Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and this is another classic episode from
Speaker 1: our former host, Christian Sagar. If you've ever been in
Speaker 1: the market for new entertainment electronics, you'll have almost certainly
Speaker 1: gotten an earful about the resolution of whatever TV screens
Speaker 1: or monitors you were considering. But how much does resolution
Speaker 1: really matter? Hey brain Stuff, Christian Sager. Here, when we're
Speaker 1: talking about TV, we're talking about one big thing. Resolution,
Speaker 1: sharper images, crisper action, immaculate detail in everything from sports
Speaker 1: to documentaries to video games. In just a few years,
Speaker 1: we've seen the race move from seven twenty to ten
Speaker 1: a DP to four K and beyond. And this brings
Speaker 1: us to today's question, does TV resolution matter? Spoiler alert?
Speaker 1: The answer is yes at slutely, or maybe a better
Speaker 1: way to say it is yes, absolutely, but with a footnote.
Speaker 1: Before we get to all the weird stuff that footnote represents,
Speaker 1: we need to understand resolution itself. Resolution starts with the pixel.
Speaker 1: A pixel is the smallest possible unit of a digital image,
Speaker 1: a single point of light. When you hear manufacturers talking
Speaker 1: about resolution, they're describing the number of pixels on a
Speaker 1: given screen, So an old school cathode ray TV would
Speaker 1: display the equivalent of three hundred thousand pixels on a screen,
Speaker 1: while an HDTV could pack more than two million pixels
Speaker 1: into a screen. The standard way for TV makers to
Speaker 1: classify resolution is with numbers followed by a letter. The
Speaker 1: numbers indicate the rows of horizontal pixels, so think four
Speaker 1: A D I, ten A d P and so on.
Speaker 1: The bigger the number, the more pixels on the screen.
Speaker 1: The letters at the end of the numbers stand for
Speaker 1: I is interlaced, and P for progressive scan. The differences
Speaker 1: are important, but fairly complicated, so let's save that one
Speaker 1: for another day. Using more pixels to create an image
Speaker 1: creates a smoother, less blocky, or pixelated image. So at
Speaker 1: first glance, it sounds as if more pixels equal a
Speaker 1: better experience, Right, Not so fast. Like here's where our
Speaker 1: footnote comes in. Pixel density itself is not the only
Speaker 1: factor in the race toward a better sharper image. If
Speaker 1: we're looking at resolution as the ability to discern fine details,
Speaker 1: several other factors come into play. For instance, what's the
Speaker 1: source of the image, what roll does color play, how
Speaker 1: close or far are you from the screen and how
Speaker 1: big is the screen? For example, if you're watching a
Speaker 1: small enough screen, say inches from ten or more feet away,
Speaker 1: your I won't be able to tell the difference between
Speaker 1: anything from four eight to four K. The farther you
Speaker 1: are away from the image source, the smoother the picture appears.
Speaker 1: As for the size of the screen, well, sure, you
Speaker 1: could have a twenty six inch TV with ten a
Speaker 1: D line resolution and it would still have the same
Speaker 1: number of pixels as a fifty five inch TV with
Speaker 1: otherwise identical specs, but the pixels would be physically smaller.
Speaker 1: So in this context, size definitely matters. If you put
Speaker 1: a h D t V with seven twenty line resolution
Speaker 1: next to another h D t V with ten a
Speaker 1: D you may not be able to tell the difference
Speaker 1: between the two. These are just a few of the
Speaker 1: pertinent factors in the overall equation. There's another big question
Speaker 1: here too. Does the human eye have a resolution limit?
Speaker 1: How many individual pixels can the human eye perceive? And
Speaker 1: that's a tricky question to our eyes are not cameras. Instead,
Speaker 1: they're an initial step to an intricate process involving loads
Speaker 1: of unconscious estimation and guesswork in our brains. It is
Speaker 1: true that after a certain point, the human eye is
Speaker 1: unable to differentiate or appreciate the differences between some pixel densities.
Speaker 1: With the right source, material, equipment, and viewing distance, four
Speaker 1: K really can make a difference. For example, if you're
Speaker 1: sitting a few feet from a sixty four K television
Speaker 1: with an ultra high definition video feed, you'll be able
Speaker 1: to tell if it suddenly switches to regular HD or
Speaker 1: brace yourself standard definition. The limits of HD TV aren't
Speaker 1: a failure of technology, there a limit of our biology.
Speaker 1: If we can't tell the difference between a lower resolution
Speaker 1: in TV and an HD version, then there's not much
Speaker 1: incentive to buy the latest ultra high definition TV set.
Speaker 1: But this isn't the end of the story. The race
Speaker 1: for higher resolution continues. Cameras that shooting four K have
Speaker 1: already become the norm, and each year bring new innovations.
Speaker 1: These ultra high definition technologies may not make for a
Speaker 1: better picture on a home television, but in a movie
Speaker 1: theater it makes a big difference, and in the future
Speaker 1: we might not care as much about resolution. It's possible
Speaker 1: that other technologies like high dynamic range may become the
Speaker 1: next big thing. Today's episode was written by Ben Bullen
Speaker 1: and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and
Speaker 1: lots of other Crystal Clear topics, visit how Stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. Brain Stuff is a production of My heart Radio.
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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your
Speaker 1: favorite shows.