4K IPTV: which channels, TVs and connections deliver it

4K, also called Ultra HD, is a picture of 3840 × 2160 pixels: four times as many as Full HD (1920 × 1080). On a large TV that means sharper faces, readable shirt numbers from a wide camera angle and grass that looks like grass rather than a green blur.

On IPTV, a 4K picture only reaches you if the whole chain is 4K. The broadcaster has to produce the programme in 4K, the provider has to carry that 4K feed, your connection has to bring it in without dropping, and your TV or box has to decode it. If one link is HD, you see HD. A 4K TV does not turn an HD channel into a 4K channel; it scales the image up, which can look good but is not the same thing.

That is why we never promise "all channels in 4K". No provider can, because most channels do not broadcast in 4K at all.

You need a 4K screen and a player that decodes HEVC, also called H.265, which is the compression most 4K streams use. Almost every 4K TV sold in the last few years decodes HEVC, but the app you use must be able to use that hardware decoder; some older or very cheap players fall back to software decoding and stutter.

If your TV is 4K but its own apps are slow or limited, a 4K streaming device plugged into the HDMI port usually gives a smoother result. Connect it to an HDMI port that supports 4K: on many TVs only one or two ports do, and they are often labelled.

4K is included in Premium and VIP; Standard plays in HD and Full HD. The two 4K plans have the same picture and sports packs and differ by catalogue and devices: Premium carries 21,000 channels, 123,000 films and 29,000 series on 1 device; VIP carries 43,000 channels and 200,000 films and series and can be installed on 1 or 2 devices, one at a time, with priority support. Every plan plays one stream at a time, includes Xtream Codes and an M3U link, and lasts 12 months for one payment in dirhams.

If you watch on a Full HD TV or on an ADSL line, Standard gives you the same picture you would actually see on the other plans. If you have a 4K TV, fibre and you follow big football, Premium is the plan where 4K makes sense.

4K is worth it on a TV of about 50 inches or more, watched from a normal sofa distance, for live sport and films. On a smaller screen, from further away, or for news and series, the difference from Full HD is small and most viewers will not notice it.

The simplest way to decide is to look. During the free 24-hour test, open the 4K and HD versions of the same sports channel during a match and compare them on your own screen. If you cannot see the gain, you have saved the difference between two plans. Ask for the line on the IPTV free trial page.