WEBVTT - Are 4k TVs Worth It? 0:00:04.200 --> 0:00:12.200 Get technology with tech Stuff from stuff works dot com. 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:15.120 Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I am your host, 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:19.360 Jonathan Strickland. I'm a senior writer for how stuff works 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:22.079 dot com and as always I like to cover all 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:26.960 things technical, technological, and otherwise techie on this show. Today, 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:30.639 I thought we would explore the world of ultra high 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:35.440 definition TV or u h D t V or four 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:38.120 K TV. There are a lot of different names for it, 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:40.839 and we'll also touch on other stuff like eight K 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.480 t V. Which is it twice as good as four 0:00:44.600 --> 0:00:48.120 K TV? You'll have to wait and find out. But 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.440 it's really this episode not so much about the technology 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:55.680 behind what makes four K and eight K television possible, 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:58.640 but rather to kind of explain what are the differences 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:03.920 between the those the ultra high definition formats and our 0:01:04.000 --> 0:01:08.520 current high definition formats and even older standard definition formats. 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:13.200 What has changed? Are those changes meaningful? Should you run 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:17.920 out and buy a four K television set right now? So? 0:01:18.720 --> 0:01:21.520 I'll talk about times where u h D makes sense 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.959 and times where it might not make sense, where it 0:01:25.080 --> 0:01:30.679 may be indistinguishable from an HD set. But be warned 0:01:30.840 --> 0:01:36.840 this episode shall also be fraught with opinions fraught, I say, 0:01:36.880 --> 0:01:39.600 and those opinions will be mine, but I'll do my 0:01:39.640 --> 0:01:42.600 best to maintain a semi objective point of view for 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:44.880 the most part. Just keep in mind that some of 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:47.880 this is based off my own observation, and your own 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:52.920 experience could be probably not dramatically different from mine, but 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:56.760 different enough to be significant. So, uh, this is a 0:01:56.800 --> 0:01:59.760 little more of an opinion piece than what I typically 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:02.040 do for tech stuff unless I get, you know, my 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:07.520 dander up about something like net neutrality. Now, if you 0:02:07.560 --> 0:02:10.680 were to be super super cynical, and I am not 0:02:10.760 --> 0:02:13.560 this person, but if you were super cynical, you might say, 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:16.680 four k's just a technology that's being pushed on us 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:21.280 by TV manufacturers because they need a way to generate customers. 0:02:21.320 --> 0:02:24.120 They need to find a product that appeals to customers 0:02:24.160 --> 0:02:26.520 so that they can sell stuff and make money, and 0:02:26.600 --> 0:02:29.400 four K is just the gimmick that they're hitching their 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:33.519 cart to. This case, the gimmick is a four K horse. 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:36.960 I guess, well, how do you convince your customers that 0:02:37.080 --> 0:02:39.239 they need to upgrade to a new television. You've got 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.640 to come up with something that creates a new demand, right, 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:46.520 because TVs tend to be fairly expensive. There might not 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:49.160 be the most expensive thing that you purchase. A car 0:02:49.240 --> 0:02:51.400 is going to be more expensive, but they can be 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.600 significantly expensive. So it's an investment. How do you convince 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:57.239 people to cough up the dough to make an investment 0:02:57.280 --> 0:02:59.560 in a new television if their old TV is still 0:02:59.600 --> 0:03:03.240 perfect in working order. You have to come up with 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:08.520 things that add value to the product. So if you're 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.680 trying to convince people who are typically waiting several years 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:16.040 between television purchases to upgrade, you gotta figure out, well, 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.120 what what's the hook? Where do I get them? And 0:03:19.680 --> 0:03:25.280 in the past we've seen a couple of UH misfires 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:28.480 from the television industry and trying to create the sort 0:03:28.520 --> 0:03:34.600 of value added features in televisions that haven't necessarily paid 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:38.040 off the way the industry wanted it to UH like. 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.160 About a decade ago, TV companies began to experiment by 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:46.360 making television's smart, but those first few smart TVs were 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:50.640 awfully dumb. There was an overreliance on widgets and those 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:56.240 were mostly irritating not helpful. Over time, companies got better 0:03:56.280 --> 0:04:00.160 at implementing smart features, and today smart TVs are pretty 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:04.720 standard in stores and there their features are a little 0:04:04.760 --> 0:04:08.560 more useful than the old ones were for the most part. Again, 0:04:08.600 --> 0:04:12.000 it all depends upon who's making the user interface and 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.720 how it's implemented with the television and the remote control 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:17.440 are a lot of factors that come into play. I 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.159 still do not own a smart TV, despite being a 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:24.200 lover of technology and the fact that I love new 0:04:24.279 --> 0:04:27.480 and interesting toys, I haven't purchased a smart TV. The 0:04:27.560 --> 0:04:29.479 last time I bought a TV, it was before the 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:33.720 smart TV craze had really taken off. It it started, 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:36.200 but you can still find plenty of televisions that were 0:04:36.240 --> 0:04:40.520 not smart TVs, and they were slightly cheaper, and I 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:42.760 didn't really want any of the smart TVs that were 0:04:42.760 --> 0:04:45.400 on the market back when I was last purchasing and television, 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:49.440 so I skipped it. Uh, these days, I might not 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:51.360 skip it. But I'll get more into that a little 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:55.720 bit later. Then, for several years, television companies were really 0:04:55.800 --> 0:04:59.080 trying to push three D technology, and this was one 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:03.000 of those sort of transparent efforts to create a value 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:07.279 for the customer that ultimately fizzled out. Customers just didn't 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:10.560 respond to it. There was a lot of apathy on 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:14.160 the part of consumers. We just didn't really see a 0:05:14.279 --> 0:05:17.000 huge need for three D television. Part of the problem 0:05:17.040 --> 0:05:21.679 was that without experiencing it, you can't really know whether 0:05:21.760 --> 0:05:24.479 or not that purchase is going to be worthwhile. So 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:27.200 you would need to go to some place and try 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.040 out at three D television with good three D content 0:05:30.480 --> 0:05:32.960 before you could decide is this for me? And that 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:38.039 requires a lot more effort. It also, uh didn't have 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:40.520 a whole lot of content right Like, you couldn't find 0:05:40.520 --> 0:05:43.440 a lot of three D content. There were three D movies, 0:05:43.560 --> 0:05:45.440 so you could go out and buy blue rays or 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:49.240 even get some streaming ones that were compatible with certain 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:53.039 types of three D television's, but there wasn't a whole 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:56.719 lot of content out there, so you felt like you 0:05:56.720 --> 0:06:00.360 were buying into an ecosystem without a whole lot of 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.520 stuff to actually watch. It was kind of a worst 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:08.000 case scenario for three D technology. And these days you 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:10.560 don't see it touted as a major feature in television. 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:12.160 Is there's still a lot of TVs that are three 0:06:12.240 --> 0:06:15.560 D capable, but often that's just one little bullet point 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:18.800 on a list and is not being touted as the 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.760 main feature of a television. It's rare that you find 0:06:21.760 --> 0:06:25.440 a TV that pushes itself as a three D television. 0:06:26.880 --> 0:06:32.040 And now let's talk about resolution. To do that, we're 0:06:32.040 --> 0:06:36.880 gonna start earlier than four K or even HD. This 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:40.480 is all about laying the groundwork, which you longtime listeners 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:42.599 of tech stuff. No, that's kind of how I like 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:46.719 to do things. So to begin, we're talking about image 0:06:46.880 --> 0:06:51.560 sharpness or resolution. That is really the focus, no pun 0:06:51.600 --> 0:06:55.960 intended of this episode. This isn't exactly the same thing 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.360 as image quality. They're not synonymous. It is a factor 0:06:59.480 --> 0:07:03.320 in image quality, but not the only one. Other factors 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:05.320 also determine whether or not the image you see on 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:09.640 a screen is good or isn't good. The resolution is important, 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.120 but it's not the end all be all. Two other 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.720 important things to consider would be color representation and contrast. 0:07:17.840 --> 0:07:21.840 For example, those are very important elements in picture quality, 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:24.600 and without them, if you don't have very good contrast, 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.560 or if you don't have good color representation, the images 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:31.000 might be in really sharp focus, but they're still not 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.920 gonna look as good as a television that has really 0:07:33.960 --> 0:07:37.120 good contrast and really good color representation. In fact, there's 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.480 some people who argue if you were to get two 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:41.960 sets together, and one of them is in four K 0:07:42.160 --> 0:07:44.960 and one of those in HD, and the HD one 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.160 has really good color representation in contrast, but the four 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:52.600 K has four times the resolution. Arguably that you would 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:55.520 probably think that HD set is actually giving you the 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.520 better picture because of that amazing color representation. More on 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:03.720 that a little bit later as well. In a way, 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.680 resolution really comes down to being a selling point, similar 0:08:08.720 --> 0:08:13.120 to the way megapixels are for digital cameras. Uh My 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.840 producer Dylan could tell you that just because one camera 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.280 might be advertised as taking images with a larger number 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:23.840 of megapixels, it does not necessarily mean that those images 0:08:23.880 --> 0:08:26.720 are going to be more pleasing to the eye than 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:30.000 a camera that has maybe fewer megapixels in the images 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:33.160 it produces. There are other factors that matter a lot, 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:38.600 but megapixels are an easy way to point at differentiation 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:42.959 between two camera models. Right. If you're selling cameras, it's 0:08:43.000 --> 0:08:46.319 easier to say, well, this camera takes eight megapixel pictures, 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.960 but this one takes twelve megapixel pictures, so it's four 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:53.640 megapixels better. It's easier to make that a selling point, 0:08:54.120 --> 0:08:57.360 even though all the different factors that really determine the 0:08:57.440 --> 0:09:00.160 quality of an image are much more subtle than that, 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.000 so the same thing is true. I would argue with 0:09:04.120 --> 0:09:08.480 high resolution televisions, it's easier to say four K is 0:09:08.520 --> 0:09:12.839 a higher resolution and therefore is better than HD than 0:09:12.880 --> 0:09:15.600 it does to dig down into all the particulars, which 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:19.680 is what we're going to do today. If you listened 0:09:20.160 --> 0:09:23.560 to UH, there's an episode of tech Stuff called What's 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:26.600 the Big Deal with Megapixels? We talked about this. This 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:29.440 was back in two thousand nine, and that was Chris Palette, 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:32.160 my former co host, and I. We sat down and 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:36.720 talked about megapixels and why they aren't the end all 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:40.400 be all in digital cameras. You could almost take that 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:44.760 episode and do a search replace for megapixel to resolution 0:09:45.480 --> 0:09:50.080 and camera to television and have a very similar argument 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:53.960 for this particular episode, but please don't do that, otherwise 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.680 I'll be wasting my time for the next thirty five 0:09:56.679 --> 0:10:00.360 minutes or so that I record this now. And it's 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:04.360 core resolution is referring to how many points of light 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:08.480 or pixels if we're talking displays make up the images 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.720 you see on screen. So if your television was just 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:15.120 one pixel, you would just get one solid block of 0:10:15.200 --> 0:10:19.040 light as your picture. It would be whatever the color 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:22.640 of light was being displayed at your one at that time. 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:25.240 But that's it. You would have like red or green 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:27.480 or blue or whatever it might be, or just white. 0:10:28.720 --> 0:10:30.480 That's all it would be able to show. Because it's 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:32.920 one pixel, it's one point of light. It would just 0:10:32.960 --> 0:10:36.199 be a really big one. Pixels can come in different sizes. 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:38.480 They can be teeny teeny tiny, or they could be larger. 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:42.240 Very frequently, I use an analogy where I talk about 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.600 imagine you've got a wooden frame and you've got some 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:48.560 blocks that you can place within that frame to make 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.240 different pictures. And each block is of a solid color. 0:10:52.320 --> 0:10:54.600 So you've got lots of different blocks to choose from, 0:10:54.640 --> 0:10:57.320 but you have a limited number that you can use 0:10:57.360 --> 0:10:59.600 at any given time because the size of the frame 0:10:59.679 --> 0:11:02.880 and the eyes of the blocks determine how many blocks 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.959 you can use. So you've got this one frame and 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:08.760 you get sixteen blocks, and it's your job to make 0:11:09.280 --> 0:11:11.600 a car out of those sixteen blocks, or rather the 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.439 frame can hold sixteen blocks. You've got enough different colors 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:17.520 to choose whatever you want. Well, you might be able 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.360 to make something that's vaguely car shaped, and people might 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:24.240 be able to figure out what you were creating based 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:27.360 upon association, but it's not really gonna look like a car. 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:29.680 It's gonna be really blocky. Well, let's say that I 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:32.440 give you that same size frame, but now I'm giving 0:11:32.480 --> 0:11:36.120 you much much, much smaller blocks, and you have sixteen 0:11:36.360 --> 0:11:40.240 thousand of them instead of sixteen. Well, now you could 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:43.520 make an image of a car that looks much more 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.680 car like because these pixels are smaller, You've got more 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.800 of them, the resolution is better. It's still gonna be 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:52.959 a little jagged because you're still using blocks, but it's 0:11:53.000 --> 0:11:55.559 going to look much more like an actual car. Then 0:11:55.640 --> 0:11:59.040 let's say I give you a hundred sixty thousand blocks. 0:11:59.040 --> 0:12:01.680 They are even smaller, and you can use those to 0:12:01.760 --> 0:12:05.080 make your image of a car. Each time I'm reducing 0:12:05.120 --> 0:12:07.760 the pixel size, I'm also increasing the number of pixels 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:10.920 that can fit within that frame. And each time the 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:15.920 resolution increases, you get a better level of detail with 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:22.520 each decrease in size and increase in number. So standard 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:26.000 definition in the United States for the old four three 0:12:26.040 --> 0:12:30.640 aspect ratio TVs was it was seven hundred four by 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:36.360 four hundred eighty pixels. You had uh a width of 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:39.880 a screen that was seven hundred four pixels wide, and 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.040 you had a height of the screen that was four 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:45.959 hundred eighty pixels tall. This was really the video source resolution. 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:48.920 When you look at the actual resolution of television screens, 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.079 it's a little different, but that gets so complicated. We're 0:12:51.080 --> 0:12:55.280 gonna focus on the video formats the standards. So four 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:59.200 eighty pixels tall, and that's how we would measure resolution. 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:02.240 We looked at vertical resolution. How many pixels vertically do 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.440 you have, So in the US it was four eighty. 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:07.720 If you take those two numbers, the four tall by 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.360 seven hundred four wide, and you multiply them together, you 0:13:10.440 --> 0:13:13.160 determine how many pixels are in that feed in the 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:15.520 first place, and in this case you end up with 0:13:15.559 --> 0:13:17.800 a number that's three d thirty seven thousand, nine hundred 0:13:17.840 --> 0:13:21.000 twenty pixels. So even in my example of a hundred 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.400 sixty thousand little blocks to create your picture of a car, 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:28.840 that was about half of what standard definition television was 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:32.720 capable of showing. Of course, it's never that simple, because 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.600 the world is a complicated, messy place. For one thing, 0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:38.480 the center definition would be different in Europe than in 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.439 the United States because the systems that Europe used were 0:13:41.480 --> 0:13:44.080 independent of these systems we used here in the US. 0:13:44.720 --> 0:13:47.960 So PAL and c CAMP systems spawned television sets with 0:13:47.960 --> 0:13:51.720 screens that had seven four pixels wide but five hundred 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:55.120 seventy six pixels tall, which meant you ended up with 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.760 a grand total of four hundred five thousand, five hundred 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:03.200 four pixels, so slightly different between Europe and the US. Now, 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.760 I could also talk a little bit about horizontal scaling, 0:14:06.160 --> 0:14:08.880 but that just will delay us from getting to uh 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:12.640 D even longer, and honestly, it's not really that important, 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:16.080 so we'll move on to talk about high definition or 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.320 h d TV. These sets were able to display more 0:14:19.360 --> 0:14:22.320 pixels on a screen than standard definition screens, and we're 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:24.640 gonna stick to television's here because we could go down 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:27.880 the rabbit hole of displays in general, like computer monitors 0:14:27.880 --> 0:14:30.720 and that sort of thing, but that's beyond the scope 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:33.000 of this episode. We're really talking about four K t 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.280 V s when you get down to it. So you've 0:14:35.280 --> 0:14:39.600 got three major types of high definition resolutions seven twenty 0:14:40.000 --> 0:14:42.880 ten A d P, and ten A d I. Now 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.920 the two ten eight s have the same resolution but 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:49.760 display those lines of pixels in different ways. So P 0:14:49.960 --> 0:14:53.920 stands for progressive scan meaning that it's showing all the 0:14:53.960 --> 0:14:59.120 pixels in every every run of a refresh. The I 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:02.880 stands for an relays scanning. You're showing every other line 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:07.000 with every refresh, but you're doing those refreshes frequently enough 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:10.920 where the human I can't pick up ideally the fact 0:15:10.920 --> 0:15:13.480 that you're only getting half of the lines of pixels 0:15:13.520 --> 0:15:20.800 on any given instant. Uh So, again where it goes 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:23.360 outside the scope of four K television's just know that 0:15:23.400 --> 0:15:25.720 you're seeing a lot more pixels than you would with 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:29.400 standard definition. With seven twenty, we're looking at a video 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.080 format of one thousand, two hundred and eighty columns of 0:15:32.120 --> 0:15:35.400 pixels versus seven twenty rows of pixels. So again we're 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:40.080 looking at the height that vertical element vertical resolution seven 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.640 twenty pixels tall, but you've got seven and twenty times 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:45.920 one two hundred eighty that gives you more than nine 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:50.240 hundred thousand pixels. In actuality, it turns out to be 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:53.600 eight seventy six thousand. That's because of the way that 0:15:53.640 --> 0:15:57.880 television is actually display this information. So again it's a 0:15:57.880 --> 0:16:00.200 little bit less than what you would get if you 0:16:00.200 --> 0:16:02.960 just multiply those two numbers together, but in the same ballpark. 0:16:03.640 --> 0:16:06.520 Then you have ten e D resolution, which is one 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:11.240 thousand eighty pixels tall. Again vertical resolution, but it has 0:16:11.280 --> 0:16:15.120 one thousand nine pixels wide. So you multiply those two 0:16:15.160 --> 0:16:17.720 numbers together, you get two million, seventy three thousand, six 0:16:17.800 --> 0:16:20.400 hundred pixels, though the real number is two million, five 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.080 thousand fifty six for ten a d P and one 0:16:23.120 --> 0:16:27.640 million fived five thousand two d I because again it 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:33.760 does that interlacing. So uh. The important thing to remember again, 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:36.280 way more pixels than you would get with standard definition, 0:16:37.920 --> 0:16:40.960 but you really only enjoy the benefit if you are 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.920 getting high definition content, and this is the same that 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.480 is true for ultra high definition content, like you have 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.480 to have the content to go on the set to 0:16:51.680 --> 0:16:56.680 actually be able to enjoy this boost in pixels. If 0:16:56.720 --> 0:16:59.040 the information is not there, then all you can do 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:01.560 is perhaps up gale the image, which mostly involves a 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:06.040 lot of guesswork. It doesn't magically convert standard definition to 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:09.399 high definition video. If you get the upscaling, that typically 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.040 involves an algorithm that's making a best guess what a 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:15.320 non existent pixel in a video source would be based 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:18.240 on its neighbors. So you get an incoming video source 0:17:18.320 --> 0:17:22.639 that standard definition that's set for a certain number of pixels, 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:25.160 you're going to put it on a television that has 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:31.480 effectively twice as many pixels, maybe more, And in order 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.000 to fill in all that information that doesn't exist, the 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:39.000 algorithm would essentially say, well, all the neighboring pixels for 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:43.240 this one that doesn't exist, but should they're all read. 0:17:43.720 --> 0:17:46.719 So I'm gonna make this one red too, because my 0:17:46.800 --> 0:17:49.480 guess is based upon the information I have it should 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:51.600 be read. It does this over and over and over 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:55.640 again for the entire picture. So these algorithms are pretty good, 0:17:55.680 --> 0:17:59.520 but they're not perfect. Also, they don't they don't talk. 0:17:59.560 --> 0:18:03.520 I I said talking to make a point, but they 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.720 don't actually speak because they're algorithms. Now, I think it's 0:18:06.720 --> 0:18:08.240 safe to say that most people think of ten A 0:18:08.359 --> 0:18:12.120 D as the basic high definition set these days rather 0:18:12.240 --> 0:18:15.440 than the seven twenty unless they're looking at smaller TVs. 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:18.800 One of the things that's really important with high definition 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:22.199 and also ultra high definition is the screen size. At 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:24.560 ten a D t V with a forty screen has 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:26.879 just as many pixels as a ten A D t 0:18:27.000 --> 0:18:30.520 V with a seventy screen. So if you've got two 0:18:30.520 --> 0:18:34.920 televisions and one is and is much larger than the other, 0:18:35.000 --> 0:18:37.639 but they're both at the same resolution, they both have 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:41.400 the same number of pixels, the smaller set crams those 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.840 pixels together much more closely. They're smaller than the larger 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:49.040 set is. Now, usually the difference in size isn't so 0:18:49.119 --> 0:18:51.359 great that you can actually pick up on the difference, 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.560 like being able to actually see the pixels unless you're 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:57.119 right up there on the screen. So it's not like 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:00.119 you necessarily notice it if you're watching the television from 0:19:00.160 --> 0:19:02.680 a good viewing distance. And we'll talk about that a 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:05.880 little bit more later on too. If you get really 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:09.800 close to a screen, or you start looking at seriously 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:14.120 huge screens at lower resolutions, then you're gonna start noticing pixels. 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.600 So let's talk about ultra high definition television specifically. Now 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:20.960 this includes four K, but we'll also talk about eight 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:26.560 K sets. That's uh the concept televisions that, if they 0:19:26.560 --> 0:19:29.000 ever do come to market, are going to be further 0:19:29.160 --> 0:19:32.359 into the future. I mean, you could pour out a 0:19:32.480 --> 0:19:35.600 ridiculous amount of cash and get an eight K television set, 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:37.359 but it would make no sense because there's nothing to 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:40.480 watch on it, not at eight K resolution, not unless 0:19:40.520 --> 0:19:43.159 you're also paying people to make eight K content for 0:19:43.200 --> 0:19:45.439 you to watch on your eight K TV. And if 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:49.399 that's the case, I'm I'm amazed, and I want you 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:53.159 to adopt me because it sounds like you're loaded. But 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.400 when we talk about ultra high definition, most people are 0:19:57.400 --> 0:20:00.840 actually talking about four K. UH. There are a lot 0:20:00.840 --> 0:20:04.280 of different terms uh D, ultra definition four K TV 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:08.479 that all have been used interchangeably, and it's confused the 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:11.720 market a little bit. In fact, four K alone is 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:15.439 a confusing term. But some of you might say, well, 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:17.840 whatever happened to two K? Like, why did we go 0:20:17.880 --> 0:20:20.080 from ten A D to four K? What happened to 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:22.760 two K? I heard about two K video cameras. Why 0:20:22.760 --> 0:20:26.800 don't we have two K television sets? Well, you do 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.879 have two K projectors. Those do exist. So if you 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.960 want to get a projector and use a projection instead 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:35.600 of a classic television, you can get a two K projector. 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:38.320 But there are also two K t V s. Technically, 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:40.919 you can make an argument that ten A D h 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:44.760 D television sets are actually two K t v s. 0:20:44.840 --> 0:20:46.280 And all of this has to do with the way 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.960 we changed our perspective on television resolution by nine D degrees. 0:20:51.560 --> 0:20:54.879 So what do I mean by that? Well, remember a 0:20:54.960 --> 0:20:57.600 ten A D h D television has a resolution of 0:20:57.760 --> 0:21:02.679 one thousand, nine twenty picks wide by one thousand eighty 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:08.600 pixels tall. So we always talked about vertical resolution, but 0:21:10.240 --> 0:21:14.159 we don't do that with Ultra high Definition. We we 0:21:14.200 --> 0:21:17.239 did it with standard definition. Standard definition we defined by 0:21:17.320 --> 0:21:21.840 vertical resolution. High Definition we defined by vertical resolution. So 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:26.400 we should do the same with Ultra high Definition TV, right, 0:21:26.760 --> 0:21:30.159 you would think, but that's not the case. Instead, we 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:34.160 turn our perspective ninety degrees. Now we talk about resolution 0:21:34.640 --> 0:21:38.640 by horizontal resolution, not vertical, so we're looking at how 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:41.360 many pixels are there from left to right, not from 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:47.080 top to bottom. Why. I don't know. Someone made that decision, 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:52.240 and it's frustrating because it is inconsistent with the way 0:21:52.280 --> 0:21:57.200 we've described televisions in the past. However, using this new 0:21:57.320 --> 0:22:00.840 way of looking at resolution, where we're looking at horizontal 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:06.359 rather than vertical, we can look at ten eighty TVs 0:22:06.560 --> 0:22:10.560 as being two K because the resolution for a ten 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:14.320 A D set is one thousand n twenty pixels wide 0:22:14.520 --> 0:22:17.400 by one thousand eighty pixels tall. Well, if we look 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:20.320 at that nineteen twenty wide and we round up, you 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:24.879 get two K. And rounding up is perfectly legit because 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:28.040 that's what companies are already doing with four K and 0:22:28.119 --> 0:22:32.160 eight K sets. They don't actually have four thousand pixels 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:38.240 wide horizontal resolution or eight thousand pixels wide horizontal resolution. Instead, 0:22:38.280 --> 0:22:40.520 it's less than that, but they round up. So if 0:22:40.560 --> 0:22:42.400 they can round up, then we can round up. So 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:45.000 now you're ten a D set. Congratulations, it just got 0:22:45.080 --> 0:22:49.520 upgraded to a two K television. Nothing about it changed technologically. 0:22:49.920 --> 0:22:53.760 We just change the way we measure resolution by looking 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:57.000 horizontally instead of vertically. And if it sounds like I'm 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:00.680 a little snarky about this, it's probably because as someone 0:23:00.720 --> 0:23:04.280 who tries to communicate things about technology and science, it 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:07.159 is really frustrating when people change up the way you 0:23:07.240 --> 0:23:12.240 measure stuff. So four K resolution, let's talk about that. 0:23:12.520 --> 0:23:14.399 A four K set or u h D set has 0:23:14.400 --> 0:23:17.440 a screen resolution of three thousand, eight hundred forty pixels 0:23:17.440 --> 0:23:20.720 by two thousand, one hundred sixty. So again, neither of 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:23.720 those numbers are four thousand, But now we're looking at 0:23:23.720 --> 0:23:27.240 that three thousand, eight hundred forty pixel wide that horizontal 0:23:27.240 --> 0:23:32.760 resolution number, and we're we're rounding up to four K. Also, 0:23:33.560 --> 0:23:36.880 real TVs don't have that exact resolution, but again that's 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:39.960