Gadgetory

screen resolution is a relatively straightforward idea typically the number of pixels spending the height of a display indicates its relative resolution for example 1080p for 1080 pixels from top to bottom 2160p 4 mm 160 of those pixels etc I use the word relative because there are variations in screen dimensions for example this ultrawide monitor to my right which you can check out in more detail in the card above me is still technically a 1080p monitor even though the pixel dimensions are 1080 by 2560 these resolutions however do not define pixel density that is the number of individual pixels that span a particular length I've attached a link in this video's description to a website that will actually calculate PPI for you it's pretty cool simply type in your screens pixel dimensions followed by its diagonal length and voila you'll have your screens pixel density microfi okay I should also know that you can do this with any screen size including your phone tablet computer monitor or television but ok knowing your screens pixel density is one thing but what does this have to do with viewing distance well if you think about it there is a certain distance away from any screen in which individual pixels become indiscernible Steve Jobs said it better than anyone else in any display there are pixels here's four of them we start off with the Retina display by dramatically increasing the pixel density now the Retina display has 326 pixels per inch there's never been a display like this on a phone people haven't even dreamed about a display like this on a phone but it's more than that it turns out that there's a magic number right around 300 pixels per inch that when you hold something around 10 or 12 inches away from your eyes is the limit of the human retina to differentiate the pixels and so they're so close together when you get it this 300 pixels per inch threshold that all the sudden things start to look like continuous continuous curves like text looks like you've seen it in a fine printed book unlike you've ever seen on an electronic display before and at 326 pixels per inch we are comfortably over that limit at this point the display in question will become a Retina display apple's trademark for a display so sharp the human eye is incapable of distinguishing individual pixels and this is true if you have a phone with a 1080p display and a screen size of around five inches holding the phone around half an arm's length away from your eyes will result in this effect the same principle applies to TVs I've attached a retina calculator in the description of this video as well so this is where the meat of the topic begins past a certain viewing distance pixels become indistinguishable regardless of the resolution even a 640 by 480 resolution which is ancient by today's standards becomes retina at some point given a particular screen size this chart attempts to quantify optimal resolutions given screen size on the x-axis and viewing distance on the Y there are several types of this chart and each varies to a degree but we'll assume this model for televisions and a separate model for monitors and which viewers typically sit much closer to the screen so let's look at 480p while not a standard any longer we can start here and work our way down if we assume a screen size of say 40 inches and a viewing distance of 20 feet or just over 6 meters all resolutions including 480p will look the same that is you won't be able to see the difference between a 4k image and a 480p image given this particular screen size and viewing distance it's a pretty radical idea right but ok let's try another using 720p as our base this time let's assume our screen size is 60 inches indicative of a fairly large TV although you won't find many TVs of this size with only a 720p resolution but bear with me you'll see where I'm going with this let's also assume a viewing distance of 15 feet typical for most folks watching television in a living room with this screen size and at this viewing distance all HD resolutions are indistinguishable if the definition of HD is throwing you for a bit of a loop go ahead and check out the card above me so this is crazy 1080p in 4k have become the television standards over the past several years pushing 720p to the wayside but according to this logic those additional pixels in both the vertical and horizontal are completely pointless past a certain distance if you're finding all this hard to believe you can test this actually with a 4k monitor pull up any modern game something like Grand Theft Auto 5 and then set your gaming resolution to 1080p then sit an arm's length away from a computer monitor roughly 2 feet or 60 centimeters well use this graph for this test as it's much less forgiving at close distances if your monitor size is 25 inches and you're sitting 2 feet away from your screen then by this graphs definition 1080p is not your optimal resolution and you should be able to discern some individual pixels on your screen or at least notice some jaggies on round objects now with this mental picture still in mind change the in-game resolution to 4k you should see a clear difference between this and the 1080p version for those of you who consistently game in 4k this should be of no surprise most of you only are made about 2 feet away from your monitor at all times and you can definitely see the difference between 1080p and 2160p given the screen size however if your optimal monitor viewing distance is 4 feet instead of 2 the two resolutions that were mentioned will likely be indistinguishable so in this case purchasing a 4k monitor rather than a 1080p one would be a waste of additional money assuming your viewing distance will remain fixed all in this video with one final thought optimal viewing distance is dependent on screen size and pixel density however an independent factor also plays a role here eyesight 20/20 vision is a ratio that compares your eyesight to that of an average human being it can be translated to mean I see the same amount of detail from 20 feet away that the average person sees from 20 feet away a person with 2015 vision could say the following I see the same amount of detail from 20 feet away that the average person sees from 15 feet away indicating that that person has an above-average eyesight in this case that person's entire view chart would be skewed because he or she can see a greater level of detail and a greater number of pixels to an extent from the same distance inversely if that person's eyesight is say 20 40 then the entire graph would be skewed in the opposite direction because he or she can only see the same level of detail that a human with normal eyesight can if that person sits twice as close to the monitor in question this goes without saying the graphs up and showing in this video are not fixed but rather change from person to person and case to case light levels the type of screen being used and even the degree of eyesight correction implemented will all change these results by certain degrees nonetheless the overall point still stands optimal viewing distance is determined by pixel density and screen size if you want to get fancy with it I suggest performing calculations similar to those you can find here before purchasing that 60-inch flat panel or 34 inch ultra wide if you like the topic discussed in this video be sure to give this thing a thumbs up give it a thumbs down if you feel the complete opposite click the subscribe button if you haven't already stay tuned for a future PC build this is science studio thanks for learning with us