The next big thing when it comes to home entertainment is 4K TVs.
And they’re stupid.
Now if you didn’t figure this out from my self-driving cars video, I’m just taking
a holy grail of reddit and deconstructing it in order to talk about vision – and maybe
flirt a little bit with color finally.
4K TVs will happen eventually, but they’re kind of wasted on most people.
So let’s get started.
Now, this video is currently being filmed in 1080p at 30 frames a second – actually
29.97 frames per second but… 30, okay?
And this is pretty much the current standard format for most media, including Youtube.
So let’s step back in time a bit and see how we got here.
This is 480i.
But this is clearly too small so let’s uh…
There we go.
If you’re older than 20, you should recognize this.
This is what home television was for most of its history.
Now, there were lower resolutions, but we have to start somewhere okay?
The resolution is 640 by 480, which is where the 480 in 480i comes from, the vertical resolution…
this becomes important later.
But let’s talk about the I, this stands for interlaced.
There is a difference between the field rate and the frame rate.
The field rate or refresh rate is 60 Hz, while the actual frame rate is still 30.
So you’re getting half a frame, interlaced, each time.
It may not be obvious with this video, but you’ve likely seen something like this in
lower quality videos…
this is called combing and now you know why.
This is also why old CRT monitors and TVs would flicker or have that rolling bar when
you filmed them, because the camera frame rate and the screen frame rate didn’t match
up.
And this is the format which VHS tapes were in.
Home video and VHS tapes weren’t really a thing until Top Gun in 1987.
That was the “must have” VHS tape and the one that basically started the whole home
theater industry… that’s just a funny side note re- actually, you know why?
VHS tapes used to cost upwards of a hundred dollars, but Top Gun brought the price way
down by having a Diet Pepsi ad in the beginning…
You remember the ad.
Anyway, VHS was a horrible format.
It was just a magnetic tape.
Not only did it degrade over time, but it also degraded with each viewing.
So the hundredth time you watched it, it would be noticeably worse than the first time.
So it needed to be replaced.
This is 480p, the format of DVDs, you probably didn’t notice much of a difference though.
DVDs are to VHS tapes what CDs were to Audio cassettes.
The only difference is that the storage medium was far more durable and resistant to degradation
and the p.
That stands for progressive, which unlike interlaced, means you’re getting a full
frame every single time without and combing.
Now, a common saying among the non-techno elite is that porn decides what the next video
format will be.
And that’s only been true once, during the VHS and Betamax war of the 80s.
But ever since then, it’s been video games.
Most peoples’ first DVD player was the Playstation 2… and the must-have DVD was the Matrix,
which came out in 1999.
Every single person in high school right now was born after the Matrix came out.
Feel old yet?
So the transition from VHS to DVD was fairly quick because it was necessary and film studios
finally stopped releasing VHS tapes in 2006.
That really feels like it should have been longer ago.
Anyway, by 2006, people were starting to transition to…
High Definition (HD).
You’ve probably noticed that we’re in widescreen now.
This ratio is known as 16 by 9, as opposed to 4 by 3 which is known as fullscreen.
Remember when old movies would say “This film has been modified from its original version.
It has been formatted to fit this screen?”
What they’re saying is that they cut the sides off to make it 4 by 3.
So widescreen is the actual movie, not – as I stupidly thought when I was a kid – the
movie with black bars on the top and bottom.
So HD not only made the resolution better by making it 1280 by 720, which is one and
a half times the size of 480, but also standardized widescreen… which is far more accurate to
what you actually see since you have two horizontally placed eyes, making your horizontal viewing
angle almost double your vertical.
720p is kind of forgotten middle child because it came out at the same time as 1080i, and
very shortly after, 1080 p… also known as Full High Definition There,
that’s more like what you’re used to I hope.
It’s 1.5 times the size of 720p, so 2 and a quarter the size of of 480p, at 1920 by
1080, and still 30 frames a second.
Much like in the 80s, from 2006 to 2008 was the Bluray vs. HD-DVD war, spearheaded by
the video game consoles, the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360.
They were both the pretty much the same format, 1080p, with slightly different compression.
