DVD resolution on comp

[clayforHim648]

I'm just trying to find out how to make a DVD look sharp on my computer monitor. They've never looked really good, but now that I just upgraded to a 21 inch widescreen, I kinda want to use it for all it's worth, you know...

It's not that the DVD doesn't play, it's just that it looks grainy and not very "DVD-like". I've used PowerDVD and Media Player 10 both, same look. I've also tried to mess with the options for my graphics card to no avail. Any word on this or are DVD's just not supposed to look great on comps (native resolution for this monitor is 1680 by 1050)

By the way, everything else is sharp (desktop, games, internet browsers, etc.)


Dell 4550 P4 2.5 ghz, 512 ram, Radeon 9600XT 128mb, etc

 

[Budman]

DVD resolution is 720x480 . just leave your LCD at it's native resolution and run it full screen.

 

[clayforHim648]

well if DVD res. is only 720 by 480, that would explain the grainy look...but it should be better shouldn't it!? I do run it on full screen in 1680x1050...looks crappy

 

[Looney]

The reason why it looks 'grainy' is because of the DVD resolution. It's one of the problems that HDTV owners have... when you play anything that's lower than HD quality, such as DVDs or SD broadcast, it looks like sh1t.

 

[WolverineX]

It's because DVD resolution isn't that great to begin with and when you watch a movie with a high resolution you have to stretch it to fit. Basically the same thing if you put a small image as your monitor wallpaper, it gets stretched and beaten with the ugly stick. Not to worry though, hdcp is being held off for a while so you can watch HD-DVD or Bluray on your new monitor.

You could also use post processing with ffdshow to clean it up a bit. It does make quite the difference.

 

[Slugbait]

It might also be because of the video card. Several months ago, MaximumPC did a shoot-out between ATI and nVidia. ATI won only the budget category for performance, but lost in all three categories for MPEG playback. They published some pretty convincing screenshots.

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Maybe if you changed your LCD's resolution to 720x480, than play the movie?

 

[sandeep108]

There does not seem to be any real solution for this. I also found this when I shifted to LCD. While everything else is razor sharp, DVDs tended to look quite crappy full screen, especially bad quality DVDs. As other posters have said, the problem is mostly the resolution. Try a VCD which is half the DVD res. and see - it will look doubly crappy. Best and easiest is to move about 4-6 feet away from the monitor.

I have heard that nVidia's Purevideo is supposed to help for nVidia's 6/7 series, but have never tried it. Anybody with any feedback about Purevideo? I also found that VLC is somewhat better than PDVD/WMP.

 

[ForumMaster]

it might be the DVD decoder. you could try PureVideo. i read an article here on AT about, i'll try and find the link, that shows some serious improvements. if you don't wanna spend $30 on PureVideo, you could try installing the K-Lite Mega Codec pack that includes fddshow and that helps clean up the image a little. also, as all have said thus far, the problem is the low DVD resolution. it bothers some more then other. but since hdcp is being held off, your monitor might not be enough to see the native 1920x1200 that HD quality will bring!

 

[gsellis]

Other considerations.... DVDs are interlaced 720x480 at 30fps. Your monitor is progressive. Because of the better display resolution, it can look worse on the computer as the TV will take advantage of persistance of vision to give a clean display. You get it raw on the computer.

Computer screens display the full scan. TV screens display in overscan, so do not have the full display. You will see more of the video on a computer, but anything at the border may show up that you do not see on a TV screen. This usually is obvious on VHS to DVD transfers. You will see a bar of noise at the bottom on the computer that will not be on a TV screen.