Comparing upscaling algorithms from HD to Ultra HD by evaluating preference of experience

As the next generation of TV, Ultra High Definition Television (UHDTV) is attracting more and more people's attention as it provides a new viewing experience. Considering content delivery, due to the lack of Ultra HD resources, a direct question for the industry is that whether the state-of-the-art upscaling algorithms can be utilized to upscale the current HD or Full HD resources to UHD, gaining benefit from the higher resolution but without losing the high quality viewing experience. To investigate this, in this study, we upscaled 720p and 1080p sequences to UHD resolution by different upscaling algorithms. Paired Comparison methodology was used in the subjective experiment to evaluate their performances. The results showed that for the case of fast motion content, viewers' preference on different upscaled video sequences is not significantly different. In general conditions, the low complexity upscaling algorithms (e.g., lanczos-3) performed better than the high complexity algorithms (e.g., Robust Super Resolution algorithm). A novel upscaling algorithm adapted to UHD is recommended to be developed based on the mechanisms of human visual system.