The Effect of Viewing Distances on 4K and 8K HDR Video Quality Perception

Ongoing research in the field of capture, coding and display technology and human vision has explored the advantages of high resolution up to 8K (UHD-2) considering perceived quality. One of the crucial elements impacting users’ perception of video quality is the viewing distance. As a result, the presented study employs a subjective evaluation to investigate the perceptual benefits offered by 8K or upscaled 4K in comparison to the native 4K (UHD-1) resolution in the context of HDR videos. The subjective test uses 7 distinct viewing distances, ranging from 0.5H to 3H, with H representing the display height. The findings of the study reveal a consistent trend: the increased video quality of 8K HDR against 4K HDR content decreases with distance, on average. While there are bigger improvements for close distances, beyond 2H the quality difference was very little or zero, depending on content. In general, the degree of enhancement is contingent on the spatial complexity of the content. Additionally, it is found that, on average, subjects prefer to sit at a distance of 2.07H. No significant difference in the preferred viewing distance was found when asked before and after the study.