Why we upscale 1080p Blu-ray to Ultra HD Blu-ray
The main reason is that Ultra HD Blu-ray offers better picture quality and sound quality than 1080p Blu-ray movies since it can deliver a lot of data. The video quality of a UHD Blu-ray is leaps and bounds over regular Blu-ray. The picture of 4K Blu-ray is crisp, with stunning clarity making the most of fine textures. Colours are vivid and subtly shaded, especially in dark scenes. That's just with the standard dynamic range, a fairer fight against 1080p Blu-ray. One of the best things about 4K BDs is high dynamic range (HDR) which ramps up contrast, brightness and colour range. In addition, there's Dolby Atmos, which makes your surround taller and more immersive, with eerily accurate effects. There aren't many Atmos-compatible regular 1080p Blu-rays right now, but it is standard spec on all the UHD Blu-rays we've seen so far.
How to Upscale 1080p Blu-ray to Ultra HD Blu-ray?
Upscale 1080p to Ultra HD Blu-ray with Blu-ray player
Some Blu-ray players with upscaling can simulate a 4K image from a standard 1080p HD video to play on 4K televisions. Upscaling regular Blu-rays approximates 4K performance, but it is less true to the original quality than playing actual 4K content.
Best simple way to upscale 1080p Blu-ray to Ultra HD Blu-ray
For those people who don't want to pay the money for the expensive Blu-ray player, you still have the chance to upscale 1080p Blu-ray to Ultra HD Blu-ray with some cheap Blu-ray Ripper program. The program here we highly recommend to you is called Pavtube BDMagic (best Blu-ray Ripper Review). The program can powerfully and automatically remove the copy protection and region codec from all commercial Blu-ray disc, you can then upscale 1080p Blu-ray to 2160p Blu-ray and save as a BDMV folder, M2TS file or other 4K digital 4K file formats such as 4K AVI, 4K WMV, 4K MP4, 4K MKV, 4K H.264, 4K H.265, 4K Prores, etc according to your own needs. Make sure the change the output file size as 3840*2160 in the programs "Profile Settings" window.
Tips: If you wish to get the best play the upscaling 4K movies on 4K TV with best quality, 4K H.265 codec can be the best option, which is widely by most 4K TVs. If you wish to play upscalig the 4K movies on computer with VLC, just choose 4K H.264 as the best output file format. The Windows version of Pavtube BDMagic supports up to 6x speed H.264 codec encoding acceleration on a computer with Nvidia Graphic cards that supports Nvidia CUDA and AMD APP technology and up to 30x speed H.265 codec encoding acceleration on a computer with Nvidia Graphic cards that supports Nvidia NVENC technology.
For Mac users, please download Pavtube BDMagic for Mac to upscale 1080p Blu-ray to Ultra HD Blu-ray on Mac OS X El Capitan.
Step by Step to Upscale 1080p Blu-ray to Ultra HD 2160p Blu-ray
Step 1: Load 1080p Blu-ray disc.
Insert 1080p Blu-ray into an internal or external optical drive. Launch BDMagic, click "File" > "Load Disc" button to browse to disc drive and import source movie into this app.
Step 2: Choose output file format.
From "Format" bar drop-down list,
select Nvidia Shield TV Pro supported H.264 file format by following "HD Video" > "H.264 HD Video(*.mp4)". If you plan to play the upscaling Blu-ray movie on 4K TV, just output H.265 codec which offers the best 4K picture quality with small file size.
Tips: You can also choose other output 4K file format according to your own needs.
Step 3: Adjust output file size as 3840*2160.
Click settings to open "Profile Settings" window, here you can adjust the output file resolution as "3840*2160" by typing the value beside the brackets of "Size(pix)" in the video section.
Step 4: Begin the Blu-ray disc upconverting process.
After all setting is completed, hit right-bottom "Convert" button to start upscaling 1080p Blu-ray to 4K Blu-ray.
When the conversion is completed, you can enjoy upsacled 4K video with good picture and sound quality on 4K TV.
