Playing 720p MKV files at 1080p resolution?

[AdelK]

I have mac mini late 2009. 2.26 and 2g ram

I have a bunch of 720p MKV files. I have my mini connected with HDMI to my 54" Panasonic 1080p. I set the resolution on the mini to 1080 and I play my MKV files...

When I set my resolution on my computer to 720p the movie takes up almost the full screen before i select full screen mode. When I set the computer resolution to 1080p and play the 720p media the movie screen only takes up about 3/4 of the screen until i set to full screen mode.

Do I lose any quality or get extra quality having my mini res at 1080p but playing 720p media?
Is the NVIDIA geforce capable of upscaling 720p to 1080?

 

[MikeinJapan]

I have the same mini as you and I ran it for a about 3 months with 2GBs of RAM. It would play 720p on my 46" panasonic at 1080p with no problems. Can you tell us what program you are using to play the videos?

 

[AdelK]

I have the same mini as you and I ran it for a about 3 months with 2GBs of RAM. It would play 720p on my 46" panasonic at 1080p with no problems. Can you tell us what program you are using to play the videos?

I use mostly Chroma to play my hd content as i see the quality of Chroma much better than VLC and Plex

p.s i am not having a problem with 720p. i am just asking if i get better quality or lose any quality playing 720p and setting the screen res on the mini to 1080p?

 

[MikeinJapan]

1)If you play 720p on a 1080p TV then the mini/TV will be upscaling. The quality depends on the TV's engine and the software on the mini.

2)If you play 720p content on a 1080p that has it's resolution set to 720p then the TV is downscaling everything to a none native resolution.

I don't know what computer you are using now, but set the resolution to a lower resolution than native and see how poor the screen is. I personally prefer upscaling for this reason. I find that with downscaling that the image isn't crisps and upscaling blacks can be a little noisy. This is my experience but if anyone has other experiences please chime in.

 

[AdelK]

1)If you play 720p on a 1080p TV then the mini/TV will be upscaling. The quality depends on the TV's engine and the software on the mini.

2)If you play 720p content on a 1080p that has it's resolution set to 720p then the TV is downscaling everything to a none native resolution.

I don't know what computer you are using now, but set the resolution to a lower resolution than native and see how poor the screen is. I personally prefer upscaling for this reason. I find that with downscaling that the image isn't crisps and upscaling blacks can be a little noisy. This is my experience but if anyone has other experiences please chime in.

i find downscaling to 720p give me better image.
i cant understand how the TV engine have anything to do with setting mac resolution to 720p instead of 1080p! please explain

 

[sammich]

i find downscaling to 720p give me better image.
i cant understand how the TV engine have anything to do with setting mac resolution to 720p instead of 1080p! please explain

If you set the TV to 720p, the TV will be doing it's own upscaling/interpolation because the native resolution of the TV is, of course, 1080p. That means instead of the Mini doing the work, the TV with it's own scaling engine will be doing the work. Whether or not this better than the Mini depends on the model of TV.

Now if you set the TV to the native 1080p, the Mini will be doing the work of controlling the output quality since the TV doesn't do any interpolation.

From what I've seen, it's highly dependant on the device connected to the TV. I used Plex with my MBP on the TV, and compared to streaming from the MBP via PS3 Media Player, the PS3 output was absolutely stunning in comparison.

 

[AdelK]

If you set the TV to 720p, the TV will be doing it's own upscaling/interpolation because the native resolution of the TV is, of course, 1080p. That means instead of the Mini doing the work, the TV with it's own scaling engine will be doing the work. Whether or not this better than the Mini depends on the model of TV.

Now if you set the TV to the native 1080p, the Mini will be doing the work of controlling the output quality since the TV doesn't do any interpolation.

From what I've seen, it's highly dependant on the device connected to the TV. I used Plex with my MBP on the TV, and compared to streaming from the MBP via PS3 Media Player, the PS3 output was absolutely stunning in comparison.

my tv doesn't allow me to change the 1080p
all i can do is leaving the work to the mini

so, when you hook your mini to your 1080p tv.
do you set the mac screen to 1080p when playing 720p? or u choose 720p? do you find any different?
in other word. does the late 2009 mac do a good job with upscaling 720p to 1080p? or i shouldn't upscale?

 

[sammich]

my tv doesn't allow me to change the 1080p
all i can do is changing the resolution of the mac screen from the mini itself.

Yes, that's what I mean, the TV is still doing the work trying to fit pixels onto the screen.

so, when you hook your mac to your 1080p tv. do you set the mac screen to 1080p when playing 720p? or u choose 720p? do you find any different?

I don't see why you would need to. Leaving it as 1080p means that everything else is nicer to look at, like when you're using your Mini for anything else other than a movie. If you occasionally use your Mini to browse, or even Plex, it'll be much nicer under the native resolution.

 

[AVR2]

I would always go for setting the mini output to 1080p and letting the computer do the upscaling rather than the TV.

I have a 2009 mini 2.0 GHz connected to my 42" Panasonic plasma at 1080p, and the computer upscales beautifully in Plex. Even SD material looks nice. When I dump the same SD material onto my portable media player (which does not upscale) and play it back via HDMI on the same TV, it looks significantly poorer because the TV is now having to do the upscaling.

 

[peterdevries]

I would always go for setting the mini output to 1080p and letting the computer do the upscaling rather than the TV.

I have a 2009 mini 2.0 GHz connected to my 42" Panasonic plasma at 1080p, and the computer upscales beautifully in Plex. Even SD material looks nice. When I dump the same SD material onto my portable media player (which does not upscale) and play it back via HDMI on the same TV, it looks significantly poorer because the TV is now having to do the upscaling.

Same mini here and probably also same TV. I agree with SD material. But how is your 1080 material? Do you get jittery playback?

What are your settings like? Did you do any specific settings to Plex that cannot be modified in the regular menu?

 

[AVR2]

how is your 1080 material? Do you get jittery playback?

No, it's smooth as silk. Looks gorgeous.

What are your settings like? Did you do any specific settings to Plex that cannot be modified in the regular menu?

I didn't do anything special in Plex. I think I just set the output to 1080p and switched on hardware acceleration in the standard settings menu (there's a hardware acceleration option, right?), and that was all.

FWIW, I have all of the gimmicky picture processing options on the plasma switched OFF, including Intelligent Frame Creation. The picture looks so much better as as result