AA : Monitor size, viewing distance

R

Reverend

Banned
OK, sorry for another AA thread.

If I had a really big display unit (say, 40+-inches) which causes me to sit around 5-10 feet from it, would it be fair to say that (a) aliasing is less noticeable; and/or (2) AA is less appreciated (and, dare I say it, less noticeable) ?

Note that this applies to TVs and/or PCs hooked up to 40+-inches TVs.
 
Yes. I use a 32" TV from 3-4 m distance and never missed AA there (turned it off the first day since it made no noticable difference). You only notice some aliasing on stuff like power lines or such sometimes, which is ok.
 
Depends on the apparent size of the pixels at the viewing distance.
A really big screen running 640*480 will have some mega size pixels unless you are really far away eg sports stadium/airport dot-matrix flipper signs.
Up close, gimme AA, past a certain distance, can't tell.
 
Well, on a 42" HDTV running games in 720p or 1080i on the Xbox 360, Gears of War (among others) is "still" too aliased for my tastes. And that's sitting roughly 4 meters away from the screen. I'd imagine some form of CRT based HDTV wouldn't be a problem, but with his LCD, it's definitely there.

So, I can only imagine the aliasing would appear worse to me with a computer game hooked up at 1080i. I'm not about to cart my computer over to a friends house to test though.

Regards,
SB
 
It's capable of it (of course) but that's no guarantee an application will make use of the capability.

And surely the answer to the OP is dependent on pixel count, pixel density and their size, given the area they occupy (assuming you're sitting straight on to it, too). Just saying the display is 40+ inches isn't enough data. Less noticeable compared to what, Rev?
 
Rys said:
And surely the answer to the OP is dependent on pixel count, pixel density and their size, given the area they occupy (assuming you're sitting straight on to it, too).
Click to expand...
Yes, of course, didn't think of that. [edit]Altho' at the time I was posting the topic, I was probably thinking how noticeable is aliasing when viewing a 20-incher at 2 feet compared to viewing a 40-incher at 6 feet, both at the same resolution.

Less noticeable compared to what, Rev?
Click to expand...
It is my belief that just as there is a group of folks that notice aliasing, there is also a group of folks that notice anti-aliasing. Does this make sense?
 
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Reverend said:
It is my belief that just as there is a group of folks that notice aliasing, there is also a group of folks that notice anti-aliasing. Does this make sense?
Click to expand...

Pessimists and optimists, respectively ? ;)


I have a 26" LCD TV, which is about 2.5m away from where I sit. When I play Max Payne 2 with 8xS (@1280x768) and go to bullet time, which promptly shuts off AA, the aliasing is noticeable; it's not terrible, but I don't go out of my way to really see it either. If I had AA off the entire time, I don't think I'd care. Rather, it's the immediate switching that makes it noticeable to me, especially for that game.
 
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Reverend said:
It is my belief that just as there is a group of folks that notice aliasing, there is also a group of folks that notice anti-aliasing. Does this make sense?
Click to expand...
Yes.

In fact you should be looking at the relation pixels/degrees for maximum visual acuity.

For example the HDTV in my computer room has 22 degrees viewing angle. Now if I place a 50" HDTV in my living room at a minimum 12 feet viewing distance this means 17 degrees :eek:
And the Maximum Viewing Distance for visual acuity (supose a good viewer) is 6.5 feet for this 50" at 1080i, which means I will have 4 pixels (bidimensional image) per perceived pixel. edited: You will be sampling at half the normal unidimensional frequency of sampling. Then it will have some impact in the perception. Now add some psychological itens and voila...

See this simple viewing distance calculator http://www.myhometheater.homestead.com/viewingdistancecalculator.html.
 
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Sorry Rev, forgot the first part of your post.
Reverend said:
Yes, of course, didn't think of that. [edit]Altho' at the time I was posting the topic, I was probably thinking how noticeable is aliasing when viewing a 20-incher at 2 feet compared to viewing a 40-incher at 6 feet, both at the same resolution.
Click to expand...
Suppose both at 1080i:
- the 20 incher at 2 feet will be at a distance below the Acuity point (2.6 feet), then pixels will possiblly be discernible and AA will help.
- the 40 incher at 6 feet will be at a distance above the Acuity point (5.2 feet), pixels will start to blend and AA will be less efficient and in fact can be undesirable in some situations.

Most monitors are below the acuity point, most TVs are above the acuity point.
 
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AlStrong said:
Pessimists and optimists, respectively ? ;)


I have a 26" LCD TV, which is about 2.5m away from where I sit. When I play Max Payne 2 with 8xS (@1280x768) and go to bullet time, which promptly shuts off AA, the aliasing is noticeable; it's not terrible, but I don't go out of my way to really see it either. If I had AA off the entire time, I don't think I'd care. Rather, it's the immediate switching that makes it noticeable to me, especially for that game.
Click to expand...

lol. I played max payne 2 on a voodoo5 so I didn't know you lose AA with bullet time (played at 640x480 AA 2x LOD -0.75 max (almost) details. yeah I'm weird but I enjoyed it, it ran like butter which suprised me and looked good on my 17 incher tube)
 
I never really cared much for AA. That said, people have to keep in mind that in PAL regions you have (1280px)720p resolutions often being upscaled by your TV to (1366x)768p
 
well it's like that all over the world, and you typically want to run your PC at 1360x768 with no rescaling (else it might look like crap)
 
Blazkowicz said:
well it's like that all over the world, and you typically want to run your PC at 1360x768 with no rescaling (else it might look like crap)
Click to expand...
Or you could have a TV with pixel perfect 1280x720 such as my 56" DLP.

I can see aliasing on it when running Windows but not with HD content. The viewing distance is 2m btw, giving a proper cinema feeling.
 
mashie said:
Or you could have a TV with pixel perfect 1280x720 such as my 56" DLP.

I can see aliasing on it when running Windows but not with HD content. The viewing distance is 2m btw, giving a proper cinema feeling.
Click to expand...
You are one of the few (but increasing) cinemophiles which probably follow rules like THX. Any aliasing will be perceptible in your case with this viewing angle and resolution.
 
I use a 32" tv as monitor, and when using the native resulution (1360*768) I only notice aliasing when I get closer than 1.5 meters.
 
as ive said before here, AA is not so important. higher res's are more weighty.
WRT viewing distance i usually watch film is about 0.4-> 0.5 meters thus any degradation is obvious
 
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