Is a standard Mac capable of HD on-screen?

[Mac Rules]

Hi guys n girls,

OK, I was just wondering, seeing how OSX runs at such a high resolution on a MB, MBP, etc screen, i.e more than 1080 horizontal lines... Does that mean that Macs, and indeed any screen capable of this many lines can show HD pictures?

i'm sorry if this is a stupid question with an obvious answer... but thanks

Cheers

 

[killuminati]

You can try out the Apple HD trailers on their site.

Here are the requirements:

For 852x480 (480p) video at 24 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:

* 1.25 GHz PowerMac G4 or faster Macintosh computer
* At least 128MB of RAM
* 64MB or greater video card

QuickTime 7 for Windows:

* 2.0 GHz Intel Pentium 4 or faster processor
* At least 512MB of RAM
* 64MB or greater video card
* Windows 2000 or XP


For 1280x720 (720p) video at 24-30 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:

* 1.8 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
* At least 256MB of RAM
* 64 MB or greater video card

QuickTime 7 for Windows:

* 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 or faster processor
* At least 512MB of RAM
* 64MB or greater video card
* Windows 2000 or XP


For 1920x1080 (1080p) video at 24 frames per second:
QuickTime 7 for Mac OS X:

* Dual 2.0 GHz PowerMac G5 or faster Macintosh computer; 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo or faster
* At least 512MB of RAM
* 128MB or greater video card

QuickTime 7 for Windows:

* 3.0 Ghz Intel Pentium D (dual-core) or faster processor
* At least 1GB of RAM
* 64MB or greater video card
* Windows 2000 or XP

 

[JAT]

Actually, the screens on the laptops are:

MB: 1280x800
MBP: 1440x900 (also iMac 17)
MBP17: 1650x1050 (also iMac 20)

None of those are over 1080 horizontal lines. But any of them can do HD material, either 720 in native resolution or 1080 on an external monitor.

 

[pdpfilms]

Actually, the screens on the laptops are:

MB: 1280x800
MBP: 1440x900 (also iMac 17)
MBP17: 1650x1050 (also iMac 20)

None of those are over 1080 horizontal lines. But any of them can do HD material, either 720 in native resolution or 1080 on an external monitor.

Not to say they can't do 1080, but just not in full resolution.

 

[Mac Rules]

Oh right, so as HD is classed as either 1080 or 720, I'm not sure o fthe other numbers, that means all mac displays can display the 720 HD? So technically they can show HD quality material, just not at the absolute resolution eg 1080?

Cheers

 

[JAT]

It's not "classed" as 720 or 1080, it just is. Those are the resolutions of native HD material. Whether shot on HD video, like a football game, or downrezzed from film for a Hollywood movie, like an HD-DVD disc.

All the Intel machines are very capable (except maybe the Mini Solo) of any form of HD playback, assuming you have all the appropriate software loaded up. There have been many threads on this if you do a search. The processors are fast enough.

It's just that you can't fit 1080 on their screens since they aren't that big (in terms of pixels), you would need a 1080 HDTV or a large external monitor to actually fit all the pixels viewable. You seemed to be talking about the screen specifically in the OP, so I brought this up.

So, if you are downloading an HD trailer to play on your 1280x800 Macbook screen, there is little point in waiting for the larger 1080 version, download a 720 version that will almost fill the screen natively.

 

[Mac Rules]

It's not "classed" as 720 or 1080, it just is. Those are the resolutions of native HD material. Whether shot on HD video, like a football game, or downrezzed from film for a Hollywood movie, like an HD-DVD disc.

All the Intel machines are very capable (except maybe the Mini Solo) of any form of HD playback, assuming you have all the appropriate software loaded up. There have been many threads on this if you do a search. The processors are fast enough.

It's just that you can't fit 1080 on their screens since they aren't that big (in terms of pixels), you would need a 1080 HDTV or a large external monitor to actually fit all the pixels viewable. You seemed to be talking about the screen specifically in the OP, so I brought this up.

So, if you are downloading an HD trailer to play on your 1280x800 Macbook screen, there is little point in waiting for the larger 1080 version, download a 720 version that will almost fill the screen natively.

Cheers mate, Ithink I get it now, very useful to know!

Thanks everyone for your help

 

[yippy]

Hi guys n girls,

OK, I was just wondering, seeing how OSX runs at such a high resolution on a MB, MBP, etc screen, i.e more than 1080 horizontal lines... Does that mean that Macs, and indeed any screen capable of this many lines can show HD pictures?

i'm sorry if this is a stupid question with an obvious answer... but thanks

Cheers

The 1080 is not the horizontal resolution though. It is the shorter vertical resolution. In this case no Mac has a built in screen big enough to show it at full resolution.

 

[Killyp]

Just as an endnote:

The Nasa HD video from the apple website looks incredible on my MBP!!!

I can't wait for BlueRay/HD DVD!!!