Screen Resolution vs screen size

[[DANGERDAN]]

Now this issue has been bothering me for quite some time so i thought i would get some insight from other people.

1080P will be the resolution for my explanation, say you have 1080P 24 inch monitor which has a rated ppi of around 92 which is acceptable for all texts images video etc, Now when you enlarge the screen size to say 30 inch's and and use the same distance you start to see a distortion in the image because you can see between the pixels and there's not enough resolution at that distance to support enough ppi to produce a clear image, so your only option is to create more distance between you and the monitor.
What i am trying to get at is that for every inch you add to your 1080P monitor/tv you have to add distance to where you view it from which takes me to my question in this, Why would you need a screen bigger than 50 inch's (excluding the room size reason) because @ 50 inch's the optimal distance is around 2 meters so if you increase the size of the screen your not exactly making the screen bigger because you will have to move further away from the screen.

I have a follow up question after this about 4k resolution projectors after some information, thanks.

[STEvil]

Larger screens are to increase immersion.

We could all own 10" screens strapped to our faces, but thats just not fun.

I use a 1920x1080 46" roughly 3 feet from me daily. It works quite well and you cant see between the pixels. I also have a 30" 2560x1600 to my left about 2 feet from me. There are quality differences (one is IPS the other is not iirc, one has a shiny coating the other is matte) but overall both are enjoyable for whatever I use them for. I prefer the 46 for gaming.

[[DANGERDAN]]

Ok that's fair a bigger screen does create a better immersion but what my question was why go bigger than 50 inch, its more than enough to give the immersion effect and going to 63 inch wouldn't change anything as you would have to put your couch/seating position further away (again not including room size).

[Nanometer]

It's the same reason a movie theater has a... whatever 50 foot screen or whatever it is, they are huge. They are bigger so that more seats have an optimal viewing angle. If you had 5 people sitting around a 24 inch screen it will either look tiny because you are all far away from the screen, or the people on the sides will have a lousy view. And let's face it, it's so much more comfortable to all just find a random spot in the living room and be able to enjoy the movie just as much as the person sitting directly in front of it.

[[DANGERDAN]]

Ah your completely missing the difference between home flat screens and cinema projectors, they have a resolution of 4k which gives us the ability to sit in a ratio closer compared to our standard 1080P.
You cant just stretch a image to whatever size you want at the same resolution it can only go so far before pixelation starts to happen, this is why i ask why go larger than 50 inch.
With film projectors they can use the 4k resolution to field most of your FOV (field of view) and in turn you get the best immersive feeling from them regardless of distance, whether its 150 inch to 700 inchs.

Basically i just answered my own question but i wanted to see what other people thought before i did :P.

[Nanometer]

I can't speak for everyone, but every projector I've seen, theaters included, have horrible picture quality when you are within 30 percent of the maximum viewing distance. A Blu-ray disk will never hold a candle to any movie theater film strip, ever. The best at home you can ever do is project a 1080 image on a a white projector screen. Just because you have a projector, you don't magically get movie theater quality video. Though like you said a decent 4k resolution projector would be much more desired over a standard projector especially if you plan to blow up the image.. Though going back, movie theaters use film and in the case of IMAX they use 35mm wide film which is something we can't just bring to our homes. Unless you are going for a 20 + person theater there's really no reason to get projection unless you like to wow your friends with a a screen or you have a space issue that a projector happens to fix. But as far as home movie viewing goes, the best plasma screen has yet to be surpassed by just about everything currently out on the market.

[[DANGERDAN]]

Sure you may still see pixelation in almost every screen today if you sit close enough, though you can still sit closer to a screen which has more resolution.
Im not trying to point out technology we can have in our homes im just pointing out technology itself.

35mm film has the ability with the right equipment to have a possible projection of up to 20 megapixels but the difference between that and a standard home projector is that yes it use's two different sources, one being film itself and the other which is a digital source which has less amplification.
In saying that film itself is pixel perfect material which can be blown up far pass our technology of doing so yet.

