Is my monitor upscaling?

[ZTylerDurden]

So I have 16:10 24 inch Dell Ultrasharp that has 1:1 pixel mapping/scanning mode. I have a Dreamcast connected VGA to the monitor, and the signal on the monitor reads 480p in 1:1 mode.

Using a displaywars graphic, it looks like this:
https://imgur.com/3GlFQdx

IMO it looks great and the input lag seems pretty minimal. None of my friends/family notice input lag even when asking them to look for it. I figured I'm not a victim of the upscale horrors I read about often.

Then I realized, "Wait, if this was 1:1 pixel mapping 640x480, it'd draw 640x480 pixels on the screen" and would look like this (4:3 image not to scale):
https://imgur.com/39Gc4nD


Is my dell monitor upscaling, then? It's creating a frame buffer with added latency by upscaling?

[nmalinoski]

Yes, it's upscaling, but it's not going to have the time-expensive processing that TVs typically apply, hence the lack of noticeable lag.

[ZTylerDurden]

Awesome! This is good to know.

And in terms of the image quality--my monitor is upscaling pixels while an OSSC would line double to fit the screen, correct?

So, CRT's have that "soft" pixel look. Is upscaling vs line doubling a 480p signal a matter of preference depending on whether you prefer sharp or soft pixels? Or am I missing something that makes line doubling objectively better visually?

[tongshadow]

Your monitor performs a process similar to bilinear filtering on 480p images to fit the whole screen, so it will be blurry and softer compared to real linedoubled 480p->960p performed by the OSSC.

After playing on CRTs for an extensive amount of time I realized that absolutely anything looks better on its native resolution than upscaled or processed to a higher resolution. 240p can get away with it though.

[fernan1234]

I've never seen a commercial monitor capable of displaying a true 1:1 pixel mapping from a non-native resolution, let alone one digitized from an analog source.

If anyone knows of some, it would be worthwhile to compile a list.

[Josh128]

After playing on CRTs for an extensive amount of time I realized that absolutely anything looks better on its native resolution than upscaled or processed to a higher resolution.

100% correct.

[ZTylerDurden]

Excellent advice. Thank you all.

After playing on CRTs for an extensive amount of time I realized that absolutely anything looks better on its native resolution than upscaled or processed to a higher resolution.

100% correct.

Just wanna be sure I understand this correctly:

CRT 31khz->480p VGA looks better than upscaled or line doubling 480p VGA? I 100% agree when that relates to LCDs but the CRT thing is piquing my curiosity.

[Guspaz]

Some monitors are bilinear, but some use higher quality scaling. I remember when nVidia added image sharpening, they cautioned that if you combine it with upscaling, that nVidia's Turing GPUs used a 5-tap/32-phase scaler while some gsync monitors had a higher quality 6-tap/64-phase scaler.

[ZTylerDurden]

Some monitors are bilinear, but some use higher quality scaling. I remember when nVidia added image sharpening, they cautioned that if you combine it with upscaling, that nVidia's Turing GPUs used a 5-tap/32-phase scaler while some gsync monitors had a higher quality 6-tap/64-phase scaler.

Is there a way to shop for monitors online and finding out whether it has a decent upscaler? Like, is there a sure-fire question I could ask an LCD manufacturing rep regarding the controller board that would be telling of its upscaling capabilities? Doesn't have to be perfect, just needs to not suck like what seems to happen with LCD TVs.

[bobrocks95]

Monitors tend to have poor quality upscaling from what I've always heard. Regardless, it's unfortunately not a very well-covered aspect of reviews as everyone is driving PC games at native resolution. Maybe Xyga has some examples if he's still around?

[strayan]

I've never seen a commercial monitor capable of displaying a true 1:1 pixel mapping from a non-native resolution, let alone one digitized from an analog source.

If anyone knows of some, it would be worthwhile to compile a list.

I would also be interested in this.

[fernan1234]

Sadly the only ones I know that can do it are Sony's pro monitors. Pretty sure the older LCD BVMs do. All the OLED PVMs and BVMs do and so does the current dual-layer LCD one.

[tongshadow]

Excellent advice. Thank you all.

After playing on CRTs for an extensive amount of time I realized that absolutely anything looks better on its native resolution than upscaled or processed to a higher resolution.

100% correct.

Just wanna be sure I understand this correctly:

CRT 31khz->480p VGA looks better than upscaled or line doubling 480p VGA? I 100% agree when that relates to LCDs but the CRT thing is piquing my curiosity.

In my opinion, yes. The pixels lineup perfectly and you get a sharp and crisp image that is very pleasing to see. Some people prefer linedoubled 480p->960p because the small scanlines disappear, but I personally like them and linedoubling tends to make certain screen elements very pixelated.
https://i.imgur.com/OUUXSSg.jpg

[strayan]

Sadly the only ones I know that can do it are Sony's pro monitors. Pretty sure the older LCD BVMs do. All the OLED PVMs and BVMs do and so does the current dual-layer LCD one.

Yeah, I have a couple of the OLED PVMs.

Some Sony consumer TV’s do too. Have tested and confirmed KDL-40D3100 does.

If you’re not sensitive to lag the Crestron HD scaler is very useful in this regard as it has a 1:1 setting.