Need help when playing on a large screen TV

[Von Kilotz]

Hello fellow Steam Deck users,

I have recently bought a Samsung 70-inch TV to connect the Steam Deck to, and I noticed right away that my games tend to be blurry and a bit pixelated, quickly thinking that maybe PC games aren't meant to be played on a large screen.

At least for each game I manage to play, I can at least increase picture quality via settings, mainly the sharpness and clarity settings, and increase resolution if the game allows. Which helps a little, but I would like to hear if anyone has any tips, tricks, or advice on how to better resolve this.

Games are playable, of course. But I simply want it to be a bit more easier on the eyes.

Thanks in advance!

[thetargos]

The internal resolution of the Steam Deck is about 3x lower than that of a 4K display (720 is the third part of 2160 in a 2160p screen), which means the display has to upscale, which means the image tends to look blurry.

You may get away with running some games at 1080 (half the resolution of 2160), and still have some blurriness. Only (and your TV supports it) running at like 1440p will you have less blurry image on such a screen, if running at "native" resolution. If you start running games through upscalers (FSR/XeSS), the amount of blurriness and other artifacts will only increase.

[ExaltedDuck]

I agree with the previous poster but would expect 1080 to look better than 1440 since it would just quadruple the pixels without having to interpolate anything. Also, the steamdeck would probably handle 1080 more gracefully than 1440. Its graphics hardware is tuned for its own display which - due to the small size - is able to get away with a slightly lower resolution than TVs and monitors tend to run. Going higher could negatively impact framerates.

[thetargos]

Forgot to mention that also viewing distance plays a role. You can have 720p content on a 2160p screen l, and look 'good', if you are at least 4 yards (about 3.5 meters) away, if farther, it is 'better' (your eyes won't be able to make out as much detail, hence the image will look clearer, at that 'low resolution')