$1299 Seiki UHDTV 50" SE50UY04 - Bought it today

[John Bellari]

I'm not sure we'll even see HDMI 2 being implemented this year. Most predictions I've read say it will be 2014 before it's ready. Some even say 2015.

That's why we purchased this set NOW at $1299.99 ... we really wanted an 8K touchscreen OLED with 120Hz and glasses free 3D, but in the meantime this 50" set will do nicely at that price today.

 

[Tonaci Tran]

Look what just landed on my doorstep. BOOOOOM!

 

[Ketch Rossi]

Hi Ketch,

Some of us are here posting in our free time to halp and advise others of great options, what works barely, what is great, and what simply doesn't work. You are a great contributor of time for others here...

This is so far a useable panel for 24p for the price ($1199.99 on sale vs $5000 for upcoming Sony 55").

Technology at this price may usher in a huge demand for 4K content, so while it's not a Dolby Reference monitor,
you can use it NOW and get work done.


If you have time today, post the jpegs so I may take a couple of shots and you can compare the level of detail
later tonight.


Grazie,
John

Of course I agreed to that John, and my opinion is voiced strictly as a pro working monitor, and if it works okay, for now, and for some, then great.


Posting a Jpeg to see it reposted form a TV shot just would not do anything for me, I have seen the original Tiffs off the R3D's strait off both 4K monitors and my 1080p, with a huge difference, once this monitor will get in to more hands and get tested with actual 4k material then there will be a more clear voice of it's potential for some at home, but it will most certainly not make it any were near any Pro studios, and again only in my opinion of what I have seen in the higher prices.

 

[Stacey Spears]

I'm not sure we'll even see HDMI 2 being implemented this year.

The standard should be complete in early 2014.

 

[John Bellari]

Of course I agreed to that John, and my opinion is voiced strictly as a pro working monitor, and if it works okay, for now, and for some, then great.


Posting a Jpeg to see it reposted form a TV shot just would not do anything for me, I have seen the original Tiffs off the R3D's strait off both 4K monitors and my 1080p, with a huge difference, once this monitor will get in to more hands and get tested with actual 4k material then there will be a more clear voice of it's potential for some at home, but it will most certainly not make it any were near any Pro studios, and again only in my opinion of what I have seen in the higher prices.

Agreed, I don't think anybody is promoting this panel as a pro grading panel.
Similarly, I wish I had a RedRay available to show content on, but nobody has one locally... :-(

As for your comment on actual "4K material", we have 4K and 5K Red footage on our drives, as well as Medium Format stills at 10K plus, playback on a computer since a RedRay is not available, and I asked you to submit a jpeg, but you don't want to (whether it resolution helps others or not), so that's fine if you don't want to.

I went to best Buy and Hobbit 3D did not say High Frame Rate on the box, so I passed on it also.
You would think that they would include a HFR version on the 3D disc, but not the version I saw.
Red needs to contact the studio, and tell them to release the Hobbit in HFR 3D ... ASAP!

I hope Red actively promotes and tests every cheap 4K UHDTV panel and posts results as to compatibility, as
for every cheap 4K panel that is sold, the DEMAND for CONTENT from RED and other 4K cameras goes up!
That translates into more sales and rentals of Red cameras, and that's a good thing for the industry...

Ciao,
John

 

[Paul Hazlett]

what's the coupon code.

 

[BRANDON JAMESON]

Look what just landed on my doorstep. BOOOOOM!

Tonaci!!! Tell us EVERYTHING, please!!!!!

 

[Peter Cote]

Was ready to pull the trigger on this, but waiting for a more detailed review from someone working with a lot of 4K content. Tonaci do you have a Red Player to test it with?

 

[John Bellari]

Was ready to pull the trigger on this, but waiting for a more detailed review from someone working with a lot of 4K content. Tonaci do you have a Red Player to test it with?

If RED wants to volunteer sending a REDRAY player, we know several Red Owners willing to accept locally at the User Group
in Chicagoland currently- they have tons of 5K and 4K content and they'd happily post the results...

Can anybody at Red make that happen for everyone's benefit here?

