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posted by on Wednesday January 11 2017, @08:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the surgically-grafted-to-the-inside-of-the-eyelids dept.

The top google hits say that there is little or no benefit to resolution above 4k. I recently bought a 40" 4k tv which I use as a monitor (2' viewing distance). While this is right at the threshold where I'm told no benefit can be gained from additional resolution, I can still easily discern individual pixels. I'm still able to see individual pixels until I get to about a 4' viewing distance (but I am nearsighted).

I did some research and according to Wikipedia the Fovea Centralis (center of the eye) has a resolution of 31.5 arc seconds. At this resolution, a 4k monitor would need to be only 16" at a 2' viewing distance, or my 40" would need a 5' viewing distance.

Now the Fovea Centralis comprises only the size of 2 thumbnails width at arms length (2° viewing angle) and the eye's resolution drops off quickly farther from the center. But this tiny portion of the eye is processed by 50% of the visual cortex of the brain.

So I ask, are there any soylentils with perfect vision and/or a super high resolution set up, and does this match where you can no longer discern individual pixels? Do you think retina resolution needs to match the Fovea Centralis or is a lesser value acceptable?

My 40" 4k at 2' fills my entire field of view. I really like it because I have so much screen real estate for multiple windows or large spreadsheets, or I can scoot back a little bit for gaming (so I don't have to turn my head to see everything) and enjoy the higher resolution. I find 4k on high graphics looks much nicer than 1080p on Ultra. I find the upgrade is well worth the $600 I spent for the tv and a graphics card that can run it. Have you upgraded to 4k and do you think it was worth it? I would one day like to have dual 32" 8k monitors (not 3D). What is your dream setup if technology and price weren't an issue?

Written from my work 1366 x 768 monitor.

Related discussions: First "8K" Video Appears on YouTube
LG to Demo an 8K Resolution TV at the Consumer Electronics Show
What is your Video / Monitor Setup?
Microsoft and Sony's Emerging 4K Pissing Contest


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @12:56PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 11 2017, @12:56PM (#452475)

    The unofficial standard for computer displays is 96 DPI.

    You mean Windows displays.

    I run something called X, which has handled DPI settings correctly for text for at least a decade. Graphics is up to the applications, so if you get too far from the norm (e.g. outside the 50-200 DPI range), you may be unhappy with the results.

    Mac used to be 72 DPI, but has had full DPI scaling (including graphics) at least since the introduction of OSX.

    Where as on Windows, even running at 105 DPI will make elements disappear outside the bottom/right edge of dialog windows, which are either not resizable, or resizing simply moves the problem elements along with the edge of the window.

  • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Wednesday January 11 2017, @01:54PM

    by meustrus (4961) on Wednesday January 11 2017, @01:54PM (#452489)

    DPI issues have more to do with third-party software than anything else. On standardized environments like Windows and OS X, whether the software can scale well depends on the quality of the tools used to build the interfaces.

    Windows tools have long made it difficult to do anything correctly without a med-school level of study in Microsoft documentation. As a result most people just hard-coded pixel dimensions to position stuff, which doesn't work at all when DPI changes.

    I can't speak to OS X, but definitely since "Retina" hit the iPhone and later the MacBooks, their tools have been very much focused on making everything scalable. Apple tends to be a lot more opinionated in general, and I'd expect that to affect interface design and make it difficult or impossible to do anything outside of the blessed method.

    --
    If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
    • (Score: 1) by andersjm on Wednesday January 11 2017, @09:36PM

      by andersjm (3931) on Wednesday January 11 2017, @09:36PM (#452714)

      Windows tools have long made it difficult to do anything correctly without a med-school level of study in Microsoft documentation.

      That's funny, I've been writing adaptive MS-Win programs for a decade, without breaking a sweat. The tools I've used for that are wxWidgets/wxPython with sizers, but that's just one of many toolsets that could have solved that problem.

      Just stop using poor tools. You really don't have to. Not even on MS-Win.