So they were only competing to see who could get the most sales, which Bluray won partially
because the Playstation 3 came with a bluray player built-in, unlike the 360’s HD-DVD
which you had to buy… separately…
that was so dumb.
There were no “must-haves” or memorable “firsts” when it came to Bluray like with
the previous formats, but the first bluray movies came out in June 2006.
50 First Dates, for f…
So here we are, in the current mainstream format.
Why did I just talk you through the history and evolution of video formats?
Because we’re already talking about upgrading to the next formats, yet again spearheaded
by the gaming consoles, the PS4 and Xbox One.
Before we get into the resolution changes, let’s talk about framerate.
As I said, this video is being filmed and shown to you in 30 frames per second or fps.
But there’s been a recent shift to 60 frames per second.
Yeah, I know, we round up, I don’t know why that is.
Now, framerate is a sacred cow in the gaming community and on reddit, and they will defend
their framerate more angrily than the second amendment people, so I have to tread lightly.
Let me start this off by saying that the average person watching my video, whether you’re
a subscriber or you found this on reddit, is not the average consumer.
You’re probably an early-adopter… you are the techno elite.
Not the average consumer.
Remember when you thought 3D TV, Google Glass, and VR were going to be the next big thing?
Pepperidge Farm remembers…
Now… the human eye doesn’t see in frames – you see pretty much continuously – But.
Beyond a certain speed, things can move too fast for you to notice.
Now depending on the source, at that seems to be about 45 to 72 frames per second.
Let’s go with 72.
That means, just sitting there on your couch eating doritos, if something appears on screen
for 1/72nd of a second, odds are you’ll miss it.
Unless you know where to look and you’re waiting for it.
That’s at rest though.
Your perceived framerate changes based on your arousal level.
If you just went for a run, or are being chased by a dinosaur, or more likely, you’re hopped
up on caffeine, you can see up to about 120 frames per second.
And if you’re a super human, like a fighter pilot, or you’re on cocaine or something,
you might be able to see up to 240, but nobody has been able to do it reliably beyond that.
If you still think you can, you belong in a lab because you’re some sort of mutant.
So again, you don’t really see in frames per second, but if something appears and disappears
above a certain frame rate, you probably won’t notice.
30 frames a second was established as the standard decades ago, and I’ll get to why
in a moment.
But 60 frames seems to be where economic use of energy and human perception meet.
PC Gaming has been at or above 60 frames a second for decades, and most computer screens
are 60 Hz, so they top out at 60 frames a second.
If you brag about your 150 fps on your 60 Hz screen well…
I won’t ruin the illusion for you I guess.
For a while after HD came out, they started pushing different framerates.
When we’re talking about screens, they call them hertz, but hertz is framerate.
First it was 60, then 120, and then 240… and then they stopped because the average
consumer was complaining.
Why would that be if we don’t really see in frames per second?
Because of the Soap Opera Effect.
The Soap Opera Effect is when things are too crisp and too fluid for real life, giving
it an eerie look and causing motion sickness.
Move your hand in front of your face.
There was a significant blur, wasn’t there?
This isn’t set to film in 60fps so let me… there we go.
So the soap opera effect makes things look like they’re moving in slow motion, but
at regular speed.
I know, it’s weird which is why it gives people motion sickness.
The Soap Opera Effect doesn’t affect video games, because a) it’s not real life so
nothing really looks strange, and b) they program in motion blur.
So they’ve kind of stopped with the 240 and are only pushing 120 and 60, 60 being
the likely new standard.
However, framerate isn’t uniform across your entire field of vision, which I’ll
get to in a moment.
The next big format shift is to 4K or Ultra HD, which is a stupid name by the way – it’s
just something they came up with in a marketing meeting to make it sound more epic.
Remember the naming conventions from before?
480, 720, 1080, there’s a nice pattern going there.
But 4K is four times the size of 1080p, so you would think it would be called 4X.
But it’s only twice the width and height, so if we go by the same naming convention,
it’s 2160p.
So where does 4K come from?
The horizontal measurement, 3840, rounded up... to 4k.
If we go by that naming convention, regular 1080p is actually 2K.
I told you it’s dumb.
