Nintendo Switch OLED - who needs 4k, dat screen

[Transient Curse]

1 hour ago, LaveDisco said:

The PS5 and XSX are not going to be 4K for the vast majority of their lives. They struggle hitting 4K on last gen games

Loads of Xbox One games were 4k on Xbox One X?  

 

https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/xbox-one/xbox-one-x-enhanced-list

 

Agree that there's next to no chance of Nintendo doing a 4k system anytime soon. 

 

[ZOK]

10 minutes ago, TehStu said:

Re: 4k, I have to say I haven't really noticed a difference for streaming. Disney+ is 4k and I'd be hard pressed to tell it from 1080p, sitting back on the sofa. The nature of a compressed stream, I guess. Obviously, HDR is nice.

 

Only really noticed what the TV can do when an XSX was connected up, games look pin sharp. That said, the Switch looks great upscaled (I assume the TV is doing it), I've never thought to "nrgh, it's only 1080p" about the output.

 

I won't be participating in the 8k con.

The Switch does look nice upscaled, but the two games I’ve played most recently on it, Hades & Gungeon (and even the Home Screen now I think about it), you can instantly notice the difference vs Stadia. It’s not something that bothers me because I love the Switch anyway, but I certainly won’t be buying a new one that offers no improvement on the current performance for the telly.

[Marlew]

I think a 4K stream can be very good but to really see the benefits, you need to watch a UHD Blu-ray, in my experience. 

[deKay]

6 hours ago, the_debaser said:

60 FPS > 4k > HDR. 
 

That is what devs should be aiming for. Frame rate is king. 
 

Also it’s hard to believe anyone hasn’t used 4k who has a compatible tv. Do you not have Netflix, Disney or even iPlayer? 

My mum, and I’d wager, most people’s mums, watch TV in SD on their 4K TV.

[Nobuo's Organ]

10 minutes ago, deKay said:

My mum, and I’d wager, most people’s mums, watch TV in SD on their 4K TV.

 

At 200 (pretend) fps

[deerokus]

That Verge impression thing is absolute shite, basically just saying the screen is better and a bit bigger.

 

Anyone could have written that without even having seen a picture of the system never mind getting a hands on. 

[TehStu]

2 hours ago, ZOK said:

The Switch does look nice upscaled, but the two games I’ve played most recently on it, Hades & Gungeon (and even the Home Screen now I think about it), you can instantly notice the difference vs Stadia. It’s not something that bothers me because I love the Switch anyway, but I certainly won’t be buying a new one that offers no improvement on the current performance for the telly.

Ah for sure, playing the same game probably makes it stick out like a sore thumb. Same with Minecraft Dungeons, as I flit back and forth the XSX and XB1 to play it.

 

2 hours ago, Marlew said:

I think a 4K stream can be very good but to really see the benefits, you need to watch a UHD Blu-ray, in my experience. 

You know, I thought this too, but Blade Runner 2049 doesn't look that much different, either. Maybe I didn't give it a fair crack of the whip, I just watched specific segments both 4k streamed and UHD (having previously watched it on release on standard blu ray).

 

If I could just find 2 hours where I can have the TV to myself and no kids about.

[Marlew]

@TehStu Physical definitely does make a difference (even with HD Blu-ray) but sounds like you had a good stream there. It's a gorgeous film, either way, though. You're right. 

[Yiggy]

1 hour ago, deerokus said:

That Verge impression thing is absolute shite, basically just saying the screen is better and a bit bigger.

 

Anyone could have written that without even having seen a picture of the system never mind getting a hands on. 

What would you want them to say though? It seems pretty obvious but it is what is. Probably not worth replacing if you don’t need to but if you’ve got the wedge or you need a replacement then it’s a bit better. 

[Paulando]

3 hours ago, Marlew said:

I think a 4K stream can be very good but to really see the benefits, you need to watch a UHD Blu-ray, in my experience. 

