During the course of a partial week with the World Cup streaming in 4K, I tried the 4K Plus upgrade option for YouTube TV during the trial period. Here’s what I learned.
Hardware – TV, Streaming Device, Internet
You can’t actually use the 4K Plus upgrade if you don’t have the right hardware. And the list is extensive because everything from your Internet connection to the TV itself need to be able to support 4K. And all “4K TVs” are not the same.
1. Streaming Device. First, you need a device that YouTube TV supports for 4K streams. The official list is maintained in a Google FAQ here (see the first drop down).
4K playback is only available on compatible devices:
4K Smart TVs
- 4K Android TV models like Sony Bravia, and others
- Samsung, LG and HiSense 4K Smart TVs (2016 or later)
4K Streaming Devices connected to a 4K TV
- Chromecast with Google TV
- 4K Roku Streaming Devices
- Apple TV 4K (2021)
- PS4 Pro
- Amazon Fire 4k Stick (1st Gen – 2018)
- Nvidia Shield
Note: 4K is only available on select content for Apple TV and PS4 Pro. Some programs may have lower resolution.
2. Fast Internet Required. I have gigabit internet into my home, along with a Unifi enterprise grade network and wifi implementation throughout my home. I have a rock solid network – and I’m able to see how much bandwidth each device on my network is using at any point in time.
When I stream YouTube TV in HD resolution (1080p or 720p/60), such as the Word Cup (720p/60 resolution) this week, I am seeing the Chromecast TV downloading at about 10-30 Mbps (that’s megabits, not megabytes which would require dividing by 8 to get megabytes). It’s generally downloading at about 25-30 Mbps on the high end of that range.
If I switch to a 4K 2160p/60 content stream (e.g. the same World Cup in 4K), I’m seeing that same Chromecast TV device downloading in a range of 60-120 Mbps. It’s generally downloading at about 80-100 Mbps. Therefore if you want to watch 4K TV, you will need a high bandwidth Internet plan. Keep in mind, this is just the bandwidth for the Chromecast TV with 4K – if you have other devices operating (e.g. a Zoom conference, other streaming TVs or iPads) that will cut into your bandwidth too. If you’re in an area that offers high speed Internet, this is probably not an issue unless you’ve been paying for the “cheapest Internet” plan.
The number ranges qouted above are over Wifi. The Chromecast TV 4K model does include an adapter that supports an ethernet connection which may be slightly more efficient. I did not have the ability to test this option.
3. 4K TV. This is the easiest to understand. If your TV doesn’t support 4K, then you can’t watch content in 4K. Another point to understand is that you need a TV big enough for 4K to make a difference – generally over 42″ measured diaganolly. If the TV simply doesn’t have enough pixels to matter, you won’t see anything different.
The 4K Plus Image Experience
I was able to watch two different channels for the World Cup this week with the 4K and regular HD options. Here’s what I noticed.
A long lag (probably buffering) which switching to 4K content. There was a noticeable delay when you changed to a 4K content stream (about 1 minute of just a black screen) until the picture showed up. That was annoying, but it seemed to improve if you were switching back to that same streaming channel later.
On a higher end TV (e.g. LG OLED 4K TV), you probably won’t notice a difference. I know that may appear blasphemous as 4K at 2160p/60 is clearly better than 720p/60 (nearly 3x the pixels), but here’s the issue: higher end TVs come with very sophisticated upsampling chips in them. Part of their marketing claims is those chips are nearly on par with a native 4K stream – and now I’ve seen it for myself. Switching back and forth I honestly could not pinpoint anything that looked better in 4K from 4 feet away from a 55″ TV. At about 2 feet I can notice some slight differences in the grass details or jersey outlines of players on the screen. On a 65″ TV (one model year older LG OLED 4K lineup), it was very faintly noticeable when you were looking for it. The difference wasn’t really in the main content of focus, but in the areas not in the middle of the screen you could see slightly more detail.
Brightness is where I noticed a difference – the 4K content was slighly brighter. I didn’t watch the HD content and think “this looks dark” but flipping back and forth I could tell the 4K content was slightly brighter. I cannot tell if that was a broadcast delta (e.g. was the 4K camera used to produce the content on a different ISO or brightness settings?).
Below are pictures taken with a Google Pixel 7 Pro of the TV as it was playing live content. Now this is not a scientific comparison, but should give you some impression of what I’m describing above. I took pictures under 2160p/60 (4K) and 720p/60 (HD). I took a wide image and then cropped one section of each image. These pictures were taken about 2-3 feet away from the TV itself. Keep in mind this is not a scientific comparison especially as movement in video on the screen can show up blurred when snapped by a camera at a moment in time.
High Definition (720p/60)
4K (2160p/60)
Cropped High Definition (720p/60)
Cropped 4K (2160p/60)
The Real 4K Plus Dissappointment
Now the real issue is – not much of the content is actually in 4K. There may be channels that support 4K but those channels may not deliver all content in 4K. There’s a difference. At the time of my writing this, the only live TV channel I can watch in 4K is Fox Sports 4K showing the World Cup. There’s not a single other channel streaming 4K available to me. So if you’re wondering why I kept referencing the World Cup – that’s why – it’s the only content I could stream in 4K on YouTube TV.
On top of the disappointing content available, it’s not cheap. After the trial period, it’s about $20/month more – for … what? Once the World Cup is over, I probably won’t see 4K content until … when?
Is it worth the upgrade to 4K Plus? Definitely Not (right now).
I say this with dejection in my voice, but I was expecting to be wowed as I was moving from SD to HD years ago. I can confidently say 8K will likely take a very long time to happen because I cannot tell the difference from HD to 4K with upsampling done on the device. Kudos to TV manufacturers who have been giving us such a high quality upsampling. I have cheaper 4K TVs (TCL, Samsung low ends, with cheap/no upsampling) and there is a definite difference in the quality just watching HD content. If those TVs were large enough for 4K to matter, I could have tried to see if a cheaper TV showed a more dramatic difference with 4K content, but my cheaper TVs were in a smaller size range and not worth the effort (nor likely relevant as compared to a lower end 65″ TV).
But given the lack of content, and the cost, I can’t see why anyone would pay $20/mo for 4K Plus. Maybe that will change in the future, but in order for me to justify paying for 4K content, I expect to receive 4K content.
