I recently visited my in laws on vacation, they have a 1080p 55" tv. I recently purchased a cheap Vizio 55" M series 4k tv, and have mostly used it for 1080p Blu-ray playback using a Samsung upscaling bdp, which does a marvelous job in comparison to the internal scaler in the tv, or the scaler in my only TX NR 656.
Obviously, upscaling can't add detail that isn't already there, but what I did notice was a much more uniform and solid picture due to the increased pixel density. The whole image just looks more natural and sharper. With a 1080p display, I could very slightly make out the pixels, and the image just looked lower resolution.
With glasses I have 20/14 vision, so my ability to see a difference in pixel density is a bit better than someone with 20/20 vision. Both TVs we're viewed at a distance of about 9'. The Vizio M series is nothing special when it comes to color or contrast, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't just because it was a better display. It wasn't color, brightness, or contrast I noticed, just resolution. On the 55" 4k screen, I cannot make out the pixels until I am 5' away. On a 55" 1080p display, I have to sit almost 12' back to lose the ability to make out pixels.
My guess is that it looks better simply because it "depixelizes" the image.
Anyone who has used PC emulation software to play old SNES or N64 games at 1080p using scaling algorithms such a Super2xsai for texture upscaling, can attest to the fact that it looks 1000x better than the awful 256x224 native resolution, even though there isn't extra detail. It's a similar concept.
Anybody else with 4k TVs noticed a much better picture with upscaled 1080p content?
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