Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

Phil152 t1_it9emkv wrote

Reply to comment by BenekCript in 8K Industry Faces Challenge with New EU Regulatory Ruling by SalmonellaTizz

My tech sophistication doesn't go much beyond changing batteries and hitting the power button. So a question:

I know that the streamers' ability to stream 4k is still a bit of a mixed bag. Some older content (especially old tv shows) is still SD, but since I don't watch tv shows, that's not a serious issue for us. A lot is still HD. More and more is 4k, but it's a mix. 4k is becoming the standard, but it will take time.

When we upgraded, we had to upgrade our cable speed and swap to a new 4k ready cable box. (I've thought about switching to fios but that's a separate issue.) My tv tells me the quality of the video I'm getting on any given movie.

My question: can you explain what the gap is between the "4k" listed for a given film and the "full fidelity 4k" to which you refer?

Surround sound is not an issue. We considered that, but we're in an old house and the tv is in a finished basement, but the configuration and wiring issues raised a lot of complications. We settled for a high quality sound bar, which for our room is more than enough.

3

danielv123 t1_it9sboy wrote

It's about bitrate. All video is compressed. Compression introduces artifacts - you can see this on low res youtube videos for example, rather than seeing large squares with a uniform color you see weird blob like patterns etc, especially in areas with gradients.

The bitrate is how much compressed data is transferred per second. More bitrate means less artifacts, but more expensive for the provider.

Typical 4k blue ray runs at about 100mbit/s. Apples high quality streaming tops out at 40, youtube typically runs about 15 but can reach as much as 40 in some scenes. Netflix doesn't go past 20.

This is not an inherent streaming limitation though, it's just about how much the provider wants to spend. I stream shows from Plex just fine at 120mbps.

5

Phil152 t1_it9z2n4 wrote

Thanks. There's nothing I can do about what the streaming networks do at the front end. Which for a technophobe like me means it is one more thing I don't have to worry or educate myself about. I suppose the streamers will get nudged along by competitive pressures as 4k TV's become more common. (That assumes the difference is enough for most home viewers to notice or care about.)

Do you know what the current market penetration is for 4k's?

1

TheThiefMaster t1_itb0i81 wrote

There's some good information on that topic in this YouTube video talking about YouTube experimenting with requiring a subscription for viewing at 4k, by someone that runs a major YouTube channel and small side streaming network (that does support 4k also).

https://youtu.be/MDsJJRNXjYI

It was about 44% penetration for 4k TVs, but for his content, TVs only made up 11% of viewers in total.

I suspect Netflix has more TV streamers so it would be different for them.

1

BenekCript t1_it9u2xy wrote

For similar reasons (cost) they also use lower fidelity sound mix. This is most noticeable in the surround channels. If you have at least a 5.1 system, watch a show you own on a streaming platform and then on 4k blu ray. Even those who don’t care about such things will notice the difference. The majority do not though, or would be unwilling to stomach increased cost to get there with streaming today. It also doesn’t help that the general internet infrastructure probably can’t support it en masse.

1

Phil152 t1_it9zmzf wrote

Thanks. I will try some side by side comparisons between a blu ray and streaming.

2