Resolution of LED screen display through Indoor and Outdoor Pixel Pitch
Are you about to launch a new project? Make the smartest LED display choice !
Choosing the best suitable LED screen for your project may be complicated, depending on your needs, desires and budget. We, at Street Communication have a large range of different displays to propose. Our team, that has more than 10 years experience in LED engineering, will always provide the best advices for a perfect result.
We analyse all the project data ( Architecture, external conditions, viewing distance needed, budget… ) and propose the best solution to enable you to stand out and gain visibility. Understanding the different aspects of display technologies will ultimately help you make the best decision for your company and space.
The factors needed to make the smartest choice
- Indoor / Outdoor
- How many square meters will your project cover?
- What distance do you want the display to be seen from?
- Your budget
- Which type of content do you want to broadcast on the screen?
- Quality required
The quality and viewing distance needed in order to have the best results with LED screen displays depend on their pixel pitch. The pixel pitch is the distance from the center of an LED cluster (or pixel) to the center of the next LED cluster, measured in millimeters. Pixel pitch typically ranges from 4mm up to 20mm for indoor LED displays; for outdoor displays, pixel pitch can range from 10mm to 34mm or higher. The smaller the pixel pitch number is, the more pixels used to make up the image on your display, thus improving the resolution and optimal viewing distance. What does this mean in plain terms? The lower the pixel pitch, the closer a viewer can stand to your display and still have a great resolution. To see and understand better the differences and the final results of various pixel pitch, just watch the video bellow:
To choose the best pixel pitch to suit the viewing distance you need to see the presentation below on fixed LED screens :
What is the resolution of a display?
The name LED is an abbreviation for Light Emitting Diode. LED screens, or large screens, are made of so-called light emitting diodes. LED screens used to be manufactured with three small LED of different colors ( Red, Green, and Blue ) all gathered to create what we call a Pixel. It is the combination of those 3 colors that allow technology to create millions of colors and detail. Nowadays, technology has advanced and we can now use one SMD (surface-mount device) that combines the 3 colors itself and replaces the 3 lights. This SMD is more precise and allows a better quality image, even from a close distance. The resolution is nothing else but the number of pixels present on each square meter. The resolution is therefore opposite proportional to the pixel pitch: smaller is the distance between two pixels, higher is the resolution For example a 20 mm pitch screen has a resolution of 2304 pixels: this measure is obtained dividing the total length of a single module (975 mm) by the pixel pitch (in this case 20 mm) resulting in the number of pixels on a single line: 975:20 = 48 pixels. Multiplying the number of pixels present on a single line by the total number of lines the result is the total number of pixels present on the screen’s surface, also called Resolution. In our example, 48 x 48 = 2304 pixel in total. Given this formula, it is possible to calculate that a 30 mm pitch screen has a resolution of 1024 pixel per module, while a 10 mm pitch screen has a resolution of 9216 pixels per module. It is important to notice that reducing of only few millimeters the pixel pitch, the LED density (and therefore the resolution) increase exponentially. Remember: Smaller is the pitch > Shorter is the minimum viewing distance > Higher is the total number of pixels present on the LED video wall > Higher is the quality image > Higher is the screen’s cost per area.
How to choose resolution? What are the differences between Resolutions?
We are talking here about differences between Ultra HD (4k), 1080p, 720p and 480p resolutions. The resolution of a screen is the number of pixels in each dimension that the screen can display natively. The higher the resolution, the more details the picture has. The resolution is not the only factor in picture quality, but it is the easiest one to understand and notice. You can watch media that is not in the TV’s native resolution. However, watching content in a lower resolution than the TV will not increase the quality. Inversely, you will lose detail if you watch 1080p content on a 720p TV.
The refresh rate also defines the LED screen’s quality
The refresh rate of a LED screen is the number of times in a second that the LED screen hardware draws the data. This is distinct from the measure of frame rate in that the refresh rate for LED screens includes the repeated drawing of identical frames, while frame rate measures how often a video source can feed an entire frame of new data to a display
Which resolution should I get?
Chart of which resolution is worth it, DVD, 720p, 1080p or Ultra HD (4k) The resolution needed depends on the size and distance of the television, due to the limitation of the human eye
A higher resolution might not be worth it for you. The resolution that you need depends on three factors: the size of your television, how close you sit to it, and what kind of footage you are watching.
The human eye of a person with 20/20 vision (6/6 in Europe) can only distinguish detail 1/60 of a degree apart. This means that at a certain distance, for a specific size, you will not be able to see the full resolution of a screen. The chart plots that distance for different screen sizes at the four main resolutions (480p, 720p, 1080p and Ultra HD).
Using this data, if you are siting eight feet away from your television, you will not see a difference between 720p and 1080p for a television under 40″ in size. Similarly, the new Ultra HD resolution is only worth it if you have a television bigger than 60″ and are sitting relatively close to it.