Original Table
SD HD UHD 4K 8K 16K HDR Comparisonby HelpCuttingTheCord.com |
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| Format | Image Size (Pixel Width X Height) | Lines of Resolution | Pixels/frame (p=Progressive, i=Interlaced) | Uses |
| HD and HD Ready | 1280×720 | 720 | 720p | TV resolution marketing, minimum quality for today’s available content. |
| Full HD | 1920×1080 | 1080 | 1080p | TV resolution marketing, blu-ray comparable viewing quality. |
| 4K & UHD | 3840×2160 | 2160 | 2160p | UHD and 4K are the same thing in television and consumer media, highest comsumer viewing quality available for current streaming TV, gaming, Video on Demand services. |
| Cinema 4K (DCI 4K) | 4096×2160 | 2160 | 2160p | Cinema Theater 4K standard. |
| 8K | 7680×4320 | 4320 | 4320p | Consumer 8K TVs debuted for sale in 2019. Currently limited content. 4K content is just now becoming broadly available. Controveries regarding human ability to see difference between 4K and 8K vs. pricing. |
| 16K | 15360×8640 | 8640 | 8640p | For extra large 100-inch plus monitors. Currently only one manufacturer. |
| SDTV (Standard Definition TV) | 640×480 | 240 x 2 | 480i | Over-the-Air (OTA) analog TV standard. Old tech. Go with minimum of 720p TVs. |
| HDTV (High Definition TV) | 1280×720 1920×1080 |
720 540 x 2 |
720p 1080i |
Over-the-Air (OTA) and current DTV standard. Go with minimum of 1080p TVs. |
| HDTV (High Definition TV) | 1920×1080 | 1080 | 1080p | OTA 1080p is available on a limited basis, mainly for pay-per-view and video on demand content. |
| VHS Tape | 333×480 | 240 | 480i | Discontinued. |
| DVD Disc | 720×480 858×480 |
480 | 480i 480p |
TVs and Blu-ray disc players with “upscaling” can help significantly. |
| HD-DVD Disc | 1920×1080 | 1080 | 1080p | Discontinued in 2008. |
| Blu-ray & Ultra HD Blu-ray Discs | 1920×1080 3840×2160 |
1080 2160 |
1080p 2160p |
Disk format chosen by manufacturer. See its packaging. |
| Standard Definition Video | 352×240 480×360 858×480 |
352 | 240p 360p 480p |
Low capacity on-line streaming services. |
| HDX | 1920×1080 | 1080 | 1080p | Vudu format – higher frames per second download available for better picture. |
| HDR (High Dynamic Range 10) | – | – | – | Video formatting/filtering used to improve picture quality. HDR is the contrast between the brightest whites and the darkest blacks. HDR10, most widely used of five standards, uses 10-bit color instead of 8-bit. Most videos are capable of displaying around 16.7 million colors. HDR is capable of displaying over a billion. Most HDR TVs are HDR10 compatible. |