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Unless you're living under a rock and just crawled out to read this, you know the Super Bowl is this weekend. As you contemplate your plans for the Large Game, thoughts plough to beer, nachos, burgers, wings, or perhaps vino and crab-stuffed blimp mushrooms for football's last hurrah of the season. Regardless of your food proclivities, thoughts inevitably turn to your Tv set also — unless your friend with the $10,000 4K projector and 120-inch screen invited you to watch the game in his or her home theater.

If not, you lot may exist thinking your old apartment panel isn't big enough, or thin plenty, or doesn't have the brightness and motion blur compensation yous might desire for this yr's extravaganza. Information technology's non too tardily to go to Best Buy, Costco, or Amazon on your favorite device to check out the latest big screens.

And so the nagging question surfaces again – is a 4K TV really worth the extra money? Well, only you can respond that question for yourself, but we'll try to present some information here that will help. Spoiler alert – yep, it probably is for many buyers, unless you're looking for the nearly gigantic screen at the lowest cost.

What exactly is 4K, you ask? It is about resolution — often 3840×2160 for TVs and 4096×2160 in theaters, but either way, roughly iv,000 horizontal lines of pixels. But 4K too encompasses more than than that.

For instance, manufacturers are calling 4K UHD, because they're building in more capabilities to raise the picture quality. UHD sets incorporate more than powerful chipsets for faster processing, which is critical for HDR — perhaps the most of import new capability in 4K TV. HDR stands for high dynamic range, and if you're a photographer, you likely know what it is. But every bit applied to TVs information technology's somewhat different, even if conceptually they're both nigh improving color and dissimilarity.

Vizio HD TV

HDR on TVs is about displaying more accurate color, and with a wider colour gamut, along with a better contrast ratio — including the all-of import art of making blacks wait blackness. LED-backlit TVs have had difficulties with black levels in the by. But new local dimming assortment technology – now becoming available on affordable models — tin can amend control the backlight to make the black in dark scenes blacker. Also in TV HDR, the content must besides exist mastered in HDR for you lot to really exist able to capeesh the departure. While HDR processing tin can be applied to non-HDR content, it is akin to upscaling 1080p to 4K – it may await a bit better, but you may not notice that much of a divergence, depending on the program.

HDR is probable the nearly important new feature out in that location in UHD/4K TVs, just there are no set standards yet. Dolby Labs has been working on Dolby Vision and its predecessors since effectually 2008. Using its marketplace position in picture show and TV sound from mastering to decoding in consumer electronics, Dolby Vision aims to define HDR from the content creation to the display.

At CES 2016 concluding month, the UHD Alliance, comprised of some of the heaviest hitters in consumer electronics and video content, appear its specifications for HDR and more for UHD TVs. The brotherhood has a licensing and logo program for vendors that run across the criteria to earn the Ultra HD Premium specification, which has specific requirements for HDR color and contrast criteria, resolution, and even has recommendations for more than immersive audio.

Samsung, LG, and TCL appear Ultra HD Premium sets, merely Sony, while a member, appear 4K HDR sets, but not Ultra Hard disk drive. Dolby is a member visitor and Dolby Vision is compliant with Ultra HD Premium. Netflix and Amazon are too members of the consortium, and both take announced back up of HDR streaming content, with Amazon jumping in with some content in 2015.

HDTV TV

Where's the 4K content?

Perhaps the nigh of import question: If you lot buy into 4K, where'south the content? Most of it, correct now, is in the streaming globe. Both Netflix and Amazon are streaming an assortment of content in 4K resolution at the fourth dimension of this writing. Netflix shows include House of Cards, Bloodline, Frankie and Grace, and others that are Netflix-financed exclusives, plus a limited gear up of movies. Amazon'south content includes its exclusive serial like The Man in the Loftier Castle, Blastoff House, and Mozart in the Jungle also every bit some movies. In the U.S., While Amazon includes 4K content in the $99 Amazon Prime subscription, you have to footstep upward to the $xi.99 per month tier on Netflix to get their Ultra HD service, which also includes iv simultaneous streams. At CES, Sony announced its Ultra service, an app which would offering 4K movies and titles on its Android powered sets, but information technology's not out nonetheless.

