TV Upscaling Question

[AcidStopSign]

So this may be an odd question, or maybe even a super obvious question, but I got to thinking the other day..

So I own a 4k TV (TCL R635 if it matters), and from what I understand, that pretty much any content displayed on this tv with be upscaled by the TV to 4k.

 

Let's say I am watching 540p or 720p content on Netflix (old cartoons or something) the TV will be upscaling it to 4k. But I also own that same exact show on a Blu Ray disc (1080p), would the quality be any kind of noticeable between the two since they are both being upscaled? OR because the blue ray is being upscaled from a 1080p source it will still be somewhat sharper than watching it on a streaming source at it's native resolution of 540p or 720p being upscaled?

 

Unless I am wrong and TV upscaling doesn't really do all that much..

[LloydLynx]

I don't know of any TVs that do AI upscaling so it would be best to feed it the highest quality source to begin with. Most TVs use a pretty basic upscaling technique that produces a kind of blurry image.

[AcidStopSign]

3 minutes ago, LloydLynx said:

I don't know of any TVs that do AI upscaling so it would be best to feed it the highest quality source to begin with. Most TVs use a pretty basic upscaling technique that produces a kind of blurry image.

I thought that may be the case, I wasn't sure how powerful, if any, TV's upscaled content. 

[tikker]

Upscaling isn't magic. At 540p there will be much less detail than at 1080p or 2160p. That detail is lost and cannot really be recreated by upscaling. Typically it's some form of interpolation, but the problem is that it's (as the name implies) just a scaled version of the input. Some illegible text on a sign doesn't suddenly become readable when upscaling 540p to 2160p, because the information just isn't there.

 

An exception could be some AI powered upscaling. Nvidia's AI upscaling looks pretty darn good on my Shield I must say. Some 1080p stuff really looks like 4k in the best scenarios.