Why do DVDs look so bad on PC monitors?

Metatron

Metatron

Metatron

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Why do DVDs look terrible when played on my 23" LCD monitor but amazing on my old CRT TV? What's the technical reason?

Even in a window at their native res they look crap.
 
A monitor is higher resolution than a CRT tv, I dont know much, but a DVD at native resolution on a monitor will probably be windowed and look the same, however stretch it to fit the screen and it will go grainy.
 
I've always noticed this. It's down to the resolution and also because CRTs are good quality compared to most cheap computer monitors. Plus CRTs are quite "blurry and bright" and the picture isn't nearly as stark. You'll see that if you connect a PC to a CRT TV.
 
What software is being used for the playback makes a huge huge difference.

The big thing to remember is that DVD's are encoded at (for PAL) normally intended to display on a TV that does 625 lines interlaced (alternate lines refreshing), with CRT's also "blurring" it a bit - if the DVD is an NTSC encoded one it'll look even worse due to the lower res of NTSC.
A PC monitor, even an old CRT PC momitor will be running at several times that resolution, refreshing the whole image at least 60 times a second.

Basically the PC display will tend to show up every fault with the encode/source material much more than a DVD player connected to a CRT TV.

Good PC DVD playback software will have varous filters it'll apply to help it cope with those issues, and allow for better scaling (it's sometimes interesting to see how the same bit of material is handled by 3 or 4 different "media" players on the PC, I use Mediacetnre classic, Zoom Player and VLC on a regular basis and the same video can look very different on each).
 
This is why I'm still using a CRT monitor. Movies look so much better on them (1600x1200).

I've seen movies using lots of different setups and in almost all of them little squares appear or I get really bad eye strain. Using a flatscreen for normal computer use I don't have any issues. Games I still prefer on a CRT as well.
 
Greenlizard0 said:
This is why I'm still using a CRT monitor. Movies look so much better on them (1600x1200).

I've seen movies using lots of different setups and in almost all of them little squares appear or I get really bad eye strain. Using a flatscreen for normal computer use I don't have any issues. Games I still prefer on a CRT as well.
Click to expand...

you don't notice the blocking on 1600x1200?

Are you blind?
 
Some dvds look ok some look very grainy. I use wmp 11/12 whatever latest is with klite pack i think. Also use vlcplayer sometimes, mainly as you can crop with it and adjust aspect ratio unlike wmp :(
 
Greenlizard0 said:
This is why I'm still using a CRT monitor. Movies look so much better on them (1600x1200).

I've seen movies using lots of different setups and in almost all of them little squares appear or I get really bad eye strain. Using a flatscreen for normal computer use I don't have any issues. Games I still prefer on a CRT as well.
Click to expand...

DVD's looked awful on my old Sony 21" pro CRT monitor with some playback software.

It really does depend an awful lot on the software, as some will do a much better job of displaying the content in a manner that helps hide the imperfections inherent in the use of a low res, interlaced format on a high res progressive scan device ;)
 
Software makes big differance. DVDs look better on my PS3 on my TV than on my laptop on my TV. sometimes they look a bit jerky.

But mainly its because they do colours and blacks better and also blur the image slightly which makes it smoother.

It's also kinda why people prefer Plasmas over LCD.



But LCD is the way forward. especially a decent 24" + with a PVA or IPS panel (or telly obv)

My Dell 24" poos all over my mates cheapo 22"
 
I find things on iPlayer are the worst. Trying to watch MOTD on my U2410 is nothing short of an absolute joke.

I'm hoping they move a lot of it to HD soon, that seems to solve the problem.
 
Well having recently upgraded my monitor over teh years it seems they are getting better at displaying DVD and vidio in general. But as much as I fiddle with the settings eitehr on the monitor or the graphics card I cant get one single setting which suits both movies and the web. I think it might be a couple of years before computer screens start to be really good for all media.

What I ended up doing was optomizing my settings for DVD, which left the screen too bright with too much glare for web stuff, so on the advice of another forum member I downloaded a program called f.lux which filters and darkens your screen, then just turn it off when you want to watch video content.

I also agree the software can make a diffrence. I was surprised how much better KMPlayer performed over gom player.
 
Tefal said:
you don't notice the blocking on 1600x1200?

Are you blind?
Click to expand...

Oddly no I haven't as much. Perhaps it's other people with fairly cheap set ups, or as Werewolf has pointed out are using rubbish software.

But there's nothing really enticing me to splash out on a flatscreen for use as either a telly or tv monitor.

It's all subjective though, as said the biggest problem was eye strain, which clearly is a problem unique to me. :o :p
 
Metatron said:
Why do DVDs look terrible when played on my 23" LCD monitor but amazing on my old CRT TV? What's the technical reason?

Even in a window at their native res they look crap.
Click to expand...

CRT in many respects is still better than LCD, but even so DVD's are pretty low res compared to HD stuff...
 
Because CRTs can actually do blacks, whereas LCD/LED displays can only fake it. I remember watching an episode of stargate SG1 with a night scene in woodland. On the monitor, the scene was virtually unwatchable but on the old fat CRT you could actually, shock, see the woodland scenery.

Also i would guess its something to do with the actual packed pixel size/density being smaller for CRTs.
 
no problems here on my LCD but that may be because I have a HD monitor (1920x1080)? blu-ray especially looks superb. I use Cyberlink PowerDVD.
 
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