What's up guys? It's Chris Majestic here, with Majestechs.
There seems to be a lot of confusion surrounding 4K, HDR, and HDMI, so I want to do a really
quick video today explaining everything.
So stay tuned.
You're probably already familiar with 4K.
You're probably even watching this video in 4K.
But for those of you that don't know, 4K is basically 4 times the resolution of full HD
or 1080p.
HDR, or high dynamic range, allows your TV to display a wider range of colors.
If your 4K TV is a smart TV, then it is best to use the built in apps on the TV, such as
YouTube and Netflix, right there on your TV, so you won't have any compatibility issues.
But if you want to connect something like a Blu-ray player, or an external media player
like a Roku or a Fire TV, or something like that, that's when things can get pretty tricky.
When you want to play 4K HDR content from an external source, there are three many things
that you need to consider.
The very first thing is making sure that both your TV and your media player can support
4K.
The second thing is making sure you have a high-speed HDMI cable.
And the last thing is making sure that both your TV and your media player support the
right versions of HDMI and HDCP.
This can get pretty complicated and difficult to explain, but I'm going to try to keep it
as simple as possible.
A lot of people buy 4K TVs thinking that everything they watch is going to be in 4K with that
TV.
That's not actually true.
You have to make sure that the video you're actually watching is a 4K video.
Unfortunately, cable and local broadcasts are not in 4K.
However, there are a lot of movies and videos like the video you're watching right now,
that you can actually view in 4K using things like Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Video, and an
external Blu-ray player.
When it comes to watching 4K content, you're pretty much going to get the best image quality
from a Blu-ray.
Now, you can get really good video quality streaming, like you can right now with YouTube,
and Netflix, and the others, but streaming 4K video is going to be a lot more compressed
than a Blu-ray.
Now, you should know that not all Blu-ray players support 4K, and to make matters even
more complicated, not all Blu-rays are 4K either.
This means you have to make sure you have a 4K TV, a 4K Blu-ray player, and a 4K Blu-ray.
To make matters even more complicated, there's a lot of Blu-rays that are not HDR.
If you're not sure you're buying a 4K Blu-ray, just look across the top of the case.
It usually has Ultra HD there, which is another name for 4K, and you'll see the HDR logo somewhere
on the front as well, and that will tell you if you're getting a 4K HDR Blu-ray.
If you want to watch HDR, you can either stream it with something like Vudu or Netflix, or
you can buy a 4K HDR Blu-ray player and a 4K HDR Blu-ray.
Now, if you have a 4K TV and a 4K Blu-ray player, and you attempt to play a 1080p Blu-ray,
it will upscale the 1080 to 4K, but it won't look nearly as good as an actual 4K Blu-ray.
The same is true for streaming 1080p content, whether it's with your TV or your media player.
It's going to upscale it to 4K, but again, it's not going to look as clear as an actual
4K video.
The next thing you want to consider if you're moving to 4K is HDMI cables.
Now, in the past, HDMI cables really didn't matter that much, as long as you had a decent
quality, high-speed HDMI cable, you could do 1080p or even some low-quality 4K.
Now, with 4K HDR, we're actually using a lot more bandwidth on that HDMI cable, so you
can't really use cheap HDMI cables in some cases.
Now, this really isn't a big deal for shorter cables like six-foot or even eight-foot cables,
but once you start to get into 20 feet or longer, that's when you start running into
issues.
Now, if you do need a longer cable, and you're having issues, there are a few alternatives.
The first thing you can do is buy an active HDMI cable.
An active HDMI cables actually boost and equalize the video signal, so you can use them over
longer distances.
Now, active cables have worked for a lot of people, but there are still some people who
run into issues with them, especially if they need a very long cable.
Another option is what's called a fiber HDMI cable.
Now, these cables are a lot more expensive, but they allow you to have high bandwidth
over long distances.
Right now, I'm actually using a 33-foot fiber HDMI cable to send a 4K HDR signal to my 4K
projector.
The last and probably most important thing that you want to consider with 4K is HDMI
versions and HDCP.
If you don't know, there's actually several different versions of HDMI, and they add more
functionality as each version progresses.
Now thankfully, these HDMI versions are independent of HDMI cables.
This means as long as you have a high-quality HDMI cable, even if it is a couple years old,
it'll still support HDMI 2.0.
Now on to HDCP, which is one of the most complicated topics when it comes to 4K video.
HDCP stands for High-Bandwidth Digital Content Protection, and 2.2 is the latest version.
Right now, in order to properly play 4K video from your media player or your Blu-ray player,
you want to ensure that both your TV and your media player are both compatible with HDCP
version 2.2.
Basically, what HDCP does is create a secure connection between your media player and your
TV that prevents you from connecting it to an external source to record or duplicate
the 4K video.
This communication process is also known as a handshake, so for example, if you're trying
to watch a 4K Blu-ray that's HDCP 2.2 protected, you won't be able to watch that video in 4K
unless your TV and your Blu-ray player both support HDCP 2.2.
If they don't support it, then you'll either get 1080p video, or you'll get a blank screen.
This means if you've purchased one of the very first 4K TVs, chances are it may not
support HDCP 2.2, and you're going to be really limited on what 4K content you can watch.
With all these changes with HDMI and HDCP, it's made it even more complicated for audio
receivers.
We'll be doing a totally separate video for audio and HD audio formats over HDMI, since
that can be really complicated, as well, so do stay tuned for that video.
Hopefully, you found this video helpful, guys.
If you did, go ahead and make sure you hit that "Like" button for me.
Go ahead and leave your comments and your questions in the comment section.
I'll respond to your questions.
And I'll see you guys in the next video.