Get Started With... 4K Video

4K’s not just a buzzword – it’s here to stay, and the iPhone and iMac are leading the way.

- Cliff Joseph

There’s no doubt that 4K is the next step in video technology, but like any new buzzword,it can be a bit confusing at times. The term 4K itself is, shall we say, “flexible.” And to confuse things further, it’s often referred to as UHD (Ultra High Definition), too. We’ll look at the technical details later, but 4K generally refers to a video image or a screen that’s about 4,000 pixels wide and approximately 2,000 pixels tall. Compare that to Full HD video (1080p), which measures 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels tall, and you can see that 4K video has four times higher resolution, enabling it to render images with much greater clarity and detail.

This is where the sceptics pipe up, arguing that most people just don’t need to buy a brand new TV with that sort of resolution. It’s true that 3D TV party failed because there simply weren’t enough good 3D movies and TV shows to justify the expense of buying a new TV – but that’s not the case with 4K.