In recent years, 4K/UHD (Ultra HD) content and devices have taken the world by storm. This is such a popular feature that we have actually discussed it in-depth in a past article. For many, this has been the natural progression of things. To improve their viewing experiences at home, it was an obvious decision to upgrade from their former Full-HD (1080p) setups. For others, this decision holds much more weight.
Whether it is a lack of expendable income, concerns about longevity, or simply a lack of interest, there are plenty of individuals who have yet to move on to a full 4K setup. For many, their concerns stem from the potential cost of building a full setup to run 4K/UHD content- after all, a 4k television, 4k blu-ray player, and the videos to play on these devices all cost money. If cost is an issue, you could benefit by upgrading your devices piecemeal.
The premise of having a full 4K/UHD setup is obviously tempting, as it should be. These devices provide beautiful, entrancing viewing experiences that are notable improvements over their traditional Full-HD counterparts. However, each component of a 4K setup has its own benefits; they all serve different purposes which, even alone, serve as upgrades to a traditional setup.
4K/UHD Televisions
Many 4K/UHD Televisions have the unique feature of upscaling their video output to higher resolutions. Upscaling refers to the act of taking footage that is rendered at a lower resolution than what is native to the television (so in this case, it could be 1920x1080 or 1080p footage) and rendering it at or near the expected resolution (UHD or 3840x2160).
Upscaling
I need to be clear here and stress that this does not produce the same level of quality that one would experience by playing UHD content on the same 4K television. Upscaling is an in-depth process that, in essence, uses various algorithms to automatically take videos (which are long sequences of images, or ‘frames’, for our purposes) and increase the number of pixels that make up each frame. This needs to happen incredibly quickly in order to not be noticeable by the viewer.
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Figure A: 1080p - Zoomed in 200%.[/caption]
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Figure B: 1080p image upscaled to 4k. Zoomed in 200%.[/caption]
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Figure C: True 4K, zoomed in 200%.[/caption]
The resulting image is dramatically improved from that of standard 1080p, but still not nearly as detailed as true 4K. Figures A-C shows a highly zoomed-in (200%) comparison of the same image at 1080p, Upscaled 4K, and Native 4K. The effects of upscaling are clear: the native image is highly pixellated, with a great deal of 'tessellation' (the jagged edges around objects). The upscaled image is much less jagged, and while it is blurry it is still a drastic improvement over its predecessor. The final image of the three, the Native 4K image, clearly has a greater amount of detail than the others due to its incredibly fine resolution. If the difference is not noticeable, look a bit closer at the screen. From distances, they appear more similar due to their size, while on a large television they are extremely noticeable.
This is perhaps the most noticeable means through which a 4K television can serve as an upgrade without opting for additional upgrades. Even non-4K video will suddenly look better upon acquiring this new television! Aside from that, many streaming services such as Hulu and Netflix offer the option to stream 4K/UHD content, although one should ensure that their internet connection is fast enough to handle it prior to making the commitment.4K Blu-ray Players Without 4K Televisions?
There is one upgrade on the path to a full Blu-ray setup that could potentially be more noticeable than all others- 4K Blu-ray players. Even without with a 4K Television, these could significantly improve one's viewing experience. There are some caveats I would put in place here, however. While a 4K Television will provide a blanket improvement on video quality through upscaling, many 4K Blu-ray players offer the option of improving video quality through 'downscaling'. Put simply, downscaling is a process wherein an image is rendered at a higher resolution and then output at a lower one. While this might sound pointless, there is a notable difference. These images obviously do not have the full, incredible detail one would see in a 4K image. At the same time, a downscaled video will typically look better than the alternative 1080p version. There are other considerations to make, such as the source of videos; streamed videos see a loss in quality no matter what, simply as a result of them downloading over time. However, that is as much an issue of internet connection speeds as it is hardware. For Blu-rays specifically, downscaling can drastically improve image quality. [caption id="attachment_1567" align="aligncenter" width="300"]
A comparison between 4K downsampled (left) and standard 1080p (right). Source: https://www.premiumbeat.com/[/caption]
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A comparison between 4K Offline (Blu-ray) and 4K Streaming (YouTube). Source: https://www.premiumbeat.com/[/caption]
Other considerations need to be made when purchasing these devices. Additional hardware components, the quality of the upscaling and downscaling from devices, internet connection speeds, and the films themselves are all important. The ultimate point of this is to show that you can benefit from purchasing a new television or Blu-ray player now- even if you do not have a full setup ready to go. Some great examples of devices that have these features are:
