iMac and DVDs

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lled7lled7
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I've got an iMac 20" C2D and was wondering if it is capable of "upconverting" movie DVDs to near HD quality? I've seen DVD players that upconverts but I didn't know if that is done in hardware or software. If it is done in software and if the iMac has this capability, how much of a hit would the CPU get.



-ken

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  • Reply 1 of 4
    kingofsomewherehotkingofsomewherehot Posts: 4,185member
    There are certainly applications that will change the resolution of DVD video to HD video, but you won't get ANY improvement in picture quality... you're just taking a 720×480 image and expanding it to 1280x720 (720p) or 1920x1080 (1080i or 1080p).

    It won't really add any "quality"... it just extrapolates data and fills in the extra pixels... A DVD only contains limited information ... your computer can only "guess" at what data should be there to make a higher res image.



    So I guess what I'm trying to say is... "What's the point?"
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  • Reply 2 of 4
    lled7lled7 Posts: 9member
    I was asking because a co-worker who has one of those DVD players that upconverts says that on his HDTV, the upconverted movies looks nearly Hi Def so according to him, there is a very noticeable difference. Thanks for your reply.



    -ken
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  • Reply 3 of 4
    guarthoguartho Posts: 1,208member
    Your iMac is already upconverting the DVD anytime you play it full screen.
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  • Reply 4 of 4
    Marvinmarvin Posts: 15,585moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lled7 View Post


    I've got an iMac 20" C2D and was wondering if it is capable of "upconverting" movie DVDs to near HD quality? I've seen DVD players that upconverts but I didn't know if that is done in hardware or software. If it is done in software and if the iMac has this capability, how much of a hit would the CPU get.



    I don't think there's any software for the Mac yet but Windows has ffdshow and powerdvd to upscale DVD to HD so you'd have to use Windows on your iMac - not Parallels because it would likely be too slow. It does give better quality as shown by this screen shot:



    http://teamlosi.andrevas.net/mouseover/new.html



    It's a rollover image btw. You have to put the mouse on the image to see the post-processed version and roll off it to see the original. The images look like they are different sizes but I reckon it's just due to taking a custom sized screenshot.



    The image is clearly sharper but it depends on the software correctly guessing the interpolated pixels. If it doesn't, you get artifacts. It also does significantly hit the CPU when it's done in software.



    http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?p=4871402
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