Common Amazon Fire Stick mistake is costing you money every month – even simple streaming check cuts Netflix by $7.50

• 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

In a nutshell, it can bump up the pixel quality on your 4K TV, resulting in better, more accurate colours and better contrast.

First thing’s first – HDR is not an alternative to 4K Ultra HD (UHD), but rather a complementary TV tech that allows you to watch HDR content on compatible sets.

The amount of HDR entertainment out there is growing all the time, and encompasses games, downloadable films and 4K UHD Blu-rays, and streaming shows.

You’ve probably spotted HDR on your smartphone’s camera, but it’s slightly different on video.

While 4K references the amount of pixels in your telly, HDR is all about the quality of those pixels over quantity.

Not only does it improve the TVs brightness, but it also adds more detail to the picture quality.

As a result, 4K HDR TVs boast darker blacks (or what’s known as “true blacks”) and brighter whites (and more contrast in-between) as compared to non-HDR 4K TVs.

Here’s what Sean Keach, The Sun’s Head of Technology and Science, thinks…

It’s no secret that TV streaming apps are costing more and more.

Not only are prices shooting up, but we find ourselves asked to pay for an increasing number of apps and services.

And when you combine those TV bills with your music streaming, mobile and internet fees, and every other drain on your bank account, it all starts to get a bit much.

One of the best ways to cut your TV bills is to simply cancel all of your streaming subscriptions and only sign up to one per month.

Pick an app like Netflix, Disney+, or Apple TV+ and smash through all of the content you want to watch on that app.

Then the next month, swap to something else.

And once you’ve done them all, you can cycle back to the start again.

It’s an easy way to avoid forking out for a rolling library of streaming apps with more content than you could possibly watch.

Also don’t forget that paid-for streaming isn’t the only game in town.

There are loads of apps that don’t cost a penny to enjoy, and downloading a few will unlock thousands of live TV channels plus tens of thousands of movies and shows.

Try apps like Tubi, Amazon Freevee, The Roku Channel, Plex, and Pluto TV to get some ad-supported television without having to pay any monthly fees.