External monitor confusion: 4k vs 5k vs scaling

[x-evil-x]

That is not a high DPI monitor though, it’s just ultra-wide. The text won’t look any good if you use scaled resolution and the pixels are larger than on pre-retina macs...

right I understand that. I don't mind the text honestly and normal usage. its just video that looks not even 1080p quality to me.

 

[leman]

right I understand that. I don't mind the text honestly and normal usage. its just video that looks not even 1080p quality to me.

If you watch the video full-screen, it will be zoomed and stretched, so it will look quite awful I suppose.

 

[x-evil-x]

If you watch the video full-screen, it will be zoomed and stretched, so it will look quite awful I suppose.

It still crops it down to 1080p scale id imagine. Video doesn't get stretched 21/9 unless you zoom in or use an app for that. Still doesn't look great im hoping its the cable but I don't know.

 

[Stephen.R]

I think they meant it scales up to higher than 1080p res, not that it gets stretched to a different aspect ratio

 

[x-evil-x]

but why would that make it look bad? my 1080p tvs look way better the same distance away with video

 

[Stephen.R]

but why would that make it look bad? my 1080p tvs look way better the same distance away with video

Because it's scaling the pixels, and doesn't have a PPI high enough to hide the effects of scaling.

So for a 1080p source, it's scaling it up to 1440p, so every 3 pixels in the source need to be scaled to 4 pixels on the display.

You'd probably get smoother results if you tried 720p video (because it can scale evenly by rendering at 2:1)

 

[x-evil-x]

Because it's scaling the pixels, and doesn't have a PPI high enough to hide the effects of scaling.

So for a 1080p source, it's scaling it up to 1440p, so every 3 pixels in the source need to be scaled to 4 pixels on the display.

You'd probably get smoother results if you tried 720p video (because it can scale evenly by rendering at 2:1)

makes sense. As far as the panel I can either choose 30hz or 55 I believe. Doesn't seem to make a difference with any of that.

 

[Evangeline]

Your friend was completely right. However not many people realise it or notice it. Let's be honest, most people are complete oafs that don't even understand what 4K means, that it's a resolution and not indication of display quality (dpi/ppi is for that).

Even Apple themselves ship the MBP with a scaled resolution by default, so with blurry text.

The difference is very noticeable. Would you notice it? I'd say yes, since you're actually concerned about the font quality. People don't notice things because they don't care for them.

 

[kingspointer]

I'll just take a pic of the screen if I can. These pics are terrible, but you can see the text quality for yourself. In real life, the screen doesn't have those discolorations. This is 1440p.

View attachment 823367

View attachment 823368

Kinda depends what kind of monitor you're using to look at the picture too. I'm using a 5k iMac at native resolution.