Aug 20, 2026 · 16 min · 13 segments
When Christian Dietz watches YouTube videos from his Roku Ultra on his Sony X900F TV, he is often presented with a choice of 1080p or 2160p. He'd like to know which is the better option. Scott…
I have a Sony X900F TV, which is the best TV I have ever had by far, with a Roku Ultra 2024.
When I watch YouTube from the Roku, I often have the choice of 1080p or 2160p.
But from a technical standpoint, which option is better? I know from past episodes of HTG, you have stated that true 4K video, not upscaled, is the best picture.
And the, and the amount of it is growing over time, but the majority is still 1080p or less.
Now, if the content is native 2160p or UHD, the best YouTube setting is obviously 2160.
But if it's 1080p or less, is it better to have YouTube do the upscaling? Or is it better to have the TV do it? That's really the essence of your question.
But first I want to see if we can determine what the native resolution of the video coming from YouTube is.
And I looked at a number of YouTube videos, including standard definition television shows from the 20th century and some very early television programs, experiments really.
Basically, you want to click on the settings icon, which looks like a gear in the lower right of the image.
On the Roku, this icon appears when I press the A or B button on the remote, which you can see here.
Now, I've seen different images of different remotes for the Roku Ultra, and yours may very well be different.
So I'm not quite sure how you would get the icons, that particular icon, which appears with several of them when I press the A or B button.
But in one way or another, that's what you need to do to determine what the actual resolution of the video is.
I have a Sony X900F TV, which is the best TV I have ever had by far, with a Roku Ultra 2024.
When I watch YouTube from the Roku, I often have the choice of 1080p or 2160p.
But from a technical standpoint, which option is better? I know from past episodes of HTG, you have stated that true 4K video, not upscaled, is the best picture.
And the, and the amount of it is growing over time, but the majority is still 1080p or less.
Now, if the content is native 2160p or UHD, the best YouTube setting is obviously 2160.
But if it's 1080p or less, is it better to have YouTube do the upscaling? Or is it better to have the TV do it? That's really the essence of your question.
But first I want to see if we can determine what the native resolution of the video coming from YouTube is.
And I looked at a number of YouTube videos, including standard definition television shows from the 20th century and some very early television programs, experiments really.
Basically, you want to click on the settings icon, which looks like a gear in the lower right of the image.
On the Roku, this icon appears when I press the A or B button on the remote, which you can see here.
Now, I've seen different images of different remotes for the Roku Ultra, and yours may very well be different.
So I'm not quite sure how you would get the icons, that particular icon, which appears with several of them when I press the A or B button.
But in one way or another, that's what you need to do to determine what the actual resolution of the video is.
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