I purchased a 50" on a discount only 2 years ago or so, so it's not likely I'm getting a 4k tv any time soon. As someone already said, 4k is definitely not a standard yet, it'll take another couple of years for the price to drop for more people to start upgrading.
I have a small CRT i got back in 2003, and it still works fine.. I don't use it for much, sits on my kitchen counter so I can watch the news while cooking.. however, that CRT has lasted me far longer than any LCD or LED i've owned..
My experience with LCD monitors is different than others in this thread. Mine have gone bad about as often as my CRT monitors. We've had five of them go bad over the last decade. But we use an unusually large number of them (there are five gamers in my household) so my personal statistics may be a bit skewed.
That said, I would not go back to CRTs for any amount of money. I had a 21" CRT back in the late 90's-early 2000's. I refused to move it again once I wrestled it out of the box and onto my desktop. Like fantasyjunkie, just thinking about that monster makes my back ache.
I have several LCD monitors that are over 9 years old (a couple of them are around 11 years old) that have never exhibited a single problem. I have a LCD TV from 2006 that's still going strong, and a LCD TV from 2009 that just stopped powering on a few weeks ago. The one that stopped powering on was an easy fix, though. I popped the back off and inspected the two boards that control most of the functionality (one logic board, one power supply board). I found two capacitors with bulging caps. That's not the fault of it being an LCD, though...they just used crap capacitors at the factory. I probably could have just soldered on some new capacitors, but instead I just found a supplier that I could order the board from. It was $80 and took about 15 minutes to replace...much better than buying a new TV. I don't think I would have attempted to repair a CRT TV.
All you have to do is avoid the Zones of Death...
Still have a Samsung from 2008 or so that still works after being serviced for free for bad capacitors.
Yeah, unfortunately, the time limit to get free repairs from the class action suit ended. Otherwise, I'd have taken advantage of that as well. My understanding is that a ton of TVs from that time period had capacitor issues. Luckily, it's pretty easy to fix yourself...even if you solder new capacitors it's not too bad. LCD TVs are really easy to take apart.
Well, I'm looking to buy a new TV, and so far it looks like the 4Ks are fairly inexpensive compared to what they were, which means I'll probably end up buying one in the next few weeks. I'm looking at a 60in Samsung right now.
As for monitors. 4K is such a barrier of entry to most gamers, I wouldn't even bother at this point. I think for most 1440p is starting to open up. Looking at the benchmarks for how the 1080 handles 4K, we still have a ways to go before that is even standard, much less 8K.