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I've been tempted to buy my Dad a new 4K flat screen around 70 inches.
Does the upscaling really work well on 4K televisions? I remember a lot of the HD sets bragging about upscaling 7 or 8 years ago when they were starting to hit the market, but they really didnt make DVDs look any better from the 480p they were encoded at. I concluded it was mostly a marketing gimmick.
I stopped into a Best Buy Magnolia store recently and the rep showed me a standard 1080p source signal upscaled to 4K and it did look impressive, but it might have been just really crisp and clean 1080p I was looking at.
I would have to view two sets side-by-side to really see the difference --- left screen showing native 1080p source and the right screen showing the exact same signal source upscaled to 4K.
It doesn't look as good as true 4k when you are up close. It does look sharper than standard 1080P though. My friend and I compared notes regarding our projectors. I have a Sony VW350ES projector, which is true 4k resolution. He just bought an Epson 5040UB, which is a native 1080P projector with "lens shift" technology, which does the same thing as many of the upscaling tv's do.
We used 4k media with a 4k bluray player on both.
Bottom line... upscaling, by any means, does not equal the picture quality of a true 4k display. However, it is an improvement over 1080P. You may find that the difference between true 4k and upscaled 4k is negligible, especially at greater distances, depending on screen size. The closer you are, the easier it is to see the difference in quality.
Firstly you aren't going to see much difference between 4K and 1080 unless it's big TV and you are sitting close to it. For example most people will see little or no difference between the two with a 60 inch set being viewed at 8 ft. Keep in mind newer 4K TV's may have other technology that improves your viewing.
A good scaler doesn't increase detail. What it does do is examine the frame for contrasting edges to maintain nice sharp edges. It can make difference especially with lower resolution material like DVD.
Firstly you aren't going to see much difference between 4K and 1080 unless it's big TV and you are sitting close to it. For example most people will see little or no difference between the two with a 60 inch set being viewed at 8 ft. Keep in mind newer 4K TV's may have other technology that improves your viewing.
I don't why people keep saying this. I've seen plenty of side-by-side comparisons in retail stores of 4K source material and 1080p source material -- and the 4K source looks obviously better and more detailed. Anyone with normal eyes and visual acuity can see this.
Now I do agree that once you stand back 20+ feet then the differences are minimal. But at the normal viewing distance of 8-10 feet, it's very easy to tell 4K from 1080 material.
I don't why people keep saying this. I've seen plenty of side-by-side comparisons in retail stores of 4K source material and 1080p source material -- and the 4K source looks obviously better and more detailed. Anyone with normal eyes and visual acuity can see this.
And of course the retail store would not pick the best source material for showing a difference, would it? And there's no chance they fudge the signals, is there? And you sit two, maybe three feet in front of your screen at home, don't you?
Yes, retail stores are a great place for getting objective information. After all, they're there to help consumers make the best decision, not to upsell them for higher profits.
I don't why people keep saying this. I've seen plenty of side-by-side comparisons in retail stores of 4K source material and 1080p source material -- and the 4K source looks obviously better and more detailed. Anyone with normal eyes and visual acuity can see this.
Now I do agree that once you stand back 20+ feet then the differences are minimal. But at the normal viewing distance of 8-10 feet, it's very easy to tell 4K from 1080 material.
This isn't something I'm making up, this is science based. Your eyes can only see so much detail, more precisely your brain will only process so much information sent to it by the eye.
The 60 inch set at 8 foot is right on the threshold where the average person may start to see a difference between 4K and 1080. Keep in mind it's not just the distance and the size of the set is a variable.
As I already noted the newer TV's may have other tech making it look better but that isn't because of resolution.
The current technology of upscaling is FAR SUPERIOR to anything that existed just a few years ago.
There have been many advances that take advantage of much more than simple "line doubling" -- the leaders have really been Sony and Sharp, they've registered many patents on how to extract additional details in not just adjacent pixels but use advanced digital signal processing to have better contrast ratio and enhanced apparent sharpness. That superior subtlety, with finer gradations, is truly an advance that can be dramatic on a properly setup display of any size. That said, too many displays, especially those in big box type stores, are setup in what can best be called "melt your eyeballs mode" designed to overwhelm with super brightness and artificially saturated color...
The advances in computerized image processing that have enabled things like military drones to make out faces from high altitudes have been used to eliminate any negative artifacts of prior upscaling techniques. I have personally been very impressed in how the high quality digital processing in both projectors and LCD displays from Sony are immune from the sorts of odd textures that still plague some of the lower cost units from other manufacturers. Sony has made a decision to not compete in the "race to the bottom" that wiped out Panasonic's consumer sets. The dealers that sell Sony have made a commitment to setup the demo displays appropriately. Many of the dealers also offer other good options from other makers but I have seen the best from all the brands and right now Sony LCD direct view sets are at the top of that technology. The competing OLED tech from other manufacturers (notably LG) will likely be showcased at the upcoming CES show, and it will be very interesting to see how it compares.
What sources to places like Best Buy and Wal-Mart use when displaying their 4k UDH TV's? All of the "time lapse" videos they show look crystal clear to me. Are there any HD TV stations that actually show up that crisp?
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