If you’ve ever gone television shopping, then you’ve probably been exposed to all kinds of confusing terms. Do any of these sound familiar? LED/LCD Refresh Rates (120Hz, 240Hz) The Soap Opera Effect 1080p Full HD And so on. Now we’ve been exposed to yet another term which is Ultra High Definition or UHD. This simply refers to anything with more pixels than a HDTV in addition to more realistic colors and higher frame rates. Currently, one of the steps forward in this regard is 4K resolution. Television makers are scrambling to make units that support this new resolution, but there isn’t a whole lot of support from the software side of things. Image via Wikipedia, TRauMa [CC0] The question on all of our minds is of course: is this the future? Will PS5 utilize 4K displays?. First we’ll discuss the details of this resolution, and then we’ll look into the future to see if this is indeed the resolution that will present your PS5 games to you. What is 4K: A Crash Course on Digital Resolution These days you’ll see most HD televisions advertising a 1080p resolution. 4K is actually 2160p. The term refers to a minimum resolution of 3,840 pixels wide and 2,160 pixels high which makes it the equivalent of two 1080p screens in height and length respectively. In essence, it is another jump in both visual clarity, color, and frame rate. The origins of 4K began in the movie theaters, but when you bring that technology home, it becomes far less of a difference to the average viewer. The jump from standard to high definition was huge, but 4K at a normal viewing distance on a home television doesn’t look that much different than 1080p. 4K sets are extremely expensive compared to 1080p offerings. One of the main features they tout is the compatibility of HDMI 2.0 which promises faster data transfer and 60-frames-per-second visuals. Unfortunately, nothing on the market, save for PC games on powerful machines, can support this resolution. PS4 does not support 4K gaming. Streaming video (possibly games in the future) is the current push for utilizing 4K more commonly. Current 4K sets will upconvert lower resolutions, giving them the ability to push the resolution of current HD games and blu-ray movies. The real question is whether or not this technology will be the standard going forward like high definition has been for the last ten years. The answer is still up in the air seeing as how LG and Toshiba were showing 8K resolution televisions at CES 2012. Will the PS5 Utilize 4K Resolution? While 4K and 8K resolutions are being used right now, the entire picture involves a lot more than simple visuals. It’s one thing to watch a movie in 4K, but to play a game in that kind of resolution, you need some serious hardware. That’s why only high-end PC systems are able to support this resolution for games. It’s for this very reason that the PS4 doesn’t support the … Read More