What is upscaling? Explained in a simple and understandable way
With "Upscaling" you quickly stumble upon buying a new TV. Very few people know exactly what that is. With 4K TVs in particular, this function is used for bragging. So that you do not remain unsuspecting when buying, we explain to you in a simple and understandable way what upscaling is all about.
TV: Upscaling - that's the term
With upscaling, video images are scaled up to the resolution of your monitor. For example, if you were watching a DVD on a FullHD monitor, you would only see a small image in the center of the screen without upscaling: the DVD has a resolution of 576 pixels x 720 pixels, but a common monitor has 1080 pixels x 1920 pixels. Upscaling now calculates the image for a larger number of pixels. Quite easy so far. Now it gets a bit more complicated, because there are different methods:
- In the so-called "pixel repetition", missing pixels are simply supplemented by the pixels of the neighbors. For example, four pixels in the large image would represent approximately one pixel in the original. However, this simplest method does not improve the image quality - instead, the image is displayed very pixelated.
- In other methods, the missing pixels are logically supplemented: the so-called "bilinear intrapolation" calculates the pixels from the mean of the neighboring pixels. The edges become softer, depending on the thickness, the image looks a bit blurred. Nevertheless, the higher image quality is simulated much better.
- Each manufacturer builds on different methods for upscaling in order to achieve the best possible result. The calculation is done by a special chip in the television. Therefore, the upscaling quality also strongly depends on the strength of this chip. However, the upscaling process never comes close to the quality of an original high-resolution film - ultimately parts of the picture are invented and calculated that were not recorded.
- Tip: There are already 4K films on Amazon and 4K streams on Netflix.
Tip: In the next post we explain the difference between 4K and UHD.