Ask Lemmy

I remember when 1080p was still new and we finally got an HD TV, the first movie I watched in 1080p made the actors look pretty ugly in that you could see every pore and defect in a close up shot.

I have yet to see anything in 4K that was quite as dramatic. I don't even really notice a difference between 1080p and 4K unless it's a 2D game with bad scaling so making it 4K makes everything small as hell.

What most people are describing here as an improvement is actually HDR rather than a straight resolution upgrade. Not all 4k downloads (or even actual streams) include HDR for all films, so concentrating on films with HDR and preferably Dolby Vision, assuming your TV supports it, is what I would recommend.

Obviously, not all films are going to be better just because they now have HDR. Even if they have good HDR, there might be other issues such as the green tint for Fellowship of the Ring or the recent problems with the Aliens AI remaster.

Final thing, if your TV is only average at HDR, then it might not even be worth seeking them out. I went from an average 7 year old LED with basic HDR support to a top of the range LG oled, and it's night and day better with HDR for good material.

I've noticed dark horror movies are much better in 4k because they normally have much better dynamic range.

Longlegs has quite a few scenes with visuals you'll miss if you're watching with a poor quality video.

Don't breathe was also fantastic in 4K.

The really old stuff like Clint Eastwood's works. The old film retained many details that weren't in the original releases.

The opening of Foundation.

If you're streaming, the difference between 4k and 1080p is almost not noticeable. You need to have an actual 4k TV (no upscaling) and either

1. buy the Blurays with 4k
2. 4k files (not transcoded at all)

To see the real difference. IMO 1080p at full bitrate (bluray quality) is enough for the vast majority of audiences.

Lawrence of Arabia

In general - things that are colourful and/or have special effects.

Blue Planet, Top Gun Maverick, Fast and Furious saga (not the first few, 4k made no difference there) come to mind first atm.

Things that have acting and script itself as the main selling point generally are perfectly fine in 1080p. The Office and Slow Horses would be a good example of that, I suppose.

Personally, I get everything I want my son to watch in the highest quality I can - Shawshank Redemptiom and Shutter Island are the latest additions to my library that, I think, would absolutely fine in 1080p, but... 4K HDR it is :D

It probably comes down to how the show was originally shot and/or upscaled. IMO it also comes down to your vision, screen size, and viewing distance.

I remember the early 00s having a high prevalence of, "raa, your eyes can't tell the difference between 720 and 1080 at 10+ feet unless you have a bolliondy inch display!!!". I would argue that you can see say 1080 vs 4k on a 50ish inch screen at 10 feet, but the difference isn't that significant. At least with my vision. It's the most obvious with high contrast items, like black text on white background.

Newer movie/show shot with sharp modern glass on a high resolution media? 4k. Older upscaled show? I would lean 1080, unless it was shot on film and they rescanned it.

It will also really matter how the video was compressed. I've seen low resolution videos look much better than higher resolution videos thanks to the codec and/or settings that were used for the higher resolution video.

Nature Documentaries. IMAX releases.

Greyhound was great (AV wise) in 4k 7.1, might be a good one if you like war movies. Other than that the movie is bleh to be honest. I only put it on to show off my setup.....