DVD Playback on 27" iMac Atrocious! Help!

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Hello All,

I am a new proud owner of a 27" iMac (Intel Core i5) w/ the ATI Radeon HD 5750. Well mostly proud!? The video playback is horrible on standard DVDs. I have downloaded some HD clips and they are fantastic, so why the discrepancy. Yeah HD vs SD, but the SD is being degraded to Sub-SD.

Any ideas on how to bring this up to par would be appreciated. I know it can output some great video, but I am starting to feel like I am part of a "buy my HD iTunes videos" scam!

WesWood151
 

cwa107


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Unfortunately, it's not a deficiency of your Mac, but of the DVDs. When you look at a relatively low resolution DVD on a high definition display, you can really see the difference between something like a Blu-Ray disc and a DVD.

It's not as evident on a TV that you sit 10-15' away from. But if you have a 1080P TV and an upconverting DVD player, you can see it when you get up close.

They might look better if you knock the screen resolution down. But in reality, you're seeing the reason why the industry is moving to high def.
 

bobtomay

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15" MBP '06 2.33 C2D 4GB 10.7; 13" MBA '14 1.8 i7 8GB 10.11; 21" iMac '13 2.9 i5 8GB 10.11; 6S
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I certainly understand all of that, but if i were to play the same DVD on a 27" SDTV, it would not look this bad. And of course Apple doesn't offer BD as an option. Maybe I should pose the question in software as to what program gives the best SD video playback?

Thanks
 

cwa107


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I certainly understand all of that, but if i were to play the same DVD on a 27" SDTV, it would not look this bad.

Of course it wouldn't, because an SDTV is low resolution (480P) or 640x480. Your iMac runs at an astonishing 2560x1440 or 1440P.

I'm not sure that you do understand.... let me try to put it in a simpler way.

Take a scan of a 3x5 picture. Display it on a computer. It will be tiny. Now, take that picture and zoom it up to fit the screen. What happens? The picture becomes blocky and pixelated. Why? Because you're occupying many more pixels, but you can't add data to the image.

That's exactly what's happening here.

If you resize the image down to roughly 640x480 in DVD player, I guarantee you that it will look great.

So, your options are to knock your screen resolution down to 1024x768 (it will look better, but not perfect), or you can just watch them in a tiny window. Again, it's not your Mac, but your high resolution display.

And of course Apple doesn't offer BD as an option. Maybe I should pose the question in software as to what program gives the best SD video playback?

Thanks

It's not the program, it's the screen resolution. It's that simple.
 

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