The optimal distances for viewing 4K TVs are shorter than most people sit from their screens. A 4K screen is 3840 pixels wide and a 2160 high 1080p screens are 1920 pixels wide and 1080 pixels high.) (If your screen size is not shown in the table, you can find the optimal distances for 4K and 1080p screens with the viewing-distance calculator at. This is a problem because the optimal distances for viewing a 4K picture are closer than many people sit when they watch TV. If you sit too far away, the picture on a 4K TV will look just like the picture on a 1080p TV because all the added detail in the 4K picture can’t be seen.

At certain distances, details will blend together and the picture will appear softer because your eyes cannot resolve all the detail in the closely spaced pixels. The fine details on a 4K TV are produced by the 8,294,400 pixels that are packed together on the screen. If you saw him across the street, you could see he has a beard, but the resolving power of your eyes isn’t great enough to distinguish individual hairs. Your eyes can distinguish the individual hairs in his beard. Imagine having a conversation with a bearded man who is standing right in front of you. Optical devices like the human eye are measured in terms of their resolving power which is the distance at which the eye can resolve or distinguish fine details that are close together. The limitation lies in the biomechanics of the human eye.

4k on a 1080p monitor