Upscaling depends on the brand , but none will look bad . Sony has the best upscaling tech in my experience . As for 4 k vs 1080 p , it ' s night and day . 4 K HDR is a different beast entirely . As for 4 k source material , it ' s thin . Now that 4 K BD movies are being release , things will pick up a bit , but it ' s still ridiculous how difficultexpensive it is to get 4 k source material . Netflix shoots most of their series in 4 k but will cost you an additional $ 5 a month I think . Sony ' s ultra service which only works on 20152016 TVs is out now but is expensive . Its all buy and no rentals I believe . Vudu only works on specific equipment , roku 4 and google chromecast . Amazon Prime streaming offers all their series in 4 k Grand Tour only has one episode released so far but it is an absolute delight . The easiest and best bet for 4 k within a reasonable range is Xbox One S as a player that does not cost a ridiculous $ 400 but you state that you ' re not making that jump . As someone who bought a 4 K TV almost a year ago I would say to hold on to your money for as long as you can as 4 K is rolling out painfully slowly unless you ' re doing optical media , and at $ 30 a disc , if you bought one every week that $ 120 a month which is still fucking expensive . I will sum up by saying right now you ' re not missing much with 4 k because there simply isnt much to miss .