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What are the benefits and drawbacks of using 4K upscaling on a non-4K content, and how does it affect the viewing experience?
Upscaling is a process that increases the resolution of lower-resolution video content to match the higher resolution of a display, such as a 4K TV.
4K upscaling is necessary because there is a "content gap" - while 4K TVs are becoming more common, not all content is available in 4K.
Upscaling uses algorithms to estimate the missing pixels and can result in some loss of image quality.
The impact of upscaling on image quality can vary depending on the quality of the original content and the capabilities of the TV's upscaling technology.
Some TVs have more advanced upscaling algorithms that can produce better results than others.
The Xbox Series S allows users to adjust the level of upscaling to find the best balance between image quality and performance.
Upscaling can improve the quality of lower-resolution content on a 4K TV, but it is not the same as having native 4K content.
The difference in resolution between a 1080p TV and a 4K TV is significant - a 4K TV has twice the horizontal and vertical resolution of a 1080p TV.
Upscaling produces video that utilizes your monitor's maximum aspect ratio even when playing a lower resolution video.
Most flatscreen TVs have a 1920x1080p resolution, resulting in 2,073,600 pixels in total.
A 1280x720 HD movie only uses 4,147,200 pixels.
A 4K TV has 3840 horizontal pixels and 2160 vertical pixels, resulting in over 8 million pixels in total.
Upscaling can help to fill in the gaps in image quality when watching lower resolution content on a higher resolution display.
Upscaling is not just for TVs, it can be found in many devices including gaming consoles and media players.
While upscaling can improve the quality of lower-resolution content, it cannot replicate the stunning detail of native 4K content.
A 4K receiver can improve picture quality with a 4K passthrough HDMI port, but most 4K TVs have built-in chips that are better at upscaling content from 1080p to 4K than receivers.
Upscaling mainly consists of two parts: the TV first has to scale the image to match the native resolution of the panel, and then it enhances the image quality.
With 8K TVs, upscaling performance is even more important because the vast majority of content on broadcast TV and streaming platforms is lower than 8K resolution.
While 4K upscaling can be a nice compromise if 4K discs are too rich for your blood, proper 4K from 4K discs is obviously going to be an improvement as long as the transfer is adequate as there is more data on there.
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