By John Fieger

With the recent announcement of the new Apple TV being 4K HDR ready, it has left some people wondering what exactly is 4K HDR, anyways? Breaking it down into three parts, there is first off 4K, then there’s the HDR standard and lastly, there’s the content.

Starting with 4K, this is the approximate number of horizontal pixels on the screen. It also contains almost four times the number of pixels as on a normal full-HD television. In other terms the image will look about four times as sharp as a normal screen. This will allow you to be closer to the screen without noticing as much blurring or loss of detail. This is especially helpful with large TVs, as the pixels need to be stretched much larger; to have so many more of them makes the image look much better.

The next part is HDR, which stands for high dynamic range. This allows the screen to get darker and brighter than it could normally get. It also makes the color accuracy of the screen much better, making the colors look more like they would in real life. With HDR, everything seems to just pop and seems to make other screens look dull or flat. 4K content is also great when downscaling to full HD, making the image noticeably sharper and overall better looking. HDR sets a new standard for the brightness, darkness and color accuracy of any given screen.

Many companies have started to release their content in 4K, most notably Netflix and Amazon. A lot of people have been questioning whether it is worth it. There has been a lot of talk of 8K coming soon, and many people don’t want to get 4K if will become obsolete quickly. However, 8K is still a long way away, with a full-size television currently selling for about $130,000. It looks like 8K will start to pick up around 2025, so if you’re looking to upgrade, 4K is starting to drop in price and become more available. Along with 4K becoming cheaper, many new 4K TVs are also “smart,” meaning they have all the 4K content built right into the TV, like 4K Netflix, games, and music.

Overall, 4K is quickly becoming the new standard of television, and is quickly gaining popularity — especially with the new HDR standard making the colors look even more accurate with the already sharp image. So, is it worth it? That depends. If you sit far away from your television and it still looks good, then probably not. But if you like to sit close to your television and it looks blurry and not clear, then it may be time to upgrade.