Super Bowl Viewing: 4K or Standard Definition
No matter the year, the National Football League Super Bowl is a spectacle. It’s the culmination of an entire season of football, and no matter who you root for during the regular season, almost everyone picks someone to support for the big game. In recent years, the use of various camera types has become popular, and some may have been wondering where the 4K stream of the Super Bowl was this year. CBC opted not to follow Fox’s footsteps from last year.
Super Bowl Cameras
Last year, Fox aired the Super Bowl in 4k, so some people expected CBS to air it the same way this year. However, Fox had experience airing television in 4K, but CBS does not. CBS opted not to try since their lack of experience could cause an issue.
However, despite not airing in 4K there were 4k and 8k cameras at the game. You may be wondering what the use of them was if not for airing in 4K. These cameras were used for some of the special effects. For instance, when there are replays, you can see the action happening 360 degrees around the player.
Along with the 4K and 8K cameras, other varying camera viewpoints were used. One example is the cameras that look like they are flying from above. More cameras than any Super Bowl before helped get different angles of plays. This is beneficial because sometimes a play is difficult to call because the angle is poor. With all the different camera angles, it’s more likely that referees could more accurately call plays.
Best Way to Watch
Streaming sometimes gets a bad reputation for glitching or completely cutting out midstream. However, in this case, streaming the game vs. watching it on cable will actually produce better results. The stream won’t be 4k, but the stream can compress the data better than cable can broadcast it through traditional cable outlets. This means that you are going to get a better experience through streaming than cable.
Standard Definition vs. High Definition
Standard definition has been around for years. According to Wirefly, the primary difference between standard definition and high definition is the number of pixels. Pixels are tiny dots that come together to form the picture on your screen. They are like small puzzle pieces all coming together.
So, for example, 1080p means that there are a total of 1,080 pixels making up the picture on your screen. The higher the pixel count, the clearer the image is.
Standard definition quality is 480p, or 480 pixels making up the picture. The high definition (HD) category starts at 720p and is known as semi-HD. Full HD is 1080p, and anything over that is Ultra HD or 4K.
Channel Lineup: HD or SD
Depending on the age of your television, you may have access to standard definition or high definition. The old tube TV’s for instance, won’t have access to high definition, only standard definition. These older models are unable to display high definition correctly.
When you are flipping through your channels, you may notice that you have duplicates. Some of them will be single-digit channels, and some will be multi-digit channels. Single-digit channels on cable are standard definition resolution, and the multi-digit channels are where you are getting high definition.
If you have a newer cable box, it can identify whether you have HD or not, and if you click on a standard definition channel, it will automatically send you to the HD channel.
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