In an ideal world, everything would be true 4K by now, every game, movie, TV show, video clip, concert, what have you. But 4K upscaling is a thing, and a necessary reality of the experience.

That’s because even though the amount of available 4K content is on the rise, the majority of it is not. Most people are limited to 720p and 1080p for their media, as TV broadcasters are yet to fully upgrade their systems to 4K. Same goes for movies.

We reviewed some technical details regarding 4K in our first article, but now let’s move beyond the introduction, and take a look at some practical ones.

Why 4K upscaling is necessary?

If you want to get the most from 4K on your home, you will need to invest in a quality 4K TV, and back it up by a 4K UHD Bluray player. Throw in a capable AV receiver, and sound quality sound blasters, and you are good to go.

Right?

Well, not quite.

That’s because, even though 2017 has seen the first real steady stream of Ultra HD Bluray discs containing new and old Hollywood films, the total number of these releases is less than 50 as of this writing — these discs only started making their way to store shelves in 2016, after all.

Add in the handful of films that are available from providers like Netflix, Amazon, and now iTunes, and you still don’t scratch the surface. That’s not even talking about all the TV shows and other types of media that is, at best, available in the Full HD format.

Even the insanely popular HBO show Game of Thrones has not been shot in 4K.

Point being, only a fraction of such content is available to purchase right now, and although movie studios and broadcasters are making the switch to 4K, an overwhelming majority of content is available in lower resolution, and even DVD formats.

Which brings us to 4K upscaling.

Old becomes new

Scaling is not a new technology, and the concept has been around for ages. Image scaling works by converting video signals from one resolution to another, and this process basically allows a picture with fewer pixels to fit a screen with many more. Apply this to 4K scaling, and your 720p or 1080p content is upscaled to 4K resolution using just the power of algorithms.

But although upscaling can improve the image quality, it does not magically fill in the data — the missing pixels are only extrapolated, new ones are not actually created. You will get best results with 4K upscaling when you watch HD channels or Blurays on your 4K UHD TV.

As you can expect, the 4K upscaling power of your hardware is a crucial consideration.

If the 4K TV, AV receiver, or 4K Ultra HD Bluray player does a bad job of upscaling, lower definition content will look significantly less impressive on your display compared to a 1080p TV that process HD content natively. This, ultimately, takes away from the experience. But the good news here is that most Ultra HD TVs do a solid job with upscaling.