Anyone using large high quality (55-65in) 4K TVs for Sonar? I would like to explore this

67 yrs old, just moved to Idaho and beginning studio upgrades after selling farm in bay area.  My eyesight is poor and after using a couple 28/32 inch monitor/TV for years, I'd like to upgrade to a single large screen. Will also be doing video work next year and the other monitors still have uses.  I know I'll have to upgrade my graphics card and am fine with that.
 
Haven't found much here or at VI Control but google brings up some positive discussion on the Cubase forum where several folks are using large TVs even with what they call Cubase's scaling issues.
 
I plan on buying a high quality Samsung or lg C7 in the $2-3500 range (Costco has several and warrenty/exchange is stellar) and am hoping others have explored this with Sonar.

Thanks! I have seen a lot of talk about the 40ish inchers but little about the 55 to 65 inchers, which is what I'm considering, especially as they now come with hdmi2. Is there a reason why? 

I wonder about monitor placement

scook
I wonder about monitor placement

Hi, Scook!  I know this has been mentioned as an issue before.

I Just ordered a pair of Genelec 8340A monitors to replace my KRKs and plan on wall mounting the big screen above and behind my current monitors, angled down a bit... I've seen this done in some studio photos.  The bigger screen should result in larger fonts/images so being several feet behind everything will work.  I assume the OLED clarity of the newest  LG C7P or Samsung's which is stunning, would scale well enough in the larger screen to b useable. Mounting them shouldn't be a problem as the LG is. 1.8" thick and only weighs 50 lbs.  These screens have amazing color depth and clarity.
 
However the dirth of info leaves me flying a bit blind, DAW wise.  I'm not a technweeny by any means.  Yet I finally have funds from selling the farm to finally splurge on better visual tools and would love to move Sonar onto a large screen and am trying to get a sense of when "big" becomes too big and avoid returning things...

i recently purchased a 49" 4K tv for a small living room,
works great.....
unless you are sitting more than 10' away,
anything larger is too much.

Vastman
 
So you are using the 55 inch with Sonar??? How does it work and how are YOU using it?

Hey Dana, just to be clear I am not using the TV with my computer, so I do not have specific feedback for use with SONAR, sorry :(
 
I remember seeing BobF had posted buying a 4K display to use with SONAR (not sure what size), so he might be someone to specifically PM if another doesn't pop in here for you.
 
Unless you are going to watch movies, etc., from your computer, the OLED may be extreme overkill for your purposes; but you would know that better. SONAR itself is not know for "amazing contrast" or the need for high refresh rates.

mettelus

Vastman
 
So you are using the 55 inch with Sonar??? How does it work and how are YOU using it?

Hey Dana, just to be clear I am not using the TV with my computer, so I do not have specific feedback for use with SONAR, sorry :(
 
I remember seeing BobF had posted buying a 4K display to use with SONAR (not sure what size), so he might be someone to specifically PM if another doesn't pop in here for you.
 
Unless you are going to watch movies, etc., from your computer, the OLED may be extreme overkill for your purposes; but you would know that better. SONAR itself is not know for "amazing contrast" or the need for high refresh rates.

Hey Met! My thinking on OLED is it can't hurt and will be better for working on video down the road... Which I've always wanted to get into and now have the funds and time to explore! Oh, and yea, watching The Expanse would be amazing...

Dang it! I'm at the other end of the state where they filmed the movie classic "Napoleon Dynamite" - 6 miles from the Utah border.

If you use this calculator ( http://kingscalculator.com/en/other-calculators/pixel-density-calculator ) it will help you size your 4K display to prevent having to use Windows scaling.  A properly sized 4K display is a thing of beauty as long as you leave scaling at 100% (1:1).
 
My 4K is a 43" VIZIO designed to be used for TeeVee, PeeCee and casting from mobile devices.  As far as the display is concerned, it doesn't matter where the signal is coming from.
 
Keep in mind the comment above about monitor speaker placement.  With a 43" display, mine ended up pushed wider.  The result is the sweet spot is back a little further, or your spread is a bit wider than standard.  Workable, but something to consider when putting it all together.

