I decided to see if I could find Fox’s World Cup broadcasting plans.
It looks like Tubi will broadcast 2 games in 4K. This seems like reliable reporting.
The same search also told me their NextGen TV broadcasts would br HDR 4K. But the sources didn’t seem to say anything factual in that regard. So I assume AI was just making that up and that the broadcast will be 720p/1080p HDR depending on the local broadcaster’s capabilities.
Not sure about real or faux Dolby Atmos, but Fox seems to have turned the Atmos bit on for my non-DRM Fox 45 in Baltimore for some time now. Still 720p broadcasts.
Anyone see anything about 4K over NextGen TV? Or would that merely be 4K HDR->1080P HDR->U4K HDR like NBC did for the Olympics?
Fox’s World Cup Coverage
Re: Fox’s World Cup Coverage
Everything I'm seeing indicates 1080p HDR upscaled to 4K HDR on Fox One and Fox Sports apps and the usual pay TV providers only. I can't find a single reference to NextGen TV or ATSC 3.0 in any of the press releases. Business as usual. And AI is garbage.
Re: Fox’s World Cup Coverage
I have been meaning to post something about why 1080p upscaled to 4K can be an ok idea, more so for movies.
There have been a few youtube videos making the rounds recently noting that movies from the early 2000s era were often mastered digitally in approximately 1080p so the claim is that the pixels just aren't there and paying extra for 4K is pointless.
This is not correct.
Movies mastered in 1920x1080 (not exactly this resolution due to the aspect ratio difference but lets pretend to keep the comparison simple) are in RGB format. When converted to YUV it is 4:4:4...
That means you have a B&W image that is 1920x1080, and the color planes are 1920x1080 each.
You have 3 bytes per pixel for 8-bit raw.
Broadcast and online video is always converted to YUV 4:2:0 before compression.
The B&W image is full 1920x1080 resolution but the color information is downconverted to 960x540 (quarter resolution) before compression.
You just halved the raw pixel data down to 1.5 bytes per pixel by throwing away color resolution before compression.
"Upconverting" to 4K can be an ok idea...
The B&W image is upscaled from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160... that doesn't do anything.
But the quarter sized color planes for 4K are 1920x1080, thus allowing full preservation of the color plane resolution.
The result is not 4K but it is better than 1080p.
TV Cameras do something in-between, outputting 4:2:2.
The B&W image is 1920x1080 and the color planes are 960x1080 (half resolution)
If converted to 1080p the 960x1080 color planes are down-converted to 940x540 before compression.
If converted to 4K the 960x1080 color planes are up-converted to 1920x1080 before compression.
The result is not 4K but it is slightly better than 1080p.
There have been a few youtube videos making the rounds recently noting that movies from the early 2000s era were often mastered digitally in approximately 1080p so the claim is that the pixels just aren't there and paying extra for 4K is pointless.
This is not correct.
Movies mastered in 1920x1080 (not exactly this resolution due to the aspect ratio difference but lets pretend to keep the comparison simple) are in RGB format. When converted to YUV it is 4:4:4...
That means you have a B&W image that is 1920x1080, and the color planes are 1920x1080 each.
You have 3 bytes per pixel for 8-bit raw.
Broadcast and online video is always converted to YUV 4:2:0 before compression.
The B&W image is full 1920x1080 resolution but the color information is downconverted to 960x540 (quarter resolution) before compression.
You just halved the raw pixel data down to 1.5 bytes per pixel by throwing away color resolution before compression.
"Upconverting" to 4K can be an ok idea...
The B&W image is upscaled from 1920x1080 to 3840x2160... that doesn't do anything.
But the quarter sized color planes for 4K are 1920x1080, thus allowing full preservation of the color plane resolution.
The result is not 4K but it is better than 1080p.
TV Cameras do something in-between, outputting 4:2:2.
The B&W image is 1920x1080 and the color planes are 960x1080 (half resolution)
If converted to 1080p the 960x1080 color planes are down-converted to 940x540 before compression.
If converted to 4K the 960x1080 color planes are up-converted to 1920x1080 before compression.
The result is not 4K but it is slightly better than 1080p.