4K Isn't Really 4K

The term "4K" is very often tossed around in a way that makes it misleading...

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[KClipsAndTrailers]

And all that 4K is often "upscaled 4K", lol. And audience mostly is unaware. The thing is that 1080p itself is powerful enough if you use very high bitrates and 10-bit colors. Just because 4K use higher bitrates than 1080p in most streaming sites, people find a difference in quality even if the source had a 2K digital intermediate!

[tjsynkral]

The biggest scandal that wasn't mentioned: "4k" streaming video on Netflix and YouTube has a bitrate so low, you may find the PQ superior on a 1080p blu-ray with half the pixels and a much higher bitrate.

[webberfan]

This is a good idea for a LTT video. Play the same video or game on every resolution of display. From 480i to 8k. See where the real value and difference is. A nice trip down memory lane.

[ydfhlx]

Still better than calling 1440p "2K"

[benjaminoechsli]

2:27 Wow, thanks Riley! Ever since 4K came out, I've grumpily insisted on calling it 2160p to be consistent, at least with monitors.

[Pudge]

4:42 ya'll got me. Hats off to you, Mr. Editor.

[AdityaGupta-omez]

Information like PPI is actually not that hard to find. Sites like GSMarena have mentioned it for almost all the phones. Not sure about TVs and monitors tho but I think it is often mentioned in their detailed specs too, but not on those marketing slides

[selohcin]

I cannot stand it when monitor companies refer to 2560x1440 resolution as "2K". Absolutely terrible.

[amadeusvg]

4:42 this scared the crap out of me, I thought I was being hacked

[u-k]

I've been backstabbed, played and quite possibly, bamboozled.

[AWellesley]

CRTs did have a horizontal resolution, it relates to how fast they could strobe the electron gun as each horizontal line was scanned onto the phosphors.

The cool thing was whilst CRTs have a maximum resolution, any resolution below that is also a “native” resolution with no scaling needed, it just scans fewer lines onto the screen with wider pixels.

[cybersteel]

I was already mad about the fact that "2K" has been used to refer to 2560 pixels wide, but now you just made me mad about 4K as well. Thanks.

[GreatWhiteElf]

I remember the first time I noticed that manufacturers switched from measuring the short side to the long side (for example 1080p vs 4k) and then fell down the rabbit hole of all the stupid ways they measure display quality. God I wish ppi was the standard

[ProjSHiNKiROU]

The only coherent naming scheme for resolutions is the number of H and V pixels such as 1920*1080

[EPC]

If 4K is [3840] x 2160
then Full HD [1920] x 1080 is 2K
Normally, "4K" should be 2K, since Full HD is "1080p"... they reffer from the vertical resolution... on 4K they dont reffer "4K" as vertical, but horizontal...

[Ganbalf]

I always assumed "4K" was referring to it being "4x" the resolution of a "1K"(1080p) display. I think i remember hearing it on LTT years ago.
Either way, 4k seems stupid, and we should have been calling 4K by the name 2160p all along.

[TheGameGuruTv]

that p stands for progressive and not pixel is what really blew my minds

[digantamajumder]

And I used to believe that 4K meant 4 times 1080p 🙂

[Icarus]

I always figured 4K was called 4K because (I also always thought) it was exactly 4x 1920x1080 full HD display (twice the horizontal and twice the vertical pixels)

Which I also always thought was deliberate to help make 1080P content scale well and look native on a 4K display.

[sjwimmel]

I'd say it actually makes more sense to measure resolution rather than PPI. The bigger the screen is the further away we sit, usually. So the number that really matters, Pixels Per Degree (of visual angle, basically the resolution as it enters your eyeballs), still depends mostly on the resolution as we usually measure it, the total number of pixels.