What that means in reality is that TVs which support the technology have brighter images and a wider range of color details. Instead, we’ll focus on the basics.įirst, what does HDR stand for? Well, that’s High Dynamic Range. HDR is another important element in the discussion about quality - but one I don’t want to dwell on too much. So, there’s a quick description for you: 4K is a display resolution that tells you how many pixels can be displayed on the screen. Effectively, it means more detail.
This means it has four times as many pixels than a 1080p screen (which was the old HD standard). But what about 4K? Well, without getting mixed up with cinema formats, 4K for the home user is a screen that displays 3,840 pixels horizontally and 2,160 vertically. Normally, this is described by stating the number of pixels across the screen‘s width and height respectively.įor example, the 1080p resolution is for screens that display 1,920 pixels horizontally and 1,080 vertically. Resolution is simply the number of pixels a screen can show, something that translates directly to the level of detail a picture has. I’ve written about this in more detail here, but I’ll sum it up quickly for the sake of the article. Without getting too weighed down, 4K is a display resolution.
Because if we’re going to talk about the benefits of watching a 4K Blu-ray over its most obvious competitor (AKA streaming) we need to get an overview of what this is all about. To achieve this, we’re going to dive-in and define some technical terms. In it - and this article - I’m going to go through why I adore the 4K Blu-ray format, my player of choice, and why this decision is both smart and stupid. And in the spirit of everything moving picture related, this whole piece is also a video - something you can watch above.