Here comes 4k video....

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docm

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4k? Yup - 4x the resolution of 1080p and it's now supported by YouTube....

http://youtube-global.blogspot.com/2010 ... comes.html

Friday, July 9, 2010

What's bigger than 1080p? 4K video comes to YouTube

Today at the VidCon 2010 conference, we announced support for videos shot in 4K (a reference resolution of 4096 x 3072), meaning that now we support original video resolution from 360p all the way up to 4096p. To give some perspective on the size of 4K, the ideal screen size for a 4K video is 25 feet; IMAX movies are projected through two 2k resolution projectors.

We always want videos on YouTube to be available in the highest quality possible, as creators intend. In December of last year, we announced support for 1080p, or full HD. At 4096 x 3072 pixels, 4K is nearly four times the size of 1080p. To view any video in a source resolution greater than 1080p, select "Original" in the video quality pulldown menu:
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Mee_n_Mac

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Crap ! Just what's needed another video standard. :roll: Why the return to the old 4:3 aspect ratio ? I thought the next "4x" standard was supposed to be 3840 x 2160, which is 2x the linear resolution of todays HDTV standard.
 
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nimbus

Guest
Also curious what the rationale is for the 4:3 ratio. Ugly and inconvenient.
 
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OleNewt

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For that matter, why would Youtube videos be watched on an IMAX screen? I'm not sure anyone's going to pay $10+ to watch Double Rainbow Fanatic or Best Freakout Ever response videos.
 
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docm

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NTSC TV (4:3) has a 1.33:1 width/height ratio, and it's that way because it was close to the 35mm movie film standard of 1.375:1. Widescreen formats came out later, CinemaScope being one. It uses a special lens (anamorphic) that compresses the image horizontally to fit a very wide format on a narrower film, often with ratios up to 2.66:1. This lens technique is used today, especially in DV camcorders, to fit a 16x9 widescreen format on to a 4:3 sensor.
 
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nimbus

Guest
I was asking because I thought widescreen ratios were now the norm, or nearly so. So most or all of today's media in widescreen format are actually captured on 4:3 hardware? This 4k standard would make sense.
 
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docm

Guest
Widescreen DV/16x9 and some other formats are indeed captured on 4:3 or even square sensors, but more and more you're seeing "real" HD sensors too. It's a very moving target, and there are also anamorphic lenses for the higher end HD sensor cams (true 1920x1080p) to give them near-Cinemascope widths. Editing software then stretches this "squeezed" data to its intended dimensions, usually by changing the images square pixels to rectangular pixels. A very common trick.
 
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