Retina MacBook and DVDs

[Phil22]

For those that have got the new retina MacBook what do standard definition DVDs look like on it?

I'm guessing it will look pretty terrible given the high pixel density, and since of course it doesn't have blu ray capabilities, the only real choice is the iTunes store for films. Can you only purchase HD content on the retina iTunes store?

It's just I've got a lot of DVDs and enjoy watching them on my laptop when I'm away.

Cheers

 

[flatfoot]

First off, the MBP Retina doesn't have an optical drive, so you'd have to make dmg files of your DVDs or transcode them to MP4/M4V or whatever files anyway.
You could use an external ODD drive, but that's a pain when you're on the road.

You can watch/transcode BluRay on your Mac. Search the forums.

You could take a dmg file of one of your DVDs to an Apple Store and check what it looks like on the retina display. I guess it won't be too bad since the display isn't too big size-wise.
It all depends on the upscaling algorithms on the laptop/the playback application.

 

[Stetrain]

They should look no worse than they do on any other laptop screen. Possibly better because of the improved viewing angles, contrast, and black levels.

Even on the non-retina Macbook Pro 15" the screen is much higher resolution than a DVD. I really don't think you'll see a difference.

Of course it won't look nearly as good as 1080p on the same display, or 4K video (I think Youtube has some of that), but it shouldn't look worse than it used to.

 

[Phil22]

Ah sorry of course forgot they removed the optical drive!

It's just I have last years 27inch iMac and DVDs look quite terrible on it, I know it's a much larger screen but given the retina display I thought that might lead to the same results.

Do you know if you can buy/rent standard definition films on the iTunes store on the retina MacBook, or is it unavailable given the picture quality?

 

[fs454]

Ah sorry of course forgot they removed the optical drive!

It's just I have last years 27inch iMac and DVDs look quite terrible on it, I know it's a much larger screen but given the retina display I thought that might lead to the same results.

Do you know if you can buy/rent standard definition films on the iTunes store on the retina MacBook, or is it unavailable given the picture quality?

You can buy/rent whatever quality content you'd like on the new rMBP. There's no discrimination based on screen quality.