Tv's with a resolution of 1920x1080 are useless past 50 inch's (again unless room size is required) because of pixelation and why a 4k only projector would be required if you wanted to get a better quality picture above 50 inch's because of a better FOV ratio between the screen size, resolution and seating distance.

Please correct me if anything i said is incorrect.

[EniGmA1987]

You cant really see a lot of pixelization going larger than 50". On paper your right, but in reality the mind can easily overcome it. I ran for the past 3 years on a 221" screen at 1080p resolution and it looked great. Everyone who ever came over thought so too, including people with millions of Dollars and very high end home theater systems. All of them wished they knew me sooner and followed what I did rather than spend a ton on what they had.

[PaganII]

The further away you can sit from the screen the easier it is on your eyes. I use a 24" screen (well, 3 of them) and sit 5-6 feet away even just watching a BR on the center screen.
That said, you can make an inexpensive 3D projection screen setup using an Acer 5360 projector http://www.projectorcentral.com/Acer-H5360.htm ~ $600usd + screen + pair of glasses. (try the new Heaven glasses ` $50usd) http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1285791

Update: Well the inexpensive Heaven glasses won't work with the Acer H5360 3D projector but I scored a 20% off coupon so the projector only cost $480! Saved enough to buy the proper DLP Link glasses + PowerDVD10 Ultra 3D.

[Nanometer]

But there isn't one size where it becomes inadequate. Every size has a proportion of distance you need to be for optimal viewing. Besides the preference of being immersed into the film, there's the bigger range where several people would have an optimal perspective.The only technology where the space between the pixels is enlarged is a digital projector. It's because there is not proper scaling of the screen. If you want a bigger screen, then everything gets larger including the spaces between pixels. With a TV the pixels become larger but the spaces remain relatively the same. Which is why for small spaces a large TV would trump just about any projector you can buy. Course there's always the personal taste, and this is just mine. :)

[[DANGERDAN]]

Yes as i said before even if you stretch a 1080 source past 50" and sit far enough away the picture can look fine but my point is our technology has come to a halt and should be moving to a higher resolution in the next 10 years, which we already have been slowly.
Why do you think most 30 inch monitors choose to use a higher resolution, its because of pixelation and seating distance, if they choose 30 inch's with 1080P the person would be forced to st 2 times away than a normal 24 inch monitor.
That being said with a higher resolution on a 30 inch you can sit at a comfortable distance, i also understand probably a lot don't notice or worry about this pixelation but there are a lot like me who are special perfectionists. :)

[STEvil]

it is moving to a higher resolution already.

30" with 1080P would be fine. I use a 46" 1080p at ~3 feet. There is no visible pixelation. In fact I find with my 30" that 2560x1600 makes things hard to read sometimes. a 46" 2560x1600 would be nice (actually I want a Phillips 50" 2560x1080).

If it were a 46" CRT then problems might arise.

[PaganII]

58" 2560 x 1080P 3D LED :)

http://www.philips.co.uk/c/cinema-21-9/30849/cat/

[STEvil]

oh, maybe it was 58".. been a while since I looked at the specs

[[DANGERDAN]]

30 inch @ 1080p would be fine as a monitor/tv but as you start reaching past 50 inch's there's not enough ppi for you to be able to see texts with and when you try look closer it will be pixelated if you can spot it or not, not everyone can spot it because they are not as pedantic as others but in theory and in practice the higher the ppi the better.
The standard ppi for windows is 96 and a 50 inch has a ppi of 45 so in order to see the text's clearly you would have to change the ppi to 45 but this reduces screen space and is considered not efficient as a higher ppi monitor.

[STEvil]

Clear text doesnt rest on a solid PPI number, let alone "96". Your display makes a huge difference in this. I could buy a "sharp" brand 46" 1080p display that looks like crap, or I could by what I have.. which looks great.

