Unless you're living under a particularly isolated rock, you'll know that the World Cup is currently causing a global outbreak of football fever.
That’s certainly the case in my household. My housemates are footy enthusiasts who demand that we tune in for all of the matches that are being played at "sensible" times – thankfully, that hasn't included those 2 AM kickoffs as of yet.
This means my TV and Sky Stream box have been working overtime, a trend I expect to continue for the rest of the tournament. But there's an unexpected joy to owning a top-notch TV (in my case, a Sony OLED): my friends suddenly care about picture quality
Usually, I'm met with eye rolls when I bring up resolutions and HDR formats, but the World Cup has miraculously changed all of that. As soon as I switch the TV on, I'm reminded to "put it on BBC iPlayer because it's showing the matches in 4K". This, of course, doesn't apply to the games shown on ITV.
I happily oblige for most games, and for the most part, I've been pretty impressed by the 4K streams from BBC iPlayer. Generally speaking, the games have looked really sharp, and colours pop nicely.
In fact, I'm watching the Czechia vs. South Africa game in 4K as I type this, and visually, it's an absolute treat.
Why, then, will I absolutely refuse to watch any of the England games in 4K? I'm so glad you asked.
The problem is the broadcast delay.
BBC iPlayer reportedly has a delay of around 30 to 40 seconds, while Sky Stream has a similar 35 to 40-second delay compared to Freeview's 8 to 10-second delay (these figures tally with some real-world testing we've just done for this feature on World Cup broadcast lag, by the way).
In real-world terms, this led to a few goal spoilers during the recent England vs. Croatia match, thanks to cheering from my surrounding neighbours before the goals even registered on my TV.
There is, thankfully, a solution. Sky has implemented three new "Real Time" channels in tandem with the World Cup.
These new versions of BBC One HD, ITV1 HD, and ITV4 HD reportedly slash latency by 22 seconds – not perfect, but much closer to Freeview.
However, Sky seems to have been fairly modest with that figure; our testing found that the latency compared to Freeview could drop to as low as five seconds
The tradeoff, of course, is resolution. These channels are capped at regular HD, and you can feel the drop after watching in 4K on iPlayer. Even so, it's a compromise I'm willing to make for England's game on Tuesday.
Thankfully, when I quizzed my housemate on whether he's willing to drop 4K to avoid spoilers, he also felt that the loss of visual fidelity was worth the tradeoff.
While sacrificing 4K in this instance is a shame, I'm ultimately chalking this up as a worthwhile learning experience. My flatmates now appreciate 4K more than ever before; now I just need to expose them to the wonders of 4K Blu-ray...
MORE:
Buying a new TV for the World Cup? Here are the features to look out for
Check out our picks for the best TVs
As well as our full Sky Stream review