I had a couple of films on 4K Blu-Ray and in 4K on iTunes (The Revenant and The Martian). I did a side by side and could not tell the difference at all.

 

That said, I do understand services like Netflix and Disney+ can be pretty aggressive with the quality reduction at times. I remember 4K Star Wars looking utter shit during the first lockdown.

[the_debaser]

Are blu rays still a thing? I thought people stopped buying them about 5 years ago. 

[Paulando]

29 minutes ago, the_debaser said:

Are blu rays still a thing? I thought people stopped buying them about 5 years ago. 

Yeah, these were the last two I bought 4-5 years ago. Didn’t bother with anymore when they were indistinguishable from my £2.99 iTunes versions.

[TehStu]

37 minutes ago, the_debaser said:

Are blu rays still a thing? I thought people stopped buying them about 5 years ago. 

I haven't for a while. Well, pretty much since Disney+, but I specifically wanted Blade Runner 2049 on UHD.

[HarryBizzle]

1 hour ago, Yiggy said:

What would you want them to say though? It seems pretty obvious but it is what is. Probably not worth replacing if you don’t need to but if you’ve got the wedge or you need a replacement then it’s a bit better. 

I’d be keen to know whether it’s a decent OLED or not. Apple have been producing ~720p LCD screens which beat out crappy 1080p (AM)OLEDs in Android phones for ages. I want to know if Nintendo are using a decent one. Although I guess it matters less because the LCD in the Switch until now has been pretty crap, and that’s the only alternative. 
 

It’d be nice to know that the games are displayed properly on the screen too, i.e. no blacks which look grey because of configuration issues. 

[TehStu]

3 hours ago, HarryBizzle said:

Apple have been producing ~720p LCD screens which beat out crappy 1080p (AM)OLEDs in Android phones for ages.

I thought Samsung and LG made them for Apple, and now some Chinese company for the 12. I did find this though:

 

Check the date.

 

Quote

Universal Display Corp. manufactures and licenses OLED tech for a wide variety of companies, including Samsung, and the company’s most recent earnings report namechecks the Switch Pro (thanks to folks at Spawn Wave for spotting this).

 

So, dunno if it's Samsung-esque but that would suggest a competent OLED? Blacks on my Samsung phone are black enough sometimes I don't realize the screen is still on.

[Superunknown]

11 hours ago, Marlew said:

@TehStu Physical definitely does make a difference (even with HD Blu-ray) but sounds like you had a good stream there. It's a gorgeous film, either way, though. You're right. 

 

The most noticeable difference for me is the audio. DTS-MA and Dolby-HD are so much better than the sound quality via Netflix, Prime, iTunes etc. that it's not even a contest.

[Marlew]

12 minutes ago, Superunknown said:

 

The most noticeable difference for me is the audio. DTS-MA and Dolby-HD are so much better than the sound quality via Netflix, Prime, iTunes etc. that it's not even a contest.

Spoiler

I completely agree with you, but didn't want to throw that into the discussion of the benefits of 4K, etc. Talking more broadly about physical vs streaming, audio is the biggest difference.

 

Broader still on the physical media topic, there are a number of 'boutique' Blu-ray labels producing fantastic upgrades of older films which simply aren't available on streaming services. Eureka and 88 Films, in particular, have been putting out some incredible Hong Kong/Jackie Chan stuff for a little while now, the films have never looked or sounded better, packed with extras, real labour of love stuff, and they're only available physically. Indicator is another label which has put out some amazing releases which just aren't available elsewhere in the same quality, like the Dietrich box set, Night Of The Demon, Body Double, Ray Harryhausen stuff and lots more. 

 

There are loads of examples like this albeit there are increasing streaming options for releases by the likes of Arrow, BFI, Second Sight and Third Window Films. Shame the Criterion Channel is US-only because the Criterion UK physical library is tiny in comparison. It's the main reason I got a region-free player. The Criterion release of Seven Samurai, for example, is markedly better than the UK BFI disc. There's also a lot of stuff which just doesn't get released over here and isn't available via streaming. I recently had to import Memories, the anime compilation by Otomo, the Akira guy. One of my favourite ever pieces of animation and no plans to release it here. Turns out it's a stunner, fantastic upgrade. Likewise, the Chinese Ghost Story trilogy I had to get from Korea, and so on and so on. 

