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doubled11207/31/20252 repliesview on HN

I went from a 32" 720p TV to a 43" 4K TV. I don't really notice the difference for TV watching. I don't watch a lot of TV anyway.

Now a 1080p monitor up to a 4K monitor? That was a huge improvement to my experience. It's like having 4 1080p monitors without a seam if you get one big enough.


Replies

hnlmorg07/31/2025

That’s because a lot of broadcasters are either not transmitting 4k or encoding their streams in such horribly low bitrates that you might as well be watching through glasses made from empty beer bottles.

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_carbyau_07/31/2025

I have suspicions it may be a "passive" vs "active" experience difference. My argument as below:

Watching TV when I was younger with PAL/NTSC stuff I suspended disbelief as I could, let imagination fill the missing details, and enjoyed the stories. More resolution doesn't change that process. See shaky-and/or-quickcut cam fighting scenes for example.

Playing games, reading/typing words onscreen etc as might be done on a monitor rather than a TV. You are expressly paying attention to the finer details. Resolution helps with finer details.