DVD's play blurry

Solution
I would say it's the software. A drive is either dvd capable or it isn't, what makes it a dvd drive is its ability to read specified dvd format including playback at proper speeds. Playing 720p full screen on a different resolution monitor can cause some blurring, same as with a playback device and a t.v. set. The idea is to try and match the media resolution to the screen resolution as best as possible. That's why you'll find some dvd players with 1080p upconvert capabilities where it will take a 720p video source and scale the video as best as possible to the higher 1080p resolution to match the screen.

For a free player, vlc does an ok job. Its biggest perks in my opinion are the wide range of supported media types but it's never...
I would say it's the software. A drive is either dvd capable or it isn't, what makes it a dvd drive is its ability to read specified dvd format including playback at proper speeds. Playing 720p full screen on a different resolution monitor can cause some blurring, same as with a playback device and a t.v. set. The idea is to try and match the media resolution to the screen resolution as best as possible. That's why you'll find some dvd players with 1080p upconvert capabilities where it will take a 720p video source and scale the video as best as possible to the higher 1080p resolution to match the screen.

For a free player, vlc does an ok job. Its biggest perks in my opinion are the wide range of supported media types but it's never produced the best image quality in my opinion either.

Are these dvd's you're playing actual dvd movies (retail type full features) or are they various home videos or random video files that have simply been burnt to a dvd? For instance say someone shoots some home video on their phone at a family reunion or something it can be burnt to a dvd and played back in a dvd player but it doesn't mean the source video is 'dvd' quality. It could be shot in 320p or 480p or some other resolution, being burnt to a dvd won't automatically make it 720p just because it was copied to that media. My screen resolution is a bit out of the norm because I use a crt screen so it's 1600x1200 and dvd movies tend to be a bit blurry at full screen on my monitor. It's trying to play 720p resolution video on a screen with almost twice the resolution and so stretching the pixels to fit. Dropping my resolution to 1024x768 would bring the screen resolution much closer to that of a dvd but that's something that crt monitors have an easier time doing than lcd because they don't have a default native resolution like lcd screens do. Choosing a non native screen resolution on lcd monitors can have a similar blurring effect.
 
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