OLED Upscaling Disappointment

GaryBeta

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Installed my new LG OLED 77 C8 yesterday, first impression with out of the box settings is that the 720p upscaling is nowhere near as good as the 10 year old Samsung 58 Plasma I have replaced. Which by the way was still going strong.... Doh! I hate it when regret starts to creep in. 1080p looks fine on the OLED, I'm yet to connect a new 4K source so can't comment on that.

I would welcome any set up tips or hints to improve the 720 upscaling, probably knee jerk but can't help feeling some disappointment with my first steps into OLED TV.
 
It would be interesting to know how it would compare to a 55” oled
I’d imagine 77” of 720p will look poor
It (Now tv) looks just about ok on my 65”
The further I walk away from the tv, the better it looks
1080P (Blu Ray) should look nice.
Assuming decent content (uhd/4K streams) will look fantastic on a screen your size ?
 
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Your Samsung Plasma is only having to scale the 720p signal (1280x720) by 1.5 each way (3x in total) to 1080p (1920x1080)

Your LG OLED is having to scale the 720p signal by 3x each way (9x in total)

Of course it's going to look worse. Not to mention your screen is 19" bigger.

720p = 921,600 pixels
1080p = 2,073,600 pixels
4k = 8,294,400 pixels
 
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What did you expect on a 77" TV? It's the same resolution as a 55". Not really noticed much worse scaling on my 55" C9 compared to my 42" ST50 plasma.
 
yes I did expect some adverse effect due to the increased screen size but, naively I guess thought that things might have moved on some in ten years i.e. the processing behind the screens that is so well marketed.

Any set up tips?
 
The only thing that has not moved on is your 720P source. That is a poor service. SD TV via Freeview on my 58" Panny looks pretty bad, so I just do not watch it if I can help it.
 
Think about how many extra pixels have to be made up with a lower resolution source. Then think about how many of those pixels have artifacts because of compression.

Its no surprise to me upscaling is poor on an UHD model, its something that I try my best to highlight when helping people choose a TV.

Its simple to me, do not buy an UHD model if you are going to watch lower resolution or poorer quality content, buy it for higher quality content.

And its only made worse by the increase in screen size too.

Digital-video-resolutions.jpg
 
Ok might be a daft question but if I say have a 55" 1080p TV watching an lower resolution source.

I then get a new TV that is 55" 4k TV that watches the same source.

Yes with the 4k TV I have more pixels but let's suppose that my upscaling to 1080p is the same algorithm but then I simply display four pixels the same colour. The four pixels are effectively the size as one pixel on the old tv.

Negating other picture features why would the 4k picture be worse?

Or rather are the tv upscaling algorithms that bad?
 
I avoid SD channels like the plague but I have to say I'm surprised by the scaling prowess of my Panny 65'' OLED. All my old SD DVDs apart from music concerts have all been dispatched to the nearest charity shop. Watching blu rays on the OLED is superb, really pleasing. I upgraded from a 50'' Panny VT plasma.
 
Negating other picture features why would the 4k picture be worse?

Or rather are the tv upscaling algorithms that bad?

No, but they cannot magically turn a 480p image into a 4k one, except by turning 1 pixel into a block of 4 or 8 and anti-aliasing it to soften jagged edges and blockiness. Its not CSI where they can magnify an image and sharpen it up to see the perp's face reflected off a pinhead.

The OP problem is that he has a 77" TV, so those blocks are going to be bigger, in much the same was that the same image will look bad on a 50" plasma if you sit really close to the screen.
 
No, but they cannot magically turn a 480p image into a 4k one, except by turning 1 pixel into a block of 4 or 8 and anti-aliasing it to soften jagged edges and blockiness. Its not CSI where they can magnify an image and sharpen it up to see the perp's face reflected off a pinhead.

The OP problem is that he has a 77" TV, so those blocks are going to be bigger, in much the same was that the same image will look bad on a 50" plasma if you sit really close to the screen.
My point is for the same size tv picture, people often upgrade but some keep the same size but still notice a big difference. That means that either the upscaling is really bad...
 
Yes with the 4k TV I have more pixels but let's suppose that my upscaling to 1080p is the same algorithm but then I simply display four pixels the same colour. The four pixels are effectively the size as one pixel on the old tv.

Negating other picture features why would the 4k picture be worse?

Or rather are the tv upscaling algorithms that bad?
I think you just described an upscaling feature on my Panasonic OLED. There's a picture setting called 1080p x4 Pixels. The upscaling in general I find quite impressive for 1080p Blu-rays. As we all know NowTV is extremely poor, but I found it more tolerable with that 1080p x4 Pixel mode on, which seemed to help with getting rid of the smaller blocking I was seeing in shows like The Blacklist. On closer inspection it makes the picture far softer but ot does the trick quite well from a seated distance.

For watching lower resolution content, judging by reviews I get the impression both Sony and Panasonic are ahead of LG in this regard.
 

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