STACK July 2016 Issue 141

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stack.net.au

FEATURE

jbhifi.com.au

JULY

2016

o how much better can

4K UHD actually look,

given Blu-ray provides

reference quality transfers of

film and television content?

The answer lies in the 4 and

the K. It’s all about the number

of pixels, those tiny dots that

make up the image you’re

seeing, and 4K offers 4,000 of

them for horizontal resolution

and 2,000 for the vertical on an

Ultra HDTV.

By comparison, Full HD

1080p (the resolution standard

for Blu-ray) is 1920 x 1080, so

the image quality is four times

greater.

Moreover, the digital cinema

standard is 2K, so you’re

effectively getting a better

image at home than at the

movies, and the savings on

overpriced candy bar items can

now be invested into 4K discs.

4K UHD also offers HDR

HIGHER

DEFINITION

(High Dynamic Range),

combining three images to

deliver better contrast, deeper

blacks and brighter whites. It’s

this function that truly brings the

4K experience to vivid life.

You’ll immediately notice

the upgrade in black

levels, colour saturation

and sharpness, providing

greater detail and the

depth of a 3D image

without the glasses. We

road tested

Mad Max:

Fury Road, Deadpool

and

The Lego Movie

in 4K with

HDR and the difference

was immediately apparent

from the opening frames.

The high pixel density

means you can now sit

closer to a large screen TV

and the image will remain

just as sharp as when

viewed from 2–3 metres

away. So if you're the type

who wants an all-enveloping

IMAX-like experience at home,

you can comfortably move the

couch in a little closer.

We’ll leave the finer technical

details and terminology for

another time and outline in

layman’s terms how to get the

most from your 4K discs, and

what's on offer for your viewing

pleasure.

Has the quest for video and audio perfection in our home theatres reached its zenith

with the arrival of 4K Ultra High Definition discs? For now, it appears so. Until we begin

interacting with movies in a Star Trek holodeck kind of way, 4K UHD represents the

pinnacle of home entertainment formats. It’s as much a quantum leap upwards in quality

from Blu-ray as HD discs were from DVD.

Words: Scott Hocking