BBC and ITV to offer Sport in 4K via IPTV in 2018

The Winter Olympics, Wimbledon, the World Cup and Premier League football will drive 4K into the mainstream – but HDR will remain niche

During Black Friday and the run up to Christmas , discounted TVs have been advertised with buzzwords such as 4K, UltraHD and HDR banded around as the latest and greatest thing – but is now the right time to buy one?

Having been burned by 3DTV and then annoyed by often rubbish smart TVs, you could be forgiven for thinking that 4K and HDR are the next big forgettable fad.

The difference here is that both technologies simply improve an existing experience. You don’t have to fight with an uncooperative system, wear special glasses or buy yet another version of the same movie you already own on VHS, DVD and Blu-ray.

| from …….. | TECHNOLOGY on THEGUARDIAN.COM | 26-Dec-2017 @ 18:51 |

(I've known that All World Cup matches were to be available in 4K, rumours of 4K Winter Olympics have been at large for a while, Wimbledon's new in house broadcaster has previously confirmed 4K from Centre Court in 2018, what's new is this article infers that both the BBC and ITV are to tool up for this coverage, however do take some caution on this, there;s no corrobative articles to go with this one)

4K compared to HD, to the average viewer, doesn't seem that impressive as SD to HD did, in my opinion. I have had a 4K set for two and a half years, and I can't say that I am overly impressed with 4K. I purchased an Apple 4K to start watching some 4K movies, sure the picture is great, but so is the HD picture. To see the benefit of 4K, I have to be pretty close to the screen. I don't think it will take off as much as HD did. My TV isn't HDR however.

On the big telly on our office wall, I can easily tell the difference between 4K and HD. I think it's far less likely to be a fad than 3D (or VR), as watching it can still be a passive experience: you can be doing something else while it's on, and when you do bring your attention back to the screen, you can still benefit. (I'm surprised nether Sky nor BT have been selling their channels commercially - surely 4K football would be a decent draw for pubs.)

As for the Winter Olympics - I'm not sure how much 4K is being produced by OBS, but I have read that NHK are doing 8 hours a day of 8K. I wonder if any of that could be downconverted?
Last I heard, Eurosport weren't planning any 4K.

Thats the problem though - as soon as one thing enters the market the industry is already working on the next. Those interested enough to buy 4K will likely be dumping their TV soon enough for 8K.

I'm less convinced by 8K - British living rooms aren't big enough for the size of TV you'd need to make it worthwhile.

Interesting that the BBC have detailed a 2160/50p HEVC iPlayer profile (as well as the 2160/25p HEVC profile they are using for Blue Planet II HDR stuff). That would work very nicely for UHD / 4K Sport...

Personally I'm not sure the Winter Olympics are a big enough event in the UK for the BBC to do anything other than a UHD trial for them (if they do anything) - but Wimbledon and the World Cup would make a lot more sense.

Yes - agree. HDR offers more benefits at all screen sizes, 8K is really cinema-screen territory.

On the World Cup:


https://advanced-television.com/2017/10/25/fifa-confirms-uhd-hdr-world-cup/

I’m a little confused as to what they mean- is the 4K HDR feed - made up of a mixture of native 4K HDR cameras with upscaled 1080p HDR and 1080p SDR - entirely separate from the HD coverage? (A little bit like the way it was in the first year or so we had 4K sports coverage in the UK, so requiring different commentators.)

Or is it just that the main camera shot will be wider on the 4K HDR feed?

Either way it seems a bit behind what is now regularly being done in the UK with native 4K coverage that is then downscaled for HD.