Anyway, HD was a huge jump from regular D. Most people can easily tell the difference.
But HD to 4K?
Most people can’t.
Again, you are not the average consumer.
And remember, you’re usually sitting about 10 feet away from your TV, or at least you
should be.
Actually, the myth that if you sit too close to the TV, you’ll damage your eyes, is kinda
true, but not for the reasons you were told as a kid.
It has nothing to do with the flickering or the pixels or anything.
It has to do with the fact that you’re not changing your depth perception or focal length
any.
While you’re watching TV or playing a game, your brain is perceiving distance, but everything,
whether it’s the guy in the background or your own character, are the same distance
away.
So your eyes never really have to adjust and they get strained and fatigued.
You won’t really damage your eyes, but they will hurt.
This would happen whether you’re watching TV or you go outside and stare at the same
tree for three hours straight.
Anyway, 4K is 3840 by 2160, which means there are 8 million 294 thousand 400 pixels, or
just 8.3 megapixels for short.
For a 60 inch TV, that means an individual pixel is a third of a millimeter wide.
Put a dot on a piece of paper only a third of a millimeter wide and then put it ten feet
away.
Okay you probably still see it because it’s a black dot on a white piece of paper but…
okay?
You know what I’m getting at.
But you know what?
There’s been a single black pixel right here for the least few seconds.
Go back and watch it again, you probably didn’t notice.
And this is 1080p, do you really think you would have seen it if it was a quarter the
size?
Now get this, there are 8.3 million pixels on that TV….
And there are only 6 million cones in your eye…
Yeah.
But that isn’t even the whole story because each pixel is actually three pixels in one,
red, green, and blue…
I hope you know that those are the primary colors of light.
But we only think that because we’re human.
If you were to ask an alien what the three primary colors are, they might say “Three?
Silly Human, there are fifteen!”
Though that’s pretty unlikely because- wait, this isn’t the color episode stop!
Anyway, the cones in your eye are ONLY red, green, OR blue.
And while the ratio isn’t exactly a third, if we matched them all up to make a pixel,
that means there are only 2 million “pixels” in your eye.
Before you say anything, rods don’t matter, if cones are the pixels of your eye, rods
are the backlight – you can’t see with only rods but… stop trying to sidetrack
me!
Anyway, cones aren’t evenly spread across your retina.
Cones are concentrated in an area called the fovea, which is only a third of a millimeter
wide in the center of your retina.
So while you’re looking at this screen and think you see this… you actually see this.
Now you have to take into account the fact that we’re squishing about 210 degrees of
your visual field down to maybe 15.
But I’m actually still being generous.
Of your visual field, your focal area is only about 1 degree wide.
Hold out your hand and look at one fingernail – the other fingernails aren’t in focus.
So as you can – hey!
My eyes are up here!
Actually, sidenote, if you’re talking to someone you have a crush on, watch their mouth
while they’re talking, for some reason, they’ll pick up on that and start to like
you more.
Just a little tip on how to get the ladies from Knowing Better *The more you know*
But since most of your cones are concentrated in the fovea, that also means that as you
get out to the periphery, there’s less color perception.
The fovea is also where you get the highest framerate, by the way, as I mentioned earlier.
It’s the most important part of your vision, and it’s the only thing that’s really
tested when we figure out if you have 20/20 vision.
Another sidenote, there’s no such thing as “perfect vision” What 20/20 means is
that at 20 feet away, you can read what most other people can read at 20 feet away.
If you have 20/100 vision, that means while you’re reading it from 20 feet away, the
average person can see it from 100 feet away.
You have bad vision.
But it’s okay because we all kinda do.
Because while we do have some of the best general purpose vision in the animal kingdom,
our eyes are really poorly designed.
All of your cones and rods are on your retina in the back of your eye, and all those cells
need blood… guess where all the blood vessels are…
Yeah, in front of the retina.
So at all times, you are looking through a field of blood, which your brain usually filters
out but looks something like this.
But all of those blood vessels have to get back out of your eye somehow… which they
do through a hole in the retina.
Which results in a blind spot.
Close your left eye… actually, remind me about this in a second.
