Today, almost every day you can see or hear word combinations such as 4K resolution. Many who assent, they say, yes, that's cool! Some are perplexed: why is it needed? And at the same time, a substantial part of the population does not even know what it is. Let's figure it out in order and put everything on the shelves so that everyone can understand what the concept of “4K resolution” is.
A bit of history
In the courtyard of the 21st century - technology has gone far ahead compared to yesterday, and if our grandparents and parents still remember the times when films (like many other information) were stored on magnetic films, then the current generation knows about it knows nothing. Today, massive bobbins have sunk into oblivion, giving way to a digital format for storing and transmitting data. Audio and video cassettes with magnetic tape gradually changed to compact discs, and those, in turn, also begin to lose their distance, passing the baton to USB-carriers or high-speed SSD hard drives. And the further technology develops, the more space becomes on our "pocket" storage media ... Once, Bill Gates bequeathed that "640 kilobytes is enough for everyone for any needs." Sounds funny, right? Today, many even MMS messages or ringtones on phones are 5-6 times larger than this size. Current smartphones can carry up to 128 gigabytes of information (and some even more), pocket-sized "flash drives" boldly grow fat up to 250-500 gigabytes, and a home computer can safely store up to one and a half to two terabytes of data. And once upon a time, people rejoiced at buying a 40 GB hard drive and thought that it was just so much horror! But nothing stands still. The farther the steeper. Ask what takes up so much space today? Permission, comrades, is permission.
What it is?
Resolution is the number of dots vertically and horizontally. Sounds somehow abstract, right? And try looking at the desktop resolution of your monitor (at home or in the office). In fact, this is the rectangle onto which the information you are looking for is displayed, whether it is a picture or part of it, a piece of this article or a video. And the larger this rectangle, the more comfortable it is for us to perceive information. After all, you do not need to peer at the clarity of the frame in the film, you do not need to scroll down the article sometimes or to the side, you do not have to click on the picture for nothing in order to consider how this or that detail looks. And being engaged in the constant "buildup" of resolution for our monitors or televisions, mankind came to a dilemma: if the size of the picture or film is smaller than the resolution of the display, then the image begins to stretch, and the details become blurry and deformed. Roughly speaking, the picture becomes distorted. Agree, it is not pleasant to consider your favorite family photo, where everyone’s faces will be square or muddy and stretched. But trying to see all the personalities on a small display is also uninteresting. And to eliminate such problems, it was just decided to increase the original size of photographs, pictures or films. Gradually, the resolution of the screens became more and more, and behind it the size and quality of the displayed data increased. Computer games, too, did not stand aside, because developers are trying to make the virtual world more similar to reality. Accordingly, the detail of the created image (even if futuristic) grew as fast as the clarity of video clips with photos. Soon, digital cameras began to take pictures in megapixels, video cameras learned to shoot scenes in high-quality resolution, and computer games acquired much more realistic graphics. But the consumer is always not enough - he wants to see more and more information at a time. And then, to the already existing and long-standing notions of HD-picture and FullHD-screen, 4K resolution was added. Let us consider this concept in more detail.
4K resolution technology - what is it ?
A modern widescreen screen is capable of displaying information in HD or FullHD format. The first type (High Definition) is characterized by the following characteristics: the vertical picture usually has 720 pixels (pixels). For FullHD (Full High Definition) resolution, the number of vertical dots has already increased to 1020. The horizontal number of pixels for both of these modes is usually proportional to the aspect ratio of the screen selected in advance (16: 9 or 16:10, which is considered more widescreen). But, since the consumer wants more and more "bread and circuses", the manufacturer went even further and created a new display format with a 4K screen resolution. At the same time, the technology for converting pixels in this embodiment has already changed. Now the number of dots displayed on the screen is considered not vertically (as in HD and FullHD), but horizontally, and equal to about 4000. Ask what resolution does 4K have in this case? The exact figure will be as follows: 3840x2160 pixels. It is stated that this technology allows you to display on the screen about 4 times more information than with FullHD mode (which until recently was considered the reference).
Matching Opportunities
Naturally, a 4K TV appeared immediately on sale. You can immediately think that it will be 4 times larger than the usual 40-inch giants. But this is not so: televisions of this category can be divided into several groups: 40-49 inches, 50-59 inches and over 60. The difference between such devices in price is very significant, but if you can afford a good car, why not for a home theater do not buy decent equipment? However, do not think that 4K resolution will only be used for television.
