The Problem with 4K is the Same Problem with HD
If we can’t do HD right, what makes us think we can even come close to doing 4K right?
Commentary By Michael Silbergleid
There are two issues that have plagued HD since its inception as a distribution format. They are both still problematic today. And if 4K is four times the resolution of HD, with those problems also multiple by four?
First problem: The Postage Stamp
You know what I’m talking about, 16×9 video (usually a commercial) playing in HD, but with black borders at the top, bottom, and sides. It’s 16×9, but looks like a postage stamp in an HD display. How does this happen. Consider a letterboxed 4×3 commercial upscaled to HD’s 16×9.
Today, I see this most often on WGN’s HD feed. Sixteen years after I edited the first edition of “The Guide to Digital Television,” we still have postage stamps. These will look fantastic on 4K HDTVs and even better when placed in 4K video.
Second problem: Compression
Specifically, broadcast/distribution compression. MPEG-2, while it made broadcasting HD possible, also makes some people cringe. The fade to black, fast action scenes, complex scenes. Maybe we’ve all become accustomed to macroblocking, but it looks like crap. 4K distribution won’t use MPEG-2 (shudder to think). But consider the following rough estimates: AVC is twice as efficient as MPEG-2. HEVC is twice as efficient as AVC. Therefore HEVC is four times as efficient as MPEG-2. That’s great because 4K is four times the resolution of HD. Both the data and the compression efficiency are quadrupled. Does that mean that what looks like crap after today’s HD/MPEG-2 compression will still look like crap in tomorrow’s 4K/HEVC compression?
And don’t forget, the greater resolution of 4K production and displays will be better at showing every little imperfection (just ask any news anchor that went through the SD to HD transition).
While I understand the driving force behind 4K from the consumer electronics side and from the professional equipment manufacturers’ side, we might want to consider getting HD right before quadrupling our problems.
4 comments
AMEN! Finally a little sanity. Let’s all remember that the Consumer Electronics Association is *not* interested in the quality of your home picture – all they care about is pushing boxes out of warehouses. HDTV is not perfect, to be sure, but we haven’t even gotten good at it yet.
The main concerns reflected in this are representative of the current state of broadcast tv. This is much bigger than the shift from SD to HD. You have to understand the paradigm shift that is occurring as a whole to understand the importance of the markets role in bringing consumer technology up to a standard that anyone can view the intended image at anytime. The current bottleneck is bandwidth for broadcast, but when a vast majority of consumers are reportedly shifting towards an a la carte style viewing experience, having a monitor with the ability to resolve the color space, frame rate, and resolution of the image on your hard drive will be the only thing that can remove the banding, smearing, and artifacts that are noticeably present today. my2cents
Have a look at this :
Netflix CEO explains 4K challenges
http://advanced-television.com/2013/09/23/netflix-ceo-explains-4k-challenges/
What’s the point of HD television when you lose all the detail to over compressed video? Sure, I get 100 channels, but they look like crap.
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