4K is finally official!
Ever wondered why 4K is nowhere to be seen when you’re hiring a Bluray?
First off, what is 4K/UHD?
When HD content first came on the scene, we started seeing numbers like 720p, 1080i, 1080p.
We’re all quite familiar with them now because of the Blurays we buy and hire, the streaming services we use such as Netflix and TVNZ on demand, but most of all, Youtube. These are the resolutions of the video content, or in simpler terms, the amount of detail the video is shown in. 4K/UHD (two names for the same thing) is the next step up in video quality from ‘Full HD.’ And what a step it is!
The pros and cons of UHD screens can be read about in Richard’s article here. But whether you like the idea of these screens or not, it was rendered moot by the fact that there is almost no UHD content out there! That’s because the resolution of the picture is not the whole story. The method of compression and encoding, the size limits for files and all sorts of other things had not been decided upon. Until now.
But I can already stream 4K?
Because online 4K streams are so heavily compressed, they often look far worse than a 1080P Blu-Ray disc does. With this new standard for 4K that is not nearly as compressed, we will finally have the picture quality that 4K actually promised.
4K Blu-Ray’s
The Blu-ray Disc Association have finally finished the UHD standard for video production, rendering and distribution. Now the whole film industry has one set of rules to follow regarding the bit-rate, resolution, colour depth, frame-rate etc. That means the film crew, editing team, render team, distributors all follow the same method. The people who make storage for media and the teams behind streaming services as well. Even the people who make Blu-ray players, media players and of course, TVs! Now everyone is on the same page instead of everyone offering products based on their best guess.
Many companies have stayed away from UHD because of this lack of cohesion in the industry but now everyone can jump on board. Expect to see a lot of growth in the amount of UHD content out there in the world. At the Warehouse when you’re buying Blu-rays, at the video store when you’re hiring a new release, when you’re watching Youtube videos on your smart TV and when you’re streaming movies on Netflix. Everywhere that offers video will now have a much easier time acquiring and offering UHD video.
Now it’s time to buy that new TV right?
Edwin
