A TV is an infrequent purchase, and every time that opportunity comes by, there is a whole list of new technologies and features to contend with.Technologies like HDR, VRR, OLED, mini-LED, and more are genuinely transformative and worth paying for.Sometimes, however, the TV industry tries to sell us straight-up snake oil, and we all fall for it.
At least for a while.3D TVs turned watching a movie into an equipment check Too many bits and pieces to be fun There's a long history of cinemas introducing new features to get butts in seats, only for home entertainment to copy them.Wide-screen TVs and surround sound are two good examples.
For a while, in a bid to keep the industry alive, theaters went all-in on 3D.James Cameron's (which is one of my favorite movies, so sue me) kicked the whole 3D craze off.This movie is the gold standard for how 3D should be done, but sadly, most other 3D movies did not make good use of the technology.
You were more likely to walk out of the theater with a headache than a smile.And yet, 3D was the next big thing for TVs at home.Active-shutter systems were expensive and a pain to set up and maintain.
Later, passive 3D TVs were better, but the image took such a brightness, and clarity hit that most people weren't enthusiastic.The last 3D TVs to roll out of factories were back in 2016, which is the last year LG still made 3D OLEDs.Oddly enough, I watch 3D movies these days using my Meta Quest VR headset, with a combination of Plex and Movie Deck for Plex.
It solves all the image-quality and brightness issues, since each eye gets a separate image.It even simulates sitting in a proper theater.Sadly, VR also seems like it's in a downward spiral.
Go figure.Curved TVs promised immersion and mostly delivered a curved TV We curved our TVs and flattened our wallets A curved ultrawide PC monitor makes some sort of sense.As the sole viewer of the screen, having the right curve means that you're looking at all the pixels on-axis, and therefore avoiding issues like color shifts when viewing an LCD off-axis.
For a TV that's being viewed by several people from different points in the room, how does a curved TV provide any benefit at all? The answer is they don't, and it was just a vague excuse for a TV design that people thought looked cool and futuristic, but had no practical benefit at all.We were fools.Bigger motion numbers weren’t bigger refresh rates Lies, lies, and more lies When looking for a new TV these days, you might see its "native" panel refresh rate listed along with all the other relative numbers.
The only reason this is necessary is because TV makers have been marketing 60Hz TVs with wording that's made it sound like they are in fact 120Hz TVs.What was actually happening is that these TVs use tricks like backlight strobing and motion interpolation to let on-screen movement appear smoother than it really was.The problem is that once gaming consoles that could actually output more than 60 frames a second entered the market, consumers realized that what they thought was a 120Hz TV was actually just a regular 60Hz panel with a few magic tricks.
8K was a total flop Four times the stupidity Close Marketing people love when they can put a bigger number on a new product.A 16-bit console is better than an 8-bit console.A 65-inch TV is better than a 55-inch TV.
Higher numbers sell tech products, even when customers don't understand what those numbers really mean.Resolution used to be one of those numbers.1080p is better than 720p, 4K is better than 1080p.
The thing is, you could actually demonstrate this easily to a person's naked eyeballs.However, put an 85-inch 4K TV next to an 8K TV of the same size, and even if you have 8K content to play on the higher-res TV, chances are most people won't really see a difference.If your 4K TV has better contrast, color, and brightness, they'll probably think that one's better.
The truth is that 8K is dead, and will probably remain so for the foreseeable future.With the exception of Samsung, all the major TV makers have stopped or paused 8K TV development.Content creators aren't motivated to make 8K content, and gamers are certainly not getting the hardware needed to game at 8K.
Mainly because it doesn't really exist.If you bought an 8K TV, I'm really sorry for you.Maybe watch that demo video that came with it again.
Imagine what we'll fall for next TV technology isn't standing still and there's new tech and features coming all the time.However, even knowing how we've been sold lemons in the past doesn't really help prevent them in the future.The real answer is probably to defer buying the latest stuff until people with more money and less sense have done the beta testing, but then again when it's time to buy a new TV you're probably going to get whatever's the hot new thing anyway.
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