Finally upgraded from 1080p to 4K

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Calavera
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Finally upgraded from 1080p to 4K

Post by Calavera »

I use a TV as my computer monitor and since around 2010 I had been using a Vizio E420VO 42" as my primary display. It has been a great TV. For the past 12 years I'd say on average it was probably on around 12 hours a day if not more. On this site http://www.hdtvsolutions.com/VIZIO-E420VO.htm
It lists the display life at 50,000 hours. At 24 hours a day that would be 5.7 years and at 12 hours a day it would be 11.4 years. So I'm probably really close or have exceeded 50,000 hours and I think it would keep going for many more years.

I finally decided to upgrade though. I went with the Hisense 58" 4K from Wal-Mart. It was only $298 which imo is a really cheap price for a 58" TV. The picture quality is great and it is huge for the room I have it in. Seriously 58" is probably as big of a TV that could be comfortably viewed in my room. Now of course my 1660 Super GPU isn't really capable of running newer games at 4K resolution. I didn't realize just how much extra horsepower it takes to run at 4K. I tried Forza Horizon 5 and it kept crashing during loading. I then turned all the settings to low and it finally ran. But it really didn't look much better at 4K. I turned it back to 1080p with high settings and Anti-aliasing and it looks really good.

Older games and emulators run at 4K no problem. I tried Sonic Adventure 2 with the Dreamcast emulator Redream at 4K and wow, it looked amazing! Pretty crazy that a 20+ year old Dreamcast game can look so good! I then tried some Gamecube games and some older PC games and they all looked great. I had actually started playing Burnout Paradise just a few days before I got the new TV and since it is from 2008 it runs in 4K no problem. For some reason when I hooked it up to my PC Windows set it to a 30hz refresh rate which is obviously no good. I had to manually set it to 60hz. Just seemed kind of odd, who in the heck would want it running it a 30hz?

So I am happy with my purchase and I hope it lasts at least as long as the Vizio. I do have one question about 4K though. Windows set the resolution at 3840x2160(Recommended) which at first I assumed was the highest resolution but I then noticed it can go up to 4096x2160. When I've been running stuff in 4K I pick 3840x2160 since that is the desktop resolution. Should I up it to 4096x2160 or stay where it is at? Why wouldn't it recommend running at the highest resolution?
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ian
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Re: Finally upgraded from 1080p to 4K

Post by ian »

The suggested resolution is the consumer standard 4K that isn't actually 4K, it's 4K UHD 3840 × 2160.

This is what was decided as good enough for most people. It keeps the 16:9 aspect ratio that most people are used to in their homes. It's wide enough without being too wide like the REAL 4K.

The real 4K is the cinema resolution 4K at 4096 × 2160.

If your display is natively real 4K use it. If it's natively UHD consumer 4K, use that.

As for the power to drive 4K, it's a lot. You needed 2 video cards and at least $1600 AUD to do it properly in 2015. And it stayed like that till about 2020 where you only needed one card but $3000 to do it properly.

Older games and media will suffer from not looking good on it, and as you like old shit even more than me I wouldn't be getting rid of any old displays even if the size, resolution, blacks, colours and refresh rates are all worlds ahead.
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melancholy
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Re: Finally upgraded from 1080p to 4K

Post by melancholy »

I have a LG 65” 4K OLED and I personally run everything at 1080p. It’s such a barely noticeable difference that the performance cost is almost never worth it. I’d much rather have the solid 60fps than a slightly sharper image.

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Roofus
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Re: Finally upgraded from 1080p to 4K

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The difference between 4k and 1080 isn't as big as 1080 and standard def. HDR is where it's at though. The colors just pop

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Calavera
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Re: Finally upgraded from 1080p to 4K

Post by Calavera »

melancholy wrote: Sat Aug 27, 2022 8:57 am I have a LG 65” 4K OLED and I personally run everything at 1080p. It’s such a barely noticeable difference that the performance cost is almost never worth it. I’d much rather have the solid 60fps than a slightly sharper image.
I agree with you there. I've only tried a couple newer games so far and I didn't notice much of a difference picture quality wise at 4K vs 1080p. It actually looks better at 1080p since I can run it on high settings vs low for 4K. I still think the Dreamcast emulator looks great at 4K but I didn't do a 1080p comparison. If I can run something at 4K and get 60FPS I'll do it of course but otherwise I'm sticking with good ole 1080p.

