

Ask HN: How long until 4k video is mainstream? - coralreef

For 4k video to work on the internet, it seems we need a few factors: 1) filming devices&#x2F;media (which we seem to already have available) 2) high speed internet 3) 4k monitors.<p>High resolution media and capture devices are a given. So are affordable 4k monitors. And most of the developed world can get 1080p video streaming decently.<p>But 4k is several multiples larger in terms of bandwidth. It seems that bandwidth is the bottleneck.<p>Will 4k come sooner, or later?
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cbhl
I think the limiting factor is hardware.

Software video decoding is slow and causes devices' fans to spin up, which is
why people use workarounds (such as visiting YouTube in Safari) to force
hardware-accelerated H.264 decoding instead of using software VP9 decoding,
despite VP9 using less bandwidth.

By the time VP9 and H.265 hardware video decoding is cheap and ubiquitous, I
suspect the rest of the factors will fall into place.

The last TV buying guide I read was still suggesting 720p TVs at certain
screen sizes ("it's a better value"), with 1080p for the remainder. But 1080p
is starting to see wider adoption; even a Raspberry Pi can do hardware H.264
decode/encode these days.

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jolan
H.265 hardware decoding is already cheap. For instance, the $35 odroid-c1 has
it.

Between NVIDIA GTX 900 cards out now and the coming support in Intel's
Skylake, there will be a nice install base for H.265 by next year.

Unfortunately, there's no hasH265HWAccel property for netflix/youtube to
check.

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Joona
Really depends on when 4K monitors are affordable and most countries have
high-speed internet.

4K monitors are still pretty pricey. I'd be more willing to purchase one once
I can replace both my 120Hz monitor and my secondary with them. Then again,
what's the point of getting a 4K monitor, when most of what I do is gaming,
and GPUs can't really do 4K yet?

Here (in Finland) you can already get cheap, high-speed internet (no caps), so
it's not a problem for us, but who's going to offer a service that's more
expensive to run (compared to 1080p video) to such a small possible customer
base?

When USA (and other large countries) get better internet, I'm sure the
services will follow.

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flyinglizard
4k will see wider adoption when content is streamed in 4k (Netflix, select
YouTube channels) and promoted as such. Someone needs to leverage 4k as a
competitive advantage for that to happen (e.g. Netflix doing this to
distinguish their service from regular cable).

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gablushablu
5-10 years may be, 4K seems promising, but 1080P isn't too bad either, and
mostly people upgraded to 1080P just recently, so I do not see 4K becoming
very popular (or somewhat popular) in next 5-10 years.

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pocketstar
soon, this is promising:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirecTV-14](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirecTV-14)

