How to watch Wimbledon Men’s and Women’s Finals in 4K HDR online
What a weekend of sport ahead of us on the BBC! Not only can you watch Euro 2020 in 4K and HDR, but the corporation will also be airing the Wimbledon Finals in 4K HDR too.
On Saturday the Ladies’ Singles will conclude on centre court, before Sunday’s Gentleman’s Singles will be decided… with England vs Italy waiting in the wings therafter.
BBC has screened over 30 gamers in 4K during Wimbledon 2021, but viewers should beware there is a slight delay compared to the live Centre Court coverage (maybe avoid the WhatsApp groups folks) and you won’t be able to watch on Freeview either.
Here’s how to watch the Wimbledon 2021 Finals in 4K.
How to watch Wimbledon 2021 Finals – start time and finalists
On Saturday at 2:00pm UK time, number one seed Aussie Ash Barty will take on Karolína Plíšková, the number eight seed from the Czech Republic. Coverage starts on BBC One at 1pm.
24 hours later comes the men’s final, which will see the Italian 7th seed Matteo Berrettini attempt to win his first Grand Slam title. He’ll take on either the defending champion Novak Djokovic or Croat Denis Shapovalov (Andy Murray’s conquerer) in the final, which also begins at 2:00pm UK time with coverage starting on BBC One at 1pm.
Could there be an Italian omen at SW19 before the walk down Wembley Way?
How to watch Wimbledon 2021 in 4K – what do I need?
First things first, you need a 4K TV capable of outputting the UHD resolution. But just having a TV that’s capable of outputting 4K may not be enough, because iPlayer is still calling live 4K broadcasts experimental, and that means the number of compatible sets with iPlayer apps built in is limited. You can see a full list here.
But all is not lost if your TV doesn’t appear on that list! You’ll note that a number of HDMI streaming devices are present, including various Rokus and Amazon’s Fire TV Cube. Just plug these into a free HDMI port of a previously non-supported set, and voila: 4K Wimbledon 2021.
Well, hopefully – that’s also dependent on your broadband speed. The BBC says you need a speed of 24MBit/s for 4K footage, and this will drop to a reduced experience at 12MBit/s. Suffice it to say that unless you’re paying for a very expensive broadband contract, you may want to ensure nobody else is streaming or playing online games at the same time as the big matches.
What about HDR?
For HDR, you need a TV that supports the HLG standard.
Note that there are some hardware exceptions. The PS4 Pro, which has been recently added to the list, supports 4K but not HDR for example. And while Sky Q is getting a limited selection of matches (more on that below) they won’t have HDR.
How to watch Wimbledon 2021 in 4K – what isn’t supported?
Good and bad news for Sky Q users. The good news is that while you were completely left out of the 4K Euro 2020 party, that’s not the case here. The bad news is that you only get a handful of matches, and they won’t support HDR.
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“The Sky Q coverage will be limited to the men’s and ladies’ singles semi-final and final matches and will be delivered via satellite rather than the internet,” the BBC wrote in a news article explaining its plans.
Elsewhere, you can’t stream Wimbledon in 4K in your browser, even if your monitor supports UHD resolutions, and that’s also the case for phone apps. That means you can’t Chromecast it either.
How to watch Wimbledon 2021 in 4K
If you have the compatible hardware, then watching Wimbledon 2021 in 4K is incredibly easy and should work out of the box in most cases. All the same, here’s how to ensure your settings are just right in time for first service.
- Go to settings in the iPlayer app
2. Press Settings & Help
3. Select Video Quality
4. Choose Best Quality
If you’re setting this up at a time when no Wimbledon 2021 or Euro 2020 matches are on to test with, then you can search for other UHD content. Look out for the small UHD logo above the title for confirmation that everything is working as expected.
If things look a little blurry, you may want to see if you can speed up your internet via these fixes.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
