Is the TV resolution revolution finished?

More than just resolution

Do you lust after more pixels? It's likely you upgraded your TV to a HD-ready version a decade ago and you're now watching one with a Full HD resolution. Few would argue the extra pixels do anything other than give you a better, more realistic image.

More pixels = better images.

TVs, like cameras and processing power, are a classic numbers product where more is marketed as so obviously better than less.

We all fall for it. We always do.

That all ends here. As Ultra HD 4K TVs get ready to roll the numbers are beginning to unravel. Just as cameras have moved on from offering more megapixels as a shorthand for improved quality, so to the proponents of the new Ultra HD 4K TVs and services are having to think beyond the basic maths of 3840x2160 pixels.

Beyond pixels

What are being touted as the 'Ultra HD technologies' include not just more pixels, but High Dynamic Range (HDR), High Frame Rate and Deep Colour tech. For those after the best picture quality possible, the highest possible resolution no longer takes top billing.

"Ultra HD is about offering a completely different video experience rather than just throwing more pixels at it," said Paul Gray, principal analyst at IHS DisplaySearch at the IFA 2015 Grand Press Conference last month in Malta.

"Ultra HD needs to be something completely different to conventional HD."

Surging sales

Not that sales of 4K TVs aren't surging.

Many analysts predict bigscreen TVs – classed at 50-inch and over – won't be anything but 100% Ultra HD within three years. Tops. In Asia they're already catching on fast, though in completely different ways in two of the major countries.

"It's really hard to buy 1080p sets in Japan," says Gray. "There is only a dark, dimly-lit corner for 1080p TVs."

He explains that Japanese TV buyers get to sit on a stool in front of (and very close to) each Ultra HD TV on sale and have the new tech explained to them. Meanwhile, in China numbers marketing still dominates, and the effect is massive; China is the only market where 4K resolution TVs don't have HEVC decoders.

No HEVC decoder means no 4K streaming. China badly needs Ultra HD Blu-ray.

The conclusion is obvious; in China they're selling 4K, whereas in Japan they're selling the Ultra HD experience. And there's a very good reason for that.

Too close for comfort

Subjective tests results from IHS DisplaySearch is revealing that 4K on its own is not what people want.

"Resolution doesn't have a wow effect," says Gray. "It's visibly better but you have to sit very close – just 1.5x the screen height away – to get the benefit of the resolution." Even from an 84-inch whopper that means sitting just 160cm away. "You need to sit very close to see the benefit."

So close, in fact, that 4K resolution is almost a waste of pixels in most people's living rooms.

The other three Ultra HD technologies get the thumbs-up, however.

"High Frame Rate was very noticeable," says Gray about the tests. "It depends a lot on the content – it has to be fast-moving – but it's critical for sports."

He says on 120Hz content it's possible to see what part of the bat or racquet the ball is hitting, and what part of a footballer's boot the ball is going to touch. So much so that you can actually start to make estimates about exactly what's going to happen next.

"It's very exciting for sports broadcasters," he says. For sports fans, High Frame Rate is the future; 4K then is a mere side-show.

Feature rich

High Dynamic Range

"HDR is also very noticeable," says Gray, who thinks that the competing technology, RGB LED, will also flourish. "As the peak luminance goes up people visibly perceive an improvement in picture performance."

However, he does point out that ad breaks could get ruined in all-new ways; just as advertisers already turn-up the volume now, in future they'll likely also push the luminance to maximum to take advantage of HDR TVs.

"You might need to put your sunglasses on," says Gray.

However, there's no denying that HDR will prove really popular for watchers of soap and general TV.

Quantum Dot & Deep Colour

The fundamental tech behind Deep Colour is Quantum Dot, which has been pushed so far by LG. The subjective test results demonstrated that Deep Colour, too, is also worth buying, according to Gray, who says that cinema and wildlife photography benefit hugely.

"Deep Colour has real value and people can see the difference," says Gray.

Genre-specific tech

Look at that in the round and you've got a pretty splintered video ecosystem; the three technologies – HDR, High Frame Rate and Deep Colour – all find their sweet-spot in completely different genres.

Unlike with the introduction of HD, which was seen as a general improvement across the board, the move to the Ultra HD technologies is more complex.

For instance, Sky will want to film sports in High Frame Rate, but not Deep Colour. Soap operas will be filmed to take advantage of HDR, but High Frame Rate won't matter. Film directors and the makers of nature documentaries will prioritise Deep Colour. And so on.

Not all video is alike.

"Hollywood has known about all of this for a century, they've been shooting action sequences with very short depths of field to take away the blurred background and de-focus it," says Gray. "It allows the director to guide the viewer's eyes onto the action, because that's the only sharp bit."

Live sports isn't like that; everything needs to be sharp, otherwise there's no sense of presence.

Broadcasters wanting to offer Ultra HD – especially live TV – have so many more choices to make, and massively more data to handle than IP services like Netflix. Netflix can deliver in 4K already precisely because a lot of the video within movies and TV dramas is blurred to begin with, so can be easily compressed.

Nor is it consistent.

"The reality is that you can click the 4K button on Netflix, but bandwidth issues mean you're probably not watching it all of the time," says Gray.

Phones first

The Ultra HD video technologies might be trumpeted as TV-centric, but Gray thinks phone users will probably see them first.

4K tablets and 6.2-inch smartphones with over 700ppi screens will appear later this year, while a massive 200 million UHD smartphones are predicted to be sold during 2021 alone. By then there will already be 500 million 4K phones in use.

Now that's momentum.

"When we've got an Ultra HD ecosystem across TV, phones and tablets, content consumption is going to be very different to what it is at the moment," says Gray.

His research also shows Deep Colour, HDR and High Frame Rate technologies don't just work well on the small screen, but are actually more noticeable than on a huge TV. "Ultra HD in smartphones is going to be as big as Ultra HD in TVs," says Gray, "but it's about a lot more than just pixels."

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