Mass application
Fans of large displays - for their powerful PC - can also safely buy a monitor with a resolution of 4K. Designers, artists, planners or even ordinary users will be pleased to appreciate the ultra-quality images on such a "monster". Gamers are especially pleased - games with a resolution of 4K will not leave anyone indifferent. The main thing - if only “iron” pulled a similar format, because for such a diagonal you just have to load your computer. Game console developers (Sony Playstation, Xbox, Nintendo Wii and others) also did not stand aside - the new generation of consoles (PS4, Xbox One, Wii U) will also learn to support this resolution any day.
Other features
Surprise, but this application of technology when using Ultra HD 4K resolution does not end there. For especially sophisticated users of gadgets, manufacturers of modern digital cameras and cameras are already preparing the release of products that can capture any moment in the highest quality. But save your wallets: such a 4K-resolution camera, of course, will take pictures, however, its cost will significantly hit the budget. The choice here, of course, is yours.
Reasons for the purchase
You ask, they say, why is this necessary? Today, in the age of progressive digital technologies, a similar technique is already actively used in many developed countries, and it is moving ahead with it in the rest of the world. Even television in our country is already moving to the format of high-quality digital broadcasting, and the usual "squareness" of broadcasts has given way to widescreen broadcasts, and the faces of the presenters have already acquired sharpness and clarity. Entertainment also did not stand aside - many cinemas have been “digitized” for a long time and now, with the transition to a new format, they are actively changing their hardware to the latest updates and showing films in 4K resolution. The difference must be said to be felt. It’s not that right from the first second it catches your eye, but it is.
Household indicators
An ordinary consumer should ask himself what are the advantages of 4K resolution? What does this indicator give to the TV, monitor and camcorder? Firstly, this technology allows you to compact the number of pixels per inch of the screen, which generally improves the quality of the picture and the display of small details. New televisions and monitors with this resolution allow you to increase the frame rate per second - up to 120 fps, which significantly improves the quality of playback of dynamic scenes. At the same time, the nature of color reproduction increases - on the screen you can now easily distinguish many shades and at the same time not strain your eyes. Fans of computer games and modern consoles here, too, do not remain out of work. After all, such a resolution will give ultra-realistic picture quality, which will allow you to plunge into the virtual world and get a lot of new impressions. In addition, modern matrices of such TVs or monitors of a new generation can freely form a three-dimensional image without the use of any additional 3D glasses. Are lovers to plunge into the plot of the film with their heads still resist such "goodies"? Unlikely.
Camcorder Formats
And what with such capabilities will be able to capture such new devices? As mentioned earlier, all the details are in great detail. Any plot can be studied up to the smallest nuances. Any frame or moment will be filled with information. How can you resist here?
Undoubted advantages
So, in general, the advantage of such a technology is likely to be one: super-high definition of the visible picture. It all comes down to quality - because we want to see all the details in the smallest details. And the farther - the more: an ordinary buyer has not yet mastered what UHD 4K resolution is, and the development and production of Super Ultra HD 8K TVs is already in full swing.
disadvantages
However, the system also has flaws. The first is that, despite the constant progress and development of science and technology, 4K resolution is still not used everywhere. The transition of television to a new broadcast format, the release of new high-quality media products - these processes are quite costly and resource intensive. This means that the planet will not move to a new level all at once. Some countries in the West are already actively conducting large-scale re-equipment. With the modern development of Internet networks, many television manufacturers are even trying to provide their products with good access to ultra-high-quality streaming video in advance. In the future, each future owner of such equipment will be able to calmly switch several dozen digital channels. However, this is in the future.
The state of the domestic market
I don’t want to talk about Mother Russia. In our country this is still too poorly developed to be able to safely afford at least a dozen good channels in high quality. We can only rely on Internet TV (and here everything depends only on Internet connection), or on media content on media (BD-drives, external HDDs, etc.). Otherwise, you have to be content with the unpleasant quality of conventional broadcasting on a high-quality TV with ultra-resolution. Imagine these stretched and blurry faces of leading ...
Stumbling block
Naturally, this is the price. Currently, such a system remains a rather expensive toy, even for the West. But this, of course, is a matter of time: such devices are getting cheaper pretty quickly. Gradually, the market will fill in new products, the problem of access to relevant content will be solved, and prices will fall. And then it will already be possible to purchase some not very expensive TV, possibly with a contract from the manufacturer to connect to several channels of UHD broadcasting. Or? yet again? just connect the TV to the Internet, provide high-quality high-speed connection and learn how to "climb" on the Web using the remote control. So, if you decide to buy a monitor or TV with a resolution of 4K, decide for yourself whether you are ready to spend the requested amount on the purchase of such equipment?