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How do we watch 4K video if the iPhone screens only display 720p on the 6 and 1080p on the 6s?

I don't own a 4k display and normally won't want to commit the added storage space to record in 4k, but I can think of one very useful scenario: cropping as a means of zooming in.

Let's say I'm recording my daughter's school play performance. On the iPhone 6, you can zoom while recording video, but lose resolution. But what about on the 6s? Will it do a digital zoom to 2x without a resolution loss? Or if not, can I record in 4K and then crop in to 1080p in post production? Is there a video editing app that will crop?

That could be VERY useful.
 
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nouveau-apple said:
I heard that 4K actually looks blurry on devices that don't support it.
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Not sure where you heard that. 4K videos look better than 1080p videos, on 1080p devices. A large portion of the videos we watch on our phones, or even our TV, are compressed video and not at the original raw quality.
 
I just want to know if the slow-motion won't go grainy. Because when we record in slow motion on our iPhones, the quality dips the more frames per second you record at.
 
capturing video in 4K captures more colour detail.

A 4k video on a 1080p display will look better than a 1080p video.

This was evident when I filmed stuff on my Note 3.
 
nouveau-apple said:
I heard that 4K actually looks blurry on devices that don't support it.
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Quite the opposite. As I said earlier in this thread, the higher bitrate 4K videos typically look better even on a 1080p display.
nouveau-apple said:
The thing is, I don't ever know if I'm viewing 4K or not. I thought I wouldn't have been able to watch a YouTube 4K video on any apple device unless I had downloaded chrome.
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4K should be available on any 4K-supported YouTube video by clicking the gear icon to change the quality. As of now, most YouTube videos still aren't recorded in 4K.
 
nouveau-apple said:
Other phones do. And for the iPhone to be Apple's most popular product, it would make sense. That's how people watch YouTube, watch videos, watch iTunes...
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And...?
Besides, what other phones other than the Z5 premium that has 4K screen? We will see how its performance and battery life are.

Heck, personally I think even 1080p is overkill. I used to have the first gen Moto X, which has only 720p, and I never feel it doesn't have enough pixels. ~300ppi is the magic number.
 
You don't take really amazing high quality photos on your DSLR with a huge sensor to view the photos on the cameras small low res lcd do you? The same logic applies to the iPhone. Lots of people shoot video on their iPhone to import to their MacBooks/iMacs and edit together in iMovie etc.
Not many people have 4K screens yet but when it becomes the norm (I still remember buying a PS3 before I even had an HDTV) people will be glad they're movies were shot in 4K.
 
Quite surprised at the number of people who can't seem to get their head around the fact that a lot of people don't use their iPhone as their main way to view photos and videos. To me it's my means of shooting, I view and organise all my photos on my MacBook, iPad, TV and prints.
 
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MattXDA said:
  • Viewing on a retina Mac / 4K TV
  • Ability to crop / stabilise the video with less quality reduction
  • Can zoom further
  • It's the future; why stay at an inferior quality for good? We already went from SD TVs to 1080p as standard. 4K is the next step.
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All great points! I think people saying its pointless are probably just justifying their purchase of a 16gb model!
 
Unfortunately most people are uneducated to understand how it all works. Guys, the 6S+ is a huge upgrade in photo/video recording from previous phones. The people whom will benefit from this are those that understand the need and requirement of shooting and editing on a display that supports the res. I for one can't wait as I ordered my rose gold 6s+ and will enjoy viewing and editing videos and photos on my 5k Mac.
 
PTLove said:
4K video should still look better even on the native Iphone screen. Downsampling algorithms should still be in play, and downsampling (unlike upsampling) has the ability to increase image quality.
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This is not video games where you can render in a higher resolution than the display and then down sample for better perceived image quality due to aliasing and other 3d rendering anomalies. Downsampling video or images has no benefit and can create it's own artifacts as well. As mentioned earlier, the only reason you'd notice a real difference is because there is more bit rate headroom. In those cases, you'd see less loss of detail due to compression.
 
And then they're like "most people aren't going to use their phones to watch anything it just wastes battery"

Um. Most people will watch everything on their phone before anything else.

That new episode on NBC? iPhone

Any movies or photos? iPhone.

The apple keynote? iPhone.

The ads about the new ipads? iPhone.

Putting in an order for the new iPhones? iPhone.

Now that I think about it. The new Apple TV would've been better if it came to iPhone.
 
I don't think most people get what 4K is. They just think it's a big number so it must be better no matter what I watch it on.
 
Ninerboy81 said:
Can a USB flash drive output at 4k?
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Yes, some 4K TVs (Samsungs), come with USB sticks with 4K content so the owner has something to watch at the native resolution of the screen.

nouveau-apple said:
I heard that 4K actually looks blurry on devices that don't support it.

It was Engadget that had put up an article talking about "YouTube is testing 4K videos, try it out."

The thing is, I don't ever know if I'm viewing 4K or not. I thought I wouldn't have been able to watch a YouTube 4K video on any apple device unless I had downloaded chrome.
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Odd that I've been able to watch 4K video via Safari on my Mac.

Also wouldn't 4K playback be doable on a Mac Mini or Macbook Pro with Thunderbolt 2 using a correct thunderbolt to HDMI adaptor as 1.4 spec supports 4k @ 30fps.
 
runebinder said:
Yes, some 4K TVs (Samsungs), come with USB sticks with 4K content so the owner has something to watch at the native resolution of the screen.



Odd that I've been able to watch 4K video via Safari on my Mac.

Also wouldn't 4K playback be doable on a Mac Mini or Macbook Pro with Thunderbolt 2 using a correct thunderbolt to HDMI adaptor as 1.4 spec supports 4k @ 30fps.
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Too much work.
 
On a 4K TV/Monitor?

With that said, I couldn't care less about the new camera. I rarely take pictures or videos with my iPhone :(
 
You guys know that there is still great potential for the quality to be presented as better looking than 1080p on our phones, right? If they downsample correctly then the image quality WILL look better and it will be easily discernible. NVIDIA uses a technique called DSR, which blows your game resolution up to potentially 4x and then shrinks the size back down to your monitor size. It works quite amazingly and the results are spectacular. People on 1080p monitors can play at 4K DSR and it's a very noticeable difference despite the native resolution of the screen being 1080p.
 
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