Originally posted by: boris
Originally posted by: Mielr
I read somewhere once that DVDs don't look their best on computer monitors because the pixels on a computer are a different shape than those on a TV. I don't know how much truth there is to that, though.
Some of my DVDs look gorgeous on my computer, some don't. The DVDs I record myself don't look good when played on my computer, for some reason- lots of motion artifacts, etc., but look great when played on my TV (I have an old Apple iMac and an early version of Apple DVD player, BTW).
Yep that's right. When you watch a DVD on a computer it suffers from interpolation because "TV" resolutions aren't supported by standard PC resolutions, whether it's anamorphic or non-anamorphic, PAL or NTSC. Computer monitors have "square" pixels (though in some modes this can be altered - if you do this photos and such will be in their incorrect aspect ratio). I read somewhere once that DVDs don't look their best on computer monitors because the pixels on a computer are a different shape than those on a TV. I don't know how much truth there is to that, though.
Some of my DVDs look gorgeous on my computer, some don't. The DVDs I record myself don't look good when played on my computer, for some reason- lots of motion artifacts, etc., but look great when played on my TV (I have an old Apple iMac and an early version of Apple DVD player, BTW).
This is only true if you watch DVD on an analog TV. Most modern TV, even CRT ones, are digital now. So the signal coming from the DVD player is digitized, and processed, before being displayed. I'm not sure that the process being done in a digital TV is any better than the zooming process being done by a software DVD player. Really good "blow up" algorithms exists.