Can you watch the Winter Olympics in 4K and HDR? Comcast tells Ars “no”

Enlarge / The opening ceremonies will take place right here-and if you want to see them in 4K, you'll have to wait longer and jump through more hoops to do so. (credit: POCOG)

You may have heard that this month's Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, will include a major 4K broadcasting rollout-which would make it one of the world's first major sporting events to get full 4K and HDR support. Sports are unique in the 4K ecosystem for two reasons: because more pixels actually pay off for average viewers when looking at wide-angled views of high-speed sports, and because so few sports are filmed with 4K-friendly cameras.

Of course, one reason they're rare is because current over-the-air and cable broadcasting standards max out well below 4K resolution and without support for HDR. So how exactly can sports fans access the world's most high-res figure skating and hockey?

With only days to go before the Olympics kick-off, American paid-TV carriers are scrambling to answer that exact question, and we've summed up the information available so far-all while trying (and failing) to secure our own 4K Olympics access.

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