Some other major source of 4K content is YouTube. While a lot of it isn't professional material, there's a surprising amount out in that location and it's worth exploring. Many video blogs and reviews are shot and uploaded in 4K. Sony and Panasonic have both launched 4K YouTube channels to feature content shot with their equipment.

On the Goggle box provider front, DirecTV and Dish both have 4K capable set-acme boxes and DVRs. The content side is fairly limited to date, every bit they feature mostly recent movies and TV shows you can rent in 4K. At CES, Dish announced its latest Hopper 3 DVR, which features 16 tuners and 4K support, including 4K capability with its built-in Netflix app. Dish also appear new 4K content from Sony pictures, the Orchard, and Mance media. No word from either on linear TV available in 4K.

Time Warner Cable? AT&T Uverse? Comcast? At that place's been talk and announcements of future 4K boxes and content, but nix is available yet. And that brings us to peradventure the big gorilla of cablevision: ESPN. The ABC-owned sports network commands more per-subscriber revenue than any other cable channel. With cord cut, that revenue has been falling off of late. But that base all the same enables ESPN to outbid other networks for the rights to televise a vast array of sports content. Just don't expect any of it in 4K next yr. The problem is the circulate infrastructure and the mastering: Virtually sports today isn't shot with 4K cameras. It will require an upgrade of the entire ecosystem for that to happen, and information technology will have time.

Super Bowl 50

Merely nosotros started this piece talking near the Super Bowl — and that's fundamental. Notably, CBS will shoot the Super Bowl in 4K, just as Play a joke on did in 2014. We don't take the infrastructure for either cable or broadcast to deliver 4K at this indicate, unfortunately. But every bit 4K TVs get more prevalent, the ability to monetize the college-quality broadcast (just like Hd channel tiers did) will drive more than of the content to exist produced in 4K. On the broadcast side, the upcoming ATSC 3.0 standard hopes to exist out soon, which will enable H.265 video encoding which will be needed for those UHD broadcasting. While some demos were shown at CES, realistically ATSC 3.0 capable tuners won't come till 2017 or 2018.

What about 4K Blu-ray? Yes, it's coming. At CES, Panasonic, Samsung, and Philips all announced players that support the new Ultra Hard disk Blu-ray specification. Like all new tech, expect college initial pricing in the $300 to $400 range, merely like the first wave of Blu-ray (and Hard disk DVD) players rolled out almost 10 years ago. That said, unlike then, we're in the streaming era, so it remains to be seen if concrete UHD media becomes mainstream and non just a niche product for dedicated dwelling house theater rooms.

4K TV pricing

While the content availability isn't all good news, pricing on the latest crop of 4K/UHD TVs mostly is. Taking a await at TVs sized 50 inches and above, where you'd find the 4K differences, the sweetness spots in pricing seem to exist around the 55 to 60-inch panels (again, at the fourth dimension of this writing). At Best Purchase, for example, 55-inch 4K sets range from $499 to $899. The increasingly less available 1080p (Hard disk drive) sets run from $399 to $799. At Amazon, you tin can buy the 55-inch Sony XBR 55X810C or the 55-inch Samsung JS7000, both for $998; the latter model includes HDR support. And Amazon is selling the 55-inch Vizio M Series for just $799; it's a 4K model with five HDMI reports and 32-zone local dimming.

At the low stop of 1080p, yous tin still detect a non-smart Boob tube, but in 4K sets information technology is well-nigh impossible to find 1 that is non also a smart TV. The price difference here is effectually 15-20% for 4K. With 65-inch panels, the prices range from $ane,350 to $ane,999 for 4K, while 1080p 65-inchers are going for $899 to $i,079. These are just representative prices, and shopping around for closeouts and Amazon specials can yield greater savings. The indicate is, unlike simply a twelvemonth or two ago, the price points are such that it makes sense to get the latest engineering and be hereafter-proofed for several years.

One final note: 4K isn't 3D. While 4K may non be the leap SD to Hd was, it's non a fad, and the content and ecosystem is coming. If you've been on the fence, and you're looking for a new TV or an upgrade, the fourth dimension is right for 4K. Typically the newer tech from CES doesn't make it to marketplace until leap or fall, so yous may desire to wait for those. If y'all buy 4K now or later, you volition be fix for Super Bowl 55 in all its 4K/HDR glory.