Best value
12 months1 connection
€49.99
€4.17 / month
4K HDR, explained properly
Most IPTV pages promise 4K and stop there. This one tells you what the label means, what your connection and your screen must do, and why a 4K stream can still look bad.
What 4K means in practice
4K, or UHD, is a picture of 3840 by 2160 pixels: four times the pixels of Full HD. On a 55-inch screen viewed from the sofa, the difference shows in fine texture, text on a scoreboard, the grass on a pitch. On a phone it is invisible, which is why we send phones a Full HD stream and save your data.
Resolution is only half of it. A 4K stream compressed too hard looks worse than a clean Full HD one. Prima 4K encodes UHD channels at bitrates that keep the detail, which is why they need the bandwidth in the table below.
HDR10 versus Dolby Vision
HDR, high dynamic range, is about brightness and colour rather than pixels: brighter highlights, deeper shadows and a wider range of colours. It changes the look of a night match or a film far more than the jump from HD to 4K does.
HDR10 is the baseline every HDR screen supports. It carries one set of brightness settings for the whole programme. Dolby Vision adjusts scene by scene and generally looks better, but the screen, the app and the source must all support it. We pass through whatever the broadcaster provides: HDR10 on most UHD sport, Dolby Vision on a smaller set of cinema channels and VOD titles.
If your screen supports only HDR10, a Dolby Vision stream still plays: it falls back to the HDR10 layer. You lose nothing you had before.
Bandwidth per quality tier
These are the figures for one stream. Two screens at once need double. Measure with a speed test on the device you watch on, not on your phone next to the router.
| Tier | Resolution | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|---|
| SD | 720 × 576 | 3 Mbps | 5 Mbps |
| HD | 1280 × 720 | 5 Mbps | 8 Mbps |
| Full HD | 1920 × 1080 | 8 Mbps | 15 Mbps |
| 4K UHD | 3840 × 2160 | 25 Mbps | 35 Mbps |
Indicative figures. A stable connection matters more than a fast one: 30 Mbps that never drops beats 100 Mbps over congested Wi-Fi.
Which devices support what
The device decides what you can see, not the subscription. The line-up is the same on every plan; the screen and the app decode it.
| Device | 4K | HDR10 | Dolby Vision | HEVC |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smart TV | Yes | Yes | Depends on model | Yes |
| Fire TV Stick | Depends on model | Depends on model | Depends on model | Yes |
| Android TV & Box | Depends on model | Depends on model | Depends on model | Yes |
| iPhone & iPad | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MAG box | Depends on model | No | No | Depends on model |
| VLC & desktop | Yes | Depends on model | No | Yes |
YesDepends on modelNo
- Smart TV
- Any 4K Smart TV from 2017 on. Dolby Vision needs a Dolby Vision panel, which most mid-range and up sets from LG, Sony, TCL and Hisense have; Samsung uses HDR10+ instead.
- Fire TV Stick
- Fire TV Stick 4K and 4K Max do 4K, HDR10 and Dolby Vision. The standard Fire TV Stick and Lite are limited to Full HD.
- Android TV & Box
- Google TV boxes and 4K Android TVs do 4K and HDR10; Dolby Vision depends on the box. Phones stream in Full HD.
- iPhone & iPad
- iPhone from the 12 and every iPad Pro handle 4K and Dolby Vision. Apple TV 4K is the best living-room device for Dolby Vision.
- MAG box
- MAG 4K boxes (MAG 522 and later) decode 4K HEVC; older MAG 250, 254 and 256 are Full HD only and do no HDR.
- VLC & desktop
- VLC on a computer plays 4K HEVC given a reasonably recent machine. HDR output to the monitor depends on the operating system and display.
Why a 4K stream can still look poor
Wi-Fi in the next room
A 4K stream needs 25 Mbps without interruption. Wi-Fi through two walls delivers that on average and fails it every few seconds, which you see as buffering or the picture dropping to HD. Use Ethernet, or 5 GHz Wi-Fi in the same room as the router.
The screen is doing the upscaling
If the app or the device outputs 1080p, the TV upscales it and calls it 4K. Check the output setting on the device: it should say 2160p or 4K.
HDR on a screen that fakes it
Cheap panels accept HDR10 signals but cannot reach the brightness to show them, so HDR looks dull and washed out. On those screens the SDR version of a channel often looks better.
The source is not 4K
Not every programme on a UHD channel is produced in 4K. Studio shows and older films are upscaled by the broadcaster; only live sport and recent productions are native. Nothing downstream can add detail that was never captured.
See it on your own screen first
A free trial account lets you check 4K and HDR on your device before paying. The 12-month plan is the best value if it convinces you.
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