This is a genuine question, so please don’t do me like Vlad the Impaler. What is your opinion about the benefits of upgrading to displays beyond 1080p?
I have never watched a film or a video at 1080p and thought it needed to look better. When it comes to software, I feel like I would want a proportionally larger monitor to keep the same DPI PPI, otherwise older software might be a pain to use, and that maintained software UI won’t necessarily benefit. However, that line of thinking is probably a niche concern of mine? I don’t play first person shooters, so maybe that’s another thing I don’t get. I have read some people saying that text looks better, which I could buy I suppose?
I wouldn’t say the same for 800x600, but maybe if I were a boomer I would have made that post, too. Is this something I would get over if I start using a modern display?
e: thanks to everyone for great responses! Based on the popular sentiment, I’m thinking I would take to 1440p just fine, presuming I get a screen ratio, DPI PPI, and screen size that suit my preferences. I am really relieved that I’m not super weird for being completely fine with my ancient monitors. :)
What is your viewing distance?
I’d say about 2.5 meters, maybe 3.
You should see a clear difference at that distance. You may want to get your eyes checked, your eyes get worse as you get older and it can really creep up on you without noticing.
I just did during my annual checkup 2 weeks ago shortly after turning 40, still got 20/20 vision. No idea then…
Strange. I used to have a 65” OLED, I sit farther away than you (about 3.5 meters) and could easily spot the difference even though I’m near sighted and at that time my prescription needed updating. Now, with new glasses and a 77” screen the difference is like night and day.
Maybe my TV is due for an upgrade then. Or the source movies I tried were 4k in name only but just some upscaled older ones… I’ll do some more testing with more recent ones.
Lots of movies sold on 4k bluray are upscales/‘remasters’ of the 2k version. Some are re-scans from the original 35mm film, those can be pretty good, depending on the source material. There is a huge variety in the quality or 4k movies.
If you can get your hands on it, try the LOTR 4k extended editions. If you get them from an ‘alternative source’ make sure you get one with untouched video (e.g. a remux). They are huge, about 100-120GB per movie but they look amazing. Wonder Woman 1984 also looks really good in 4k HDR, especially the opening scene.
4k content on streaming services varies a lot in quality, but is generally not as good as 4k bluray. Amazon Prime Video looks quite bad, terrible compression with lots of artifacts. Out of the streaming services, Apple TV+ has the best 4k video quality by far.
The LOTR 4k bluray is in my opinion on of the best showcases, especially if you compare it to the HD version. The HD bluray looks good, don’t get me wrong, but that’s all it is. Just a good movie with nice pictures. In 4k HDR with Dolby Atmos it’s something completely different. It’s like magic, almost impossible to look away from the screen. You end up starting it up just to see what the quality looks like and before you know it you unintentionally watched the entire extended edition.
I see, thanks a lot! I don’t have any devices that read physical discs, so it’s been streaming and alternatively sourced content exclusively. I don’t actually mind paying for media, but living in China significantly limits my access to unaltered, genuine discs that come with English audio tracks, unfortunately.
I’ll see if I can get my hands on a full sized LOTR copy for testing purposes then. Thanks a lot for the lengthy response, much appreciated!