Is Kodi 4K ready?

This entry is part 1 of 1 in the series 4K

#4K display are becoming more and more affordable, but are they worth it? More importantly, what is really 4K and what are their pros and cons? And finally is #Kodi 4K ready? Let’s find out.

What is 4K?

4K  is the “new resolution in town”. In order to understand 4K resolution, we have to understand what resolution is. According to Wikipedia, display resolution is “is the number of distinct pixels in each dimension that can be displayed”. A very common resolution nowadays is Full HD (also referred as 1080p). It means that an image using this resolution is 1920 pixels in width by 1080 pixels in height.

Now, the latest 4K resolution, is 4 times this size, which is 3840 pixels in width by 2160 pixels in height. Let’s do some simple maths :

FHD –> 1920*1080 = 2,073,600

4K    –> 3840*2160 = 8,294,400

then 4K / FHD —> 8,294,400 / 2,073,600 = 4

Basically, it means it 4K times “superior” to Full HD resolution.

Pros and cons of 4K

Now that we know what is 4K, let’s focus on the main advantages and disadvantages of the 4K resolution.

Advantage of 4K

• Higher resolution means bigger level of details. 4K images / movies will look more “smooth” with less visible “pixellated areas”.
• True 4K content, really looks awesome, it is, subjectively, clearer, sharper and nicer.

Disadvantages of 4K

• Lack of content: most content is not yet 4K ready. However, some providers such as Netflix are adding more and more 4K content to their library.
• Bigger file size. As we said, 4K is 4 times “superior” in quality, it is also way bigger to download.

Now that we’ve seen the main advantages and disadvantages of 4K, let’s answer our initial question.

Is Kodi 4K ready?

Well, actually… sorry for the answer but it’ll be a yes and a no at the same time.

Yes, Kodi is 4K ready (as long as your hardware is, more on that coming in a dedicated post). Skins will “auto resize” to the 4K resolution from 1080p which is as easy as doubling height and width (which in the end results in a 4 times factor) of every images from the skins.

Moreover, Kodi will upscale lower resolution’s content to 4K, and with the proper settings (more on that coming in another post as well) you could, subjectively again, notice a better overall quality from your content.

And no, Kodi is not 4K ready. Indeed, the skins are “just” 1080p yet, and are not natively drawn with the 4K resolution (whereas PS4 and Xbox One skins are). In practice, it works really fine. In theory, it shows a lack of interest for the format. Last but not least, 4K content is awfully missing (not Kodi’s fault here), and in order to really enjoy Kodi in 4K, we really need quality 4K content.

Now that we have shown you a brief tour of 4K, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you want to go down that road. If you choose to go, keep reading us as this article is the first of a series about Kodi and 4K.