Dvd's dont look good on 2005fpw??

Jules

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,213
0
0
Hi there i just bought a 2005FPW about 4-5 days ago and i notice that my crappy 23inch tv looks better on dvds then my 2005fpw using windows media center. Why is that? im connected via DVI and at 1680 1050.
 

Sonikku

Lifer
Jun 23, 2005
15,883
4,883
136
The reason is because DVD just isn't encoded at 1680 1050. (Or 1920x1200 for that matter)

You're scaling a source that could not be higher then 852x480 at the most to a much higher resolution. scaling = bad. That's why I went with a Sony FW900 as opposed to a 2405. As a gamer I can't stand being limited to one resolution.

Edit: If you get a dvd player with a faroudja chip and output from that to your 2405 the scaling might not be as bad.
 

Jules

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,213
0
0
That sucks. i thought Windows Media Center Resizes it for you as in cropping it.
 

Jules

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
15,213
0
0
Originally posted by: Sonikku

That's why I went with a Sony FW900 as opposed to a 2405. As a gamer I can't stand being limited to one resolution.

I have no problems at all playing at any other resolutions.
 

gsellis

Diamond Member
Dec 4, 2003
6,061
0
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Another issue with TV vs monitor is the response rate. NTSC only has to support 30 scans a second. So with video on a monitor, the decay of the image (persistance) is not as slow, so it looks jerkier.
 

rbV5

Lifer
Dec 10, 2000
12,632
0
0
DVD's look very good on my 27" LCD @ 1280x720, far better than my analog TV even with the poor (by comparison) black levels.

I'm using MCE 2005 and currently the Cyberlink DVD decoder with my Radeon card with the latest drivers.

Perhaps its related to your graphic card or DVD decoder? Seems like 2005fpw should at least be decent for DVD playback. Most DX9 cards that would be supported in MCE would have decent scaling I would think.
 

whistleclient

Platinum Member
Apr 22, 2001
2,700
1
71
Originally posted by: MyStupidMouth
That sucks. i thought Windows Media Center Resizes it for you as in cropping it.

Resizing something smaller to larger doesn't look pretty. there's only so much visual data in the dvd format, hence the move to Blu-Ray and HD DVD.
 

n7

Elite Member
Jan 4, 2004
21,281
4
81
The higher quality your monitor is, the crappier DVD movies tend to look, since really, DVDs aren't very high quality.
Your monitor does 1680x1050, & a DVD is only 720x480, so it tends to expose the flaws in the video more obviously.

There are a few media players out there that you can use to upscale the DVDs though, which really does improve quality.

I had a link for a guide on using FFDShow + ZoomPlayer on setting that up, but i can't seem to find it...
 

MX2

Lifer
Apr 11, 2004
18,651
1
0
Originally posted by: n7
There are a few media players out there that you can use to upscale the DVDs though, which really does improve quality.

VLC Media Player?

 

Jaskalas

Lifer
Jun 23, 2004
35,454
9,673
136
I've watched a handful of DVDs on my 2005FPW, can't say I've had a complaint about it.
 

BroadbandGamer

Senior member
Sep 13, 2003
976
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Just don't scale the movie to fit your screen. I can't stand scaling low res DVD movies. I'd rather look at a smaller image with black bars.
 

Sonikku

Lifer
Jun 23, 2005
15,883
4,883
136
Just imagine scaling a 100x100 pixel Jpeg in photoshop to 500x500. Just because it's taking up more pixels does not mean it's going to look better.
 

styoda

Junior Member
Oct 26, 2004
7
0
0
Hi,

I've got the Dell 2005FPW and was wandering if the picture would be any good if I plugged in the Samsung DVD- HD850 or DVD-HD950, with the HDMI socket form the Samsung connecting to the DVI socket on the 2005FPW, using the DVI <--> HDMI conversion cable?

Anyone got any ideas?

Cheers
Scott