4K Ultra HD is the resolution that gives you more pixels than ever before on your TV. But what is 4K, why do you need more pixels, and why is it important? Not too long ago, Full HD was the sharpest picture you could get. This brings four times more pixels than HD. But now 4K resolution is on the scene, bringing a whole new world of visual detail and clarity to our screens. These days it's pretty hard to get a non-4K TV, even with budget TVs opting for detailed resolution to attract viewers. And some of the really premium sets now go for 8K resolution, but 4K is still king right now, and almost all of the new sets announced at this year's CES 2020 show are pushing the Ultra HD resolution. At the end of the day, though, it might not be the raw 4K resolution that tempts you into your next TV purchase, but rather the inclusion of other cool tech like High Dynamic Gamut (HDR), Quantum Dot, and OLED panels. But before we get into the details of each technology, here's a video describing 4K in brief.
What is 4K?
Simply put, 4K means a clearer picture. To achieve this, more pixels (8,294,400 to be exact) are used on the screen to create images that are sharper and capable of displaying more detail than standard HD. This is allWhat is the 4K resolution?
4K resolution, at least as most TVs define it, is 3840 x 2160, or 2160p. To put this in perspective, a Full HD 1080p image only has a resolution of 1920x1080. 4K displays have about 8 million pixels, or about four times what your current 1080p set can display. Think of your TV as a grid, with rows and columns. A Full HD 1080p image is 1080 lines high and 1920 columns wide. A 4K image roughly doubles the number in both directions, producing roughly four times as many pixels in total. To put it another way, you can fit every pixel in your 1080p array to a quarter of a 4K screen.Why is it called 4K?
Because the images are about 4000 pixels wide. And before you ask, yes, the industry named 1080 resolution after image height, but named 4K after image width. For even more fun, you can also listen to this resolution called 2160p. Welcome to the future. It's confusing here.How far should I sit on a 4K screen?
Remember when Apple made a lot of stories about the "retina" display of some iPhones? "Retina" refers to displays that are of sufficient resolution that at a normal viewing distance your eye cannot distinguish individual pixels. Get far enough away from a 1080p set and hey, that's a retina display! More importantly, at this same distance, your eyeballs won't be able to extract more detail from a 4K image than from a 1080 image. If you're "far from retina" from your 1080p set and don't plan on moving your couch closer, upgrade to 4K won't make a huge difference to your experience. This graph shows how far back you have to sit on a given screen size to see a difference.Difference between Ultra HD and 4K
Technically, "Ultra High Definition" is actually a derivation of the 4K digital cinema standard. However, while your local multiplex displays images in native 4K resolution of 4096 x 2160, the newer Ultra HD consumer format has a slightly lower resolution of 3840 x 2160. This is one of the reasons why some brands prefer not to use the label 4K, opting for Ultra HD or UHD. However, the digital shorthand seems to remain.Why should I care about 4K Ultra HD?
There are plenty of reasons why 4K should make you reconsider your next TV purchase (in fact, there are eleven and you can read about them here), not all of which are immediately obvious. Photographers who regularly view their work on an HDTV only see a fraction of the detail inherent in their photos when viewed at 2160p. A 4K display reveals so much more nuance and detail – the difference can be startling. While 3D has proven to be crazy fun, 4K isn't reserved. Its higher resolution images are simply better. The higher pixel density of a 4K panel also allows you to get very close without the image grid structure being visible, which means you can comfortably view a much larger screen. from the same sitting position as your current Full HD panel.UltraHD Premium
If you're sitting there thinking that all these new technologies and acronyms seem confusing, you'd be right. That is why a group of companies has decided to form the UHD Alliance with the express objective of defining the technologies that will be included in the next generation of televisions. The UHD Alliance is made up of 35 companies, including TV makers like LG, Panasonic, Samsung, Toshiba, Sony, Sharp, audio companies like Dolby, and TV and film production companies like Netflix and 20th Century Fox. So the idea is that if everyone can agree on what features they think UHD should include, then Disney (an example member of the alliance) can produce a movie that Netflix can stream through a Samsung TV, and the final image will be exactly what the director of Disney wanted. The result of this alliance was the UHD Premium specification announced at CES 2016. The specification includes a list of features that should be included in products such as televisions and Blu-ray players to ensure maximum compatibility with other content and produced materials. Currently, to meet the UHD Premium specification, a product must have:- A resolution of at least 3840x2160
- 10-bit color depth, allowing 1,024 shades of each of the three primary colors red, green, and blue, as opposed to the 256 allowed by the current 8-bit standard.
- Being able to display pixels with certain brightness and darkness for HDR purposes (technically, this light level is 0.05 to 1000 ``nits'' for LED and 0 to 0005 ``nits'' for OLED gaming for all lovers of the numbers). Adherence to these standards means that blacks must be truly dark, as opposed to milky black, and whites must truly shine.
And what about 8K?
We thought it could happen. You may have heard some buzz about 8K resolution, a new visual standard with four times the pixel count of 4K. Basically, it doubles the height and width of the pixels again to produce about 32 million pixels. It's a normal pixel party, though you can find more about the new resolution in our 8K TV guide. Confusingly, an 8K display would also be considered "Ultra HD."Should I buy an 8K TV instead?
