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?
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it can happen because your display is scaling down a lot more information into the 1080p container. Depending on how the display handles it, you are effectively getting a super sampled image. We use this in film and tv production as a way to get a true 444 color image off a bayer pattern sensor (shooting 8k for a 4k delivery).
kinda a technical rabit hole to go down, but you can look into chroma subsampling here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling)
but when super sampling, basically you wind up with so many color samples regardless of your subsampling approach that the scaled down 422 video can become a 444 video. though this depends on how the service provider (say youtube) has transcoded the master files that were uploaded to them.
You also kinda get a sharpness boost when you oversample down to 2k or 1080. The early HD telecines like the spirit 4k leveraged this to their advantage when creating 1080p (or 720p, I think it had that mode) images for broadcast
it can happen because your display is scaling down a lot more information into the 1080p container. Depending on how the display handles it, you are effectively getting a super sampled image. We use this in film and tv production as a way to get a true 444 color image off a bayer pattern sensor (shooting 8k for a 4k delivery).
kinda a technical rabit hole to go down, but you can look into chroma subsampling here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling)
but when super sampling, basically you wind up with so many color samples regardless of your subsampling approach that the scaled down 422 video can become a 444 video. though this depends on how the service provider (say youtube) has transcoded the master files that were uploaded to them.
You also kinda get a sharpness boost when you oversample down to 2k or 1080. The early HD telecines like the spirit 4k leveraged this to their advantage when creating 1080p (or 720p, I think it had that mode) images for broadcast
it can happen because your display is scaling down a lot more information into the 1080p container. Depending on how the display handles it, you are effectively getting a super sampled image. We use this in film and tv production as a way to get a true 444 color image off a bayer pattern sensor (shooting 8k for a 4k delivery).
kinda a technical rabit hole to go down, but you can look into chroma subsampling here [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chroma_subsampling)
but when super sampling, basically you wind up with so many color samples regardless of your subsampling approach that the scaled down 422 video can become a 444 video. though this depends on how the service provider (say youtube) has transcoded the master files that were uploaded to them.
You also kinda get a sharpness boost when you oversample down to 2k or 1080. The early HD telecines like the spirit 4k leveraged this to their advantage when creating 1080p (or 720p, I think it had that mode) images for broadcast
On most online video players or otherwise, the compression algorithm that downscales your footage to display it in 1080p or 720p. The software gets more information to work with when the original footage is of a higher quality compared to the viewing device.
Modern mobile phone cameras use a similar technique (binning) at source to take advantage of larger 48mp or higher sensors and produce high quality 12mp images.
On most online video players or otherwise, the compression algorithm that downscales your footage to display it in 1080p or 720p. The software gets more information to work with when the original footage is of a higher quality compared to the viewing device.
Modern mobile phone cameras use a similar technique (binning) at source to take advantage of larger 48mp or higher sensors and produce high quality 12mp images.
On most online video players or otherwise, the compression algorithm that downscales your footage to display it in 1080p or 720p. The software gets more information to work with when the original footage is of a higher quality compared to the viewing device.
Modern mobile phone cameras use a similar technique (binning) at source to take advantage of larger 48mp or higher sensors and produce high quality 12mp images.
As we need a lot of images to make a video, we try to find clever ways to reduce the amount of data needed for each image. One of those ways consists of storing color info for a subset of pixels. For example, if those 4 pixels are each some kind of reddish tint, let’s say it’s red for the 4 pixels, it will be easier to store.
We do the same thing for 1080p and 4k video. But if we display a 4k video on a 1080p monitor, suddenly those 4 pixels are displayed with the size of only 1. So it’s not grouping pixels anymore. In a way, 4k on a 1080p monitor would be like an excellent encoding of 1080p video where we would store the color value independently for each pixel (we do that on a pro level, but that’s not usually what we see on tv)
The quality of a video is determined by the bitrate (how many bits per second of video) and the number of pixels
When you stream play a 1080p video, it compresses the video. When you play a bluray at 1080p it is also compressed but has a much higher bitrate so even though both are 1080p, the bluray will be better quality
when you stream a 4k video, the number of pixels is higher so it needs a higher bitrate to keep it an acceptable quality. You are still only displaying 1920*1080 pixels but because the bitrate is higher, it will generally look better
When you put 3840X2160 people on a 1920×1080 field, there is congestion in the field. To put this in terms of pixels, you get density. This density makes the image look better on a 1080p screen because at the end of the day there is more data on the screen.
As we need a lot of images to make a video, we try to find clever ways to reduce the amount of data needed for each image. One of those ways consists of storing color info for a subset of pixels. For example, if those 4 pixels are each some kind of reddish tint, let’s say it’s red for the 4 pixels, it will be easier to store.
We do the same thing for 1080p and 4k video. But if we display a 4k video on a 1080p monitor, suddenly those 4 pixels are displayed with the size of only 1. So it’s not grouping pixels anymore. In a way, 4k on a 1080p monitor would be like an excellent encoding of 1080p video where we would store the color value independently for each pixel (we do that on a pro level, but that’s not usually what we see on tv)
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