[[DANGERDAN]]

I wasn't concluding that ppi alone makes a screen of course other specifications like contrast, brightness and color are probably more important than ppi/resolution but its still a factor which bothers myself just as much :P

[ripken204]

for me ppi is very important.
i see some people using huge 32"+ TVs as computer monitors and i just cant imagine doing that.
the text is so huge compared to a 27 or 30" monitor.
the whole point of having a large monitor, in my opinion, is to fit more stuff onto the screen, with a large TV you only make thing bigger, you dont add to how much can fit on the screen.

for home theater purposes where your coach position is much further back, the larger screens tend to help up to a point

[STEvil]

Text isnt that big ripken :)

ppi is important, but if you buy a crappy monitor with 27ppi vs a good one with 20ppi there can be a big difference.

[ripken204]

Text isnt that big ripken :)

ppi is important, but if you buy a crappy monitor with 27ppi vs a good one with 20ppi there can be a big difference.

20 or 27?

the ppi on my LCD is 108, a 42" 1080p is 52 ppi, that's more than a 2x difference

for me, i just cant use a tv as a monitor for that reason, i want a larger monitor in order to fit more stuff on the screen.
for you it may work just fine for what you need, and that's all that matters.

[[DANGERDAN]]

PPI is not how much information or space a monitor/tv can have it is the pixel density and quality, the higher the PPI the closer you can be too the screen though if you have too high ppi images and texts can be too small and if you have too low ppi you cannot be as close to the screen and text again will be too small because of you moving away from the screen due to pixelation.

Screen Resolution is what controls how much information and detail can be put onto the screen but you need a good balance between resolution and PPI to be able to fully use it, for eg

1366x768 @ 84 ppi @ 18.5"
1920x1080 @ 92ppi @ 24"
2560x1600 @ 100ppi @ 30"

The range for monitors is around 70-110 if you exceed these ranges it can have a negative effect, Tv's have a much lower ppi because the pixels are stretched but this does not have a major affect on quality because of the distance we view it at. Trying to use a 50" @ 1080P as a monitor would look very blurry and hard to use at a safe distance though if you switch the resolution to 720P the tv is perfectly clear at almost any distance due to the increase size of the pixels at the sacrifice of desk space resolution.

[STEvil]

Why doesnt my 46" 1080P have blur at 3 feet? I can even move my head to almost 1 foot away (yes I can see individual pixels at that range) and not see blur.

720P would look worse than 1080P.

[[DANGERDAN]]

There is a form of blur, you can still easily make out words or anything for that matter but it still is not as clear as a screen with higher ppi, you would find it easier on your eyes with a standard monitor than with having to work with a 50".
And like i have said before people are easily adjusted to any type of quality but people like me are perfectionists we see every type of error and problems.
Decreasing the resolution is just a easy way to enlarge the image without changing any windows settings and at a distance it will be easier to use than 1080P unless you are really close to your tv.

[STEvil]

I have a 30" 2560x1600 right next to this 46" 1920x1080 display. Both are clear.

[[DANGERDAN]]

no idea, could you find the pixel pitch for your tv, this could explain why.

[STEvil]

its around 0.53mm as far as I can tell, cant find the actual number at the moment.

[[DANGERDAN]]

Well i think your just unable to notice it like i have said, physics supports my theory that you cannot just stretch a image without any type of pixelation or quality decrease.

Your pixel pitch is quite high compared to higher model brands so pixelation would be more noticeable on your set than others, iv worked with many tv's they all loose pixel depth after about 30"s and this is not bad for tv's like i have said because of the distance we view them at but no way would a 50" look better and sharper than a 24" @ 1080P at similar close distances.

If from 24" to 46" there's no decrease in quality then that would mean we could just have a 100" without needing more resolution, facts just don't support this and this is why more resolution is adopted when using bigger screens, i mean do you think they invest millions into higher 4k projectors just for the numbers.

[STEvil]

I am not saying that there is no decrease in quality, only that it does not happen the same way it did with CRT's and that until you test the display yourself you cant say that a 46" 1920x1080 isnt good.

You can buy a 46" form "Sharp" and it will look like crap, or you can get one from Sony/Toshiba/etc that looks good.

This is how the setup used to look..

http://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc232/STEviltoo/PC%20Setup/0314000940.jpghttp://i216.photobucket.com/albums/cc232/STEviltoo/Regza%2046/0125000357.jpg