I only mentioned scaling because I've seen a lot of complaint about things being too small with 4K, so people up the scaling in Display Settings.  The results aren't pretty.
 
In your case, going to 55", I doubt things will be too small.  But you might overshoot to too large.  That's where the PPI calculator comes in handy.
 
Using the calculator it's pretty easy to figure out what size display you need to increase the physical size of screen objects by whatever percentage you desire.

Hi Dana , be sure to get mat display , and beware , extra resolution means you have to get bigger size to get confortable ....
think maybe lower resolution but two screens ... i have 4 k resolution on my dell laptop and even close its a no go , i down scal ( you can feel the lost of crispness in my youtube video now versus when don on my elite book hd)

With the screenstes and x ray i really don t feel the need for two screen or extra resolution , may be a small screen for metering suites ...( you can even use your ipad like i do with an app called Duet)

Take your time

Just to chime in here, I recently installed a 40-inch Samsung 4K screen (60Hz, 4:4:4 chroma subsampling) on my Sonar machine (2010 Mac Pro, Win7 Pro x64) to replace my 30-inch Apple Cinema screen.  Overall I'd say it was a baby step forward.  Here's why:
 
My working distance is 45-inches away due to the placement of my M32 mixer between me and the screen.  I was running the 30-inch (2560x1600) at 125% XP-scaling in Win7.  For my 60+ year-old eyes, it was right on the edge of tolerable for reading track names and the control bar.  
 
When I installed the 40-inch Samsung (3840x2160) I tried the 'Vista' style of scaling, and a mere 110% in Win7 was nicely visible but the horizontal 'gain' control in the track view would not work correctly.   Went back to the 125% XP-scaling and everything was about the same marginal discomfort level as the 30-inch.  As I type this, I'm using the re-purposed 30-inch Cinema at 125% on a Win10 machine at 32-inches viewing distance and my eyes are relaxed and happy.  
 
I may re-visit the unsupported use of Win10 in the 2010 Mac Pro and play with its superior video scaling.  I'm going slowly back into Win10 on Mac Pro because it was on an SSD that hadn't been booted since December 2016.  When I tried it two weeks ago, the Anniversary Edition update behaved like a raging bull with a hand grenade.  It destroyed my Yosemite partition, and broke all the permissions on my primary *and* backup data drives so that Win7 saw nothing at all when it was afterward booted.  I spent 72 solid computing hours restoring everything back, so as you may imagine, the "once burned, twice shy" rule applies here.  
 
Pertinent to your decision, the working distance is a critical decision.  If your eyes are at a distance approximately equal to the diagonal screen dimension, then i think you're going to find that 4k UHD is a challenge to read text at 100% (no upward scaling).  Closer than that, you'll have the "front-row-at-the-movies" needing to move your head to see all the screen real estate.
 

For what it's worth, My experience with my iiyama 40" 4K monitor (not tv), in front of which I work at least 10 h a day.

Thanks, los great info, especially as I'll be doing video work and chroma key

Very interesting discussion. Cant wait to hear what Vastman ultimately chooses. I dont have a 4k monitor but my understanding is that a 60in 4k would be essentially equivalent to 4 1920x1080 monitors. If I opened Sonar in this environment (no scaling) wouldnt it just fill 25% of the screen real estate. I get that being able to drag various views to other parts of the screen would allow for more on screen info (on a lesser scale I do that now with 2 HD monitors). What I do not get is the assertion that fonts (i take that to mean individual characters, not actually font sizes) would be bigger. It seems that, without scaling, one would need to sit at comfortable viewing distance for a 30 in HD screen. That results in the "front row" problem when the screen is 60 in.. On an HD monitor, if you zoom the scale, the characters obviously get bigger but some of the image will disappear off the screen edge and you'll get drag bars. The 4k will allow you to zoom without going "off screen" and without drag bars. Thats a big advantage - but only if scaling works well.
Brian