Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The State of 4K: Early 2015!”.
Hey, what is up guys, mkbhd here and as much as youtube analytics, tells me about the people that watch these videos, what devices they watch it on. What browser you’re, using what operating system you’re using one thing it doesn’t tell me, is how many people click to toggle to watch in 4k, how many people actually click that wrench and watch it in 2160p? I have no idea at the beginning of 2014. After last year’s ces, we were looking at 4k in its infancy, basically and as much as a lot of people would have liked to have said. That was the year of wearables.
It was quietly the best year yet for 4k, so about a year ago, youtube started supporting 4k uploads officially, and things have heated up a lot since then. So 4k has gotten immensely better in two ways: one recording 4k and two watching 4k. So for watching 4k.
It’S simple: you just need a 4k display, a 4k tv, some panel with a 4k resolution to watch the content on uh. For me, i picked up these asus pq 321q again about a year ago and when i first got them, these are serious. They were about thirty five hundred dollars a piece. The price has gone down under three thousand under twenty five hundred, in fact, under two thousand dollars, they’re hovering around fifteen hundred bucks a piece now a year later after i got them, i’m not mad or anything.
But it’s less than half of what i paid for them a year ago and that’s been the general trend with these 4k displays and these 4k tvs they’re dropping a lot in price as they’re commoditized and start to be a lot more popular and then there’s this. This is the 5k imac, not 4k, 5k. It’S the highest resolution commercially available display. That also happens to have a computer built in as imacs do so.
This 5k panel has a resolution of 5120 by 2880, so it’s actually four times the 2560 by 1440. That other 27-inch monitors are it’s a crazy amount of pixels and i love it. These things are super sharp. When you get right up close to it, you still can’t see any pixels.
It’S awesome for video editing photo editing, really any visual graphics work. You got ta love it and the technologies that make it possible. One of my predictions for ces this year in 2015 was that we would see a lot more 4k tvs and, of course we did. Basically, we see that everyone who makes a tv now makes some 4k tvs so they’re everywhere, they’re lowering in price like every month. I’Ll actually leave some of my favorite 4k panels in the description below some of the tvs and monitors i’ve gotten hands on time. With that i can actually recommend, including the asus i use now.
So clearly, it’s getting easier to watch 4k. But what can you watch in 4k? What can you actually watch on these 4k tvs? Well, in addition to all the 4k tvs coming down in price, we also see a whole bunch of 4k cameras coming down in price and existing more. I talked about this in my ces highlights video, but we have a bunch of 4k handycams. Now we have a bunch of 4k action, cams, the new 4k gopro and even a ton of smartphones coming out that can shoot in 4k, so regular people can shoot 4k.
Video too, so we have all these cameras that can shoot in 4k and we have all these tvs that can show 4k videos. So now we just need them to connect. We need them to work with each other and there are two main players that are making this happen right now: netflix and youtube on netflix. You can already watch a bunch of new shows in 4k that are being shot in 4k and youtube is also supporting 4k really well.
In fact, a ton of youtubers, including the ones that i was hanging out with at ces, are all rocking 4k cameras and uploading 4k videos all the time, including yours truly. So this video you’re watching right now is also available in 4k. If you want to check it out fun fact, i did this video last year, this 4k state of 4k uh using a 1080p camera, so i upscaled it to make it look 4k i mentioned at the beginning. I don’t know how many of you guys are actually clicking to watch these videos in 4k, but even if there are a bunch of you with a 4k display or a 5k imac out there, i still don’t know if your internet or your computer can handle watching 4K on youtube, since it requires extra bandwidth for these bigger files and extra processing power to push all these pixels. So and half of you guys are watching on your phone anyway, so it’s definitely not 4k there, even though it can be up to 1080p or sometimes 1440p, either way. The point stands. 4K. Now is way more prevalent than it was even a year ago.
Today, i feel, like i’ve, said 4k a lot in this article either way 4k is everywhere, you’re going to see a lot more people buying 4k tvs black friday is going to be. Probably this is going to be the year people buy a 4k tv on black friday, uh you’re, going to see a lot more 4k laptops start to roll around that has already begun and as much as it seems ridiculous and as much as it might seem completely Unnecessary and a waste uh you’re gon na see 4k phones sooner or later and probably a year or two we’re going to be having 4k displays in our pockets as insane as that sounds, but the connection that we talked about earlier is being made. So thank you. Youtube for supporting 4k this early and when people come back to watch these videos in maybe one or two years on their new 4k tv or their 5k imac they’re, going to appreciate all those extra pixels and that crispy 4k video. So if you’re looking to buy a tv for the long term this year or if you’re looking to buy a camera that you plan on using for a long time, might as well make it 4k.
Because 4k is here to stay. That rhymed. Thanks for watching i’ll talk to you guys in the next one, peace .