DVD quality on the new 17 inch unibody Macbook Pro?

[keysersoze311]

Hi guys,

Much to my dismay, it seems pretty difficult to view full 1080p HD content on the new 17 inch Macbook pro.

There's no Blu Ray drive, not even optional, and itunes doesn't seem to offer 1080p film downloads.

I know you can find the odd full HD film on p2p etc but it's not really ideal.

So my question is, to anyone who owns a 17 Macbook Pro is, what's the DVD quality like? Is it really good?

I watch a lot of itunes music videos on my current laptop, black macbook 13 inch, and I think they look great.

I'm just paranoid they won't look that good when they're stretched on a 17 inch screen.

I'm just curious if you think DVDs look good on the 17 inch macbook?

And, if you've got any experience, do itunes music videos look good on the 17 inch screen? I think they're lower quality than DVD, not sure.

I watched some 1080p trailers on the 17 macbook, at the shop, and they looked stunning, but I just really want to know what SD looks like.

Thanks

 

[otis123]

the screen rez on the 17' is high isnt it? i know on my 15' its 1440x900, DVDs dont look like total garbage, but they are watchable. once a slim blu ray drive is released it should be fairly easy to upgrade your drive, since on all the new unibodys the bottom plate comes off easy.

 

[cmcbridejr]

DVDs look fine on my 42" plasma television.

How could it look any worse on a smaller screen?

 

[keysersoze311]

DVDs look fine on my 42" plasma television.

How could it look any worse on a smaller screen?

Good point, I guess I was just thinking that somehow a huge 1920x1200 resolution wouldn't be optimal for (comparatively) low resolution DVDs, and they'd end up looking rubbish, but that's probably nonsense.

 

[cmcbridejr]

Good point, I guess I was just thinking that somehow a huge 1920x1200 resolution wouldn't be optimal for (comparatively) low resolution DVDs, and they'd end up looking rubbish, but that's probably nonsense.

Do you live near an Apple Store?

If so, bring a DVD with you to the store and try it out for yourself.

 

[Sneakz]

Do you live near an Apple Store?

If so, bring a DVD with you to the store and try it out for yourself.

Make sure you ask a Mac Specialist before doing it. They might think you're trying to do something else.

 

[cmcbridejr]

Make sure you ask a Mac Specialist before doing it. They might think you're trying to do something else.

Just curious... what could that something else be?

 

[bossxii]

While I don't rent DVD's (only Blue Ray's) I did have a DVD movie laying around and did try it last week when I brought home my 17" UMBP and would say it's on par with what it would look like on a normal TV. The "HD" on iTunes looks much better than a DVD and I would say it's probably similar to the SD shows would see from iTunes, but better than say streaming non HD netflix or hulu etc..

 

[Runt888]

[...] once a slim blu ray drive is released it should be fairly easy to upgrade your drive, since on all the new unibodys the bottom plate comes off easy.

Even with a Blu-ray drive, you won't be able to watch HD movies in OS X until Apple decides to support it. You would have to use Boot Camp and watch them in Windows.

My previous generation 17" laptop does a pretty good job of up-converting standard def DVDs. Depends a lot on the DVD, but if you aren't watching it with your nose touching the screen, it should look fine.

Do you live near an Apple Store?

If so, bring a DVD with you to the store and try it out for yourself.

Seems like the best idea to me if you're worried.

 

[Mad Mac]

DVDs look fine on my 42" plasma television.

How could it look any worse on a smaller screen?

TV and computer monitors are totally different and not comparable. Dot pitch (pixel size), brightness, etc. are all different. With a TV you're usually sitting much further away. If you get up close you'd notice the huge pixel size relative to a computer monitor with its much smaller pixels.

To answer the OP's question, yes DVD will look pretty bad on a 17" MBP vs 1080P. Why? Because 1080P allows you to view the video in full screen at a native 1:1 pixel ratio since the 17" MBP screen is 1920 x 1200 and 1080P (such as Blu-ray) is 1920 x 1080.

DVD is 720 x 480, which at native resolution, would be less than 1/4 the size of a 17" MBP (about 2.6x in the horizontal and 2.5x in the vertical). Blow that up to full screen and it'll look horrible (subjectively speaking). Since whether you can tolerate it or not is subjective, try to see it in a store.

I have a 15" MBP at 1440 x 900 screen and even at that resolution DVDs look *barely* passable to me at full screen.

 

[jagr200]

TV and computer monitors are totally different and not comparable. Dot pitch (pixel size), brightness, etc. are all different. With a TV you're usually sitting much further away. If you get up close you'd notice the huge pixel size relative to a computer monitor with its much smaller pixels.

To answer the OP's question, yes DVD will look pretty bad on a 17" MBP vs 1080P. Why? Because 1080P allows you to view the video in full screen at a native 1:1 pixel ratio since the 17" MBP screen is 1920 x 1200 and 1080P (such as Blu-ray) is 1920 x 1080.

DVD is 720 x 480, which at native resolution, would be less than 1/4 the size of a 17" MBP (about 2.6x in the horizontal and 2.5x in the vertical). Blow that up to full screen and it'll look horrible (subjectively speaking). Since whether you can tolerate it or not is subjective, try to see it in a store.

I have a 15" MBP at 1440 x 900 screen and even at that resolution DVDs look *barely* passable to me at full screen.

You, my friend, obviously dont know what you are talking about. My MBP looks amazing watching DVDs. You just have to know how to have it setup. The better video card turned on, brightness, refresh rate, etc all make a difference.

 

[Mad Mac]

You, my friend, obviously dont know what you are talking about. My MBP looks amazing watching DVDs. You just have to know how to have it setup. The better video card turned on, brightness, refresh rate, etc all make a difference.

LOL. No, apparently *you* don't know what you're talking about, my friend. Or you've never experienced 1080P video full screen on your laptop. In which case I suggest you go to Apple's website and download a 1080P movie trailer or something and tell me it looks no better than your standard DVD at full screen. In which case I would then suggest seeing your local eye doctor.

You see, you can't magically make a standard definition DVD at 720 x 480 look good blown up to a 17" MBP's 1920 x 1200 resolution. You might think it's ok and don't see a difference but it is much blurrier than at native resolution which would be ~1/4 of the full screen.

And by the way, you don't/can't set refresh rates on an LCD monitor.