Why do 4K videos on 1080p monitor look better than 1080p videos on 1080p monitor? The monitor displays the same amount of pixels in both cases, doesn’t it?

Question

Why do 4K videos on 1080p monitor look better than 1080p videos on 1080p monitor? The monitor displays the same amount of pixels in both cases, doesn’t it?

In: 12

Answer 1

On YouTube at least, the biggest advantage of upping the resolution is upping your bitrate. The video will still play at 1080p because it physically cannot be rendered higher than that on your 1080p display, but it’ll get a lot more data/less compression, and therefore more quality.