Love the idea of the big screen, but I'm wondering if the massive bump in resolution will completely spoil lower quality video files, and whether or not I'll be able to really use all that space for full screen video without massive degradation in picture quality. I'm planning to use the iMac as a second TV, and when I bought my HDTV one of my main concerns was its ability to upscale SD content. It can satisfactorily display pretty much anything I throw at it, while many of my friends' TVs display lower quality SD material as an unwatchable mess. The iMac should be able to handle far more complex upscaling algorithms, but does Snow Leopard actually provide upscaling out of the box when I stretch a video I'm watching in VLC? If so, how well does the 27" screen upscale low-res content? Do YouTube videos or low quality video files become unwatchable on a screen with such high resolution? Do they look significantly worse than they would on, say, the 1280x800 screen I'm using now? I don't want to be forced to watch sub-HD content in a tiny little window relative to the size of the screen if I can help it.
Might I be better off with a 21.5" iMac with lower resolution, which ought to be slightly more forgiving with full screen SD content? I know there are plenty of uses for the 27" screen beyond video playback, and I'm not knocking the machine at all. Just trying to buy something that will best serve my own specific needs.
Might I be better off with a 21.5" iMac with lower resolution, which ought to be slightly more forgiving with full screen SD content? I know there are plenty of uses for the 27" screen beyond video playback, and I'm not knocking the machine at all. Just trying to buy something that will best serve my own specific needs.