 

Spoilered because not really on-topic, talking about physical media vs streaming. 

[Alex W.]

7 hours ago, TehStu said:

I thought Samsung and LG made them for Apple, and now some Chinese company for the 12. I did find this though:

 

Check the date.

 

 

So, dunno if it's Samsung-esque but that would suggest a competent OLED? Blacks on my Samsung phone are black enough sometimes I don't realize the screen is still on.

That’s just a report saying that if Nintendo use OLED screens it’ll increase demand for OLED screens, it says nothing about who the supplier might be.

 

That said, very few companies make OLED screens at high volume now after so many years of consolidation, it’ll probably be a competent one. The one question I would like answered is whether it’ll be RGB stripe or will cheat with a different subpixel structure to reduce costs, which hurts the image quality.

[HarryBizzle]

The manufacturer doesn’t really matter. They all make screens to match various price points so can make crap ones if that’s what Nintendo want, which they probably do. 

[Rex Grossman]

15 hours ago, deKay said:

My mum, and I’d wager, most people’s mums, watch TV in SD on their 4K TV.

Is there much SD content on? 

[the_debaser]

Freeview is mostly SD. There are only about 10 HD channels. 

[deKay]

1 minute ago, Rex Grossman said:

Is there much SD content on? 

Most of the channels are still SD or have SD versions

[Paulando]

2 minutes ago, Rex Grossman said:

Is there much SD content on? 

Local BBC news 😡

[Rex Grossman]

Just now, deKay said:

Most of the channels are still SD or have SD versions

I no longer have Sky or have an aerial on my house so I don’t see such horrors.

[Alex W.]

Re. the 4K discussion, I’ve mentioned this on here before but it’s difficult to make a comparison between streaming and other sources because the feeds are so heavily compressed. A 4K stream will give you 25-100% of the image data of a 1080p Blu-ray. Modern encoding schemes close that gap a bit of course but even as a 4K sceptic, I am personally really wary of writing off native 4K content’s image quality on subjective streaming experience alone.

[Stanley]

Obviously the quality and size of the display in relation to how far away from the screen you are make a big difference too - with 4K you either need to be much closer to the screen, or have a much bigger screen. I can imagine a lot of people with 50-55” displays sit too far away for 4K to be that noticeable in most cases. 

[Alex W.]

I feel like there’s been a trend to larger screen sizes as resolutions have improved too, so you’re more likely to get the benefit. Can you get a 4K screen that’s smaller than ~50 inches?

[HarryBizzle]

10 minutes ago, Alex W. said:

Re. the 4K discussion, I’ve mentioned this on here before but it’s difficult to make a comparison between streaming and other sources because the feeds are so heavily compressed. A 4K stream will give you 25-100% of the image data of a 1080p Blu-ray. Modern encoding schemes close that gap a bit of course but even as a 4K sceptic, I am personally really wary of writing off native 4K content’s image quality on subjective streaming experience alone.

The easiest comparison is to watch a 4K YouTube video of a game and then play that game on console. The difference is huge. 

[scruffycat]

Will the ‘old’ non oled drop in price noticeably? (Sorry if this has been answered in thread I’ve not really read past the last couple of pages.) I was thinking of buying a Switch for my kids as they do enjoy gaming in a casual way but being kids I don’t think they will care much about the screen. It’ll be mostly docked in any case I think. I’m happy to get one of the new ones, though I would be pissed if the Switch 2 comes out soon after, but I’m not sure it really offers enough to make it worth it unless the price point is similar in any case.

[Jarik]

I'm less concerned with 4K than I am with whether those islands floating over Hyrule will stutter.