I really did underestimate just how much more power you need for 4K. It is going to be awhile before I have a GPU that powerful. I plan on sticking with the 1660 Super as long as I can. I was just thinking that back around 2014 or so when I bought my R9 290X people were saying that it was overkill for 1080p. There is no way that thing could have been gaming at 4K, could it?
Roofus wrote: Mon Aug 29, 2022 6:03 am The difference between 4k and 1080 isn't as big as 1080 and standard def. HDR is where it's at though. The colors just pop
My family got an HDTV in 2001 and it was mind blowing how clear the picture was. The main downside of having an HDTV back then was that there wasn't much HD content to watch except for the Dish Network HD demo channel (which I watched way more than a person should :olol: ) It seems like my brothers and other family members always had to be negative about anything I liked. Like with the HDTV they would keep saying "Well how good does it need to look?" yet they all have HD flatscreens now. If they really believed SD looked fine and it didn't need to be any better then they should still be running their CRTs! :angryevil:

Got a little sidetracked there. :olol: I couldn't get HDR to work at first. After reading your post I looked into it more. It wasn't as simple as just picking HDR On in Windows. I hadn't connected the TV to the internet because I don't really care about any of the built in streaming stuff since I have it hooked to a PC. But I ended up connecting it and was forced to make a Roku account just so I could download the latest update for the TV. After that I still couldn't get it to work. I had to go into settings and change the HDMI mode for the input I am using. After that I was finally able to enable HDR in Windows.

I tried Forza Horizon 5 yet again because I know it has a setting for HDR. In game the colors did look better but on the desktop it seems to look worse with HDR on. So I'm guessing it is best to leave HDR off and only turn it on when you are viewing HDR content?
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melancholy
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Re: Finally upgraded from 1080p to 4K

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Calavera wrote: Tue Aug 30, 2022 6:33 pm So I'm guessing it is best to leave HDR off and only turn it on when you are viewing HDR content?
Unfortunately, HDR is handled differently on each television, and some of them do it better than others. I had a 55” Sony that frankly sucked trying to do HDR. Most of the time it was better to not use it at all because it would make the image dull on the darker tones. Sure, it was a more realistic image and the whites were blindingly bright, but I wanted the colors to pop. Once I got my LG, though, HDR was incredible. It was a game-changer and I use it on everything I can. So it’s possible that you have a TV that just sucks with HDR. For that price, it likely doesn’t have a panel that handles HDR well.

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Roofus
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Re: Finally upgraded from 1080p to 4K

Post by Roofus »

Calavera wrote: Tue Aug 30, 2022 6:33 pmI tried Forza Horizon 5 yet again because I know it has a setting for HDR. In game the colors did look better but on the desktop it seems to look worse with HDR on. So I'm guessing it is best to leave HDR off and only turn it on when you are viewing HDR content?
I would think so. My TV switches to HDR automatically when you watch HDR content. That could be a feature of my Shield TV though.

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Calavera
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Re: Finally upgraded from 1080p to 4K

Post by Calavera »

melancholy wrote: Tue Aug 30, 2022 8:32 pm So it’s possible that you have a TV that just sucks with HDR. For that price, it likely doesn’t have a panel that handles HDR well.
That is possible. I didn't mess with it much other than turning it on in Windows and trying Forza Horizon 5. Maybe I have to make some adjustments with it idk but I with the default settings it looks much better without it on for most things.
Roofus wrote: Wed Aug 31, 2022 5:22 am My TV switches to HDR automatically when you watch HDR content. That could be a feature of my Shield TV though.
It may switch automatically if you are watching something via the apps built into the TV (I'll have to try that) but for a PC hooked into it you have to turn it on and off manually as far as I know. When it is on and you go to something that supports HDR a HDR logo pops up in the top right corner of the screen.
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