What is the Resolution? (Ultra HD (4k), 1080p, 720p, DVD)

Ultra HD (4k) vs 1080p vs 720p vs DVD resolution size

The resolution of a television is the number of pixels in each dimension that the television can display natively. You can watch a media that is not in the television native resolution. However, watching content in a lower resolution than the television will not increase the quality of it. Watching 720p content on a 1080p television will not look better than on a 720p television. Inversely, you will lose details if you watch a 1080p content on a 720p television.

The image to the right compares the sizes in term of pixels of the different resolutions. You can see that the 1080p resolution has about 4 times the total area of the DVD resolution. Ultra HD (also known as 4k) is also about four times bigger than 1080p.

Which resolution should I get?

The resolution needed depends on the size and distance of the television due to the limitation of the human eye
(learn more about this here)

A higher resolution might not be worth it for you. The resolution that you need depends on three factors: the size of your television, how close you sit to it and what kind of footage you are watching (discussed in the next section).

The human eye of a person with a perfect vision (20/20 for North America or 6/6 in Europe) can only distinguish a detail 1/60 of a degree apart. This means that at a certain distance, for a specific size, you cannot see perfectly the full resolution of a television. The chart to the right plots that distance for the different television sizes for the 4 main resolutions (480p, 720p, 1080p and Ultra HD).

Using this data, if you are siting 8 feet away from your television, you will not see a difference between 720p and 1080p for a television less than 40”. Similarly, the new Ultra HD resolution is only worth it if you have a television bigger than 60” and sitting relatively close to it.

What content are available in which resolutions?

A high resolution television is worth nothing if you will only be watching standard television. The best resolution media is currently Blu-ray at 1080p, which is even higher than most HD channels or Netflix. If you do not plan on watching Blu-ray movies, a 720p resolution is sufficient for your needs.

As of today (2012), there are no widely available sources for Ultra HD media, even if most movies are currently filmed and displayed in theater on a Ultra HD resolution.

What is the most common native resolution for a television?

In 2012, most televisions are now in the 1080p native resolution. Only the lower end models are 720p. The Ultra HD resolution is not widely available to the public. Models have been shown to CES 2012, but their prices are out of reach of the normal public and they are not found in common stores.

Conclusion

If you want a television smaller than 40”, stick to 720p only; your eye will not be able to tell the difference at a distance. The 1080p resolution is worth it from 40” to 60”. You will only start noticing the difference with a Ultra HD (4k) resolution above 60”. However, there are very few Ultra HD televisions available as well as very few media in the Ultra HD format.

Questions

Jan 16 2013

I understand most TV signals are standard definition. Will an HD receiver improve my picture quality on my LS4000? I am considering going to an antenna and would appreciate your thoughts on that.

If you are only watching channels in standard definition, it will not help to have a HD receiver. A HD receiver will only improve the quality of signals that are available in HD.

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Jan 09 2013

Is resolution upscaling really effective for a Full HD TV when displaying standard definition TV programs ?

No, resolution upscaling is never good. To understand this, you need to think in term of the amount of information a video contains (or more specifically, entropy). A resolution that has 4 times the amount of pixels as a potential of 4 times the amount of information (the key here is potential, because if the whole screen is perfectly white, the total amount of information is very small). Resolution upscaling will always be worst for 2 reasons:
First, the television cannot create new information, it can only extrapolate from the available information. This means that the television cannot know what was between two pixels. So it will guess instead. Second, there is a loss of information when upscaling to match the desired resolution. Unless the scale factor is exactly a whole number (which is mostly never the case), some information will be loss by trying to fit 1 pixel into a fraction. For example, let say you want to upscale a 1x3 picture (consisting of a white pixel next to a black one and then a white pixel) into a 1x4. What do you do? The two on the side can be white, but none at the center can be black without deforming the picture, so it will mostly be gray.
As a side note, this assume the resolution upscaling is done on frames independently of each others. Technically, you also have access to information present on the previous and next frames. There are some research done in that field that do look promising, but the algorithms aren't really effective yet besides very controlled cases.

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Dec 16 2012

I do not have a HD box yet for my LM4700 LG TV. Will the TV have a better picture with the HD box added? Of course it will be better but will the picture be clear or not without it?

Yes, a HD signal is a lot better than a standard signal. If you feed to the television a standard signal, it will upscale it to HD (to be able to display it in the television native 1080p resolution). However, it cannot create information that was not there in the original signal, so the upscaled version will still look blurry and not clear. The television will always just be as good as the signal you provide it, so invest in a HD receiver to receive native HD content.

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Dec 06 2012

When do you think Ultra HD(4k) will hit mainstream and become widely available? Should I wait for it before buying a new television?

You should not wait for Ultra HD to become mainstream. Currently, the only 4k televisions available in 2012 cost more than 10 000$. It will probably take 5 years for Ultra HD to hit more affordable prices in the 2000$ range, and it will mostly be only for very big screen (> 60"). Anything smaller does not make sense for a resolution that big on a television.

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