What is 4K UHD Television?
4K TV is an ultra-high-definition television, also known as UHDTV (Ultra High Definition TV) or simply UHD (Ultra High Definition), which is the latest in consumer television image quality.
How much sharper are they?
A 4K television offers four times the resolution of a standard 1080p HDTV, with twice the number of pixels both horizontally and vertically. This means that picture clarity is dramatically increased since there are more pixels, and therefore, more detail, on the screen. 4K TVs also boast a broader color palette, allowing for a richer range of colors improving the vibrancy of each image.
In case you were wondering, a 1080p TV has 1,080 pixels along the width of the screen. If you own a flat-screen TV that you've bought in the past 6-7 years, chances are it's a 1080p resolution TV, also known as HD. These HD TV's were a large improvement over the standard resolution screen TV"s.
Resolution and the original image
In an earlier newsletter, I explained what pixels are, but in case you missed it, a pixel is a dot on the screen. Since the resolution is made up of tiny dots called pixels, improving television resolution required not only developing screens capable of displaying the increased number of pixels, but also necessitated the development of cameras capable of recording such high-quality images. When these special cameras record Ultra HD images for a movie or television show, the large amount of digital data is compressed for transmission to an Ultra HD viewing device, like a 4K TV. This digital transmission is received by the compatible television and then decompressed to restore the image to its original Ultra HD format. 4K televisions can even intelligently fill-in missing pixels so standard 1080p HD data can be viewed with the spectacular image quality provided by Ultra HD.
Options and content in 4K TV
While 4K TVs are currently available with either LCD or LED displays, it is expected that they will soon be available with OLED technology. OLED stands for organic light-emitting diode and offers a clear, vivid image at a wider viewing angle than current LCD or LED technology. OLEDs are more lightweight and can be used in super thin displays. 4K TVs are also equipped with passive 3D viewing technology. Passive 3D technology works differently than active 3D technology by providing a full 1080p image for each eye. This passive 3D technology results in increased detail and less eye fatigue when viewed through the lightweight 3D glasses. Passive 3D glasses are also less expensive than their active 3D counterparts.
The 4K TV viewing experience is relatively new, and there is not much content available in the current market that is compatible. However, this is expected to change in the near future, and as you may have heard, even Netflix is working on making videos available in 4K resolution. In addition, many Blu-ray discs were released in the latter half of 2013 that were optimized for Ultra HD viewing, and they're marked as “Mastered in 4K”.
I might add that since Ultra HD broadcasting takes a lot more bandwidth than standard HD broadcasting, television stations will take a little longer to catch up. However, almost all of the 4K TVs are equipped with intelligence to fill-in images for missing pixels so the quality of television viewing will be improved even before network stations change their broadcast technology.
Should you rush out to buy one?
Just between us, there's no need to replace your TV. In fact, if unless your TV is larger than 40", you may not even notice the difference between 4K and 1080p TV's since the pixels are smaller on smaller screen sizes. To be honest, when I was at the Consumer Electronics Show last January I didn't notice any difference in the quality of the image in smaller screen sizes. However, I did have a chance to see a large screen projector with a 4K resolution image, and that was pretty impressive. In fact, 4K is the resolution used in digital projectors in movie theaters, which gives them the ability to replace the old film projectors and reels of film.
Not a subscriber? Don't miss a single issue: