Everything you need to know about 4K quality and why it's important

If you are planning to buy a 4K TV or a new generation home console, you will probably come across the terms 4K and Ultra HD. You have encountered many times. In this note, we try to explain the meaning of 4K and Ultra HD in a very simple language, and in the next step, we will also explain what the quality of 4K and Ultra HD are used for. Also, if you are planning to buy a 4K TV, we will help you to know the important points before buying a TV.

Generally, 4K and UHD quality is defined as resolution or image resolution beyond p1080 (Full HD). Called. A 4K screen has almost four times more pixels than the previous generation. In very simple and understandable language, more pixels means cleaner and more detailed image.

In Now, it's pretty obvious that a simple 1080p TV can't perform as well as a 4K UHD TV. Even if you have a 4K TV, you need to make sure that the quality of the movie or video content is capable of playing 4K. Fortunately, most movies and series and even new video games are 4K UHD. are. You can also buy 4K UHD monitors for computer systems to experience excellent image quality. In any case, 4K quality is everywhere and even most of the smartphones on the market can record voluminous videos in 4K quality. Currently, the most important question here is what 4K and UHD mean.

The difference between 4K quality and UHD

Despite the fact that the two mentioned qualities are often used incorrectly by sellers and users, 4K and UHD quality are not the same. While 4K is a production standard defined by the Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI), UHD is just a screen resolution. Movies are produced in DCI 4K quality, while most televisions have a resolution that matches UHD.

The standard for 4K production is a resolution of 4096 x 2160 pixels; That is, twice the width and length of the previous standard of 2K quality, which is a resolution of 2048 x 1080. As part of this production standard, the 4K quality specifies the type of compression process to be used (JPEG2000), the maximum bitrate (up to 250 Mbps) and the color depth specification (12-bit, 4:4:4). /p>

Ultra HD quality has an image resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels and in most modern TVs today, products that It has 4K capability and is exploited. Except for the number of bright pixels, there are no special new features in these TVs. The main differences between the two formats are only the width of the images and the aspect ratio.

A film produced in 4K quality can use an aspect ratio of up to 1.9:1, although most filmmakers prefer 1. 85:1 or 2.39.1 should be used. Video games that are rendered for more affordable screens take advantage of the 1.78:1 UHD aspect ratio to fill the screen. Movies and TV series on new generation TVs, you see two black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. These strips are called letterboxes; Because old TVs with panels 8-bits are still sold in the market alongside 10-bit and in the future 12-bit TVs, and older content on new TVs is not able to fill the entire screen.

It is interesting to know that Ultra HD quality is also used as 8K content. For this reason, if you have seen the label 8K UHD on the product box, it means that you are dealing with a resolution of 7680 x 4320 pixels. 8K quality is currently and at the time of writing this article, exactly the edge of technology in the field of television development. However, in the near future, this quality similar to 4K quality will become widespread in the market and many people in the society will be able to buy TVs with the ability to play 8K. With all these interpretations, most manufacturers use the term 2160p to describe typical UHD content, even if the term is not as precise as it relates to production standards.

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Tips you should know before buying a 4K TV or monitor

Now is a very good time to buy or upgrade to 4K quality; Because almost seven years have passed since the introduction of 4K quality and this technology has reached sufficient maturity and development. On the other hand, UHD screens are not as expensive as they were seven years ago and can be purchased at a more reasonable price. Also, current screens have more capabilities. Currently, there are 10-bit screens on the market that have many features such as HDR, and these features are extremely useful for processing high-quality images.

To buy a 4K TV or monitor, you must first consider two Answer the important question. The first question is what size screen you intend to buy and the second question is how far away you are going to sit from the TV. If you currently have a normal 50-inch Full HD TV and watch at a distance of at least 2 meters from the TV, there is no urgent need to buy a 4K TV; Because you are not able to observe the pixels separately from a distance of at least two meters. That's why you won't get any special profit by increasing the resolution.

There are two ways to prepare and watch 4K content legally. In the first place, you can buy Blu-ray discs, but maybe buying these types of discs is not economically useful inside Iran. Instead of this, you can use entertainment content streaming services like Netflix; However, in this case, you need to have a constant high-speed and stable internet connection. Netflix also offers a more expensive service for streaming content in 4K quality.

Current televisions have a great impact on the upscale process; The process by which the device captures low-resolution content and plays it on a larger screen. It should be remembered that these TVs have four times more pixels than normal Full HD TVs, and the upscaling process is not an easy task at all and has its own complications.

Upscaling means more than Enlarge the image. Modern televisions and playback devices process images and try to display images in a higher resolution. This operation is known as interpolation, in this case, the lost pixels are produced in the playback stream. In general, the goal lies in this problem to produce a smooth transition between different areas of images.

quality of construction and Better design in TVs, not necessarily, but leads to better performance of skill-up techniques as well as interpolation. Currently, the best scaling techniques on the market is NVIDIA Shield. This software, using artificial intelligence and machine learning, upscales different parts of images using different techniques. If you've purchased an Ultra HD TV and are experiencing poor performance with low-resolution content, NVIDIA Shield might be just what you need.

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Playstation 4 Pro It also uses a creative upscaling technique to render low-resolution images (for example, 1440p) and upscale them to 4K quality using a technique called Checkerboarding. Nvidia also, inspired by this method, unveiled a technique called "deep learning sampling" to upscaling process in video games. Personal computers can also be done. In this case, some specific components of the images are rendered at a lower resolution and then scaled to real-time. This method has a much better performance than rendering the scene in the original resolution.

Perhaps you have come across the term HDR in the field of different TV and monitor qualities. HDR or High dynamic range is very briefly and usefully related to higher gamma and color transparency of images. This feature is completely different from the story of 4K quality, and the explanation of what exactly HDR is and how it differs from 4K quality requires a separate and detailed article. had not done so, and for this reason, this feature is not active in normal 1080p TVs. However, many TVs and monitors of the current generation support the HDR feature. However, the activation of the HDR function is completely optional and the user can turn this option on or off in the desired product according to his own taste. img src="https://safirsoft.com/picsbody/2301/18035-10.jpg">

This sentence, i.e. not getting involved with terms, should not be considered a slogan. You don't need to be in trouble to buy a new generation TV that can play 4K content. It doesn't matter whether the TV is 4K or UHD. In any case, the UHD TV you buy has the power to broadcast 4K quality. Different companies are constantly trying to tempt many customers to buy their products and services with different labels. For example, Netflix advertises a movie with Ultra HD quality and iTunes offers the exact same movie with 4K quality to its users. The UHD TV you buy is capable of playing a pair of movies. Therefore, there is no need to drown in the world of different terms and meanings on the screen. With a correct and principled search, try to buy a quality and affordable 4K TV.

Source: howtogeek