Anyway, close your left eye and focus your right eye on the cross to the left.
And move either your head or your phone closer or further away – once you hit the sweet
spot, the circle will disappear.
It will be different distance depending on what size monitor you’re on, but if you’re
watching this on a computer, it’s about 3 feet.
Your brain fills in that spot with whatever is surrounding it.
It’s kind of cool when you think about it.
So not only do you not see this, you see this… but you also have this going on.
And of course, that’s not the end of the story, because if you close one – oh yeah.
Okay.
What do you see when you close one eye?
If you think it’s this, you’re wrong.
When you close your… left eye, your brain receives a “no input” signal, and turns
off all information coming from that retina.
So you don’t see half-black, you see this.
Don’t believe me?
Close your left eye.
Now cover your left eye.
Now open it.
See?
There’s a huge difference.
Kinda cool that your brain just shuts off incoming information like that.
Anyway, so again, you’re seeing this.
With the addition of this fun mess… which can be bigger or smaller depending on how
lucky or unlucky you are.
So you really think you need a massive TV with pixels literally the size of dust mites
with all of this going on?
Again, 4k will happen, mostly because they’re just going to stop making HDTVs, but not anytime
soon.
There’s virtually no content for 4k right now.
Anything before last year will never be in true 4k because it wasn’t filmed in 4k.
The current generation of bluray disc, the triple layer, holds 125 gigabytes of data.
Do you know how big a 90 minute 4k video is?
477 gigabytes.
So okay, it probably won’t be on physical media anytime soon.
So streaming, obviously.
Yeah, well, unless you live in a big city and not somewhere rural or like, Australia,
you- better ge- used to that happening a lot.
The major hurdle for 4k right now is the file size, it’s just too large.
And there are virtually no games in 4k right now because of how much processing power that
would take.
As of May 2017, only 0.82% of steam players are even able to play in 4k… and Steam players
are the PC Gaming elite… so yeah.
And in terms of TVs, in 2016 only 25% of all new TVs sold were 4k.
If I were a betting man – which I am – I would say that 4k is going to take another
5 to 10 years to catch on for the mainstream.
Much like cars, most people don’t buy a new TV until their current one breaks.
8k on the other hand, will never happen…
it’s just too much for too little payoff.
If we look at video formats like soap.
480p, or DVD, is regular old soap.
It was fine for most people for a long time, and many people still use it.
1080p is a big antimicrobial step up, it’s obviously better and if people can get it,
they will.
4k is like, super mega antibacterial, kills 99.99% of everything soap.
And 8k is massive overkill, 99.9999 – like who cares, okay.
There’s an upper limit to what is necessary, and 8k has 16 times the pixel density as HD...
that’s too much.
That’s fives times as many pixels as cones in your eye.
You’re never going to get a TV with pixels the size of atoms, and at a certain point,
it’s just not an economical use of energy, storage, or bandwidth.
If you don’t have better than 20/20 vision, this is lost on you, and most people don’t
see or care about the difference.
And if you don’t believe me, they still make DVDs, and still sell them by the millions.
Last week I posted a poll on twitter – shameless plug to follow me on there – asking people
if they were to buy a movie today what format would they prefer.
Not what could they afford, not what setup do they have, which would they prefer.
And here were the results.
Again, my average subscriber is not the average consumer, so if anything, this poll is skewed
in 4k’s favor.
Think of all the people out there who don’t use Reddit, Youtube, or Twitter.
These are the people who still buy the Bluray/DVD combo pack for the DVD.
So now I hope you understand a little bit more about not just TVs and video formats,
but how your eyes work and how your brain cleans up the information it gets by a lot.
I was exaggerating a little bit with some of those effects, but not by much.
Seriously, start to notice some of the weird things about your vision that your brain filters
out, it’s kind of amazing.
And the next time you go out shopping for a new TV, hopefully now, you’ll know better.
So what was your first memorable bluray?
Do you plan on switching to 4k?
Let me know down in the comments and don’t forget to foveate on that subscribe button.
Also be sure to follow me on facebook and twitter, and check out my recently revamped
patreon, with new rewards and the new one-dollar tier.