Poor video quality

[abhirox]

Hello,
I just purchased a new PC 2 weeks back. My issue is with the quality of movies when I run it in full screen. I have a Samsung B2230 22" monitor. I have a xFx aTi Radeon 5670 graphic card...My processor is the X4 Phenom II 965 BE and I have an Asus M4a89gtd pro mobo..4GB of ram...Whenever I run a movie or a video in full screen, the quality is very poor. The same video's quality is good in the default size...I play Aion(RPG game)...Graphic quality is very good when i'm gaming..But why does my video quality get horrible when i use full screen? Is there something wrong with my monitor or is it the video?? The same video used to play decently with my old 15" CRT...HelP!

 

[jaguarskx]

Generally speaking, stretching a lower resolution video to fill a higher resolution monitor results in degraded video. The greater the difference between the video's resolution and the monitor's resolution, the worse the video will look.

This is due to interpolation and the fact stretching causes pixellation. For example, say your video is 800 x 600 resolution and want to stretch it fill a 1920 x 1200 resolution monitor while maintaining the correct aspect ratio. The result is 1600 x 1200 on the monitor which means each fine pixel in the original video is now represented by 4 pixels on the screen. This makes things look "blocky" or pixellated.

CRTs and LCD monitors operate differently. LCD monitors have a fixed number of pixels where as CRTs it is somewhat variable.

 

[abhirox]

Does this mean that I have to download/convert all my videos in the same resolution as my monitor? That is, 1920x1200?? Nothing's wrong with my Graphic card or Monitor right??

 

[jaguarskx]

No.

Doing so will actually reduce the quality because when you re-encode something somethings are always "thrown out" based on how the audio / video codec operates. Encoding from a lower resolution to higher resolution does not add any details.

There is nothing wrong with the video card or the monitor.

 

[abhirox]

Err then how can I improve quality when I'm running on full screen?? Btw my resolution is 1920x1080....Please help I want good clarity when I'm running on full screen.....

 

[MauveCloud]

The only way to really get better quality is to get movies that were recorded at 1920x1080, which are usually on blu-ray.

 

[jaguarskx]

As stated, if you want the best quality, then the source material must be the same as the resolution of the monitor or HDTV. Therefore, any DVDs you have should be tossed aside and you need to go out and buy some Blu-Rays.

Converted Blu-Ray movies can be quite large. A former co-worker of mine decided to convert his entire BL movie collection to store on his computer for easy access. He stated on average the movies took 13GB - 16GB of space to maintain high quality while converting with the MKV codec.

 

[ssddx]

OP,

if you lowered the resolution from standard DVD to "something else" that fit your old screen then you're SOL. you can always copy 1:1 in this case. if you are saying that standard DVD resolution does not look good on your monitor then you could always try a program that upconverts if some is available (like what blueray-players do). another option would be (as they stated) to use blueray media and create a higher resolution video.

in any case, always remember that dvd/brd videos are one set resolution. games/programs have variable resolutions which produce video feed on the fly (except cutscenes). this is why dvd/brd may or may not look as good as your games.

 

[abhirox]

Oh....Thank you guyz....now I know what to do..........