Everything you need to know about 4K and how to get it
MAKING THE MOST OF 4K ULTRA HD CONTENT
IT’S ALL TOO easy to get sold into the 4K dream. The latest 4K TVs on display at electronics shops play content that’s deliberately filmed to maximise the detail and colour, and yet when you go home and try to replicate it, you realise that free-to-air TV – which maxes out at 720p on the HD channels – offers nowhere near the same experience.
Alas, all is not lost. To make the most of your new television, you just need to get your hands on 4K content, and there’s plenty of that if you know where to look. Whether it’s streaming 4K movies over the Internet, loading up 4K Blu-ray discs, or playing 4K videos you’ve created or acquired, there’s a tonne of options that’ll justify the new investment in your living room.
To watch movies and TV shows in 4K, everything in your home entertainment setup needs to support it: your TV, your media player (unnecessary if you’re streaming from your TV’s built-in apps), the content, and even the HDMI cable (again, a moot point if you’re streaming through your TV’s built-in apps). If one of the required elements doesn’t support 4K, then video quality will downscale to the highest standard that element supports – which is likely to be 1080p.
Content is most likely going to be your weakest link. Platforms like Foxtel Now and Telstra Box Office are still languishing in HD territory, and while Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime Video have been on the 4K bandwagon for a while now, the media player you’re using (whether it’s the one built into your TV or an external device) may not support streaming in that resolution.
Even if your media player and content platform both support 4K, your internet connection may not be fast enough to deliver it. Typically, your internet connection will need to sustain a steady 25Mbps minimum, otherwise the content stream will downscale to a resolution that your internet connection can manage. Given 25Mbps is actually faster than the maximum speed supported by ADSL2+, you’re out of luck unless you’re on a fast cable or NBN connection.
But don’t despair if your internet connection isn’t up to scratch for 4K streaming – you can still play 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs or downloaded 4K movies.