1080p looked awful with iMac 27”

[Sodium Chloride]

Is it just me or do you agree that 1080p video looked awful when being seen with a 27” iMac? I went to BB and view some HD trailers from iTunes like Baraka and Finding Nemo. The movies looked soft. They are actually much sharper with my 12.9” iPad Pro. Is it because the movies need to be scaled up 7 times their original resolutions?

How about standard 480p? How bad does it look like when watching standard definition video with a 5k monitor?

 

[BrianBaughn]

Wouldn't any specific video look "sharper" on a 12.9-inch screen compared to a 27-inch screen?

How a video looks on that 27-inch screen depends a lot on how it is encoded (amount of compression etc.).

 

[redheeler]

The video looks softer when it has to be upscaled, but you're not losing any detail you would see on a native 1080p screen. It may appear sharper on the iPad Pro because it's smaller and has a higher pixel density (same thing would happen if you move back and look at the iMac from a distance), but again, you're looking at the same amount of detail.

 

[priitv8]

The video looks softer when it has to be upscaled, but you're not losing any detail you would see on a native 1080p screen. It may appear sharper on the iPad Pro because it's smaller and has a higher pixel density (same thing would happen if you move back and look at the iMac from a distance), but again, you're looking at the same amount of detail.

If you think about it, even SD picture looked sharp on those sub-20" CRT screens. It all comes down to pixel size.
To see it in full beauty on 27" iMac screen, you need to view it in 1:1 (100%) scaling. Only then corresponds every movie pixel to a single screen pixel.
On that 5K screen it will just be small, like this: