It’s the dream of every 4K UHD TV owner that we’ll be able to one day turn on our sets and see beautiful 4K content right from our cable box.
It’s a dream that’s slowly becoming reality thanks to changing ATSC standards, but it’s not quite as ubiquitous as we'd like. That said, two companies are taking one more step towards that gorgeous 3840 x 2160 future on February 18.
Those companies are DISH and BBC America, and they’re teaming up to broadcast the first episode of Planet Earth II in 4K Ultra-HD to DISH subscribers on February 18 at 9 pm EST / 6 pm PST.
To tune in, you’ll need to be using a Hopper 3 or 4K Joey connected to a Hopper 3 and tuning into BBC America, station 540.
Not subscribed to BBC America? No problem. DISH is opening the channel up to everyone from February 14 through March 30 so you can watch every episode of Planet Earth II (in both 4K and HD) at no extra cost.
No DISH? Try a DISC instead
All that being said, you don’t need DISH to watch Planet Earth in stunning UHD – a 4K UHD Blu-ray player will work just fine, too. As we reported earlier today, Planet Earth 2 is coming to UHD Blu-ray on March 3, 2017 and it looks amazing. Not only does it support the higher resolution, but it also supports HDR as well.
So when are we getting 4K HDR broadcasts? Unfortunately, it’s still a ways off, says Dolby. But hey, a 4K broadcast is a good start.
Via DISH
