Many of us use to hear stuff like; wow, that picture was taken in HD, full HD. That movie was showing in 3D, That video was shot in HD. To the average user of Television, camera, decoders, game consoles, computers or mobile phones, all they can authoritatively say is that HD contents are clearer than SD or VGA. Even those of us using decoders at home, you keep wondering “why is normal dstv decoder clearer on my HD tv than my gotv on smartv” Why is dstv xplora clearer than dstv standard decoder?? Why is the highest camera settings of Samsung s7 by far better than that of s5. Why is my ps4 console clearer than ps3? Why is one projector clearer than the other? The question can continue indefinitely. In this article, I will give you brief definition of each display graphics and tell you the differences between them. This alone can help you when you are buying your next laptop, console, Tv, phone and any other gadget that requires a display.
THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT DISPLAY GRAPHICS
- It is sometimes called picture size
- Some also call it screen size or pixel density.
- It is also caalled Resolution
- It is more related to hardware than software. For example, if your device(e.g your mpeg2 decoder is not hd) and you connect it to the best HDtv in the world via AV port, you will definitely get the worst picture quality ever. same way if yo are watching an HD video on a 4K display, you may not get the best details. Simply use AV for all devices that do not support HD and use HDMI cable for HD display for the best result.
- You can call full HD 2k display because it is 4k display divided by two
- If you download an HD video and you want to watch it on an SD display, its is either it fails to play, or it crahses your device
- The physical size does not directly relate to the picture quality or display graphics. For example, my mac is 13inch while my dell is 15.6 inches and my mac has a better display at 2560 x 1600 while my dell has 1920 x 1080
- A decoder also behaves similarly. You cannot compare how detailed a strong 4950 will be to that of 4950 if both are displaying HD videos.
- Currently, we don’t have many decoder (in fact there is none in Nigerian market yet) that display 4k video. However, we have computers, TVs, that does it. PS4 pro also supports 4k resolution
WHAT ARE THE VARIOUS DISPLAY THAT WE HAVE?
For the purpose of thsi write-up, i will not bother us with 3D because 3d requires a kind of glass to view befoe you can enjoy its presentation. This is also similar to Virtual realityFurthermorere, display resolutions talk about width and height while the former come first. For example 1920 x 1080 means it is 1920 wide in pixel density and 1080 tall.
WHAT IS 4K & UHD DISPLAY RESOLUTION?
For the records, UHD(Ultra HD are synonymous to 4k. in fact they have the same height just slight negligible difference in with)4K Ultra HD can generally refer to one of two high definition resolutions. Most commonly 4K Ultra HD refers to 3840 x 2160 pixels (referring to the approximately 4000 pixel wide display), which has exactly twice as many pixel rows and columns as 1080p (1920×1080 pixels), and four times the overall pixel count, with the same 16:9 aspect ratio. 4K Ultra HD can also refer to the currently less common 4096 x 2160 pixel resolution
WHAT IS FHD, QHD & HD
1080p (1920×1080 px; also known as Full HD or FHD and BT.709) is a set of HDTVhigh-definition video modes characterized by 1080 horizontal lines of vertical resolution and progressive scan.
HD refers to 720p and 1080i / 1080p. The display resolution is 1280 × 720 or 1920 × 1080, but sometimes the horizontal pixel resolution is reduced, e.g. HDV which is 1440 × 1080 with non-square pixels. You could also say that resolutions higher than this are also High Definition. So in one sense, it’s anything that isn’t standard definition. Note that there is no 720. Put it as; HD is 1080i(interlaced), while FHD is 1080p(progressive)
QHD or Quad HD – 2560 × 1440 is a whacky one, it’s twice the resolution of 720p. The “quad” refers to there being four times the pixels of a 720p frame. Not to be confused with QFHD
WHAT IS SD DISPLAY
SD refers to 576i / 480i (with the unusual EDTV variant being 576p and 480p). Display resolution is 768 × 576 PAL or 720 × 534 NTSC, often the actual pixel resolution is reduced, as in the case of DV: 720 × 576 PAL or 720 × 480 NTSC, with non-square pixels. Most earlier decoders fall within this resolution. Some older Televisions are also within this. same applies to some old computers.
WHAT IS VGA DISPLAY
What readily comes to mind is earlier smartphones resolution. Now we are in the era of 4k and UHD phones. The beauty of this is that 4K or UHD phones are backwards compatible with VGA displays as you can see from my embedded pictures.hort for Video Graphics Array, VGA is a popular display standard developed by IBM and introduced in 1987. VGA provides 640 x 480 resolution colour display screens with a refresh rate of 60Hz and 16 colours displayed at a time. If the resolution is lowered to 320 x 200, 256 colours are shown. Like i said, old phones, console, computers and so on makes use of this
4K Vs UHD
Technically, “Ultra High Definition” is actually a derivation of the 4K digital cinema standard. However while your local multiplex shows images in native 4096 x 2160 4K resolution, the new Ultra HD consumer format has a slightly lower resolution of 3840 X 2160.
This is one reason why some brands prefer not to use the 4K label at all, sticking with Ultra HD or UHD instead. However, the numerical shorthand looks likely to stick. As a broad brush label it’s so much snappier! Let me also quickly add that, the closer you are to a 4k disply, the crispier the images become. The ability to get up close to the screen without the image breaking down is one of the most intoxicating things about 4K. Sitting closer allows the same sized screen to fill more of your visual field, which yields greater immersion. The up-close factor is one of the reasons 4K computer monitors have become one of the technology’s fastest-growing sectors. 4K monitors remain pin-sharp even when you’re just a foot or two from the screen, as you are when you’re sitting at your desk
FHD means full high definition while HD means high definition or call it hd ready device. Full HD or HD Ready 1080p means that the television or monitor is able to handle a High Definition signal of 1080 lines of information across the screen, and may mean that there is a HD tuner, such as Freeview HD or Freesat HD, built in to receive HD channels without having to add an extra box.
HD Ready means that the television is able to handle a High Definition signal. It produces 720 lines of information across the screen which is not Full HD. It does not have a High Definition tuner built in, so the HD services would come from an external source such as Sky, Virgin or a recorder with HD built in
Next time you are buying that laptop, game console, camera, television, decoder or projector or any video equipment, develop a particular interest in the resolution and pixels. If you are currently using a dstv xplora or a bein decoder with an old television via an AV cord, am sorry, but you are underutilising your viewing experience. similar if you have a full hd device and you are connecting it to a full hd tv via av cord or scatch socket, you are not maximising your enjoyment. Use HDMI cable and see what you have been missing. You can get the display resolution of any device from its manual or specification sheet. Most things we overlook matters a lot. It is not by the beauty of you tv, laptop, camera, and so on. It is all about what the hardware(especially display) can deliver.