If you like? The 8K standard, until recently, was primarily intended for the exhibition market (also known as cinemas). For this number of pixels to be large, you need to power a big enough screen and sit close enough to make a difference. We're starting to see commercial 8K TVs on the market, though they'll cost you a lot, and there's not a lot of 8K content out there to really recommend them. However, you'll still benefit from the advanced upscaling of HD or 4K, and if you want to be on the cutting edge of TV technology, an 8K TV is probably what you want. .My friend told me about 4K OLED. What is it
More acronyms! Isn't it fun? OLEDs (organic light-emitting diodes) have been around for a while, but producing large screens with this technology has proven extremely expensive, which has so far prevented OLED TV from being a current proposition. It's a shame because OLED technology it can be beautiful, offering vibrant colors, deep blacks, and brilliant whites. But don't lose hope yet. Several companies (mainly LG) are working to bring OLED technology to 4K TVs. They're certainly gorgeous, though prices remain high for years after they're released, and it's generally accepted that they don't have the longevity of LCD screens.I have heard that Netflix is streaming something called HDR. What is it
HDR, UHD, OLED… acronyms abound in home entertainment. HDR, or high dynamic range, essentially increases the difference between the brightest and darkest parts of an image. Blacks become properly dark instead of milky gray, and whites become blindingly light. This means images have more depth and you should also be able to perceive more detail in the lightest and darkest parts of the image. Netflix was the first content provider to release HDR video in 2015, but Amazon Instant Video also offers high dynamic range content. HDR has also been included in the new Ultra HD Blu-ray standard. You can read our full high dynamic range explainer here.Why isn't TV fully broadcast in 4K?
Since each 4K image contains four times more information than HD, 4K content is four times larger than regular HD content in terms of raw file size. So it's hard to get it for you. Steps are being taken to integrate 4K content into broadcast television. In the UK, Sky has started broadcasting some sports in 4K, and BT is also using IPTV technology to do the same. As for streaming, bandwidth is a definite problem. Internet bandwidth is already dominated by Netflix traffic, leading ISPs to sue them for extra money, and that's with most of their streaming in SD and HD tiers. Upscaling everything to 4K still doesn't seem like a reasonable option. And even if it were possible to stream 4K content to everyone without interrupting the Internet, streaming 4K content requires an Internet connection of 25 Mbps or faster, which is faster than most people right now.So what can I watch in 4K?
Your best UHD options currently come from Netflix and Amazon. Netflix leads the waters in 4K streaming with most of its original shows (The Defenders, House of Cards, Dark, The Blacklist) available in 4K, along with select movies (Ghostbusters, The Smurfs 2). The selection may be more limited than the amount of HD content, but it is increasing by the day. Amazon has also jumped into the 4K UHD streaming game with some of its top-rated shows — Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle, Man in the High Castle, The Grand Tour, and Mad Dogs — in Ultra HD. Both streaming services claim more content is on the way and hopes that rollout speeds up once again, viewers will be upgrading to the higher resolution standard.What about 4K games?
We had 4K gaming on PC for a while before consoles, but the more advanced versions of Sony and Microsoft gaming machines can certainly compete. Sony got the ball rolling with the PS4 Pro, which uses an advanced form of upscaling to output a 4K image. It may not be native 4K, but we think the results are excellent. Though Microsoft dipped its toes in the 4K water with the also-scalable Xbox One S, things got serious with the release of the Xbox One X, a powerful console that offers native 4K resolution on a handful of titles. Some great recent video games available in 4K on various platforms include Red Dead Redemption 2, Spiderman, and God of War, as well as many others.What kind of cables do I need for 4K?
The two standard cables you're most likely to use are standard HDMI or if you're connecting a PC to a DisplayPort Ultra HD monitor. HDMI cables are now available in four versions: High Speed with Ethernet; high speed without Ethernet; standard speed with Ethernet and standard speed without Ethernet. Standard speed cables are capable of 1080i, but cannot handle 4K bandwidth. High-speed cables can do more than just 1080i.So should I buy a 4K package now or should I wait?
If you're buying a 50-inch and larger TV, you should definitely consider investing in 4K. All the major players are adopting it as the new standard, and the amount of content will only increase with time. If you buy a TV under 50 inches, the answer is less obvious. The problem isn't that 4K doesn't make enough of a difference at these sizes, but that the additional technologies that have been mixed with 4K in most sets haven't been applied to the models yet. As a result, while it's entirely possible to get a 4K TV as small as 40 inches, it's unlikely at this point to have decent HDR (which we also think is brighter than 1000 nits or more), 10-bit color, or a wide range of colors. Sure, you'll get the right amount of pixels, but they won't have the added technology to make them look really good. They'll eventually make their way to smaller TVs, but for now, 4K is at its best at 50 inches and up, where you can get all the bells and whistles that really matter.Your First 4K TV: A Step-by-Step Guide
Image 1 of 7Your step-by-step guide to watching 4K movies and shows
Image 2 of 7Step 1: throw away your old CRT or 1080p TV
Image 3 of 7Step 2: choose a 4K TV
Image 4 of 7Step 3. Get a subscription to the Netflix UHD package
Image 5 of 7Step 4. If you want to upgrade your movie library, please buy a 4K UHD Blu-ray player
Image 6 of 7Step 5. If you are a gamer, you will also want a 4K console
Image 7 of 7Step 6. Relax and enjoy your new 4K settings
- Discover the best 4K televisions with technology