Hey, what's up?
It's Andy with MyTechMethods.
As you can see, I'm not watching anything on my full HD, 1080p screen.
Why?
Because it's not 4K and I want 4K.
Well, what is 4K, you ask?
Well, today I'm going to explain what 4K is in this 4K edition episode of "What Is".
So 4K seems to be the craze lately in the tech world.
I was kind of confused at first, so I got myself familiar with it, looked into it, and
now I'm here to explain what it is and what it means to us as consumers.
4K is basically the name for the new standardized high definition resolution for displays.
Now, 4K gets its name from the amount of pixels horizontally on the resolution.
So it has roughly 4000 pixels horizontally and 2000 pixels vertically.
But before we get deeper into that, let's take a step back, get in the time machine,
and let's remember how we came to 4K right now today.
So remember your box TV?
Remember when you were playing Mario Kart on your little boxed square TV?
They had an aspect ratio of 4:3.
Well, then we moved on to widescreen displays with an aspect ratio of 16:9.
That's when we started introducing, started seeing basic HD.
That's 720p.
That was a resolution of 1280x720 -- so 1280 pixels horizontally and 720 pixels vertically.
That is considered basic HD, 720p.
And now, you see 1080 full HD.
That is another name.
Full HD means 1080p HD.
And now that's kind of the standard that you see on monitors and TVs these days.
Almost everyone has one.
If you go out and buy a new HD television right now, it's most likely full HD 1080p.
1080p is actually 1920 x 1080 pixels tall.
That's the resolution for a full HD 1080p screen.
So did you think that it would stop there at 1080p?
It'd just stop?
No siree!
So the next step up is... you got it!
It's 4K.
That's the next step up after 1080p.
So 4K is now the next high-def resolution standard for mass market displays.
So why is it called 4K?
Well, that's kind of what confused me at first because if you look back at 1080p and 720p,
they got their names from their vertical pixels, right?
Well now 4K, they name 4K after the horizontal pixels because 4K is roughly 4000 pixels wide
by 2000 pixels high.
So what does that mean for us, the consumers?
Well, when go out to buy TVs and monitors, you will start seeing these ultra HD 4K displays.
That's the name.
So when you see "ultra-HD" that's the same thing as 4K.
That's the standardized 16:9 display that you'll see in monitors and TVs.
And the exact pixels for 4K ultra HD is actually 3840 pixels wide by 2160 pixels high.
So basically, 4K is twice the width of 1080p and twice the height of 1080p, which makes
it four times larger than 1080p.
So a full HD 1080p resolution has roughly 2 million pixels compared to a 4K which has
roughly 8 million pixels.
That's a lot of pixels.
Hey, does anybody else pixels, huh?
Pixels, anybody else?
Doesn't it blow your mind?
Remember the first time you ever saw full HD 1080p at a store?
They were showing a football game, you're like, "Oh, my God!
Look at that!
I can see the blades of grass.
That guy did not mow that grass very well."
Remember how your mind was just blown like when you first saw that?
Well, just imagine like you having four brains and then seeing 4K for the first time like
each mind explodes -- boom, boom, boom, boom!
That's what seeing 4K live is like.
Now I've never seen a 4K TV live, but I've seen other people see it for themselves and
I felt the excitement in the room.
I could feel my own head exploding.
So what's so special about 4K?
Well, the name says it itself.
It's ultra high definition.
It's four times as high-def as 1080p.
And they say it's like when you're looking at a 4K display, it's like looking out a window.
You get that much detail, that much sharpness, and the image quality is just so crisp, it's
like looking at a window, which I'm so excited for.
And that's why everybody is so crazy about it.
That's what's so good about 4K.
So now you know what 4K is.
It's called ultra high-definition.
It's the next step up after full HD 1080p, and you're going to be seeing it come out
in monitors and TVs.
They're already selling TVs like this, but really the content is not there.
They're not broadcasting 4K over the air and TV shows and movies yet.
It's all being filmed.
It's actually going to it.
They're starting to record everything in 4K if they haven't already, but you'll start
seeing content publishers like Netflix and YouTube and anything streaming in 2014, you
will start to see them start pushing 4K content out and the people that will be able to see
it will be the people who have 4K monitors and televisions and stuff like that.
So if you want to be one of the pioneers of 4K content coming in, then the next TV that
you go out and buy, I would definitely recommend picking up a 4K TV if you can.
I wouldn't go out and just buy one right now just because it's out.
The only person that should go out and buy one is if you're in the market for one.
If you're going to buy a new TV even if 4K wasn't around because 2014 is supposed to
be the year when 4K starts making its way into the mass market.
I can just see the tweets now, "OMG #NetflixNight #4K #Popcorn #LOL #Hashtag".
So bottom line, 4K is the new amazing resolution standard for high-def displays, and you will
start seeing it come in more and more.
Hopefully, these content creators will get their hands on 4K cameras and start getting
4K content out there, and everybody will start getting their hands on 4K and make the price
go down lower, so everybody can get their hands on some 4K action.
If you click this link right here, that will take you to Amazon where you can see all the
4K televisions and monitors that they're selling.
Some of them are under a thousand dollars.
Now I can't speak for the quality of them, but they are there.
So I hope you're as excited as I am about 4K.
If you've stuck around and watched the video this far, go ahead and share it with your
friends.
I'm sure other people would benefit from this video in getting to know what 4K is all about.
Thank you so much for watching.
Make sure you hit that thumbs-up button and subscribe to my channel.
I do cool tech videos all the time.
As always keep having fun out there, and I will talk to you later.