Maybe I can add some constructive input here since I love home theatre.
When people moved from SD to 1080 HD, I noticed a lot of people saying, hey, this is not the same jump as from VHS to DVD, why is that? There are so many reasons for this perception and I think it's history repeating when it comes to 4k.
There are a lot of variables that come into play when viewing high quality content. There is:
- Obvious quality of the display.
- Bitrate.
- Viewing distance
- Source quality
- Calibration
- Law of diminishing returns
The first point speaks for itself.
Bitrate - the bitrate which is also related to the source, is going to be different depending on medium. HD TV will never look as good as Blu-ray. I first came across a test broadcast of HD TV in Australia I think back in 2001. A shop had it running. On close inspection, it was not HD. It was Enhanced Definition. One of the networks was broadcasting 575p (progressive). I argued this with the saleman. I don't think he understood. Another network was testing 1080i. We switched to that, then I noticed they had a composite cable. from the DTV receiver. Well that wont work. the whole setup was screwed. So look next time, when you see a test display of 4k. Being early days, and if displayed in a typical franchised store, good chance it's not even setup properly :).
So onto viewing distance. Without linking to some THX standard of viewing angles somewhere in the range of 24-30 degree's the fact is most people are sitting so far away from what we think are large displays, that the resolution of the pixel has become so small that the experience of "HD" has been compromised severely. Off the top of my head, you have to be sitting roughly only 2 meters from a 55in TV to get the full benefit of a 1080p source. Any further and you are just seeing a pretty picture.
This is where a good home projector really kicks in. Basically, the bigger the picture the more likely you are going to be sitting at a distance that falls within the range of THX recommendations, without even thinking about it. But most people with a well setup projector would be aware of this. Most casual people with a 55 inch TV are not aware of this.
Obviously source quality is important. All consumer digital video presentation has compression. I think nearly all video is a loss type compression hence you will never get a true life stream. Comparing HD TV transmissions to Blu-ray is pointless. Blu-ray shits over HDTV transmissions due to bitrates. I think 4k has a huge barrier here. To get 4k at a decent bitrate requires a lot of bandwidth. No consumer physical source stacks up. If you wanna get it streamed, I'd be thinking you still wont get the potential with even advanced compression at 100mb/s. Bandwidth is the main barrier to good 4k.
Calibration is very important, probably more so with a projector. Simple things like controlling ambient light - hugely important with projectors. Plasma TV's benefit more from light control than LCD/LED backlit. At the end of the day, viewing at night is just better :)
There is the law of diminishing returns. With each new standard, people want to expect the same level of Wow and same level of perceived change. For myself, I probably notice more improvement compared to others with each iteration of change but I think that's because I understand the pre-requisits for viewing distance and a good setup. However, for me, it's still diminishing returns.
Jow Blow will just see the different HD standards without taking into consideration the absolute need for the setup. "I'll just view my 40in from 5m's and then wonder why the picture looks the same. What is all the fuss?"
