Sky employee reveals TV remote trick for best picture quality – and warns wrong setting ruins sports and action films
MAKE sure you’re getting the absolute best picture possible from your Sky TV set-up.
A Sky employee has revealed how to check your screen resolution – so you can ensure you’re getting what you pay for.
HOW DOES SCREEN RESOLUTION WORK?
Resolution refers to the number of pixels – the tiny dots of colour – that make up the picture you see on a telly.
The more pixels, the greater the level of detail it’s possible to see.
Imagine colouring in the squares on a 12 x 12 grid, and think about how hard it would be to show a picture. Increase that to 120 x 120 or 1,200 x 1,200 and you can add much more detail.
TVs work in much the same way, but the number of pixels are in the order of millions.
For instance, a Full HD 1080p piece of content means there are 1,920 pixels on each row and 1,080 for each column – working out at about two million in total.
And 4K Ultra HD content has four times that – coming in at around eight million.
Of course you’ll also need a TV that supports such high resolutions.
For instance, a Full HD TV with two million pixels can’t show all of the eight million pixels’ worth of content that 4K offers.
So that’s one reason why you might not be seeing a 4K picture even if you’re watching 4K content.
It’s important to make sure that your Sky TV set-up is configured to get the best resolution for your system.
HOW TO CHANGE SKY TV SCREEN RESOLUTION
An official memo from a Sky guide revealed the easy steps “to pick the best resolution for your TV”.
Just press Home on the Sky remote, then go to Settings > Setup.
Now choose Audio Visual, then Picture Resultion.
From there, you’ll be able to select the best resolution for your TV system.
Here’s the official explanations for each, according to Sky – and bear in mind the note about 1080i:
- 576p: Used on a Sky Q Mini box if you’ve got an analogue cable connection
- 720p: This is the HD or HD ready resolution
- 1080i: This is the Full HD resolution. It’s got the same pixel resolution as 1080p, but it might appear to flicker or blur during action scenes or live sport.
- 1080p: This is the mode used for Blu-ray discs and some games consoles. If you’ve got a large HD TV, this is the best resolution.
- 2160p: This is the Ultra HD resolution. Remember, UHD is only available on Sky Q if you’ve got a Sky Q 2TB or Sky Q 1TB UHD box and an Ultra HD-ready TV.
If you try to choose a resolution that is too high for your TV, the picture should automatically revert back to the original after 10 seconds.
There are a couple of other things to be aware of.
What is 4K, Ultra HD and UHD?
Here's an easy guide to what 4K means...
- 4K, Ultra HD and UHD are all different names for the same type of TV screen. 4K refers to the number of pixels on your TV screen – or the “image resolution”
- The pixels are the tiny dots of colour that make up the image you see on your telly. A pixellated image is one where the pixels are really obvious, because there aren’t many. But images with lots of pixels – like a 4K movie – generally look sharper and clearer
- A true 4K screen has 4096 x 2160 pixels. That means on your TV screen there are 3840 pixels across, and 2160 pixels vertically. That’s roughly 8.3 million pixels on the display in total
- 4K gets it’s name because it’s got four times the number of pixels as a standard Full HD TV
- Full HD (or 1080p) screens have 1920 pixels across, and 1080 pixels going upwards – for around two million pixels in total. So 4K just means your TV has many more pixels on the screen compared to a more common Full HD display
- Ultra HD, or UHD, is basically the same as 4K. If you buy a UHD telly in a shop, you’ll be able to watch 4K content on it with no bother
- But there is a small difference. Almost every TV you ever buy has an aspect ratio of 16:9. That means for every 16 pixels horizontally, there are 9 vertically
- True 4K footage doesn’t quite fit in with that ratio, so you won’t often find TVs with 4096 x 2160 pixels. Instead, to fit with the 16:9 ratio, most 4K TVs will have 3840 x 2160 pixels instead
- If it doesn’t make sense, grab a calculator and divide 2160 by 9. Then multiply it by 16, and you’ll get 3840. That’s the aspect ratio working its magic. So when you see an Ultra HD TV, it just means it’s a 4K image with slightly fewer vertical pixels
- If you try watching a 4K video on a non-4K TV, the video will still play – but it won’t be in 4K quality. To watch a 4K video in 4K quality, you’ll need to fork out for a 4K TV. Similarly, if you’re watching standard or HD footage on a 4K TV, it won’t magically become 4K quality
- Some TVs promise “4K upscaling”, which converts your standard or HD footage to near-4K quality. This works by using software to guess what colours would fill the extra empty pixels missing in HD footage, and then filling them in. This creates a 4K-like effect, but it’s not true 4K
Firstly, not all Sky systems support 4K – you’ll need Sky Q, Sky Glass, or Sky Stream.
Secondly, even if your Sky box and Sky TV support 4K, it won’t guarantee that everything you watch is in 4K.
You’ll still need to find Ultra HD content. Often Sky will label this – and it’ll be branded as such inside apps like Netflix too.
So keep an eye out for 4K or Ultra HD markers if you’re looking to make the most of your expensive telly.