[jjd-uk]

For the TV to do all the work you should only whitelist the 2160p resolutions, but you can experiment, at the end of the day it's what looks best to you in your home environment and with your equipment.

[noggin]

For the TV to do all the work you should only whitelist the 2160p resolutions, but you can experiment, at the end of the day it's what looks best to you in your home environment and with your equipment.

No - that's the opposite of what you should do if you want the TV to do all the work (i.e. all the upscaling).  If you want Kodi to do all the work you only allow one resolution to be whitelisted (or don't use whitelisting and set the main resolution to 2160p).

If you want the TV to do all the work you should whitelist 720p, 1080p and 2160p modes - so that 720p is output at 720p for the TV to upscale to 2160, 1080p is output at 1080p for the TV to upscale to 2160p, and 2160p is output at 2160p.

if you just whitelist 2160p modes, then Kodi will upscale 720p and 1080p stuff to 2160p.

[noggin]

So can Kodi do this upscaling when I play files via the Odroid? Because the TV seems to be doing very little. Thanks by the way.

What do you mean 'the TV seems to be doing very little'?  What are you comparing its upscaling to?

The Blu ray player. The 1080p files are playing in 2160p when played through the blu ray player but 1080p when played in Kodi.

You are being confused by the on-screen graphics on your TV...  That 1080p / 2160p graphic is just telling you the format of the HDMI input (or internal tuner). 

If you have a UHD/4K TV - it will always be running at 2160p - that's the native and only resolution of the display.  It can't display anything other than 2160p.

Your Blu-ray player is upscaling from 1080p to 2160p - and feeding your TV a 2160p video signal over HDMI - so the TV says '2160p' (it's reporting the resolution of the HDMI signal)
Kodi is playing the 1080p file at 1080p and sending it over HDMI in 1080p (so your TV says '1080p' as that's the format it is receiving over HDMI). However because your TV can only display 2160p video - the TV then upscales the 1080p signal it receives to 2160p.

TV manufacturers spend a lot of time and money developing high quality upscaling.  Cheap Kodi boxes (and often UHD Blu-ray players) have less time and money spent on this...

[noggin]

No, they're being upscaled by your BluRay player which is why your TV says it's getting a 2160p source. And when your TV says 1080p it's getting a 1080p source and then upscaling it to 2160p.

That makes a little more sense. Although I'd never have thought it was the input source info the TV is displaying and not the output.

The output is fixed. The pixels on your TV are fixed at 3840x2160 - i.e. 2160p.  The on-screen graphics on a TV are always telling you the input/source resolution - as the output resolution is always going to be the native panel resolution of the TV.

[noggin]

So can Kodi do this upscaling when I play files via the Odroid? Because the TV seems to be doing very little. Thanks by the way.

The Odroid hardware does the upscaling (not Kodi specifically) - and thus the quality of upscaling varies platform-by-platform.  The upscalers in most ARM-based boxes like the ODroid are quite average. TVs almost always do a better job.  That's why we have whitelisting.

In most cases it's better to get Kodi to play content in its native resolution, output in that resolution via a whitelisted mode and then get the TV to upscale. I have my ODroid C4 and N2 both configured with 720p50/59.94/60, 1080p23.976/24/50/59.94/60 and 2160p23.976/24/50/59.94/60 modes all whitelisted.  This means 720p content is output at 720p and my TV upscales to 2160p, 1080p stuff is output at 1080p and my TV upscales to 2160p and 2160p content is output at 2160p.

But the TV isn't upscaling to 2160p, that's my problem. Yet it does upscale when the files are played through a blu ray player.

You've got that backwards.  The 1080p input signal WILL be upscaled by your TV (the 1080p graphic tells you it is upscaling - as your TV is 2160p native).  The 2160p input from your Blu-ray player ISN'T being upscaled by your TV, the Blu-ray player is doing the upscaling (hence the TV reporting 2160p as the input resolution).

[jjd-uk]

For the TV to do all the work you should only whitelist the 2160p resolutions, but you can experiment, at the end of the day it's what looks best to you in your home environment and with your equipment.

No - that's the opposite of what you should do if you want the TV to do all the work (i.e. all the upscaling).  If you want Kodi to do all the work you only allow one resolution to be whitelisted (or don't use whitelisting and set the main resolution to 2160p).

If you want the TV to do all the work you should whitelist 720p, 1080p and 2160p modes - so that 720p is output at 720p for the TV to upscale to 2160, 1080p is output at 1080p for the TV to upscale to 2160p, and 2160p is output at 2160p.

if you just whitelist 2160p modes, then Kodi will upscale 720p and 1080p stuff to 2160p.

Of course you are right, not sure what I was thinking when I made that reply. To let the TV do the work you obviously want to send any content unmolested from Kodi in which case whitelist all available modes.

[smallclone]

No, they're being upscaled by your BluRay player which is why your TV says it's getting a 2160p source. And when your TV says 1080p it's getting a 1080p source and then upscaling it to 2160p.

That makes a little more sense. Although I'd never have thought it was the input source info the TV is displaying and not the output.

The output is fixed. The pixels on your TV are fixed at 3840x2160 - i.e. 2160p.  The on-screen graphics on a TV are always telling you the input/source resolution - as the output resolution is always going to be the native panel resolution of the TV.

Thanks for this yeah I understand it now. I also stupidly thought that the resolution main setting only applied to the interface (i.e - when a film is not playing) but it quite clearly affects the 'resolution decision making' of the video file)