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Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,

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Speaker 1: Christian Sager. Here, when we're talking about TV, we're talking

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Speaker 1: about one big thing. Resolution, sharper images, crisper action, immaculate

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Speaker 1: detail in everything from sports to documentaries to video games.

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Speaker 1: In just a few years, we've seen the race move

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Speaker 1: from seven twenty to ten ADP, to four K and beyond.

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Speaker 1: And this brings us to today's question, does TV resolution matter?

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Speaker 1: Spoiler alert? The answer is yes, absolutely, or maybe a

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Speaker 1: better way to say it is yes absolutely, but with

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Speaker 1: a footnote. Before we get to all the weird stuff

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Speaker 1: that footnote represents, we need to understand resolution itself. Resolution

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Speaker 1: starts with the pixel. A pixel is the smallest possible

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Speaker 1: unit of a digital image, a single point of light.

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Speaker 1: When you hear manufacturers talk talking about resolution, they're describing

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Speaker 1: the number of pixels on a given screen. So an

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Speaker 1: old school cathode ray TV would display the equivalent of

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Speaker 1: three hundred thousand pixels on a screen, while an HDTV

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Speaker 1: could pack more than two million pixels into a screen.

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Speaker 1: The standard way for TV makers to classify resolution is

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Speaker 1: with numbers followed by a letter. The numbers indicate the

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Speaker 1: rows of horizontal pixels, So think four A D I,

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Speaker 1: ten A D P and so on. The bigger the number,

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Speaker 1: the more pixels on the screen. The letters at the

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Speaker 1: end of the numbers stand for I is interlaced and

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Speaker 1: P for progressive scan. The differences are important, but fairly complicated,

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Speaker 1: so let's save that one for another day. Using more

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Speaker 1: pixels to create an image creates a smoother, less blocky,

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Speaker 1: or pixelated image. So at first glance, it sounds as

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Speaker 1: if more pixels equal a better experience. Right, Not so fast, slick.

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Speaker 1: Here's where our footnote comes in. Pixel density itself is

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Speaker 1: not the only factor in the race toward a better

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Speaker 1: sharper image. If we're looking at resolution as the ability

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Speaker 1: to discern fine details, several other factors come into play.

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Speaker 1: For instance, what's the source of the image, what roll

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Speaker 1: does color play, how close or far are you from

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Speaker 1: the screen, and how big is the screen. For example,

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Speaker 1: if you're watching a small enough screen, say inches from

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Speaker 1: ten or more feet away, your I won't be able

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Speaker 1: to tell the difference between anything from four eighty to

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Speaker 1: four K. The farther you are away from the image source,

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Speaker 1: the smoother the picture appears. As for the size of

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Speaker 1: the screen, well, sure, you could have a twenty inch

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Speaker 1: TV with ten e D line resolution and it would

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Speaker 1: still have the same number of pixels as a fifty

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Speaker 1: five inch TV with otherwise identical specs, but the pixels

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Speaker 1: would be physically smaller. So in this context, size definitely matters.

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Speaker 1: If you put a h D t V with seven

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Speaker 1: twenty line resolution next to another h D t V

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Speaker 1: with ten e D, you may not be able to

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Speaker 1: tell the difference between the two. These are just a

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Speaker 1: few of the pertinent factors in the overall equation. There's

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Speaker 1: another big question here too. Does the human eye have

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Speaker 1: a resolution limit? How many individual pixels can the human

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Speaker 1: eye perceive? And that's a tricky question to our eyes

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Speaker 1: are not cameras. Instead, they're an initial step to an

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Speaker 1: intricate process involving loads of unconscious estimation and guesswork in

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Speaker 1: our brains. It is true that after a certain point,

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Speaker 1: the human eye is unable to differentiate or appreciate the

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Speaker 1: differences between some pixel densities. With the right source, material, equipment,

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Speaker 1: and viewing distance, four K really can make a difference.

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Speaker 1: For example, if you're sitting a few feet from a

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Speaker 1: sixty inch four K television with an ultra high definition

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Speaker 1: video feed, you'll be able to tell if it suddenly

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Speaker 1: switches to regular HD or brace yourself standard definition. The

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Speaker 1: limits of HD TV aren't a failure of technology. There

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Speaker 1: a limit of our biology. If we can't tell the

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Speaker 1: difference between a lower resolution in TV and an HD version,

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Speaker 1: then there's not much incentive to buy the latest ultra

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Speaker 1: high definition TV set. But this isn't the end of

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Speaker 1: the story. The race for higher resolution continues. Cameras that

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Speaker 1: shooting four K have already become the norm, and each

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Speaker 1: year bring new innovations. These ultra high definition technologies may

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Speaker 1: not make for a better picture on a home television,

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Speaker 1: but in a movie theater it makes a big difference,

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Speaker 1: and in the future we might not care as much

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Speaker 1: about resolution. It's possible that other technologies like high dynamic

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Speaker 1: range may become the next big thing. Check out the

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Speaker 1: brainsaff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and

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Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.