Cheers,
John

 

[John Bellari]

UPDATE 6: Just a quick cropped pic from a snapshot we took today of a set of five black 1 pixel line height lines from a 3840x2160 file, as many people wanted to see if the set resolves down to 1 pixel in detail.

You can certainly see the details at 1 pixel on this set from a 3840 x 2160 file.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Will this display refresh at 24Hz? If I can feed it a 24fps signal and actually have it display at 24Hz, I'm ordering. If it always shows at 30Hz, then I'll pass. Anyone can confirm yet?

 

[John Bellari]

Will this display refresh at 24Hz? If I can feed it a 24fps signal and actually have it display at 24Hz, I'm ordering. If it always shows at 30Hz, then I'll pass. Anyone can confirm yet?

Yes, 24p confirmed at 3840 x 2160 and other resolutions like 1920 x 2205 24p from 3D Bluray....

P.S. We love your posts, you are a great technical resource.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Cool. Thanks John, for both the confirmation and the kind words.

 

[Bill Sepaniak]

Just ordered using the coupon code (TJM88351) ... $1,199.99 + free shipping. Now, it looks like I will have to order a Red Ray Player. Hmmm ... one thing leads to another. I am wondering if you could feed it 4K from a DeckLink 4K Extreme via HDMI?



________________________________
Scarlet X # 1859 “Bettie Page”
“… preparing to ‘whip’ the competition …”

Zeiss Lenses:

CY 21/2.8
ZF 28/2.0
CY 35-70/3.4
CY 50/1.4
ZF100/2.0

Nikon Lenses:
G 14-24/2.8
G 24-70/2.8
D 80-200/2.8

Tokina Lenses:

11-16/2.8

 

[Jeff Zueger]

I see they are now out of stock.

 

[John Bellari]

I see they are now out of stock.

It actually is in stock- I updated the link to the main website, as they keep changing the link daily. Make sure to search for and grab one of those online coupon codes as they'll save you $100 to $300 from $1499 retail price.

 

[Bob Gundu]

I'm going to hold out for affordable 84". Go big or go home!

 

[Kwan Khan]

I'm going to hold out for affordable 84". Go big or go home!

If Seiki 50" works for me then I may buy one more after that I will stay home 'til REDray projector become available (lol)

 

[Les Dittert]

I should get mine tomorrow. I feel like a kid waiting for Santa to show up !

But I have absolutely no need for a red ray to play back 4K on this monitor.
Just use your computer !

Was ready to pull the trigger on this, but waiting for a more detailed review from someone working with a lot of 4K content. Tonaci do you have a Red Player to test it with?

 

[Tonaci Tran]

I have to get going to some meetings but real brief feedback (more thorough one coming tonight)

I was able to set up two configurations to test this out.

MacBook Pro ->HDMI 1080p -> Seiki
PC with Nvidia Card w HDMI that has 4k -> Seiki

1080p going into this monitor does not look good. There are no fancy upscaling abilities in this panel. I totally expected it to look bad. Hooking up a 1080p feed confirmed it.
Feed it a 4k signal, now we are talking. =)

Below is an h264 file. crappy iphone pic. that little spec in the lower left screen.. its NOT a dead pixel..its the mouse pointer..haha (open image to new window to see the photo larger)

Below is Starcraft. again, crappy iphone photo but you can see the detail of the text... gives you an idea of how good 4k gaming looks hehe. (open image to new window to see the photo larger)

I can't wait to see this rocking with redray!
So far, the poor man's setup would be PC with a 4k Hdmi enabled graphics card. I would use this as the second panel as the text gets uber tiny.

If you have a set up that can't output 4k, you will be disappointed...no clean upscaling. This is a native 4k panel. Imagine taking your laptop screen resolution preferences and choosing VGA mode.. looks like crap right?

In a nutshell: The image isn't as nice as the five thousand dollar Sony 4k panel I saw at NAB or other higher models, but for the price, the panel is definitely mindblowing. 4k for 1200-1500 bucks... insane.

4k is definitely NOW. I can't wait until redray starts rolling out.

Special thanks to fellow Redusers who helped me test last night... Blair S. Paulsen and George Tsai.
George gives his two thumbs up all the way. If you want the exact model graphics card info, George will chime in.