These days, “4k” is the buzz of the home theater community. Digital cinema projectors are (slowly) transitioning from 2k resolution to 4k models. Recent Blu-ray titles have been advertised as benefiting from new 4k transfers. Many people assume that the HDTV standard will jump from 1080p to 4k any day now, and a whole new 4k video format better than Blu-ray will be needed to support it. What most people don’t realize is that “4k” isn’t necessarily really 4k. Confused? Read on after the break. <\/p>\n
One of the biggest dangers in the home theater hobby today is how easily people can be mislead by specs and marketing hype, which often attempt to reduce complex topics down to simple linear mathematical analogies. High numbers sound better than low numbers. This game is played all the time with stats like contrast ratio. A TV that claims a 100,000:1 contrast ratio must be twice as good as another set that only claims 50,000:1, right? Frankly, no. The issue these specs ignore is just how<\/em> those contrast numbers are achieved. Is that a native contrast ratio, or is a dynamic iris needed? How are these number measured? Can either of them actually be achieved in real-world viewing? At what point are there diminishing returns? These are just some of the questions that need to be asked.<\/p>\n Likewise, resolution stats have a similar problem. “4k” just sounds so much better than 2K (or 1080p), doesn’t it? Gosh, it must be twice as good! 4 is twice as much as 2. How much more obvious can it be? <\/p>\n