# Question about 4k Content vs 3440x1440 ultrawide monitor



## Carsomyr (Nov 29, 2020)

Is there a way to watch family memories (4k mkv videos on my personal pc) on my 3440x1440p ultrawide monitor?
Let me clarify:

I mean: I can't watch a real 4k video on my monitor per say because it can only display content up to 3440x1440p unless it downscales or something like that... 
Basically, I'm trying to see if there's a way for me to watch a 4k video and not be forced to downscale it to 1080p to work on my monitor. I've got the choice to watch the file in 1080p or 4k, but I'm curious to know if there's a way to take advantage of the higher resolution of a 4k video without having to settle for 1080p when I can do 21:9 1440p with this monitor.


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## Khonjel (Nov 29, 2020)

Can you watch 4k content on Youtube at fullscreen on that monitor?

Same thing will happen with any 4k content. 16:9 view with black bars at two sides.


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## Toothless (Nov 29, 2020)

You're going to get black bars no matter what you do unless the content is in a 21:9 ratio. (Natively 3440x1440 or similar)


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## Khonjel (Nov 29, 2020)

Toothless said:


> You're going to get black bars no matter what you do unless the content is in a 21:9 ratio. (Natively 3440x1440 or similar)


No. He's thinking that his 4k video will somehow downscale and render at 1080p.


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## Toothless (Nov 29, 2020)

Khonjel said:


> No. He's thinking that his 4k video will somehow downscale and render at 1080p.


Technically not wrong but I see what you're saying. It's one of those you can select the option but it doesn't mean you'll get it displayed.


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## Carsomyr (Nov 29, 2020)

No actually what I mean is this:

For exemple I ripped from movies from my boy Ray discs to my pc so I can watch my movies without worrying about the discs getting damaged eventually and not being able to play them... 

So yeah, usually movies are in a 21:9 format, which is the same format as my monitor... I'm used to ripping them to 1080p, I don't have a 4k TV yet so I usually watch them on my tv or ultrawide pc monitor (3440x1440)

So I'm wondering is there a way to take advantage of the additional resolution I've got (3440x1440 monitor)? 

If I'm youtube, yes the 4k videos play at 2160p even though my monitor doesn't have that many pixels (close)... 

Sorry, I'm not explaining myself super well, English is my 2nd language. Thank you for your indulgence


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## Toothless (Nov 29, 2020)

You ripped at 1080p, but want to use the whole monitor? I don't know what movies you're ripping but I've never seen any run ultrawide. Usually they are 16:9 or 16:10.


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## Vya Domus (Nov 29, 2020)

The source content is scaled up or down no matter what to fit the resolution of the display.


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## Rei (Nov 30, 2020)

Carsomyr said:


> No actually what I mean is this:
> 
> For exemple I ripped from movies from my boy Ray discs to my pc so I can watch my movies without worrying about the discs getting damaged eventually and not being able to play them...
> 
> ...


Blu-ray movies are natively in 2K (not 1080p) so ripping them to 1440p would just oversize the video file without increasing the quality so that would be pointless.

Just use the "stretch to fit screen" feature on your player.

Unless it's your own recording of videos, there is no such cinema movie that is natively in 1440p.

Also you can play 4K movies on your monitor but it will just downscale it to 1440p but it's still better than watching native 1440p movie. Again, use the "stretch to fit screen" feature here.



Toothless said:


> You ripped at 1080p, but want to use the whole monitor? I don't know what movies you're ripping but I've never seen any run ultrawide. Usually they are 16:9 or 16:10.


He seems to be watching mostly cinema movies. Nowadays, they are recorded to ultrawide (17:9 or 21.5:9)


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## rika (Nov 30, 2020)

Watching movies that are filmed in near 21:9 aspect ratio without black bars in ultrawide is fantastic.  I just wish they made them bigger.  I know Phillips tried to make ultrawide TVs back in 2009 and it failed


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## Rei (Nov 30, 2020)

rika said:


> Watching movies that are filmed in near 21:9 aspect ratio without black bars in ultrawide is fantastic.


There will be black bars even on 21:9 monitor since modern movies are rendered in 21.5:9 but they are minor & you could always just stretch them & they won't look stretchy.


rika said:


> I just wish they made them bigger.


Made what bigger?


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## Vya Domus (Nov 30, 2020)

rika said:


> I know Phillips tried to make ultrawide TVs back in 2009 and it failed



Probably because they look kind of stupid if they are really large.


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## Rei (Nov 30, 2020)

Vya Domus said:


> Probably because they look kind of stupid if they are really large.


By bigger, did @rika mean larger or wider? If both, then I can see that it would look kinda stupid, especially back then...


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## rika (Dec 2, 2020)

It didn't look any different than 49 inch ultrawides today.









						Philips discontinuing super-wide Cinema 21:9 TVs due to lack of demand
					

Philips is discontinuing its line of super-wide, 21:9 aspect ratio televisions, citing a lack of demand from consumers.




					www.theverge.com
				




If larger, it would have looked fine. We lived with 4:3 aspect tvs for decades and even that had black bars.  It was horrible.  Which prompted 16:9 tvs to become the norm.  It's time for 21:9 and beyond.  Every freaking movie has black bars now and even on my 75 inch tv I feel like I am losing tons of screen space that I paid for.


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## Vya Domus (Dec 2, 2020)

rika said:


> It didn't look any different than 49 inch ultrawides today.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



The problem is their surface area, it works well as a monitor that is right in front your face. But on a wall you need a ridiculous diagonal size to match the same height that a typically 16:9 large TV has.


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## Disparia (Dec 2, 2020)

Got to get into a meeting soon, but to possibly help out I think the problem is when you are ripping BD, you are keeping it at full resolution which may include black on the top and bottom depending on how wide the original content is.

After the rip, when you go to encode to H.264 or whatever, you want to *crop *the video down to only visible video. E.x. There may be 50-60 pixels of black on the top and bottom. Your end result movie should be around 1920x960, which will utilize more of a UW monitor.


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## Carsomyr (Dec 3, 2020)

Rei said:


> There will be black bars even on 21:9 monitor since modern movies are rendered in 21.5:9 but they are minor & you could always just stretch them & they won't look stretchy.
> 
> Made what bigger?



But 21:9 aside, most of the time a ripped movie (from Blu Ray) will either be a 1080p file or 4k... If I try to play it in 4k on my 1440p I doubt it will play at all or down scale it to 1440p... Probably would down scale automatically to 1080p I guess. 

I'm not on expert when it comes to video conversion techniques and stuff.


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## Rei (Dec 4, 2020)

Carsomyr said:


> If I try to play it in 4k on my 1440p I doubt it will play at all or down scale it to 1440p... Probably would down scale automatically to 1080p I guess.


A 4K content will render & play at 4K but as I said in my previous post, it will output & downscale to your 1440p display or whatever you set your monitor's desktop resolution to. I think this is better as it would look crisper than watching an actual native 1440p content.


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