DVD quality vs flat panels

[Jayell]

I've burned a DVD .. works great on the television! Tried playing it on the computer using Dell's Cineplayer .. the quality is AWFUL (washed out .. looks like REALLY low resolution .. a little jerky)! Tried playing it using Windows Media Player 10, the quality is not QUITE as bad, but still bad. This computer has two flat panels (a regular 19" and a 22" widescreen). The 22 widescreen monitor plays the sound, but not the picture. Take it to the other computer, using Media Player 10 and a CRT monitor .. it plays great! I played around with resolution, but that doesn't seem to make much difference. Played a completely different DVD .. same thing. Is there something different about the flat panel monitors?

[Steve Grisetti]

A DVD is always going to look like poor resolution to some extent on a large computer monitor, jayell. And the higher the resolution of the monitor, the worse it looks.

Remember, a standard TV DVD is only the equivalent of about 640x480 pixels. Put that on a 1280x960 monitor, and you've already blown it up to 4 times that resolution -- and chances are that 22" monitor of yours is set even higher. (Motion pictures and professionallly produced DVDs are often visually enhanced so you may not notice it so much with them.)

I'm not sure why the colors look washed out though. Unless the resolution issue is just emphasizing a color issue.

[Jayell]

Thanks, Steve .. guess I'll just move it 4 feet over to the CRT monitor computer if I need to look at it on the computer for some reason. Still seems a little odd to me, though, if the CRT and the flat panel have the same resolution, shouldn't it look about the same?

[Steve Grisetti]

ARE they the same resolution? Do you have them both set to 1280x960?

That would be odd, since the 22" monitor is so much larger.

[Ken Jarstad]

I got a new 32 inch HDTV about six weeks ago and there has been some hard-won lessons since then about the differences between CRTs and flatpanels - SDTV and HDTV.

One thing I knew is that HDTVs scale standard-def sources poorly - but I learned that they are getting better - better than they were just two years ago.

And, the new "upscaling" DVD players do a marvelous job of making commercial DVDs look great. In fact, most commercial movies look so good that many people are avoiding making the choice to buy a high-def DVD player. The effect in the market is driving the prices down - under $200 for Toshiba HD-DVD players at Walmart and Circuit City.

Our home made DVDs *can* look pretty good if they are not overly processed. I have always desparaged home video for having too much video noise - especially from analog sources via an A/D converter. Note especially: heavy temporal cleaning will leave a 'mesh effect" on the images that noticeable where the camera pans - and it is effectively masked by an SDTV system but revealed by the extra clarity of the HDTV.

So, I have had to re-examine my video processing lately. I didn't realize I was damaging my old video by over processing. Spacial cleaning is OK but it tends to remove details. However, I am finding that analog video is generally over enhanced to begin with. 'Peaking' is an electronic technique for getting more detail out of a low bandwidth video system and it only shows up on a higher definition system. So, now I am looking for ways to remove analog peaking without removing the detail. I think for our HDTV future this may be a more reasonable process.

I bet you will find that playing the videos on your PC will improve markedly if you get one of the new generation of video cards that has high-def playback processing built in. They now have component and HDMI connectors!

[Jayell]

ARE they the same resolution? Do you have them both set to 1280x960? That would be odd, since the 22" monitor is so much larger.

Sorry Steve .. I was a little vague on that. I meant the 19" flat panel and the 19" CRT are set at the same resolution with the flat panel showing REALLY poor results .. the CRT looking great!

[Jayell]

I bet you will find that playing the videos on your PC will improve markedly if you get one of the new generation of video cards that has high-def playback processing built in. They now have component and HDMI connectors!

I don't really care that much how it looks on the PC (I burn them to play on my 52" high def television, on which they look great!!). I'm just trying to understand why the HUGE difference between the flat panel and CRT results. I have a fairly high rated nVidia video card (or it was a year ago . But lots of good info, Ken .. thanks!

[Paul LS]

Video and pictures just dont look so good on a LCD display compared to a CRT... it is just the way it is. A CRT has much more depth and richness of the colors compared to an LCD. The resolution issue is another thing.

[Steve Grisetti]

My feelings exactly, Paul.

The reason video resolution looks worse on a flat panel than on a CRT is, ironically, that the flat panel gives you so much clearer of a picture that the flaws and weaknesses of everything show better!

[Ken Jarstad]

Tried playing it on the computer using Dell's Cineplayer .. the quality is AWFUL (washed out .. looks like REALLY low resolution .. a little jerky)!

That was what I was addressing!
The CRT is on its way out. I hear they don't market them in Europe any more. Best Buy just recently announced they are no longer carrying SDTVs.

Video and pictures just dont look so good on a LCD display compared to a CRT... it is just the way it is. A CRT has much more depth and richness of the colors compared to an LCD.

So this is the new and improved television system we going to?

I looked into THE video editor's video card yesterday. You may be interested in what I found.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/en/crepro/products/parhelia/apve.php

It lists for (only!) $349 usd. It supports two flat panels plus an HDTV preview TV. Has adjustable proc-amp settings for TV and overlay video window: hue, saturation, brightness and contrast - Dual Hardware Overlays - gamma correctable.

Whew! I bet you could tweak that unit to make video look good, whether it appear on the editing window or the HDTV.