Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Plus the macbooks screen has enough resolution for 720i/p video to be displayed fully.

Semantics aside, it's not HD.

But in order for blu-ray movie playback to be practical it must be 1080p. 720 ≠ 1080.

I have a 26" 720p tv that downscales 1080i input for display. I have the same 1080i input on my 52" 1080p in the living room. There is no question, the 52" is sharper and clearer. In order for HD to be practical, both the source and the display must match resolution. Size has nothing to do with it.
 
Semantics aside, it's not HD.

But in order for blu-ray movie playback to be practical it must be 1080p. 720 ≠ 1080.

I have a 26" 720p tv that downscales 1080i input for display. I have the same 1080i input on my 52" 1080p in the living room. There is no question, the 52" is sharper and clearer. In order for HD to be practical, both the source and the display must match resolution. Size has nothing to do with it.

720 is classed as HD, and 1080i is only technically showing 540 horizontal lines at anyone time... less than 720p even :eek:. And of course the picture is going to look better on your 1080p tv, your other tv is downscaling whereas your other one is not. You cant compare downscaled picture to original resolution picture.
 
But you cant compare downscaled with non-downscaled... and the pixel density in both of your tv's are similar..

26" 720i/p - approx. 56.5 PPI
52" 1080i/p - approx. 42.3 PPI
 
Yet your comparing blu-ray playback on a 1080p screen to a macbook's 800px screen.

It would have to downscale.
 
Again, useless.

One of the main selling points for studio's with Blu-ray is the encryption.

No new releases, from genuine sellers are going to be unencrypted.

You should have read the whole thread before posting.

High definition isn't about screen size... it's about pixel density (the 'definition'). So the 13" screen makes perfect sense for blu-ray as it has a high pixel density.

A 42" full HD screen (1920x1080) would be approx. 52.4 PPI (pixels per inch)
The macbooks 13.3" screen (1280x800) is approx. 113.5 PPI

Do the math =]

It doesn't matter. If you want to incorrectly look at pixel density, go ahead. Either way, there is little difference in image quality between a regular DVD9 and Blu-ray on a 13" screen when you are sitting 6 feet away. How do I know? Because I have a blu-ray burner and use AnyDVD HD to make ISOs Plex-friendly. It doesn't look any better.
 
Yet your comparing blu-ray playback on a 1080p screen to a macbook's 800px screen.

It would have to downscale.

Blu-rays are not always 1080i/p they can also be 720i/p... in which the macbook screen can play natively...

Either way, there is little difference in image quality between a regular DVD9 and Blu-ray on a 13" screen when you are sitting 6 feet away.

Why would you sit 6 ft away from it?
 
Blu-rays are not always 1080i/p they can also be 720i/p... in which the macbook screen can play natively...



Why would you sit 6 ft away from it?

yeah and 720p on a 13" screen is nothing to marvel at. Does it look better? Slightly. Is it worth $1000? No, unless you are one of those idiots who just likes telling people you have an internal blu ray drive.

How far do you sit away from a 13" screen when watching a movie? 3 feet? Same result.
 
In your tortured syntax, you seem to be agreeing with me. But I'm not totally sure.

It was perfectly clear, I was neither agreeing nor disagreeing, you wondered why anyone would want to watch Blu-ray on a 13" screen, I put forward the suggestion that if you buy Blu-ray discs for use at home, on your Blu-ray player, you will not be able to watch them on your MacBook unless it had a built in Blu-ray player, so you will need to buy the DVD of the film as well as well.
 
It was perfectly clear, I was neither agreeing nor disagreeing, you wondered why anyone would want to watch Blu-ray on a 13" screen, I put forward the suggestion that if you buy Blu-ray discs for use at home, on your Blu-ray player, you will not be able to watch them on your MacBook unless it had a built in Blu-ray player, so you will need to buy the DVD of the film as well as well.

I use the digital copy that comes on most, but not all, movies. They need to make that standard.
 
It was perfectly clear, I was neither agreeing nor disagreeing, you wondered why anyone would want to watch Blu-ray on a 13" screen, I put forward the suggestion that if you buy Blu-ray discs for use at home, on your Blu-ray player, you will not be able to watch them on your MacBook unless it had a built in Blu-ray player, so you will need to buy the DVD of the film as well as well.

Most come with a digital copy (as pointed out already) that is iTunes-ready.

But it seems some people really do think they'd be able to tell the difference between Blu-ray and a 2 GB MP4 on the MB screen.
 
Most come with a digital copy (as pointed out already) that is iTunes-ready.

But it seems some people really do think they'd be able to tell the difference between Blu-ray and a 2 GB MP4 on the MB screen.

First of all, only about 50 discs so far have "digital copies" of the movie. Out of a couple thousand movies already released on blu-ray.

Secondly, I HAVE watched a blu-ray disc on my UniBody MacBook. External Lite-On blu-ray reader in Windows. The difference is night and day. Theres no question that blu-ray looks better. Down scaled to 1280x800 is ALWAYS going to look better than soft upscaled (those iPod ready files) or hardware upscaled (DVD, in Windows) 640x480 up to 1280x800. Going from 640x480 to 1280x800 means that the pixel count has to be increased by 3 times to reach that resolution. You're ALWAYS going to get better results when going from a 2MP image down to a 1MP image when compared to a 0.3MP image going UP to 1MP.
 
What's the battery life like while playing Blu-Ray movies on a notebook? I bet it is abysmal. I can get through 2 full movies from DVDs ripped via MacTheRipper on a single charge of my MacBook.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.