If you’re a flat-panel HDTV owner, you know that you’re offered two choices: 720p and 1080p. These speak to the resolution of the televisions, and when these TVs first became available, 720p was the only choice.
720p means 720 vertical lines of resolution, at the progressive rate (which is where the “p” comes from) between 24 and 30 frames per second.
1080p is considered to be “True HD”, although it’s only recently that certain television channels have decided to start broadcasting in it. Even today, a lot of the true HD content comes from Blu-Rays and online streaming.
Now that we know 720p means 720 lines of vertical resolution and 1080p means 1080 lines of vertical resolution, let’s learn about 2K and 4K.
Consumer electronic developers are beginning to offer different resolutions to consumers. 2K and 4K are new resolutions, with 2K increasing the horizontal resolution to 2048 pixels. This type of resolution is typically used in movie theatres.
4K resolution is four times larger than the 2K resolution and is considered to be the next generation of resolution.
4K televisions are available to consumers under the name UHDTV (Ultra High Definition), but are expensive and have yet to really take off because there’s not much content available for them.
There are also a significant number of cameras that can film in 4K resolution, and a complete list can be found here
Do you think 4K is the “next big thing” in film production?