Confession time: I am a Blue Jays bandwagon jumper.
Now that that’s out of the way, let me explain. My father-in-law has always been a fan of the Jays. Even when they were losing more than winning, he’d religiously sit in front of the TV and watch the entire game until the very last out. I’d sit and watch a few games with him but I wasn’t completely interested. Then last season happened and I was swept up in Blue Jays pandemonium along with the rest of Canada.
Tickets weren’t that easy to come by, so instead, my wife, daughter and I spent a lot of time on the couch eating popcorn and watching the games on my 49 inch HD TV. I was happy with the TV, blacks were black and colours were rich! I was happy with the picture, and then I discovered 4K. In fact, when I was shopping for my television set (are they still called that, or am I showing my age) I considered getting a 4K set but then I thought “Why spend all that extra cash? 4K content is a long way off and by that time my TV will be obsolete.”
Boy was I wrong. Early this year I was invited to a party, hosted by Rogers, where they showed off the future of sports broadcasting. It was the first ever broadcast of a hockey game in 4K and it was beautiful. I loved what I saw, but not being a big hockey fan I thought I made the right decision in not purchasing a 4K TV. But then Rogers went and upped the ante on me. They announced that every Blue Jays home game this year would be broadcasted in 4K and I cursed my decision to not purchase that TV.
Samsung SUHD TV
A few weeks ago that disappointment turned to pure joy when I got the opportunity to work with Rogers and Samsung to help spread the word about 4K. Since I needed the tools to do my job, I was provided a Samsung SUHD 4K TV and a Rogers Nextbox 4K cable box. I just know I’ll get this question, no, you don’t have to have a Samsung TV to get the 4K content. Any 4K capable TV would work and the good news is that they have slowly been dropping in price over the past little while. You do, however, need the Nextbox cable box.
Nextbox 4K Cable Box
Not only does the Samsung TV deliver immersive content with lifelike colours but the TV itself is a very nicely designed piece of technology. Minimilistic in appearance with very good viewing angles. The clean back and slim design really lends itself to being wall mounted.
What do I think of 4K? Is it worth the hype? The short answer: YES!! 4K basically means that the resolution you get is four times the resolution on the average HD TV. This results in a picture with more details, more depth and one that looks more like you’re looking out a window than actually watching a screen. I’ve really enjoyed watching the home games this year, everything looks so clear and “crisp”. Believe it or not you can actually see the stitching on the ball in the replays.
Right now the only 24/7 4K channels are Sportsnet ONE 4K (channel 997) and Sports 4K (channel 998) on the Rogers cable lineup. Both are all sports channels, but don’t fret, a little birdie told me that later this year Rogers will be bringing over 500 hours of new 4K content including TV shows, original series, movies and there’ll even be 4K content on-demand on Shomi.
If you’re a person who lives and breathes sports then you’ll be happy to know that even though some shows aren’t broadcasted in 4K, the state-of-the-art technology employed by Sportsnet to up-convert the HD signal to 4K will deliver an even better overall picture quality.
There are a couple things I don’t like about the Nextbox cable box though. On my old box I had a built in PVR and the ability to pause and rewind live TV, but not with this one. The recording capability is the thing I miss the most. Since I don’t have that anymore I’m missing out on a lot of my favorite shows. I did reach out to Rogers and asked about a 4K PVR and was told that they’ll have an announcement about that soon. Hopefully it’ll be sooner than later.
Disclaimer: I was not compensated monetarily for this post but I was provided with a Samsung SUHD TV and a Rogers Nextbox 4K cable box. All opinions expressed are my own.
