Let’s start off by saying that the title is something you should understand toward the end of this. But it is a reference to “What do the numbers mean mason” in COD Black ops (if you know you know).

Anyways this is going to be an insightful piece into the video world and all that you should know. Disclaimer: these are the basics and stuff that is the most important, there is more about pixels and screens that I could get into but I’m sure you don’t want to be bored.

If you couldn’t tell from the information about, we will be talking about pixels and screens. This will teach you about resolution and how to differentiate the difference between a good screen and a terrible one.

Let us start with the difference between phone screens and televisions. To start I would like to explain to you what PPI is. PPI stands for pixels per inch and is a number that tells us exactly what it stands for, how many pixels there are per inch of the screen. This is cruel to know to understand this topic.

Now to compare the different types of screens. Phone screens tend to be the clearest because of the high density of the pixels (high pixels per inches). This is because they fit a very large resolution in such a small screen. The iPhone 7 plus has a diagonal screen size of 5.5 inches if you imagine this, it’s a very small area. Though its size is small it still has a 1920×1080 resolution, which gives it a 401 PPI ratio. This is a high PPI and in turn, makes everything seem very crisp since our eyes can’t see how small the pixels really are. Hence why phone screens seem to have the crispiest screens. Although they have crisp screens, they usually lack in color pallet or brightness, this is their downside.

For televisions they have a very small PPI ration which is why they are meant to be looked at from a very far distance. This is because the farther we sit the smaller the tv looks, it basically becomes the size of a mobile phone at that distance, so it seems to have the same clarity as one but just not quite. Since we hold our phones very close to our faces having high PPI is a necessity or else our screens would have large squares all over them that look terrible. But since Tv’s are very large but are looked at from a far distance having a high PPI is unnecessary because the distance between us and tv create an illusion of clarity because our eyes seem to be seeing the same amount of pixels at the same size (it is the same size because it is farther away). I know I talk about the distance a lot, but it is a very crucial topic. So, because of the low PPI tv’s are technically less clear because not always can you sit at the optimal spot away from the tv in which it looks its best. Therefore, finding the right size tv is very important, since if you buy a massive tv but sit very close to it, it will look like complete s***. But if you have a large room and sit far back getting large tv is very beneficial since it will look clear and everything will be the right size. If one was to buy a small tv for a large room, you wouldn’t be able to tell what you are watching because the size of the screen would have shrunken so small.

Now for the topic of resolutions. I did talk about them a little in the section explaining the iPhone 7 plus screen, but I am going to dive more into depth in this. The most basic resolution to be able to see things and not potatoes is 1280×720. This is considered HD which is high definition but is a more progressive high definition. The next one about that is 1920×1080, this is FHD which means full high definition. Full HD is the most common in the world right now but the next highest one is the most common in the computer gaming world because it is the nicest but most affordable resolution to buy. It is 2560×1440, this is QHD which stands for Quad High Definition. The tech that comes out now is very centered around perfecting this resolution so that we can play games at 144hz and at this resolution at high graphics simultaneously. Though this is very hard to come by since the tech power behind it needed is a lot more than what we have now. The very highest resolution in which is sold to consumers is 4k which is 3840×2160. Tv’s can be bought in this resolution and a lot of new films and tv shows are recorded and streamed at this resolution. Though it doesn’t end there, I know camera companies that record in 8k and some tv companies that are creating massive tv’s that are already at the 5k resolution. This is all overkill for the industry standard because in order to upgrade to stream and record at those resolution costs a lot of money and won’t be able to appreciate until the far future. Also, a huge issue that I see is that we have things that can record and display these large nice resolutions, but we have no video cards, inputs, and GPU’s that can handle it at a relatively good price. All the tech that these big companies use is way over any average family’s budget and most above average families. So, I think that although we are getting very far in our technological advances in the screen department, we need to start pushing better more efficient and powerful GPU’s and video cards to match it. Although we are creating new technologies in the GPU department such as ray tracing, we aren’t finding a way to display games at 4k at 60 frames per second.