Google Rolls Out 4K Live Streaming On YouTube With Standard And 360-Degree Viewing
4K videos have a total of eight million pixels, giving the four times more image definition than their 1080p counterparts. Live streams therefore have crisper, more detailed images and do not become as blurry when the camera is moved quickly.
Google will be showing off its latest feature with the 2016 Game Awards on December 1st at 9pm EST. The show will feature performances by Run the Jewels, the soundtrack of DOOM, and Rae Sremmurd. The Game Awards will also include the world premiere of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mass Effect: Andromeda, and The Walking Dead: A New Frontier.
Over the past few months, Google has released the Chromecast Ultra, which can handle 4K Ultra HD resolution, HDR support, and Dolby Vision. Chromecast Ultra owners can currently only stream 4K content from Netflix, YouTube, and Vudu, however, Google plans to add Google Play Movie and TV streaming by the end of the year.
Google also recently added HDR to YouTube, which improves the contrast ratio and color accuracy for displays. The videos will soon be available on on all 2016 Samsung SUHD and UHD TVs, and HDR videos will still be able to be played in standard dynamic range on older devices. Steven Robertson, a software engineer, and Sanjeev Verma, a product manager for Google, remarked, “HDR adds a whole new dimension of creative freedom and visual spectacle, and we've barely scratched the surface of what this means for storytelling. We can't wait to see the amazing videos you're going to make with HDR.”