PC Mag gives new iMac 4.5 rating / editor's choice

[law guy]

I have found PC Mag be fairly reserved in their reviews over the years. I thought it was interesting, and a good sign, therefore to see them rate the new iMac at a 4.5 (4 is pretty good for them) and give it an editor's choice rating.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1912969,00.asp

"Other programs, such as the QuickTime player, show a marked improvement. Before Core Duo you really needed a PowerMac G5 dual or Quad tower to view 1080p high-definition movie trailers without the annoying audio or video stutters seen on the original iMac G5. On the new iMac, 1080p QuickTime 7 HD videos play smoothly without a hiccup. The Superman Returns and King Kong movie trailers look phenomenal on the new iMac."

Here's their brief benchmark comparison: http://www.pcmag.com/image_popup/0,1871,s=1564&iid=124874,00.asp
There's a link re their methodology at the end of the review.

 

[yoak]

Cery nice review. Hopefully PC users get even more tempted by this

 

[dwd3885]

Cery nice review. Hopefully PC users get even more tempted by this

PC Mag isn't the only one that likes the iMac. I can't remember an iMac G5 any revision ever getting lower than 4/5 stars. It really has been a great computer for Apple

 

[BornAgainMac]

PC Mag isn't the only one that likes the iMac. I can't remember an iMac G5 any revision ever getting lower than 4/5 stars. It really has been a great computer for Apple

And that is why we are going to replace it. Introducing the new iMac!

 

[dwd3885]

And that is why we are going to replace it. Introducing the new iMac!

lol

 

[MacAficionado]

I don't know why they say the 1080i trailers stutter on the iMac iSight
I'm playing Munich on a 17" isight without a problem. I have the proc set to highest performance, maybe they don't know how to do that.

 

[dwd3885]

I don't know why they say the 1080i trailers stutter on the iMac iSight
I'm playing Munich on a 17" isight without a problem. I have the proc set to highest performance, maybe they don't know how to do that.

along those lines. does the imac display the actual 1080p? is this a HD monitor? I imagine if it was, they would say

 

[HiRez]

along those lines. does the imac display the actual 1080p? is this a HD monitor? I imagine if it was, they would say

No, the new 17" iMac is 1440 x 900 and the new 20" iMac is 1680 x 1050, so neither can display a true 1920 x 1080 HD signal at the native resolution. Scaling anything with fine detail (thin lines, text, etc.) on an LCD is usually pretty bad looking, although scaling a movie you can get away with more and still have it look ok.

 

[theBB]

Scaling anything with fine detail (thin lines, text, etc.) on an LCD is usually pretty bad looking, although scaling a movie you can get away with more and still have it look ok.

I think you are confusing two different issues. Using an LCD at a different resolution other than its native one causes a fuzzy image. However, that's because the programs drawing images on the screen do not know that the screen resolution is not setup properly. They think they are addressing a 9 pixel square, but they are actually talking to a let's say, 12 pixel rectangle, so the eventual image loses its sharpness fast as the garphics controller starts zigzagging the edges of these rectangles so that for each pixel addressed 12/9 actual pixels (on average) on the screen is lit up.

However, if a program scales an image properly to fit into an LCD screen's native resolution, the result comes out much better. You can view your 1600x1200 resolution (2 megapixels) photos on your 1024x768 pixel LCD screen and the image will look sharp. Resolution will be less, so yeah, the quality won't be as good, but you won't get the same fuzzy image problem.

 

[HiRez]

However, if a program scales an image properly to fit into an LCD screen's native resolution, the result comes out much better. You can view your 1600x1200 resolution (2 megapixels) photos on your 1024x768 pixel LCD screen and the image will look sharp. Resolution will be less, so yeah, the quality won't be as good, but you won't get the same fuzzy image problem.

No, I know what you're saying. It might look ok, but it's still not going to look as good as native. I have yet to see a PC graphics card that does any sort of scaling to an LCD without visible artifacts. Even scaling down to a non power of 2 will result in reduced quality. But as I said, with a movie trailer it'll prolly look ok.