4K UHD vs 1080p Full HD: Which to choose for a Commercial Display
For years, businesses have been investing and using various digital displays to achieve their business goals. Some digital displays used are digital signages, interactive smartboards, video walls, and digital kiosks. One of the factors that most businesses consider while making purchases of digital displays is resolution. While video resolutions such as 4K UHD and 1080p Full HD are commonly mentioned everywhere, how many of us understand what exactly is a video or display resolution?
In this article, we will explain the definition of resolution and the differences between 4K UHD and 1080p Full HD. We will also provide our opinion on choosing the right display resolution for your commercial display.
Video Resolution and Display Resolution
When referring to digital content such as a video and an image, image or video resolution is the number of pixels that the content contains. Resolution is expressed as width times height. For example, a video resolution of 1280 x 720 means that the video has 1280 pixels horizontally (in width) and 720 pixels vertically (in height).
When referring to a display such as a TV and a digital signage, a display resolution is used. Display resolution tells the number of pixels that the digital screen contains. In short, it tells the number of physical tiny dots on the screen and provides us a quick answer to whether the screen is capable of displaying content with a specific resolution.
For example, the screen of a 720p HD digital signage is made up of 1280 tiny dots (pixels) horizontally and 720 tiny dots vertically. Each pixel on the screen is also made up of red, blue, and green subpixels.
A 720p HD screen can display a 720p HD video in its best quality. However, if the screen is trying to display a 1080p Full HD video, the video will appear only as a 720p video since there are no adequate pixels to display the video in its best quality.
1080p Full HD Resolution
Full HD or FHD is the acronym for the Full High Definition. On the other hand, 1080p refers to the pixels in height.
Full HD has a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and it is one of the most used resolutions in the world. HD video was introduced in the early 1990s when the digital television system was adopted by various broadcast stations to replace the analogue system gradually.
During the times when NTSC and PAL television systems were common, the most used vertical display resolutions were 480 lines and 576 lines. These are called “standard-definition videos” and they have an aspect ratio of 4:3.
Broadcasting high-definition TV content is never an easy task without high bandwidth requirements and a compressed format. This is the main reason why it took about 20 years for most TV stations from different countries to fully adopt the high-definition television system.
Thanks to the highly-compressed H.264 coding format and the market trend, TV audiences and online video viewers in Malaysia can finally enjoy the enhanced and high-definition visual experience in the early 2010s. Since then, both 720p HD and 1080p Full HD become the most common resolutions that we can find on various online videos, TV content, Blu-ray DVDs, and video games. In terms of hardware, different manufacturers have introduced various television and monitor products that have a screen resolution of at least 1280 x 720 pixels (720p HD).
Analogue display (left) with Standard Definition resolution has a “squarish” ratio of 4:3, while digital display (right) with High Definition resolution has a rectangular ratio of 16:9.
4K UHD Resolution
Since the wide adoption of the Full HD resolution in the early 2010s, display manufacturers started to explore the possibility of 4K UHD resolution. Generally, 4K UHD refers to both 4096 x 2160 pixels and 3840 x 2160 pixels. However, 3840 x 2160 pixels has become the standard in today’s world and most display products in the market are designed to support the resolution of 3840 x 2160 pixels.
When the first batch of 4K TV products was introduced to the market, consumers had been complaining about the video quality. They found that a Full HD TV can provide a better viewing experience when compared to a 4K TV, because they have only Full HD content.
Technically, a 4K TV should provide better images due to the higher pixel numbers and pixel density. But to utilize the 4K TV, you need 4K content.
When the very first 4K TV products were introduced, there were not many choices of 4K content in the market. As a result, consumers were buying 4K TVs to display only Full HD content.
Differences between 4K UHD and 1080p HD
The most obvious difference between a 4K UHD and a 1080p HD display is the number of pixels on the screen. A 4K UHD (3840 x 2160) display has a total number of 8,294,400 pixels while a Full HD (1920 x 1080) display has only 2,073,600 pixels.
Higher pixel density means finer details on the content. When both displays have the same physical screen dimension or size, the image on a 4K UHD display is sharper while the edges of the image on a Full HD display can become pixelated or not “smooth” enough.
In short, the difference between 4K UHD resolution and Full HD resolution is very huge. The image quality of a 4K UHD content is 4 times better than a Full HD content.
When both digital displays have the same screen size, a 4K Ultra HD display has more pixels than a Full HD display. As a result, the picture edges on a 4K Ultra HD display are sharper and clearer while the edges on a Full HD display are slightly jagged.
Is a 4K UHD display always better than a Full HD display?
While the number of pixels plays an important role in determining the picture quality, there are other factors that we need to consider. One of the factors is the pixels per inch.
Pixels per inch measures the number of pixels within 1 inch. Different screen sizes can affect the picture quality differently. Imagine that we have two 4K UHD displays with different screen sizes. They are a 32-inch digital signage and a 65-inch digital signage. Both of them have the same number of pixels on the screen, which is 8,294,400 pixels. But in terms of picture quality, do you think both of them have the same quality?
When we calculate the pixels per inch, we know that a 32-inch digital signage has 137.7 pixels per inch while a 65-inch digital signage has 67.8 pixels per inch. The answer is pretty obvious. Even though both of them are 4K UHD displays, the digital signage with a smaller screen has better quality.
The reason is that no matter how big or small a 4K UHD screen is, the number of pixels stays the same. When the screen size is larger, the spaces between the pixels will need to be increased to fill the entire screen with the same pixel number of 8,294,400 pixels. When the spaces between the pixels are larger, the picture will lose some of the details.
Another reason that a 4K UHD display is not always better than a Full HD display is that other factors that can affect the picture quality beside of the display resolution. Types of content, screen brightness, contrast ratio, and colour depth are some of the factors that buyers need to consider.
A simple illustration shows how the screen size can affect the pixels per inch. Larger screen size with the same resolution has less pixels per inch. As a result, the picture quality decreases.
Which display resolution to choose for a commercial display?
In our opinion, either a 4K UHD display or a Full HD display can be a good investment for your business depending on how you use it.
The first question that you need to ask is whether you have adequate 4K content in your hand. If you can produce your video or content in 4K resolution, you should take advantage of the 4K UHD display.
The second question that you need to ask is how much your budget is. Getting a 4K UHD display will cost you more than getting a Full HD display.
Besides, there are many factors that you need to consider too from a business perspective. How well your competitors are doing in reaching the customers? What kind of content is your audience asking for? What are the actions that other businesses in your industry take?
Conclusion
Businesses should always consider various factors before investing in any kind of digital display. Whether to use a 4K UHD display or a Full HD display is totally up to you – how you are going to use the displays. It is undeniable that 4K UHD resolution will become the industry’s standard soon. But it does not mean that one should blindly follow the trend without understanding your customer.