With new HD techs coming, how sharp is sharp?

[Oyeve]

With the newer HD formats coming out, how sharp can sharp be? Will we be at a point were video is actually sharper than a human eye can see? I mean, 1080p, imo, is just fine. In fact it looks sorta fake being so sharp. Whats the point of 4 times higher?

 

[Eug]

I agree. 1080p is fine for consumer home video.

 

[Gintaras]

I agree. 1080p is fine for consumer home video.

Agree to...and I've never heard yet about videophiles, like there are about audio -audiophiles...

 

[Zivic]

With the newer HD formats coming out, how sharp can sharp be? Will we be at a point were video is actually sharper than a human eye can see? I mean, 1080p, imo, is just fine. In fact it looks sorta fake being so sharp. Whats the point of 4 times higher?

we are already at that point where higher resolution doesn't mean a sharper picture when you factor in screen size and viewing distance.

with higher resolutions we can watch bigger screens at closer distances

 

[Gintaras]

with higher resolutions we can watch bigger screens at closer distances

 

[Eug]

Yup. If we're going to use math to justify this, basically for a 50" TV, 1080p is fine after
~6 feet away from the screen.

http://s3.carltonbale.com/resolution_chart.html

If you go significantly bigger than 50" at a 6' seating distance, then there is potential benefit for 4K, but most people would find that a bit uncomfortable. People buy bigger TVs when they sit further away. Most don't generally buy 70" TVs to sit 6 feet away from it. Plus, those numbers are calculated using the assumption the viewer has perfect vision.

There is more benefit for TVs beyond 70" and projector images, and according to that graph I should be using 4K for my 10 foot seating distance from a 90" image, but right now I'm rockin' just a 720p projector and have no real complaints, although part of that reason is because the projector uses Smooth Screen which is basically a slight sort of defocusing to blur the pixels to minimize screen door effect. Does that affect clarity and text? You bet.... but for movie viewing it's actually nice, and I'm not reading a computer screen, I'm watching a movie. Yeah, I'll upgrade eventually to 1080p, but that's where I'll stop.

However, I own a home theatre projector. I am part of the TV viewing 0.01%. For mainstream TV use, 1080p is more than sufficient and there's no real point in going beyond that, for over 99% of the population.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I want 4K. At 106 inches with 8 feet viewing distance, 4K will make a big difference. It will be especially awesome when blurays can be progressively upscaled to 4K.

 

[Eug]

^^ Like me, you are in the 0.01%.

 

[Midwayman]

I have 20/15 vision so can see a bit more than the average person, but even I don't see the point to 4k right now. Your cable company can't provide a signal of any reasonable quality even if they did 4k. Sure movies would look marginally better if you have a huge TV. I have a feeling 4k is going to stay very niche market until prices come down to where its a nominal cost increase over 1080p.

 

[NutBucket]

I have 20/15 vision as well. Cable/Sat looks like crap so that's just one more reason not to bother subscribing 😉 If I'm paying for something I demand some quality.

 

[Alamat]

What's the point when the source is not there? Frankly right now, 1080p sources are not even that many, yet they are shoving full HD TVs into out face.

 

[Eug]

I have 20/15 vision so can see a bit more than the average person, but even I don't see the point to 4k right now. Your cable company can't provide a signal of any reasonable quality even if they did 4k. Sure movies would look marginally better if you have a huge TV. I have a feeling 4k is going to stay very niche market until prices come down to where its a nominal cost increase over 1080p.

I have 20/15 vision as well. Cable/Sat looks like crap so that's just one more reason not to bother subscribing 😉 If I'm paying for something I demand some quality.

Indeed. I'd much, much rather have higher quality 1080i/p on cable/satellite than 4K with lots of artifacts.

Not that cable/satellite is going to get 4K in the foreseeable future anyway.