Today, almost every day you can see or hear combinations of words such as 4K resolution. A lot of people agree, they say, yes, it's cool! Some are perplexed: why is it needed? And at the same time, a solid part of the population does not even know what it is at all. Let's take it in order and put everything on the shelves, so that everyone can understand what the concept of "4K resolution" is.
A bit of history
It's the 21st century - technology has gone far ahead compared to yesterday, and if our grandparents, as well as parents still remember the times when films (like many other information) were stored on magnetic tapes, then the current generation and know nothing about it. Today, massive reels have sunk into oblivion, giving way to a digital format for storing and transmitting data. Audio and video cassettes with magnetic tape have gradually been replaced by CDs, and those, in turn, are also starting to fade, passing the baton to USB-drives or high-speed SSD hard drives. And the further technology develops, the more space becomes on our"pocket" storage media… Once upon a time, Bill Gates bequeathed that "640 kilobytes will be enough for everyone for any needs." Sounds funny, right? Today, for many, even MMS messages or ringtones on their phones are 5-6 times larger than this size. Current smartphones are capable of carrying up to 128 gigabytes of information (and some even more), pocket "flash drives" boldly get fat up to 250-500 gigabytes, and a home computer can easily store up to one and a half to two terabytes of data. And once people were happy to buy a 40 GB hard drive and thought that it was generally a horror how much! But nothing stands still. The further, the steeper. Ask what takes up so much space today? Permission, comrades, precisely permission.
What is this?
Resolution is the number of vertical and horizontal dots. Sounds kind of abstract, right? And try to look at the resolution of the desktop of your monitor (at home or in the office). In fact, this is the rectangle on 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 don’t need to peer into the clarity of the frame in the film, sometimes you don’t need to scroll the article below or to the side, you don’t have to click on the picture in vain to see what this or that detail looks like. And being constantly "increasing" the resolution for our monitors or TVs, humanity has come to a dilemma: if the size of the picture orfilm is smaller than the resolution of the display, then the image begins to stretch, and the details become smeared, deformed. Roughly speaking, the picture becomes distorted. Agree, it’s not pleasant to look at your favorite family photo, where everyone’s faces will be in squares or cloudy and stretched. But trying to see all the personalities on a small display is also not interesting. And to eliminate such problems, it was decided to increase the original size of photos, pictures or films. Gradually, the resolution of the screens became more and more, and behind it both the size and quality of the displayed data increased. Computer games also did not stand aside, because developers strive to make the virtual world as close to reality as possible. Accordingly, the detail of the created picture (even if it was futuristic) grew as quickly as the clarity of video clips with photos. Soon digital cameras began to take pictures in megapixels, camcorders 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, in addition to the concepts of HD-picture and FullHD-screen that already existed and have long been on everyone's lips, 4K resolution joined. Let's consider this concept in more detail.
4K resolution technology - what is it?
Modern widescreen screen is capable of displaying information in HD or FullHD format. The first type (High Definition) is differentthe following characteristics: vertically, a picture usually has 720 dots (pixels). For FullHD (Full High Definition) resolution, the number of vertical pixels has already increased to 1020. Horizontally, the number of pixels for both of these modes is usually proportional to the screen aspect ratio chosen in advance (16:9 or 16:10, which is considered more widescreen). But, as the consumer wants more and more "bread and circuses", the manufacturer went even further and created a new display format that has a 4K screen resolution. At the same time, the technology for recalculating pixels in this version has already changed. Now the number of dots displayed on the screen is not considered vertically (as in HD and FullHD), but horizontally, and is approximately 4000. Ask what resolution does 4K have in this case? The exact figure will be: 3840x2160 pixels. It is stated that this technology allows you to display on the screen about 4 times more information than in FullHD mode (which until recently was considered the reference).
Match Capabilities
Of course, a 4K resolution TV immediately went on sale. You might immediately think that it will be 4 times the size of the 40-inch giants we are used to. But this is not so: TVs in 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, then why not for a home theater not to buy decent equipment? However, do not think that 4K resolutionwill only apply to television.
Mass application
Fans of large displays - for their powerful PC - can also safely purchase a monitor with a resolution of 4K. Designers, artists, planners or even ordinary users will appreciate the ultra-quality picture on such a "monster". Gamers will be especially pleased - games with 4K resolution will not leave anyone indifferent. The main thing is that if only the "hardware" pulled a similar format, because for such a diagonal you will have to load your computer enough. Developers of game consoles (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 from day to day.
Other features
Surprise, but the application of technology when using Ultra HD 4K resolution does not end there. For especially sophisticated gadget users, 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 shoot, but its cost will significantly hit the budget. The choice here, of course, is yours.
Reason to buy
You ask, why is this necessary? Today, in the age of progressive digital technologies, such a technique is already actively used in many developed countries, and it is being promoted to the rest of the world with might and main. Even television in ourThe country is already moving to a high-quality digital broadcasting format, and the usual "square" broadcasts have 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 long been "digitized" and now, with the transition to a new format, they are actively changing their hardware to the newest new clothes and showing films in 4K resolution. The difference, I must say, is felt. It's not that it caught your eye right from the first second, but it's there.
Household indicators
The average consumer should be wondering what are the benefits of 4K resolution? What gives this indicator 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 display of fine details. New TVs and monitors with this resolution can increase the frame rate per second - up to 120 fps, which significantly improves the quality of dynamic scenes. At the same time, the nature of color reproduction increases - now you can easily distinguish many shades on the screen without straining your eyes. Fans of computer games and modern consoles here also do not remain out of work. After all, such a resolution will give an ultra-realistic picture quality, which will allow you to plunge into the virtual world and get a lot of new experiences. In addition, modern matrices of such TVs or new generation monitors can freely form a three-dimensional image withoutusing any optional 3D glasses. Will those who like to plunge headlong into the plot of the film still resist such "sweets"? Hardly.
Video camera formats
And what, with such opportunities, will such new devices be able to capture? As mentioned earlier, all the details are in the smallest details. Any story can be studied down to the smallest nuances. Any frame or moment will be filled with information. How can you resist?
Undoubted advantages
So, in general, the advantage of this 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 detail. And the further - the more: the average buyer has not yet mastered what constitutes a resolution of UHD 4K, and the development and production of Super Ultra HD 8K TVs is already in full swing.
Flaws
However, the system also has its shortcomings. 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 broadcasting format, the release of new media products in high quality - these processes are quite costly and resource-intensive. This means that the planet will not move to a new level all at once. In some countries in the West, they are already actively carrying out large-scale re-equipment of equipment. With the modern development of Internet networks, many TV manufacturing companies are even trying to secure theirproducts with good access to streaming video in ultra-quality. In the future, each future owner of such equipment will be able to easily switch several dozen digital channels. However, this is in the future.
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 easily afford at least a dozen good channels in high quality. We can only hope for Internet TV (and here everything depends only on the Internet connection), or for media content on media (BD-disks, external HDDs, etc.). Otherwise, you will have to be content with the unpleasant quality of conventional broadcasting on a high-quality ultra-resolution TV. Imagine those stretched and blurry faces of the presenters…
Stumbling block
Of course, this is the price. At present, such a system is still quite an expensive toy even for the West. But this, of course, is a matter of time: such devices become cheaper rather quickly. Gradually, new products will fill the market, the problem with 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, perhaps with a contract from the manufacturer to connect to several UHD broadcast channels. Or? yet again? just connect the TV to the Internet, provide a high-quality high-speed connection and learn how to "climb" the Web using the remote control. So if you're thinking of buyingmonitor or TV with 4K resolution, decide for yourself whether you are ready to spend the requested amount on the purchase of such equipment?
