Hacker News Reader

Comment by mytailorisrich | Hacker News Reader

I have a 4K-capable 40 inch TV in a standard living room (for Europe). 4K videos look slightly crispier than full HD ones.

While I could have a slightly larger TV, I think that for typical domestic use 4K's improvement is marginal because people are not sitting 50cm from the screen and room sizes are limited.

Really, so far the top benefit has been that I could tell my wife: "Look, if I move right up to the screen I can still see Jeremy Clarkson's individual hair strands!"

View on HN

I've got a 4K TV and it's placed in a location that I can tell whether or not something is 4K if I sit a bit closer, but the core problem is that it's still very difficult to provide it true 4K content, since I've not been willing to drop the money for 4K blurays.

I've got a variety of content that is, technically, a video stream that decodes into a framebuffer that is a "4K" framebuffer according to the metadata on the video, but without enough bits for it to truly be "4K"; the same number of bits dedicated to a 1080P video would look just as good.

For all the bragging about how streaming is the future, it seems to me that the companies providing those streams at scale still have a lot of incentive to cut the bitrate back so far that it's not practically a 4K stream anymore, because 95%+ of their audience can't really tell.

For those of us who aren't there, can you clarify how big a standard European living room is? This has nothing to do with the resolution stuff you mentioned, just curious.

In the UK in a victorian terrace, and our front room is perhaps on the small side at about 3x4m. I'd guess somewhere between that and 4x5m is about average. For us 32inch still can feel imposing. And that size screen seems to be being phased out.

Oh dear God that's tiny. How do you stand that? Genuinely curious; I feel like I'd end up claustrophobic.

We do have another room, that's slightly larger but it's a bit bleak. And weirdly it's a more fussy room to furnish. The smaller size is better in the winter. The old brick terraces aren't that warm. In large houses people can gravitate to smaller rooms for that reason. Personally I'd like a large room that I could bring the furniture in from the sides. Lucky to even have a house to live in to be honest, so can't really grumble.

I looked up some pictures; would you say this is representative? https://img-new.cgtrader.com/items/969757/41efc6817b/modern-...

If so, you're right; that's pretty small. Is it just a matter of acclimation?

Also, can you clarify what you mean that you're lucky to have a house? I wasn't aware of a major homeless problem in Europe.

I have to comment. That's huge! Way bigger than most UK Victorian 2 up, 2 down terraces. More like the size expected in an older 4 bedroom house if you ignore the extra space the photographer is clearly standing in.

Have a random right move link of what I think as typical Victorian worker's terrace: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-62228...

The door by the yellow chair is a tiny porch with front door beyond. No idea how it compares with OP's.

That's slightly smaller than ours probably all in all. But I've seen smaller, like the one up, one down back to backs in Leeds/Woodhouse and many modern flats apartments, are just broom cupboards - but then you look at down town Japan and this feels palacial.

That's larger than mine. Sizes are getting smaller. Can't comment for the rest of Europe but the UK has quite a bad homeless problem, it's very visible at the moment. Rents are prohibitively high, and getting onto the housing ladder is very difficult. Small houses - even semi-detached bungalows around our way are at least £300k (edit: oops missed a 0 originally!). The housing stock is shockingly bad in the UK, and very expensive.

> I wasn't aware of a major homeless problem in Europe.

Homes in the UK can be expensive, so there's a large rental market.

On top of that many people are vulnerably housed - living in emergency temporary accommodation (which may be for many months) or on friend's sofas.

The introduction of the benefit "Universal Credit" has increased homelessness and people who are vulnerably housed. In the UK a landlord can apply for eviction if the tenant hasn't paid for two months. (This is for shorthold tenancy agreements where tenants have most rights - other tenancies have less protection.) There is a minimum wait of 5 weeks before Universal Credit claimants get paid, which pushes some people very close to this limit. The bizarre sanctions regime tips many people over that limit.

Detailed information can be found here:https://www.crisis.org.uk/media/238700/homelessness_monitor_...

I'm sure most of humanity for most of history have made do with smaller rooms than that.

How do you cope in a car?

Sounds like a car might just be bigger...

But joking aside, I'm surrounded by glass on all sides in a car. That makes a great deal of difference. I probably wouldn't feel confined in a room that size if I had an entire wall of glass.

In a UK terrace, even given a large bay window, your view will likely be squandered by a large work van, as the terraces seldom have off-street parking.

A 40 inch TV is on the small end for 4K having any real benefit (at least at a normal living room viewing distance).

I'm still struggling a bit with large screens. For something like playing games I'm guessing you can comfortably sit back. High resolution screens for computers feel attractive, but getting up close and personal can feel a bit much with light levels. I'm guessing OLED might be nicer in that regard.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com