4K TVs are everywhere, and they're getting bigger. In recent years, there has been a resolution revolution as Full HD TVs have all but disappeared to usher in the new age of TV technology and many upgraded 4K TVs.
4K may have been a cutting edge new television technology a few years ago, but now 4K TVs are really popular and make up nearly 50% of all TVs shipped worldwide. Each one has a resolution of 3.840 x 2.160 pixels, which is equivalent to eight megapixels. It's much more detailed than the measly two megapixels offered by Full HD TVs.
So why are some 4K TVs so disappointing?
That's because even if you have a 4K TV, that doesn't mean everything you watch is 4K.. In fact, unless you have an Ultra HD Blu-ray player, a premium subscription to Netflix, or 4K TV channels that come to your TV via a 4K set-top box, having a 4K TV makes no difference to the quality of your TV. what you are seeing What this means is that most of us record the same quality video that we used to watch. This is where 4K upscaling comes in, which all 4K TVs will have to some degree.
This improves the appearance of standard definition and high definition television channels, DVDs and streaming videos when they are larger. Here's everything you need to know about 4K upscaling when buying a 4K TV.
(Image credit: Samsung)
Why do we need 4K upscaling?
Because there is a “content deficit”. While we are now firmly in the era of 4K television, we certainly don't all watch 4K content., and Full HD images on a 4K panel will not look better, but larger, without the help of smart upscaling. "If you have a Full HD picture on your TV and you don't scale it, it's only going to take up a quarter of the screen," says Gavin McCarron, Sony Europe technical product planning and marketing manager. "Then it would be surrounded by a blank screen. What does the scaling process do to ensure that the image fills the 4K resolution of the screen?"
How does 4K upscaling work?
Adapting an HD image to a 4K screen involves several steps. “It starts with an analysis of the received signal to determine what type and resolution it is: live or broadcast TV, HD or Full HD,” says Deep Halder, Senior TV/AV Product Manager, Samsung UK & Ireland. "Next is noise reduction. Edges, textures, and details are analyzed and refined accordingly. Finally, the signal is upconverted to 4K to match the panel's native resolution." It is an incredibly complex process that requires powerful processors. “The picture first comes to the TV from the broadcast, Blu-ray, streaming service, etc., and its quality is analyzed,” says McCarron. "Sony uses a system of databases that are used to compare the appearance of different elements in this image, and once that assessment is made, the image is scaled to what we say is 'near' 4K" quality." .
(Image credit: Panasonic) Sony says its "lens to living room" approach is unique as it draws on Sony Picture's extensive experience in film and television production, as well as its expertise in camera manufacturing. of 4K video used by the television and film industry. "When you go from Full HD to 4K, there's a lot of guesswork and what we're trying to do is take as much of the guesswork out as possible."
Sony's 4K X-Reality PRO, like other image processors, scales at the pixel level. “It doesn't just look at the pixel in isolation, it looks at the pixels around it and on each diagonal, and it will also look for pixels across multiple images, to give consistency in image quality,” says McCarron. It is also essential for scalers to be able to differentiate between details and noise/MPEG artifacts, as the latter do not need to be scaled. Scalers are also looking to improve contrast and local color in the video.
How to test 4K upscaling in the store
If you're considering buying a TV from a brick-and-mortar store, be careful. All the TVs you see in stores are increased in brightness to "look better."
They are set to be much, much brighter than you would ever want a TV to appear in your own home. So when you have removed the remote from the provider, immediately change the picture mode from "vivid" to "natural" or "cinema". Then ask to see something that isn't in 4K.
The store really wants to show you what 4K looks like on a 4K TV, which makes sense to them, but since most of what you'll see won't be 4K, they insist on live TV.
Any high definition channel you find will probably look good. These are the non-HD channels you need to worry about; These may seem mediocre without a decent scale.
Sony Master TVs are equipped with the X1 Ultimate processor. Credit: Sony
Which TV brands offer the best 4K upscaling?
Hard to call, but generally speaking, the cheaper the TV, the less likely it is to have advanced 4K upscaling. You can see this in posts from all the big brands, who are investing heavily in their various image processing engines, some of which are reserved for their flagship TVs. For example, Philips has Ultra Resolution and its P5 processor, while Sony has 4K X-Reality PRO for its regular 4K TVs, for its Master series, X1 Ultimate processing. Samsung offers the UHD picture engine, while LG has the Picture Master processor and, in its OLED TVs, the Alpha 9 processor.
How do you take into account the size of your television?
Well, all image processing suites are committed to making all kinds of video look good on 4K screens. So is it fair to say that the bigger the TV, the more advanced the scale needs to be and the more powerful the processor needs to be?
“It will make a big difference the bigger the television is,” says McCarron. "Pixel density is higher on smaller screens, so it's not as critical."
Samsung uses the 8K AI enhancement in its Q900R 8K TVs. Credit: Samsung
What about the 8K magnification?
If you think Full HD at 4K is tricky, the birth of 8K TVs just upped the ante.
So far, the 900-inch Samsung Q8R 85K QLED TV is all we've got going for it, but it's fair to say that its so-called 8K AI Upscaling seems to be groundbreaking since it uses machine learning, a form of AI. “Millions of samples are evaluated, often comparing good and poor quality images of the same objects,” says Halder. "The differences between the two—noise, blur, compression, and artifacts—are analyzed (and) the result is an algorithm that precisely calculates how to improve the appearance of a low-quality image." This information is then placed in a database built into the TV processor for future use. "Regardless of the source of the image (SD, HD, UHD), the TV has the information it needs to determine for itself what the image should look like on a native 8K screen." So, as screens get bigger in both size and pixel density, the future of upscaling is definitely AI, but whatever TV you buy, be sure to check it out. Demo 4K and your money back.