Fifty years ago, you might see ads for TV shows in colour. Of course, you could only watch them in colour if you had a colour TV. Yet there was little reason to buy a colour TV unless there were enough TV shows you wanted to see available in colour to make it worth your while. This results in a slow-motion shift in viewing habits. And the same transition is occurring in television and streaming content today.
The Various Resolutions Available
HD or high-definition content is streaming at 720 pixels by 1080 pixels. This is sometimes called 720p resolution. Full HD is 1920 pixels by 1080 pixels. It is sometimes called 1080p resolution. For comparison, standard definition or SD is 640 pixels by 480 pixels.
Yet HD and full HD are becoming obsolete. They’re being replaced by 4K, also called ultra-HD. 4K screens and streams are 3840 pixels by 2160 pixels. It literally has four times the resolution as full HD. 4K has the best image quality of the different resolutions on the market. We’re going to ignore the 4096 x 2160-pixel screens mostly limited to the movie industry. Instead, 8K is the potential successor to 4K. 8K screens have roughly 8000 pixels. They are 7680 x 4320. 8K is sometimes called ultra-high definition or UHD.
Is Anything Available in Ultra High Definition?
Netflix has been a leader in high-definition media streaming. They provided the first 4K video stream in the world in 2014. The first major event broadcast in 4K was the 2016 Rio Olympics. The first content expected to be broadcast in 8K will be the Tokyo Olympics. But these are one-time events. It is the content we’d enjoy on a regular basis that justifies buying a monitor or smart TV that can deliver it.
Why Would I Want to Get a High-Definition Screen?
Netflix is unusual for creating almost all of its content in 4K. This is why they have the largest library of 4K TV shows and movies. It is understandable that they made science fiction movies like “Alien Warfare” and “Bird Box” in 4K. They stand out for making pretty much everything in 4K and have done so for years. For example, Netflix has recorded a growing number of comedy specials in 4K since 2016. “Bo Burnham: Make Happy” was released in 4K in 2016. “Felipe Neto: My Life Makes No Sense” came out in 4K in 2017. Concerts by Ariana Grande and documentaries like “David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet” have been released in 4K over the past couple of years. Their animated shows are often in 4K, while they’re remastering shows like “Godzilla” and “Glory” to be 4K. They even released “Fireplace 4K: Classic Crackling Fireplace”. All you need to access this content is a premium level 4K subscription through Netflix.
What Are Some Upcoming Ultra HD Content Coming from Netflix?
Netflix is bringing back “He-Man” as “Masters of the Universe” in 4K. The next season of “Sexy Beasts” will be in 4K. While it looks like a science fiction show, it is actually a dating show that puts prosthetics on people while seeing how they’ll react. “Mobile Suit Gundam Hathaway” is their new 4K science fiction anime series. “Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness” is horror. And Netflix is making a ton of reality shows and documentaries that could easily be streamed at a lower resolution. For example, “Cat People” is a documentary about cat people, and it will be in 4K.
If you want to enjoy these shows in all their glory, you’re going to need a 4K screen, 4K Netflix subscription and bandwidth to match.