Also beware that you may have to upgrade other components to get the most out of your TV.

Within the past 10 years, many of us have invested in a decent surround system that is HDMI compliant with those cool TVs we got when standard definition went out of the window. Consumers bought snazzy audio receivers and as we got settled into watching HD content, we did not realize that we invested in gear that wasn’t future-proof for Ultra HD content. Unless you recently bought a receiver to match your 4K UHD, many are not 4K compliant and many audio receivers still work with pictures broadcasting at 1080p. While using the pass-thru method may have worked well for years (considering that many of us have gaming machines and PCs hooked up), some of us may want to hook our devices up directly to our 4K UHD TVs to see if it makes a difference because many of us are now finding out that our receivers aren’t built for 4K UHD television.

Now I may have skipped ahead a bit to receivers, as I may have assumed that many have already invested in 4K UHD TVs. Some of you may still be wondering, why should I invest in a 4K UHD TV anyway? That answer is ultimately up to you. If it’s a matter of cost, I would say that buying a 4K TV is in-reach for most. Three or four years ago, many of these TVs were well into the $1000 – $3000 range, but within the last year, prices have steadily dropped. Consumers can expect to pay $400 for TVs within the 40” range and, of course, as they get bigger and more feature-rich with Smart TV technology, the more you will pay. Also, these TVs are not the gimmick that 3D TVs were a few years ago. As television technology gets better, the more new tech will make our old tech obsolete. So, for some, getting a 4K UHD TV is staying somewhat ahead of the curve.

It again comes back to if you, as a consumer, want to invest in a new receiver as well as new HDMI cables (which you may or may not need right now) to get the best picture. If you are going to get a 4K UHD TV, similar to how HDTV was released, everything in your chain must be all compliant and able to communicate among devices. So that means along with the 4K UHD TV, you may want to invest in a new receiver, HDMI cables and as they trickle onto the market, UHD blu ray players.

What about content?

As stated earlier, there isn’t a lot now, but it’s coming. Ultra HD blu-ray players are still a bit on the high end and newer standard blu-ray players are built with upscaling hardware inside. Where things get a bit more complex is that many films are still shot in 2K. So really, for any Ultra HD blu-rays coming, what’s the point? This means that, for the foreseeable future, we still may see a lot of current content run through an upscaler and relabeled as 4K content. Also, if standard definition content didn’t always translate well to high-definition; chances are that even more upscaling may make it even worse. Another thought to consider is that many of us stream our content now, so will it even be feasible to buy a new player once it releases to triple and quadruple dip movies that we have bought several times on DVD and blu-ray? I personally can’t see spending another $50 or $100 dollars on a UHD version of Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings when I barely watch the ones I have now. Consider this as well, nearly all the streaming services have 4K content. Some of which you may have to pay extra for. If you are up to it, grab it for a short period and give it a look and see if it’s worth the money, then make your decision from there. Cable companies are rolling out boxes now which should be available to the general public by the end of 2016.

What about gaming?

One of the main reasons why I upgraded to 4K was for gaming. While it wasn’t a huge jump from an HDTV with 120mhz refresh, I do notice that a lot of my games look sharper on screen. One thing that was noticeable is that, since backwards compatibility became a huge want with Xbox-One, there were a few games I have gone back to play. One of which was the original Assassins Creed. While most of the movement mechanics pale to what can be done now, I was very impressed with the graphics upscaling. It still looks very good for a nearly 10 year old game. As far as what is known right now, there are no concrete plans as of yet to whether the PS4 or X box One will be getting hardware updates. Even so, how many fans will be willing to sell their current systems just to get a new one compatible with their TVs? With home consoles on shaky ground with looming competition of tablet gaming, it’s not like studios are jumping at the chance to make games that takes advantage of 4K TVs.

The Bottom Line

Even though the price of 4K UHD TVs have dropped, many of us are still at an early adoption phase. There is still little content available and, to take full advantage, many of us would have to spend even more money to replace perfectly good working equipment that we own. It’s still not a bad idea right now to grab a TV if one wanted it, but are there really compelling reasons to own one? One of the only reasons may be because the TV you have now is old enough to warrant an upgrade and for the money you would spend on a HDTV, you could probably get a Ultra HD TV for the same cost.